Chinese culture has been precipitated for thousands of years, but it is not just about talking about it, the wisdom and experience of our ancestors are all over every detail of life.
In addition to those recorded in official books, there is also a part of wisdom that has been left behind among the people, and has been passed down to this day through word of mouth.
The so-called "sayings" usually cover a variety of contents, involving "knowing people", "farming", "solar terms", "living", and "behaving in the world...... Multiple aspects.
As we often hear, "men look at their noses and women look at their mouths, and they are rich and rich in their lives", which is the ancestors' ability to recognize people. Like "the morning glow does not go out, the sunset travels thousands of miles" refers to life.
"Persuading gambling and not prostitution, persuading prostitutes not to pay" is about the way of dealing with the world, and there are many such examples. Although some of them have been proven to be "dross", it is partly due to the lack of cognitive and technological development of the ancients, and it is not groundless.
But when we calm down and savor these sayings, we can discover the wisdom and philosophy contained in them.
The one shared today has a lot to do with the lives of the ancients. "No matter how hungry you are, don't eat the grave offerings, and no matter how tired you are, don't sit on the human flesh stool", so how should these two sentences be correctly understood?
In particular, the phrase "no matter how hungry you are, don't eat the grave offerings", is it just a reminder that people should not eat the grave offerings? What is the philosophy behind this?
No matter how hungry you are, don't eat the grave offerings
As the name suggests, even if you are hungry, do not eat the offerings in front of the grave. For the understanding of this sentence, I think it can be divided into two and analyzed from two aspects.
First of all, not eating grave offerings refers to respect for the deceased. In the process of development, ancient human beings experienced a period of fear of death.
The inability of people to come back to life after death was once unacceptable to the ancients, but as time passed, they slowly accepted this natural phenomenon and began to fear death. It also laid the foundation for the development of funeral culture in the future.
Rather than accepting the reality of death, the ancients accepted the idea that people would live in another form after death. From the development of funeral culture to the subsequent rise of the trend of thick burials, there is no doubt that the ancients believed that after death, people would survive in another form.
Therefore, every New Year's holiday, whether it is the people or the court, they will organize grand sacrificial activities to sacrifice the dead ancestors, and offer a wide variety of offerings to express the nostalgia for the ancestors.
In the concept of the ancients, these offerings were provided to the ancestors to eat, and if they were enjoyed privately, it was undoubtedly a great disrespect to the ancestors. The feudal society attaches more importance to filial piety, so there is a saying that "no matter how hungry you are, don't eat the grave offering".
On the other hand, it is due to food safety considerations. There is no doubt that most of the offerings to ancestors are things that the common people themselves are reluctant to eat.
However, when a delicious offering is placed in front of the grave, it will inevitably attract the presence of wild animals, after all, the ecological environment in ancient times was much better than it is now.
Once you are crawled by snakes and rats, you will contaminate the food, let alone eat it. After a long time, it is also easy to rot and deteriorate. Moreover, the medical and health conditions in ancient times were very poor, and a small cold would cause death if it was not treated in time.
Therefore, the ancients came to the conclusion that the food offered at the grave has the risk of contamination and decay, and it is not recommended to eat it no matter how hungry you are.
No matter how tired you are, don't sit on a human stool
This sentence can also be understood literally, even if you are tired, don't sit on the "human flesh stool". The so-called "human stool" refers to a person's thighs or back.
In ancient times, it can be seen that when the son of the official eunuch goes out, he will be accompanied by a group of entourage, and when he is tired, he will let the two entourages bend their legs and lean together to form a "human meat stool" for him to sit down and rest.
To say that this kind of specification is not attainable by ordinary people. Therefore, there is a deeper explanation, which generally refers to sitting on someone else's lap and resting.
One is the young master of the rich family mentioned earlier, and the other is the child, who sits on the lap of his own parents to rest. The last category refers to lovers or couples.
Especially after the Song Dynasty, there were many restrictions on ancient women, advocating that the door should not be left without two doors, and there was also the bad custom of "foot binding".
In this way, when women go out, their physical strength and foot strength become their shortcomings, and they can't walk far, so they have to sit down and rest.
This also mentions that no matter how tired you are, you can't sit on a human stool and rest on your husband's lap, which in the eyes of the ancients is a kind of immoral behavior.
Once someone does this, they will be labeled as "debauched", and the family will be disgraced, and in serious cases, they will be divorced by their husband's family because of this incident.
This is worth learning from many young people, men and women during the love period, there are behaviors of showing affection in public, especially the phenomenon of girls sitting on other people's laps, which is quite common.
Although this kind of behavior is not illegal and illegal, it always gives people a sense of frivolity, so I think it is necessary for everyone to respect this sentence handed down by the ancestors.
Try to refrain in public, show affection can go home to show.
Although it is said that the things handed down by the ancients may not be suitable for the life of modern people, these two sentences are very appropriate to our lives.
Now that the material level of the people is quite high, no one eats the offerings on the grave. However, while the standard of living has improved, the constraints on behavior have been reduced.
No matter how tired you are, you still need to work together to regulate your own behavior.