In the Three Kingdoms period, when there were many heroes, in addition to countless thrilling battles, there were also all kinds of mysterious and strange things and peoples. One of the strange things was recorded in such famous historical books as "Sou Shen Ji" and "New Tang Dynasty Book", and its influence was amazing, it has been passed down for thousands of years, and even affected neighboring countries such as Thailand and Japan. What kind of bizarre thing is this?
1. Origin: A servant girl under Zhuge Liang has strange abilities
It is said that in the world of the Three Kingdoms, heroes came out in large numbers, and thrilling wars were frequently staged, but there were also some weird and strange things. Let's take a strange thing that happened in the family of Zhu Huan, the general of Eastern Wu.
It was the Jian'an period, Zhuge Liang had been named the Marquis of Wuxiang by Liu Bei, and was stationed in Jingzhou to wait for the opportunity of the Eastern Expedition. Zhu Huan was originally a fierce general under the command of Zhuge Wuhou, and because of his bravery, he was named the Marquis of Duting.
This year, Zhu Huan's family recruited a new maidservant, who was pretty and smart, and she was diligent and conscientious. At first, there was no anomaly, but it was not until the night that the "strange abilities" of this servant girl were revealed. In the middle of the night, her head would automatically leave her body and fly outside, and then fly back to reconnect with her body at dawn. Although Zhu Huan has been on the battlefield for a long time and has seen many life-and-death horror scenes, he is still horrified when he sees this scene. He hurriedly threw the maidservant out and did not dare to stay at home.
Soon, the strange story spread among the army. Some people say that this handmaiden is a magical race called the "Fallen Heads People", and has this kind of ability since ancient times. It is also said that she is so weird when she is covered by demons. When Zhuge Wuhou learned of this, he was also very surprised, so he recorded the matter.
2. Prosperity: Records from all over the world are endless
Since the servant girl in Zhu Huan's mansion, the strange rumors of the fallen people have spread like wildfire everywhere. For hundreds of millions of years, people have always been curious and in awe of the unknown, and it is inevitable that there will be some exaggerated imagination and deification. As a result, this insignificant little thing has been constantly exaggerated and amplified in various written records, and has become more and more widely circulated, and the plot has become more and more bizarre.
The first mention of the fallen people was the "Sou Shen Ji" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The author Gan Bao is a literati saucher, and he likes to record some strange and chaotic deeds, and the maid of Zhu Huan's family naturally entered his "magic eye". In his book, he wrote: "The Huan family has a maid, and when the night comes, the head flies out, and when it is done, it is returned." If you are afraid, let it go. Without mentioning what a bizarre and magical sight the head was out of the body, and without knowing the reason, it was hastily passed.
By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, Luotoumin had added some new "scenes" and plots to the soap opera-style description. In the famous non-fiction novel "Taiping Guangji", they were simply renamed "Flying Head Fang". The author treasures the signs when he falls on his head: "A day before the head flies, there are marks on the neck, and the turns are like red wisps. When describing the situation after the head flew out, it was more vivid: "It is in the shore mud, looking for crabs and worms to eat." ＂
Entering the Ming Dynasty, the legend of the people of Luotou can be said to have been packaged and promoted to a new height. In Lang Ying's "Seven Revision Manuscripts", it is recorded that when Chen Fu, a scholar of the Yuan Dynasty, went to Annan, he had witnessed the scene of "falling people" and "flying like wheels". Fei Xin also recorded when he traveled to the West: "The people of the city of Zhancheng have a head flyer, but they are also women, and they fly at night to eat people's dung. The former also called them "reelheads", while the latter belittled them as monsters that eat human dung, which shows the different degrees of the accounts.
All kinds of accounts of adding oil and vinegar and piecing together made the legend of the fallen people, which was a trivial matter, unconsciously touted as a god and widely spread.
3. Spread: It was greatly influenced by Ouyang's revised historical records
The legend of Luotoumin is not only widely circulated in some wild history notes, but more importantly, it is actually recorded in the "New Tang Book", the official history of the Northern Song Dynasty compiled by Ouyang Xiu. This undoubtedly gave the people of Luotou greater popularity and further expanded their influence.
Volume 197 of the Book of the New Tang Dynasty records the ethnic group of "Nanping Fang", and clearly refers to its scope of activity as "Zhizhou in the east, Yuzhou in the south, Nanzhou in the west, and Fuzhou in the north". In other words, this is an ethnic minority living in the area of present-day Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. However, what really surprised future generations was Ouyang Xiu's next description of a strange branch of this nation--- "Flying Head Fang": "The head wants to fly, the Zhou Xiang has traces like wisps, and his wife guards it." And the night is like a disease, and the head suddenly dies, which is worse than Dan. ＂
This description is exactly the same as the record in the previous "Taiping Guangji", which shows that this peculiar appearance and ability are indeed real, and it is not a talk of later generations. With such an authoritative and orthodox historical record as the basis, the miraculous life experience of the fallen people once again aroused heated discussions and scrutiny among the majority of literati and writers.
At that time, intellectuals who are good at recording strange tales and strange things will be even more interested in this, and they will continue to write and add new solutions to the people. Some classify it as a humanoid alien, speculating that it is an old species of remnants, different from ordinary people; Others regard it as a fairy monster, and try to imagine the reasons for its whereabouts. Even the peoples who are only superficially similar to them have been far-fetched by some Xi writers as another branch or predecessor of the fallen people.
Over time, all kinds of written records of the fallen people were overwhelming, infiltrating countless wild history notes. As a result, the legend of the Luotou people was widely spread among the scholars and literati, and their fame and influence became more and more widespread.
4. Development: Similar ethnic groups have emerged in Japan and Thailand
The legend of the Luotou people is not only widely spread in China itself, but also in distant overseas countries. In particular, China's neighbors, Japan and Thailand, have developed their own distinctive "falling head theory".
In Japan, the people of the country are known as "rakushibu" (らくちゃもの), and they are a type of monster with a terrifying legend. It is reported that the creature looks like a normal person, except that the head is free to wander outside the body. During the day they are indistinguishable from normal people, and at night they can fly around in search of food. They are not very malicious towards humans, but sometimes steal the dregs of humans when night strikes. However, what is even more frightening is that these falling creatures are extremely greedy and bloodthirsty, and often go out in groups, sucking the blood of the living so violently that some people die of blood.
In contrast, Thailand's "Falling Head Theory" is more associated with Buddhist culture. There is a local monk who has the technique of flying heads, which is called "flying head dropping". These people have practiced a unique secret method that allows their heads to temporarily fly out of their bodies, leaving only their bodies in place. It is believed that the flying head is used to develop an advanced ability for divination, prediction and healing. Just by what they saw or understood when they flew out of their bodies, they could judge the good and the bad of the people, and heal the sick. Therefore, believers regard them as sacred and offer them a great deal.
Obviously, although these theories are derived from ancient Chinese folk legends, in Japan and Thailand, people have given this strange concept a richer connotation and form according to their own cultural traditions. This has undoubtedly affected and strengthened the popularity of this peculiar phenomenon in China.
All in all, whether in China or other countries in East Asia, the legends of the Luotou people exist without exception, and have developed their own distinctive expressions, making them one of the unique and charming legends of the local people.
5. Exploring the source: It is because of the long-necked alien race
Looking at the ins and outs of the bizarre legend of the Luotou people, in fact, the root may not lie in some monsters and ghosts. It is more likely to be caused by a special human race, the Karen people who live in Southeast Asia.
The Karen are an ethnic minority in Southeast Asia, found in countries such as Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. Their most striking feature is that women have to wear a special metal ring neck ring since childhood, and some even have more than 20 of them. As they age, these metal rings grow larger and larger, making their necks longer and thinner, creating a unique "long neck" posture. This is not only a traditional local custom, but also a symbol of status and rank. For them, the longer the neck, the more prominent the status.
This peculiar and unique customs and habits undoubtedly make them look particularly strange in the eyes of the Han people. On the surface, their slender necks have the visual effect of being separated from their skulls and torsos. In addition, they wear a lot of heavy objects on their waists, and their walking posture has become strange and difficult to understand, as if the lower body is crawling on the ground and the upper body is flying in the air. Therefore, in ancient legends, it is likely that it is an exaggerated writing and rendering of women with long necks, which brewed the myth of the falling head of the people who flew out of the body in later generations.
Once this image is branded with the crime of "grotesque" and "alien", all kinds of weirdness will come naturally. For example, the length of their necks varies from one to another, which has been interpreted as a special function that allows the head to fly out of the body; The comical posture of walking with weights on their waists is also interpreted as a strange behavior of seeking crabs and devouring them; These long-necked women, who rarely wander out of their living areas, have become speculations about their ubiquity and wide range of activities. As a result, a special nation existing in the human world finally became a demonic "fallen people" under the cranky pen of the literati and scholars of Han culture.
Today, of course, the Karen population and distribution area have shrunk considerably. However, the mystery left by this ancient people has become an interesting legend that has lasted for the ages.