Tip: In ancient times, it was impossible to read some mysterious phenomena in nature, so there was what we think today as a joke and a divine fortune telling without scientific reason. But in the ancients, they were very eager and good wishes that they did not dare to talk about.
Hun cavalry
Everything in nature is magical, and when people can't read them, they obey them unconditionally. Take the moon, which we are very familiar with in our lives, which became very interesting in the Huns and Han emperors. That is, the Xiongnu watched the moon march to fight, "the moon is strong and strong, the attack is fought, and the moon loss is retreated", but the Han emperor looks at the moon and sleeps.
In ancient times, the emperor's imperial palace had three thousand beautiful ladies, and the emperor's concubines were numerous, and they all had a clear status. Therefore, in deciding on the issue of the emperor's attendant, of course, there are rules, not only can not come randomly, but also look at the moon.
According to records, the status of women in the harem of the Tang Dynasty was, in order: empress; four wives: concubines, shu concubines, de concubines, and concubines (above are zheng yipin); nine concubines: Zhaoyi, Zhaorong, Zhaoyuan, Xiuyi, Xiurong, Xiuyuan, Chongyi, Chongrong, and Chongyuan (above are Zheng Erpin); twenty-seven wives: nine concubines (for Zheng Sanpin), nine beauties (for Zheng Si pin), nine talents (for Zheng Wu Pin); eighty-one imperial wives: Baolin twenty-seven (for Zheng Liu Pin), twenty-seven imperial daughters (for Zheng Qipin), and twenty-seven Cai Women (for Zheng Eight Pins).
In order to reflect the participation of everyone and to take into account the difference between dignity and inferiority, the emperor's monthly nightlife arrangement is arranged according to the moon's yin and sunny roundness: in the first fifteen days of each month, the moon becomes more and more round, and the last fifteen days gradually become absent, so from the first fifteenth to the fifteenth, the low-status royal wife is always the highest empress, and before the sixteenth to the end of the month, it is in turn from the highest status to the low. Among them, the empress can monopolize the emperor for two days in the fifteenth and sixteenth. The eighty-one wives, who had the largest number, could only serve the emperor for one night for nine days from twenty-two to thirty-second to thirty-second to thirty-second of a month.
To put it more in detail, that is, from the first to the ninth day of the first year, there are eighty-one wives who share one night every nine, the thirteen are nine concubines, the fourteen are four wives, and the fifteen are exclusive to the queen; similarly, sixteen is also exclusive to the queen, seventeen is the fourth lady, eighteen is nine concubines, nineteen to twenty-one is twenty-seven wives, every nine people share a night, and twenty-two to thirty is eighty-one imperial wives share one night for every nine people.
Ancient court concubines
Is this contradictory to the Huns marching to fight? No contradiction! Here, people saw the ancients' "extraordinary" interpretation of the moon: the Huns longed for victory, the Han emperors wanted to have more heirs, and they all saw the moon as an irresistible mysterious force. That's compliance. Let's talk about cracking. In ancient times, one of the usual means used by people to crack a mysterious phenomenon was divination.
Hun wizards
The Chronicle of the Huns says that the Huns "waited for the stars and moons", which means that the Huns had to wait for the celestial signs and divination before they had to do great things or fight. How did the Huns divinate? According to some foreign writers, Xiongnu divination was carried out by examining the internal organs of cattle and certain stripes on scraped bones, but this is not recorded in Chinese historical records and the credibility is not very high. But through the divination methods of the later steppe peoples, the Mongols, we may be able to see the shadow of the Huns' divination.
The "Black Tart Chronicle" says that mongolia "zhan sheng burns the pillow bone of the sheep, tests the rebellion of its literary reasoning and discerns its auspiciousness, and the heavens abandon the heavens, and the decision is made here, and the faith is very strong, it is said that the pipa is burned, and the matter is not occupied, and the occupation will be repeated." The "Records of the Meng Qiao" says, "Whoever divines the auspiciousness, advances and retreats, and kills every sheep bone fan with iron vertebrae and fire vertebrae, depends on its signs to decide major matters, and the turtle Bu ye is also." This is the legendary bone magic.
In addition, ancient China had two such methods of divination, although we have heard of it, we have rarely seen it. In these two ways of divination "cracking", we can certainly see the good wishes of the ancients in the face of the mysterious realm.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, Karasuma Xianbei Dongyi Biography records that the ancient ethnic minority in China was not only particularly good at raising livestock, but also when the military occurred, they usually had to sacrifice to the heavens, kill cattle, observe their hooves, and use them to divinate auspiciousness. The collapse of the cow's hooves indicates that it is fierce, and the closure of the cow's hooves indicates that it is auspicious. "There are military sacrifices to the heavens, killing cattle and watching hooves to occupy the auspicious, hooves to be the fierce, and the one who is combined is auspicious."
Fuyu was the first minority ethnic group in northeast China, about the 2nd century BC - 494 AD, its early Wangcheng was in Jilin City, Jilin Province, and the later Wangcheng was in Nong'an County, Changchun City, Jilin Province, where grain was abundant and surplus grain was abundant. In this way, they may have thought that the raised livestock had some mysterious power, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms also said that their regime had monarchs, and their official positions were named after livestock, including maga, oxen, pig, dog, ambassador, great messenger, messenger. "The kings of the state are all officials of the six animals, including maga, oxen, pig, dog, ambassador, great messenger, and messenger." We can see the weight of the animals in their hearts and the beauty they place in their chests.
Daughter country in film and television works
According to the Old Book of Tang, the Eastern Women's Kingdom, which appeared in the plateau in western Sichuan in the sixth and seventh centuries AD, also had a style of divination: "Its custom is that every October, the sorcerers will be in the mountains, scattering wheat in the air, and cursing birds." And there are birds as big as chickens, and they fly into the arms of the witches, and they look at them because of the caesarean section, and every valley will be ascended in the coming years; if there is frost and snow, there will be many disasters. It is commonly believed to be called Bird Bu. "This custom is called bird divination, and it is also said that it comes from the western region.
In November, the Eastern Nun Kingdom takes November as the first month, and every October the shamans send wine and dishes to the mountains, and scatter the crushed grain into the air, praying loudly and calling for birds. Soon a pheasant-like mountain bird flew into the arms of the wizard, and cut off the bird's belly, if it saw grain in its belly. Then the coming year must be a good year; if there is frost and snow inside, there must be a big disaster. There may be some problems with the account here, that is, the bird eats frost and snow will melt when it reaches the stomach, how can it be? Does it refer to the weather that encountered snow and wind on the day of divination?
The main areas of activity of the Dongnu Kingdom were in Aba Prefecture in Sichuan, Danba County in Ganzi Prefecture and Changdu In the Tibet Autonomous Region, and its royal city ruins were located in present-day Jinchuan County, Aba Prefecture, which was an important ancient civilization in western Sichuan and the entire history of the Tibetan people. The country's climate is mild and suitable for farming, and bird bu reflects the local people's desire for a good harvest.
However, this "bird bu" is not a patent of the daughter country, and there have been similar records in the history of the Han people. According to the records of the Qing Dynasty, the Bachu region of China also practiced crows, which was called: "Baling crows, not afraid of people." Chinese New Year's Eve, the women each took a crow and ate it with rice and fruit. Ming Dan, tied to the neck of the crow with five-colored wisps, let it go, and regarded its direction as a one-year-old auspicious. It occupies a large number of people, roughly cloudy: "Crow in the east, Xingnu Red; Crow West, Happy Events Qi; Crow South, Lisang Silkworm; Crow North, weaving and resting." Very test. "To the effect that the women each took a crow, fed them Chinese New Year's Eve night, tied multicolored ropes around the neck of the crows after dawn, and then released them.
It is also said that the Western Han Dynasty Dongfang Shuo also invented a kind of crow divination, judging the auspiciousness according to the urgency of the crow's cry: "Whoever occupies the song of the bird, first count its sound, and then determine its position, if the first day, one sound is the sound of A, the second sound is the sound of B, with ten thousand of them, to distinguish its urgency, to determine the auspiciousness." ”。
These methods of divination, which we see today as more or less lacking in scientific basis, are, in the words of Engels, "the reflection of the illusions of the external forces that govern people's daily lives" and "the forces of the world take the form of superhuman forces", but who can say that this is a good wish? (Text/Lu Sheng)
Chen Daoming's Oriental Shuo
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