The person who cuts the abdomen should use more than one knife to cut open his abdomen. Because it was too terrible to remove the internal organs, the way of cutting the abdomen was finally modified, and it became that the abdominal cutter himself cut a knife. After the first knife cuts the abdomen, a friend or trusted courtier immediately makes up a knife and cuts off the head of the abdomen cutter. This kind of person who comes to take on the act of repairing the knife is called the intermediary, and it is a great honor to be the intermediary.
In 1962, director Masaki Kobayashi directed the film "Cut belly". After watching this historical Japanese film, we will find that the heroic Japanese samurai will choose to commit suicide by cutting their stomachs when they need to defend their dignity and die generously.
However, most people have all kinds of questions about this: "Leaving aside the pain that people have to experience when committing suicide, is the pain caused by the cutting of the abdomen and the extreme death phase really 'dignified death' for the Japanese samurai?" If the sharp weapon must become a tool for ending life, then the ancient Chinese often chose to cut off the throat and kill themselves, which seems to come more quickly than the Japanese samurai's abdomen. ”
In fact, those who are really good at studying history are very clear: "Behind any form of human activity, there is a deep origin." Although the history of Japan is not as extensive and profound as the history of China, the Japanese residents, represented by Japanese samurai, are very admiring and will unconditionally believe in the various cultural inheritances left by their ancestors.
Therefore, when people explore the Japanese culture's view of the soul, they also reveal the fundamental reasons why Japanese samurai choose to kill themselves by cutting their stomachs. To explain these questions, we must find the entrance to the answer from the book "Rice as the Self: Japanese Identity Through Time" in the book "Rice as Self: Japanese Identity Through Time".
This book reflects the Japanese concept of self-knowledge, especially the relationship between the Japanese body and soul.
Because of natural factors, the entire Asian population mainly eats rice, plus a variety of pasta using wheat as raw materials. Although the origin of rice is still uncertain, it is an indisputable fact that rice is a native crop of the Asian plate. The difference is that people in various countries in Asia attach different importance to rice. Especially for Japanese people, it is not unusual to like to eat rice.
In their minds, the status of rice is extraordinary, an idea that most of the inhabitants of Asia do not have. In the eyes of the Japanese, rice also has a rice soul, but the soul of rice is different from ordinary animals and plants, and in essence, the soul of rice is the same as the soul of people. These statements are not just words, the Japanese imperial family once showed the world their reverence for rice in a personal way.
In the past, the Japanese Imperial Family held a ceremony called the "Great Tasting Festival" every autumn after the autumn harvest to celebrate the annual rice harvest, and this ceremony was organized by the Japanese Emperor himself. According to research, this tradition in Japan comes from the cultural inheritance of the Japanese "Tasting New Festival".
Every year, the emperor needs to taste new rice at a fixed time to replenish the energy of the soul. Because, in the eyes of the Japanese, the emperor's soul will experience winter expansion and spring atrophy in the middle of the year, and such an excess is very easy to leave the human body, so at this time, it is even more necessary to replenish energy, return to a healthy body, and let the soul be nourished.
In the inherent tradition of the Japanese, they believed: "Replenishing the soul is a feasible method, but it is necessary to be extremely particular in the method." ”
The first can be to directly use the souls of others to replenish their own souls, the historical emperor died, the new emperor will bite the corpse of the former emperor, and take this opportunity to inject the soul of the dead emperor into the body of the new emperor, thus realizing a continuation of the soul between the emperors.
Another method is to eat rice to replenish the soul.
As a result, the "Great Tasting Festival" presided over by the emperor himself every year enriches his soul with the rice soul contained in the rice grain.
However, the most important thing is that in the eyes of the Japanese, the soul does not exist in the heart, let alone in the brain, but in the stomach of the person. This point comes from the Legend of the Origin of Food in the Japanese In its ancient history of Nihon Shoki.
According to legend, when the god of food was killed, a lot of rice gushed out of his belly, and it happened that rice represented a way to replenish the soul in Japan. Therefore, in the eyes of later generations of Japanese people, the human abdomen is the dwelling place of the soul and the fetus.
In fact, it is not reasonable for the Japanese to think so, after all, to convert the nutrition of rice into the nutrition of the human body, it does require a gastrointestinal tract with digestive function in the abdomen to do it. Therefore, the unique cultural and historical concept of the Japanese people shows that "in their view, a person's soul exists in the abdomen and not in other parts of the body." ”
As a result, if the Japanese samurai wanted to end their lives, they would definitely give priority to releasing their souls, and the part where a person's soul was located was the abdomen. Therefore, "cutting the abdomen" becomes the only way to release the soul. In the japanese view, when committing suicide or dying, the soul must be released and freed. The samurai held a long sword and cut open his abdomen to release his soul, so that he could make up for all the sins committed by the samurai before he died, and he would be admired by the people.
It can be said that behind the cut belly is the unique belief system of the Japanese samurai, and they are a loyal practitioner.
A variety of social backgrounds and historical reasons can give people a perfect taste of Japan's view of the soul.
The japanese samurai's choice to commit suicide by cutting their abdomen is explained from a scientific point of view because such a suicide method will cause excessive blood loss and death from external infection, after all, the body will definitely die after being severely injured. Therefore, choosing to cut the abdomen instead of choosing to kill oneself is called the Japanese Bushido spirit. In addition, behind this is the heartfelt reverence for the soul and rice, as well as the unique insights of the Japanese.
Today, Bushido, as an independent ethical discipline, may disappear, but its positive side will not disappear from the human world, but will live forever in the ruins of time and space. At the same time, the inhuman side of this will surely become the dust of history and disappear without a trace.
Resources:
[Bushido: Cutting the Abdomen is a Law and Ritual", "The Truth of the Spirit of "Bushido" in Japan", "The Influence of Historical and Cultural Factors on Japanese Suicidal Behavior"]