Funeral Customs of Qin People in Pre-Qin Period

Funeral custom is an important symbol to distinguish different tribes and nationalities in ancient China. In ancient society, members of the same clan handled the bodies of the dead in the same way at the same time. Different funeral customs reflect the different social status and social class of the owner before his death. At the same time, as a reflection of the spiritual level, funeral customs are very conservative and continuous, and once formed, they will remain stable for a certain period of time. What was the early funeral custom of Qin people? Is it just as simple as Mr. Xu's summary, that is, it's just a bow burial and a unique burial style? Looking at the archaeological data of the pre-Qin period in recent years, it is found that this is not the case. Among them, the funeral custom of Qin people has the characteristics of the first burial in the west, the coexistence of straight limb burial, and the close relationship between martyrs and waist pits. Therefore, this paper will analyze the funeral customs of early Qin people from three aspects: the western direction of Qin tombs, the burial with bent limbs and the burial with straight limbs, the martyrdom and the waist pit.

First, the custom of burying Qin people first in the West

According to the published archaeological data of early Qin people, the first burial in the west is one of the most important funeral customs of early Qin people, which is not only found in Maojiaping site in Gangu, Gansu Province, but also in Dabaozishan site in Lixian County. For example, the custom of the Qin tomb in Maojiaping is:

The tomb faces northwest, between 270 and 3 15. ..... Except for M7, which is a disorderly bone burial, all others are bent limb burials. There are three kinds of bending burials for limbs: upturned (19), sideways (10) and bent (1 0). M 1 1 only lower limbs, upper body unknown. According to the degree of curl, it can be divided into two types: type ⅰ, 25 seats, tibia, fibula and femur overlapping, especially curly; Type ⅱ, six seats, the angle between tibia, fibula and femur is greater than 60, slightly curled. Hands are often crossed on the chest or drooping along the body.

The burial customs of M2 Tomb in Dabaozishan, Lixian County, Gansu Province are as follows:

There are two steps in the tomb. Seven of them were buried on the second floor of the east, north and south, all of them were buried with straight limbs, all of them had burial utensils (some were painted coffins) and many of them were buried with small pieces of jade ornaments. In addition, there are traces on the west second floor platform, indicating that there are also funerary objects here. The funerary utensils are wooden coffins and lacquer coffins, which are rotten. Gold foil remained around the coffin, indicating that the lacquer coffin was originally inlaid with gold foil coffin ornaments. Pottery fragments, such as pots and cans, and bronze fragments, such as copper bubbles and knives. Stay indoors. The remains of the owner of the tomb have rotted, and judging from the rotting marks, the burial method is that the head of the tomb faces west. There is a waist pit in the center of the tomb, with 1 martyrdom dog and 1 jade cong.

The west tomb gate is 38.2 meters long and 4.5-5.5 meters wide. It is also inclined as a whole, but there are 8 slotted steps. 12 Martyrs were buried in1.25m-deep layer fill. All the buried people had bent limbs, with their heads facing east and some facing west. There are two kinds of martyrdom: life martyrdom and death martyrdom. The former struggles painfully, while the latter has a hole in his head and a regular posture. Mostly teenagers. 1 Yu Jue buried three martyrs. There are 1 martyrdom dogs in the filling. The platform north of M3 tomb was stolen. The lacquer coffin, wooden coffin and tomb owner in the tomb have all rotted. The tomb owner leaned back with his limbs straight, his head facing west, and a large number of scattered amber beads remained on his chest and neck. There are 1 martyrdom dog and 1 jade cong in the waist pit. The pyramid-shaped mound in the west is stepped, 4 1.5 long and 8.2 meters wide. Seven martyrs were buried.

In addition to Maojiaping site and Dabaozishan site, the first burial in the west has become the main burial custom among the early Qin tombs excavated in the west of Guanzhong. For example, among the 13 tombs of the Qin Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period found at the Tanjiacun site in Baoji City, except for 3 tombs with a north-south trend, the rest 10 tombs "all have an east-west trend with a direction of 270". According to statistics, among the Qin tombs discovered in Guanzhong, the first burial in the west accounts for more than 80%, not only for small and medium-sized tombs, but also for large tombs. It can be seen that the first burial in the west is one of the most important funeral customs in the pre-Qin period, and behind this custom, there are religious concepts and cultural backgrounds in the pre-Qin period.

Western first burial is widely used in Qin tombs because it represents the basic concept of life and death in Qin society. As Mr. Shi Xingbang said:

The direction of burial has certain significance in the consciousness of primitive people. The heads buried by Banpo people are basically westward, which should be formed under the control of certain beliefs. At present, backward tribes basically have three different beliefs about the direction of burying the dead: one believes that after death, the soul will return to the original (or legendary) hometown, so the head will face the hometown. ..... The second belief is that there is a special area in the world where people will go to live after death. Therefore, when burying the dead, their heads are facing the direction of this other world. ..... The third belief, such as Nierland people, treats people from birth to death just like the sun rises and sets in the west. When people die, they will go down with the sun. Therefore, when they are buried, their backs face east and their faces face west.

As the Qin people are a nation from the East, they came to the land of Xiqiao with the outward expansion of Zhou Culture, and their cultural connotation has both some characteristics of Zhou Culture and strong characteristics of Shang Culture. The earliest active areas of Qin people were Qingshui in the Niutou River Basin in Gansu, Gangu in the upper reaches of Weihe River and Xihe and Lixian in the Western Han River Basin. The early Qin tombs in these areas face west, obviously not because of the origin of their ancestors, but because of their religious beliefs.

Qin people are a totem tribe of Yang birds, and they are a combination of wind and yang among the nine tribes of Dongyi. The essence of this tribe's worship of sunny birds is the reverence of tribal groups for ancestors and protectors, hoping for their blessing and longing for a bumper harvest in agriculture and animal husbandry. [8] Won Qin tribe originated from Dongyi tribe with birds as totem, and then moved to Xiguanlong. In ancient myths and legends, the story of the westward migration of young birds is centered on the Central Plains, and the accessible areas are four. There are four places to worship the heavens and measure the sun in the Upper Shu Yao Temple, which are called "four poles" in ancient books. In fact, it was also four places that the sphere of influence of the Chinese nation could reach at that time Yungu is called Yungu, Yungu is called Yungu, Yungu is called Yungu, and Yungu is called Yaodian. The west is the valley of ignorance, the valley where the sun sets, and the unknown western world. Therefore, it is compared to the land of the underworld and is the home of the western sun god. This is consistent with the original belief that the place where the sun sets in the west is regarded as the destination of the soul in the western national sun myth. Baima Tibetan, who lives in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province today, "tied his knees with a rope after his death, bent his head to the knees like a fetus, and put it on the table in the left corner, facing west", which means: "When the sun sets, people follow the sun" and "When buried, his legs are slightly bent and he lies on the west side to make him fall asleep." Regarding the ethnic groups of Baima Tibetans, many local people think that they are not Tibetans, but di people. The origin of the strong ethnic groups in the north of modern western Sichuan is related to the border strong ethnic groups in the ancient Ganqing area. Therefore, the burial custom of Baima Tibetans facing the west and its interpretation are of certain reference significance for us to understand the ancient culture in Ganqing area and even the tombs of Qin culture moving west. Because the west is the place where the sun sets and people follow the sun, Qin people need to face the west when they are buried.

The tradition of the first burial in the west of the Qin tomb was inherited by the mausoleum of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty, so the Book of Han Dynasty in the Suburbs said, "Or the God's House in the Northeast, the God's Tomb in the West." Zhang Qian commented: "God, the sun is also. Sunrise is in the northeast, and the house is called Yanggu. The sun is not in the west, so it is called the tomb. Tomb, Dream Valley also. " Yan Shigu pointed out, "This is not true. Mr. Ling said that the immortals lived in the northeast and the tombs in the west, so the temple was built in Weiyang. " Volume 25 "Sacrifice to the Suburb" said that because Qin and Han people thought that the west was the tomb of the sun and the tomb needed to face west, the Han people built a tomb for their ancestors on the north bank of Weishui. It can be seen that the western burial custom of Qin Mausoleum is closely related to the religious custom of sun worship. With the development of Qin people in Guanlong area, Qin people also brought the sun worship in Dongyi culture here since the concubine was a horse herded by Zhou Wang in the Western Qin Dynasty. Therefore, Qin people followed the custom of "when the sun sets, people follow the sun" and regarded the west as their home and yearning place after death, which is a religious belief about life and death that Qin people generally agree with.