Primitive ritual customs during the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
In the previous headline of "Playing a Phoenix Under the Plane Tree", I once talked about the ancient custom of killing sacrifices, which was a rather barbaric phenomenon in ancient times, and the living were sacrificed as sacrifices and sacrificed to the objects of sacrifice, which was very popular in the Qin and Han Dynasties and before.
Murder sacrifices continued after the Han Dynasty, but were more common in the customs of ethnic minorities.
In the four-way conquest and north-south exchanges, the Central Plains people such as Zhuge Liang in the Three Kingdoms period brought advanced production methods and living civilization to the backward areas of the frontier, but did not awaken their respect for people's right to life.
In some areas, in addition to the "human head sacrifice", there is also a custom of "human sacrifice to the white tiger" among the lǐn jun barbarians, that is, the use of human animals to sacrifice the "tiger god", or directly feed the tiger with people, in order to pray for disaster relief and refuge.
The barbarians of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties were developed from the three branches of the Qin and Han Dynasties, pán hù, The Jun, and the Ban, and had a large range of activities. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was moved to a tribe of The Jurchen clan in the upper reaches of the Han River, and during the Jin and Song Dynasties, it developed into the Chu [miǎn] Zhongman, and the other branch was moved to the eastern Hubei region.
The Liaojun people, who developed to the north and lived in Dongjing Prefecture (present-day Biyang, Henan), lived in the Central Plains, but the custom of killing and sacrificing living people was still preserved.
At that time, society did not change the phenomenon that "the value of human beings is lower than that of domestic animals", that is, human beings are inferior to animals. Such as the beast, the market here is, "a big dog, buy a lifetime", that is, with a big dog can be exchanged for a person, which shows how lowly people are.
In the sacrificial work, "raising people's heads to see" is regarded as normal, and some people are killed and made into a fish.
The WeiShu Feng Chuan and the Bei Shi Feng Zhuan have similar records. The Wei Shu Feng Biography says: "His vulgar fear of ghosts and gods is especially obscene. Whoever is killed, the bearded one will peel off his skin, and cage him in bamboo, and the dry one, and the number 'ghost', and encourage him for his welfare. ”
Presumably, it means that the beasts are afraid of gods and ghosts, and especially advocate all kinds of indiscriminate sacrifices. Among those who were killed, if there was a person with a beautiful beard, he would be stripped of his face, caged outside the bamboo frame, and when it dried, he would be called a "ghost", and he would beat drums and dance for sacrifice in order to seek happiness and peace.
Because the belief of the fang people was very stubborn, at that time, some people even sold their brothers, wives and concubines, and then sold their own offerings.
By the way, the power of the Fang people was very strong during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, when it was difficult for the Eastern Jin regime to control them. After Huan Wen, the son-in-law of Sima Shao of the Jin Dynasty, broke through Shu, the so-called "force could not contain the Officials (Fang) people", which was such a thing. Later, Northern Wei, considering that Liang and Yi'er Prefectures were not easy to control, ruled in the third year of Yanchang (514 CE) the prefecture of Ba (in present-day Bazhong County, Sichuan Province).
But the fate of the beasts is also very tragic, and the ghosts and gods cannot bless them.
In the third year of The Western Wei Emperor Gong (556 CE), there was a rebellion in Lingzhou (陵州, in present-day renshou County, Sichuan Province), and the Western Wei Dynasty sent the general Lu Teng to go on a crusade and capture 15,000 people. In the second year of Northern Zhou Baoding (562 AD), the Tieshan officials rebelled again, Lu Teng re-cut, and the staff were not prepared to attack, and 3 cities were laid down in a day, and the leaders of the staff were killed, capturing 3,000 people.
In the notebook novels of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there are also records of the use of human sacrifices.
"Search for God" is a collection of novels compiled by the historian Gan Bao in the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which records some folklore of that time and previous eras, and there are many magical and strange stories. The accident of "Li Ji Beheading the Snake" in volume XIX is very interesting, and it is copied here as follows——
In the middle of Eastern Yue and Fujian, there is Yongling Ridge, which is tens of miles high, and in its northwest gap, there are large snakes, which are seven or eight zhang long and more than ten encirclements, and the local customs are often feared. The Eastern Governor and the subordinate city chiefs were mostly dead. Sacrifices to cattle and sheep are not blessed, or dreams with people, or blessings from witches, in order to attain the year of the virgin twelve or thirteen. The governor ordered the chief and suffered together, but he was furious, and asked the people to have a son-in-law, and the daughter of the sinful family raised her, and in the August Dynasty, the snake was sacrificed to the mouth of the snake's den, and the snake came out to swallow it. Over the years, nine women have been used. At that time, the pre-re-financing was resumed, and he did not get his daughter. There are six daughters in the Li family in Jiangle County. No male, whose little female name is sent, and the recruitment desires to do it. Parents don't listen. "Parents have no phases, only six daughters, and no one male." Although there is none. A woman who has no daughter can provide for her parents, spends food and clothing in vain, and has no benefit in life, it is better to die early; if she sells her body, she can get less money for her parents. "Parents are merciful, but they will not listen to them." Sent to stealth and not prohibited. Send a good sword and a snake dog, and in the August Dynasty, he will sit in the temple, carry the sword, and put the dog, first a few stones of rice, and pour it with honey X ("wheat" + "less"), so that the hole will be placed, and the snake will come out. The head is as big as a temple, the eyes are like a two-foot mirror, smell the aroma of porcelain, and eat it first. Send the stool to release the dog, the dog will be gnawed, sent from the back to study several wounds, sores are urgent, the snake is out of the way, to the court and died. Sent to the point of view, he got his nine female calvaries, and held them out, saying, "Ru Cao is weak and weak, and he is eaten by snakes, and he can even mourn." So the sender slowly returned.
Although the above-mentioned accident of "Li Ji Chopping Snake" has a strong mythological color, the information revealed by human and animal is still quite rich:
First, there was a custom of believing in the animal god "snake god" at that time;
Second, there is a local habit of using child animals, which are generally girls aged twelve or thirteen;
Third, human and animal livestock come from the people, and most of them are the children of the children of the poor or the poor.
At that time, the official did not approve of not supporting the use of human animals, and li Ji, a little girl who got rid of the snake god, finally got very high treatment and became queen. The accident in "Li Ji Beheading the Snake" ends like this: "The king of Yue heard about it, hired a daughter as a queen, and said that his father was a general Le Ling, and his mother and sister were rewarded." It is a thing that has no evil in the East. Its ballads still exist today. ”