Compared with the European and American terror that is overflowing with plasma and flying internal organs, the European and American terror that is good at "Jump Scare", the "folk terror" rooted in traditional customs and folk beliefs, and is rooted in China, can always accuratel

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Only Chinese people know what Chinese people fear the most.

is better than the European and American terror of "Jump Scare" and is derived from traditional customs and folk beliefs and rooted in China. It can always accurately break through our psychological defense line, which is extremely terrifying and full of potential.

But like many other fields, folk horrors danced in shackles for a long time. Occasionally, there are excellent works, and they often cruis in gray areas, and they will disappear if they go a little further away.

However, as the domestic entertainment market becomes more mature and subdivided, under the huge demand, folk horror has finally made a small base.

Many horror films must move towards materialism at the end

Whether it is "Paper Man", "Fireworks", "Three Vs", or the recently released "Paper Wedding Dress 4", they have achieved good commercial results and good reviews from players at low cost. The production team's solid and serious attitude is of course the basic condition for the success of the game, but the folk horror elements that are perfectly combined with the gameplay are also the soul of the work.

In these works, there are always many unique cultural elements in China, such as ancient houses, lanterns, ancient costumes, couplets, talismans, Yin and Yang, and funerals. In order to highlight the "dark side" of traditional culture to the greatest extent, many game creators have chosen the controversial "Dear Marriage" as the core element of the game.

comes from the horror of the painter @Insist22-pro

, or the root of any folk horror, is to place an image that originally represents auspiciousness and beauty in the "curse", "death" and "disaster" on its opposite side. The contrast of that breaks the beauty brings a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere.

Although this horrible custom has almost disappeared today, its legends and strange things are enough to arouse a tremor in the hearts of every Chinese.

"A hundred years" good marriage

ghost marriage, also known as ghost marriage , yin marriage, dark marriage, as the name implies, is and dead marriage .

In the Chinese folk culture that emphasizes "good luck", ghost marriage is a huge outlier. But if you look closely, the history of ghost marriage is longer than the so-called traditional culture. It is an ancient custom of formed in the Shang Dynasty and popular in East Asia.

"The Zhou Li・・天官・・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・子・Sorrow means that those who are under nineteen who have not married yet died.

Zhou Li clearly prohibits ghost marriages, believing that this is an incestuous act. It can be seen that even thousands of years ago, ghost marriage was never accepted by mainstream culture.

So the ghost marriage in the Shang Dynasty was more like a religious ritual.

oracle bone inscriptions record that Shang Wang ordered three Qiang women to "marry" their dead ancestors. At the archaeological site of Yinxu today, a woman who was buried with the description of the creator was indeed found. "Marrying a Woman in the Underworld" is the result of worship of ancestors in the Shang Dynasty . Compared with later generations, the elements of burial of burial are mostly the same.

In terms of form, ghost marriage is divided into "marrying a ghost wife", "marrying a ghost husband" and "ghostly matching a ghost". There is no unified standard for specific steps for ghost marriage, and changes must be made based on economic conditions, social environment and personal requirements.

The most common form is to bury an unmarried man and woman together as a gangster of underworld couples. This type of ghost marriage is no different from ordinary weddings. It is nothing more than changing the role of the bride and groom to a spiritual position.

If the male deceased really cannot find a suitable partner, he will "welcome the niang", that is, tie the trench into a girl to get married. If a person is worthy of a ghost, then will put the deceased tablet at home and will not remarry from now on. You must keep your pride for the rest of your life. But if the man "welcomes the coffin and burys", he can marry another wife.

Although Zhou Li explicitly prohibited and rulers of all dynasties also issued laws to prohibit them, the spirit and form of ghost marriage were still introduced to the people and were rooted in the land of China. The so-called " exists is reasonable ". Before we start criticizing, we might as well explain why the bad habit of ghost marriage has been tenaciously existed until today.

If you die, you must love it!

According to the summary of relevant works by Professor Huang Jingchun, associate professor of the Chinese Department of Shanghai University and folk customs expert, there are three reasons for the popularity of ghost marriage.

. Fear of the dead;

2. The need for parents to vent their own emotions;

3. Requirements of the patriarchal family system.

First of all, those who recognize ghost marriages must believe in ghost theory. Ghosts need sacrifices, otherwise they will bring evil disasters to the people in the world.

"Book of Sui·Geographical Records" records: " people in Hanzhong... like to worship ghosts and gods, and are especially taboos. If their family members die, they will leave their old homes."

In many areas today, including some customs of the people, there is also the saying of "avoiding evil" . It can be seen that the fear of "the dead is in trouble" has existed since ancient times to this day.

is a good death if it is a "good death" that dies when you die, but an abnormal death of "death" is the most harmful existence. Because those who died young "have not finished their lives and have not enjoyed human ethics, yin and yang are blocked, and the dead souls are unsupported" and cannot move into the ancestral tomb.

For superstitious people, if they do not use ghost marriage to solve the single problem of the deceased , they will turn into "male\female auspicious ghost" and cannot rest in peace.

, which records the customs and anecdotes of Taicang, Jiangsu in the Ming Dynasty, it records: "When a man dies before he gets married, his parents must ask for a match for his daughter when his hometown dies. If he discusses marriage, he will receive coins and be like living, and he will also have a banquet for relatives on the day of his burial. If his daughter dies, his parents want to be a tribute, and the courtesy will be the same."

After a ghost marriage, the two genders are in harmony. From then on, they can become legal members of the family and return to the ancestral tomb to enjoy the memorial service. The parents of the deceased can also enjoy the due family benefits.

But this seems to be superstitious, but it comes from absolute materialism.

Because logically speaking, ghost marriage is a funeral form adopted by living people to eliminate their own fears. Their parents use ghost marriage to satisfy their own interests more than the dead. For example, if the deceased is a non-marriager, and the ghost marriage goes against the deceased's wishes, it can be seen that this is not a completely "good to the deceased".

Engels also believed that: "The ancient world had a strong spontaneous materialism, and it regarded human life as much more precious than life in the underworld." ghost marriage has a fundamental role in eliminating the spiritual and material losses brought to the living , which is the deep social and cultural psychology of ghost marriage.

But secular interests and fear of ghosts and gods cannot summarize all the motives of ghost marriage. The emotional needs of parents are also a reason that cannot be ignored.

People's hearts are full of flesh. When children die prematurely, the parents' natural love for their children will definitely give priority to overwriting superstitious psychology. If the children are very good and have a bright future, the pain of losing their children will be even more unbearable.

"The Three Kingdoms and Book of Wei" records: "In the 13th year of Jian'an, ( Cao Chong ) was sick, and Taizu personally asked for his order. When he died, he was very sad." Cao Cao was heartbroken about the death of his beloved son and heir, and he ignored the rituals and organized a ghost marriage, hoping that his beloved son would be able to have a perfect family under the 9th spring.

is a coincidence. Later generations Emperor Ming of Wei Cao Rui's beloved daughter Princess Pingyuan Cao Shu died young at the age of eight. Emperor Ming personally gave her a funeral, ignored the opposition of the court, and insisted on holding a large-scale ghost marriage to express her condolences.

Finally, the ancient clan family system cannot be ignored.

According to Confucian etiquette, a man who has no heir died young, family inheritance and property inheritance will be interrupted, and a woman who dies young can only be buried in a wild place. However, through ghost marriage, the two become "husband and wife". Even if they are formal "husband and wife", it is also a reflection of the inheritance of family , and the property or title is thus inherited.

In modern times, ghost marriage has also developed a set of local customs in Taiwan. The House of the Sang Nu puts a wallet at the intersection, containing the hair of the deceased girl. If an unmarried man picks up it, he will go over and force him to be his son-in-law. Of course, the compensation is to give him another sum of money to use for a normal marriage. If it is a married man, you can also ask for a visa to seek the opinions of the deceased woman. "She" will still hold a wedding after agreeing and welcome the deceased woman's tablet to the home for worship.

With the development of new ideas and technology today, the process of ghost marriage has been greatly simplified. Misconcubine marriages in rural areas mostly occur between men and women who die young, and there are still many pursuits to ward off disasters and delay sacrifices; miconcubine marriages in cities are couples who were originally in love. One party died suddenly, and the other party expressed their love for the deceased, and used the same party as a spouse in the form of a ghost marriage and commemorated them.

However, the complexity of the problem of ghost marriage is that the "ghost matches ghosts" or the form of voluntary love will not have too many negative effects. But there must be shadows under the sun , and this custom has nothing to do with "sunlight". Throughout history, I don’t know how many sins have been born.

"Love" buying and selling

The ghost marriage in "Paper Wedding Dress" is more of a sacrifice ceremony serving the Zangling Village. There is no such evil sect in reality. But the ghost marriage in is a naked exploitation of feudal ethics on women. This kind of persecution of lasts longer, is more difficult to remove, and is more harmful.

As a woman in a ghost marriage, she can only keep her integrity for a lifetime and can no longer seek to start a family. In severe cases, he died with his husband. people died for love, but actually for burial.

According to the "Tong'an County Chronicle" of the Republic of China, a woman named Lu Jiejiang entered the Wei family as a child bride since childhood. When she was 15 years old, the man died suddenly. Her only can marry her deceased husband and "swear to keep her guard at the age of 68."

Also recorded in the "Tong'an County Chronicles" that a woman named "Wang Wuniang" was someone's fiancée. The man died unexpectedly while on a business trip. Wu Niang "she then went to the room to worship her uncle and aunt in her wife's clothes (marriage clothes), and then hanged herself at the age of nineteen." The family buried her together.

on the surface is two moving love stories, but if you taste it carefully, you will find that the taste is wrong. These two women are most likely "voluntarily" and were married to the ghostly 6.

In that era, although women could remarry in theory, no one dared to go beyond the line. Especially these women who are from ordinary families and marry into a strong man’s family are even less able to control their own destiny.

, especially the second example, Wang Wuniang "screwed into the room and hanged herself" after begging her husband's house, which means she turned around and returned to the bedroom to hang herself. The entire process was completed in one go, without any intention of emergencies, and no one stopped it. Therefore, I have reason to speculate that the entire "love-faithing" incident was the result of internal discussions in the family. Under the vicious eyes of the elders around me, Wu Niang entered into death in despair.

Wu Niang's death fulfilled her "loyalty and integrity" and achieved the "noble character" of her husband's family. Under the bloody mouth of feudal ethics, another wisp of unjust soul was added.

However, the harm of ghost marriage has not weakened at all as humans enter the 21st century.

In 2007, a corpse transaction murder occurred in Yonghe County at the junction of Shaanxi and Shanxi. The reason was that the Yang family was planning to sell a foolish woman who married her family for 12,000 yuan, but she couldn't sell it again and again. One day, the Yang family learned that selling "female bones" could be sold for 16,000 yuan, so they became ill-intentioned.

In the northern Shaanxi dialect, "female bone" is female corpse. The next day, the woman was strangled to death, put into bags, and sent to Yanshuiguan Bridge to complete the transaction. The buyer is a Shanxi native who sells wreaths and shrouds, and he is in the business of matching ghost marriage behind his back. A female corpse like can be transferred to the man who needs to be married to the ghostly marriage at a price doubled by double the "receipt price" to earn the difference. The Yang family tasted the sweetness and colluded with the two to kill a prostitute to sell it. The three of them committed a second murder case, and each of them received only 1,500 yuan.

Later, in the detention center, the suspect faced the police's questioning and replied tumultuously: "I'm trying to make money. This money comes quickly! If it weren't for the failure early, I would have planned to make a few more."

And at the end of 2021, an internet celebrity anchor named " Luo Xiaomao Mao Mao Zi " committed suicide by drinking medicine, and her ashes were also dropped by the funeral home and prepared to sell them to match the yin marriage. According to the confession of the suspect's wife, "it was not a big deal, and it would be a success if you rushed to the forefront." shows that selling female ashes with ghost marriages has long become an underground industrial chain.

But only if there is demand, there will be a market. Even if the criminals are severely punished, as long as the demand for ghost marriage is still there, there will definitely be people who take risks and abandon all moral bottom lines to make money.The ones who really persecuted women are those buyers in the countryside. is this lingering feudal legacy.

China is very big, and the bright lights and wine along the coast of East China are just part of it. In those countless rural areas hidden deep in the mainland, many people's thinking remains in the Middle Ages, ignorant and numb. This reminds me of Mr. Lu Xun's sigh in "My Fierce View":

We have memorized people from the past and have to make a vow: to eliminate the meaningless pain in life. It is also necessary to eliminate the coma and rape that creates and enjoys others' pain.

We also have to make a vow: all human beings will receive legitimate happiness!

Reference materials:

"Research on the Old Customs of Mind Marriage in Fujian and Taiwan" - Wang Yifu

"Study on the Study of Mind Marriage" - Jiang Lin

"On the History, Current Situation and Roots of Mind Marriage in my country" - Huang Jingchun