Concubines who died in ancient times, why are their legs separated? What have they experienced?

In the current film and television dramas, there are often episodes of crazy men and women who sacrifice their love for love. For example, Romeo Juliet sacrifices love, Zhu Yingtai sacrifices Liang Shanbo, Azi sacrifices love for Qiao Feng, etc. The scenes are touching. To the deep, not only let the audience burst into tears. However, in ancient times, not all burials were voluntary. For example, after the death of the emperor, the concubines and wives were required to be buried. Therefore, this burial system was called a bad custom in feudal society. In addition, the bones of many concubines buried with them in ancient times are very strange, and their legs are in a posture of breaking apart.

The system of burial of living people originated from the early slave society more than 6,000 years ago. At that time, the society had just appeared class differentiation, and the gap between people was getting bigger and bigger, and then the two classes of slaves and slave owners were born. The inhumane burial system was born at this time. In order to satisfy their "

desires" after death, those in power took slaves and prisoners of war as burial objects, hoping to continue their power and status after death. After the death of the king , everything that the king enjoyed during his lifetime will be sent to the tomb, including slaves, prisoners of war and concubines. Archaeologists have discovered from the excavated ancient tombs that there are 164 skeletons of burials in the tomb of the King of Shang in Houjiazhuang, Yin Ruins, 16 people in the tomb of the Queen of Shang, Fuhao, and in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng . Eleven dead bodies, all of them young women.

The burial system of the living people ushered in a new peak after the death of Qin Shi Huang . Although Qin Shi Huang was obsessed with finding the art of immortality after the unification of the six kingdoms, he also spent a lot of manpower and material resources on building his own tomb. . After the death of the first emperor , Qin II ordered "If the first emperor's harem does not have children, it is inappropriate to leave, and all are ordered to die."It is estimated in later generations that there were hundreds of thousands of burials, including craftsmen, reaching the highest level in history.



It was not until after the Han Dynasty that there was a restraint. Instead of burying living people, wooden figurines and pottery figurines were used instead. Since then In the future, the practice of burial of living people was extremely rare. The system of burial of living people, which was criticized, was changed. During the period of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, there were still local royal families who retained the ancient idea of ​​burial of human beings, and Liu Yuan, King of Zhao Miao, forced him to die. Sixteen slaves and maids were buried with him. In order to prevent other princes from following the example, Emperor Xuan of Han deprived him of his fief. Secondly, some ethnic minorities at that time still maintained this custom, which appeared in the tomb of the South Vietnamese king. More than a dozen people were buried. In addition to this, there was no large-scale burial of living people in the Han Dynasty. However, it has not been completely eliminated, and this phenomenon occasionally occurs among the people. Until the establishment of in the Yuan Dynasty, the burial system re-emerged under the impetus of the rulers of Mongolia and . After the establishment of in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang largely It also inherited the Yuan Dynasty's attitude towards burial. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, as many as 40 concubines were buried for the restoration of the living burial system that had been abolished before. Zhu Di, Renzong Zhu Gaochi, Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu and all the princes followed this system one after another, and the burial of living people in the Ming Dynasty became a trend for the royal family. Finally, it was not until the death of Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen that it was not until the death of Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen Unable to bear it, he abolished this system. Yingzong Zhu Qizhen was recognized as the emperor who had no achievements. But when he was dying, he made a decision. Starting from him, the system of human sacrifice was abolished.His successor emperor Ming Xianzong once again emphasized before his death that he should not be buried in order to show respect for the decision of the previous emperor. The persistence of the two generations of emperors finally brought an end to the system of human sacrifice since the Ming Dynasty.

But in fact, this system has not really disappeared until and in the Qing Dynasty. The famous burial incident in the Qing Dynasty occurred on the body of Nurhaci, the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty. In the eleventh year of Mandate of Heaven (AD21626), the 68-year-old Nurhaci died of illness, and the concubine Abahai was buried. "When I die, I will be killed." Abahai In order to save his sons, he dressed up and committed suicide at the age of 37. In fact, in addition to Abahai, Nurhaci's four maids before his death were also buried together.

Qing Taizong After the death of Huang Taiji, his concubines Dundali and Andari were buried; after Shizufu died, his concubines Neem E and Fu Dali were sacrificed; Prince RuiAfter the death of Dorgon, the maid Wu Erku Ni from martyrdom. This shows that the martyrdom of the royal family in the early Qing Dynasty was very popular.

Until the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the imperial censor Zhu Fei said: "The husband takes the master's orders to scold the servants, or he is afraid of power and does not dare to obey, or he is virtuous and cannot bear to obey, neither of which can be used as a lesson. In 1673 AD ( Kangxi twelfth year), Kangxi officially issued an edict, expressly prohibiting slaves from being buried with their masters. Since then, the burial system after the death of emperor has really withdrawn from the stage of history.

It can be said that historically, the burial system was basically tied to the life of the concubine. For a long time, no matter how glamorous and beautiful the concubines were, no matter how much they were favored, once the emperor died, waiting for them was a terrifying burial.



So do the concubines who were chosen to be buried have a chance to escape this fate? The answer is no. If it was chosen by the emperor during his lifetime, then it is equivalent to being included in the imperial edict, and it has become an irresistible order, which will not give you any opportunity to appeal or excuse to resist. Some records in

even preach that it is an honor to be buried for the late emperor, which shows that in ancient times, women basically did not have any human rights. Moreover, the concubines chosen by the emperor for burial may be the emperor's favorite and most favored during his lifetime. After death, he wants them to continue to accompany them. It can be seen that being favored in ancient times was not necessarily a good thing.

There are two main ways to bury a living person. One is to directly kill the person who will be sent to the funeral. Just like in the TV series, give a glass of poisoned wine or a foot of white silk. Most of the objects are young girls. No matter how they resist, the people who are ordered will try to force them to end themselves. Ancient books once recorded: "On the day of death, all will be paid in the courtyard, the pay will be withdrawn, all will be led to the hall, and the cry will shake the hall." There will be no weird poses either.

The other way is even more cruel. Those concubines who have never given birth will be driven into the imperial mausoleum during the funeral, and then the door of the mausoleum will be closed. No matter if they are crying for help or crying, no one will pay attention to them. Until the oxygen in the underground palace is slowly exhausted, they will squeeze their necks tightly in pain and struggle. Death awaits them, and no matter how they struggle, their destiny cannot be escaped. At their best, these girls were forced to end their lives to continue serving their masters in eternal darkness and mud.

Let’s review the question raised at the beginning, that is, the legs of the ancient concubines were separated from . What happened? In fact, this is related to the life burial that we will talk about next.

Burial is a simple and rude way of burial. Concubines and concubines are put into coffins when they are alive, and then buried directly in the underground palace. As the air gradually thins, the living people die because of poor breathing. Will struggle to crawl out of the sealed coffin, which is an instinct of human survival. But the coffin was nailed to death, even a normal man couldn't open it, let alone a woman who was powerless. In this case, the concubines could only scream in pain in the coffin, and their bodies also struggled like a life-threatening struggle. When their legs were too hard, they would twitch and separate. When they die completely, the blood will stop flowing, the body will be stiff, and the struggling legs will be separated, which is what everyone sees as being "split apart".

 Conclusion Both live and dead burials are inhumane. These concubines may not have received much favor when the emperor was alive. After the emperor died, they were forced to be buried. Buried in the hands of the emperor. It can be seen that the emperors are the most ruthless. They only value themselves and their rights the most. In their eyes, women have no other use except as a tool for inheriting the lineage.  Throughout history, during the reign of feudal society, women were bound by three obedience and four virtues while they were alive, and they were oppressed by men. They could not even decide between life and death, and they were also oppressed even after death. This is the tragedy of ancient women.