Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1975: Changing Customs
Mrs. Musk's two greatest achievements were in culture: one was the promotion of Confucianism, and the other was the reform of the Yi language.

She loved reading, especially Han books, in her early years. She absorbed a lot of nutrients from Sinology and realized its importance. For this reason, she wanted to start Sinology. She believed that "the culture of Confucius and Mencius of the Han family can cultivate virtue and nourish the body, and then educate the world and benefit the people." After taking office, Madam Shexiang established a Confucian school and appointed professors in the Xuanwei Envoy of Guizhou. In order to learn and introduce Han culture and strengthen and promote cultural exchanges between Yi and Han,

On the other hand, she also carried out effective reforms on the use and dissemination of Yi language.

Before this, Yi writing had mysterious attributes and was an exclusive skill that only Bimos could master. Lady Shexiang liberated it from the mystery, broke the ice of traditional taboos, and made Yi writing appear on a large scale in carriers such as inscriptions and books, gradually expanding the scope of use of Yi writing.

Eventually, during her regency, Yi language expanded from its traditional function of transmitting scriptures and recording history to being used in daily life, such as accounting, contracts, recording folk songs, and correspondence.

As the proportion of the population proficient in writing increased, the number of various types of scriptures also experienced explosive growth. As paper and writing brushes from the Han area were widely used by the Yi people, the cost of recording scriptures decreased and their preservation period became longer. As a result, countless Yi classics that were only passed down orally through the Bimos and were often lost when the people died were preserved in written form.

In this sense alone, Lady Shexiang is to the Yi people what Confucius is to the Han people.

On the way to Bimo Cave, Lao Chiri introduced the history of Yi scriptures to Zhou Zhi and his party.

This time, Lao Chi Ri brought a team of horses, with pack cages hanging on both sides of the horses. They walked on the abandoned Tea-Horse Road, which was quite ancient, and made Chi Xueli, who led the film crew, very satisfied.

But Zhou Zhi felt very strange: "How could a cavalry pass through that place? Wouldn't it be easy to be exposed?"

Places that can accommodate horse teams are generally "wide roads" like the Ancient Tea-Horse Road. Such roads were usually visited by people in ancient times and were relatively busy, so Zhou Zhi first thought of this issue.

"You'll know when you get there." Lao Chi Ri remained mysterious.

After the cavalry walked for a while, Zhou Zhi saw an abandoned building complex. The buildings here all had walls made of stones, but now only four walls were left, and the roof was gone.

"We have arrived at Pantuo Village." Old Chi Ri said, "Now that we are here, we should split up."

"Branch road? Where is the road?" Zhou Zhi looked up and saw ruins on one side of the narrow mountain road in front of him. It seemed that this should have been a prosperous settlement with a lot of business and travel in ancient times. Now it was completely desolate, and some vines had even grown up to the walls of the village.

"Is there any archaeological value here?" asked Mai Xiaomiao. She often hangs out with Zhou Zhi now, and they go to visit the ruins on weekends. They have learned to think about the archaeological value of ancient buildings when they see them.

"Probably not. Even if there is, an archaeological team has already been there." Zhou Zhi said, "Such a large settlement on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road must be an important transportation and supply station. It is usually recorded in ancient books, or at least in local chronicles. If it really has archaeological value, local archaeological teams must have been there long ago."

"And the Yi people worship fire. The ancient Yi people also worshipped cremation after death. According to the information collected by Grandpa Chiri and I, it was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that some areas with a greater influence of Han culture changed to burial due to the influence of Han culture and government control. In core areas such as Daliangshan, the custom of cremation with thin burial or even no burial has been well preserved." "Elbow told me that the General History of Qianzhong in the Jiajing period said that the local Yi people's funeral was 'burning in the wild and scattering their bones.' I think it's a bit exaggerated. The record of cremation and burial with earth and rocks in the Yi Customs Records of Yuexi Hall is more or less the custom here."

"When we cremate here, men lie on their backs and women lie on their sides. We build a wood tower to burn the remains, and then collect them in pottery jars. We order several loyal and elderly children to bury them in the deep mountains and forests without letting anyone know to prevent robbers from digging them up."

"Yes, since it is a secret operation, there is no need for burial objects. In other words, there are almost no burial objects left, and there is no archaeological value."

"This custom is quite good." Chi Xueli nodded and said, "It is consistent with the central government's measures."

Zhou Zhi said: "That was just to keep in line with the current central government. In fact, the custom of cremation and urn burial was quite popular among the Han people in the Song Dynasty. It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that it was generally banned and replaced by burial. The governments at all levels at that time spent a lot of effort to "cultivate the custom". Who would have thought that hundreds of years later, the custom of cremation would be picked up again and the custom would have to be cultivated again."

"Really?" Chi Xueli couldn't help but be surprised: "Did the Han people also have cremation?"

"Actually, Sister Chi, you have known about this for a long time, but you just didn't pay attention to it." Zhou Zhi said with a smile.

"Impossible. If I knew, I would definitely pay attention." Chi Xueli expressed disbelief.

"In the Water Margin, after Wu Dalang was poisoned to death, didn't Pan Jinlian cremate him? Shi Naian described that after Wu Dalang died, his family immediately bought a coffin and reported to the 'head of the group' He Jiushu, asking him to perform an autopsy. The next day, the 'fire family' of the crematorium came to collect the body, and carried the coffin out for the funeral, and then burned it at the crematorium outside the city. After the body was cremated, the bones were poured into the bone-washing pool."

"Based on this description alone, we can tell that the custom of cremation was quite popular at that time. The 'tuantou', also known as the 'coroner', was a person who specifically assisted the county magistrate in examining corpses when hearing cases involving human lives. He had to undergo training before he could take up the post. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the coroner had been included in the staff of the county office, and his function was equivalent to that of today's forensic doctors."

"When someone dies, the family must report it to the coroner in a timely manner. Only after the coroner has performed an autopsy and determined that the death was natural can the funeral be held."

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"The 'Huo Family' are responsible for collecting corpses and carrying coffins. They are professionals who specialize in handling corpses."

"The crematorium is what we know today as the crematorium. The crematorium also has a 'bone-washing pool' with water in it. After the body is cremated, the unburned bones are washed into the 'bone-washing pool'."

"Whether from the perspective of the system, the people involved, or the process management, cremation was already prevalent in my country during the Northern Song Dynasty, and local governments had implemented an effective management system for cremation and provided corresponding services."

"Ah? Really?" Chi Xueli laughed in shock. After thinking for a while, she found another point to refute: "But "Water Margin" is a novel. Although it was written in the Song Dynasty, the author was from the Ming Dynasty."

Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Then let's talk about notes. Gu Yanwu said in "Rizhilu": "The custom of cremation is popular in Jiangnan and has existed since the Song Dynasty."