My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 604 What a huge 'surprise'

This practice of elaborate funerals was not limited to nobles and privileged classes, but rather spread from top to bottom.

When the emperor died, he was buried in a massive mausoleum with state mourning standards and a dazzling array of funerary objects.

So much so that when Emperor Taizong Xiaowen was on his deathbed, he only left a will saying, "Do not spend too much on my funeral arrangements," which moved the people of the world to tears.

Because in the eyes of the people, this was Emperor Taizong sacrificing himself, leaving more wealth for the world by giving up his rich life underground.

Feudal kings had their own funeral standards, including royal tombs and funeral items worth millions of gold.

The most representative of these is undoubtedly the Liangwang Mausoleum of Liu Wu, the King of Liang.

In order to be able to meet his beloved queen even underground, King Liu Wu of Liang not only built the magnificent Liang Garden in his royal mausoleum, but also specially left a passage between his tomb and the queen's tomb.

There was even a toilet inside the tomb of the King of Liang!

As for the burial goods, rumors alone suggest they are a vast fortune worth tens of thousands of gold coins!
If the late emperor hadn't suppressed the news that "the scale of the Liang King's mausoleum was approaching that of the emperor's mausoleum" due to political considerations, it might have caused a huge uproar.

Further down the social hierarchy, each class had its own elaborate burial practices.

Military officers were buried with expensive weapons, while civil officials were buried with rare books and scrolls.

Merchants and artisans would also be buried with rare items based on their professions and life experiences.

Even farmers!

Even the poorest farmers would sell most of their possessions to give their fathers and grandfathers a grand funeral, all for the sake of leaving a piece of gold in the tomb of their deceased ancestors.

why?
So that our ancestors won't suffer in the afterlife and won't be left without money...

In this social context, almost everyone is swept up by the times.

Even if you can understand and comprehend it, and have the awareness that "lavish burials are useless" and "it's better to leave more wealth for your descendants than to bury yourself lavishly," it's still useless.

In order to avoid being accused by society of being "unfilial" or "disrespectful to their ancestors," filial sons and grandsons will still do their utmost to make their fathers' and grandfathers' funerals as grand and extravagant as possible.

Back then, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, in his dying edict, instructed Emperor Xiaojing, who succeeded him, that his funeral should not be too extravagant.

So much so that a hundred years later, at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, when the rebel army reached Chang'an and wanted to turn all the imperial tombs upside down, they did not dare to damage the Baling Tomb of Emperor Taizong.

It's not wrong to say that this was the rebels' respect and awe for Emperor Taizong, but it's not entirely true.

What truly kept the rebel army from disturbing the Baling Mausoleum and Emperor Taizong's peace was probably the fact that there weren't many valuable funerary items inside.

Few people know that Emperor Xiaojing (Liu Qi) also racked his brains to deal with the edict left by Emperor Taizong.

At that time, if the late emperor did not abide by this edict, it would be considered a rebellion against Emperor Taizong—and the most serious offense within the category of 'rebellion against the late emperor': rebellion against the late emperor's edict.

However, if one were to comply, it would be considered disrespectful to one's deceased father, as failing to give him a proper burial would be considered unfilial in the absolute sense in this era!

This won't work, that won't work, and it gave the late emperor a headache for several days. He didn't know what to do.

In the end, it was Empress Dowager Bo who stepped forward and, as the late emperor's birth mother, came to the rescue of the late emperor.

Empress Dowager Bo said: Since the late emperor had this wish, then the emperor, as his son, should not go against his late father's dying wish.

As for the responsibility of the people of the world to be 'unfilial' and 'disrespectful to their deceased fathers,' the emperor need not worry about it.

The emperor was not unfilial; on the contrary, he was so filial that he dared not disobey the late emperor's edict.

A proper burial for one's deceased father is considered a form of filial piety by the world.
Filial piety is the proper way for an emperor to follow his deceased father's dying wishes and not to disobey the late emperor's edict.

Most importantly, Emperor Taizong's simple burial enhanced his reputation for benevolence and love for the people.

If the emperor insists on giving Emperor Taizong a grand funeral, then he is violating Emperor Taizong's legacy and that would be true filial impiety.

Thus, the late emperor finally had a clear idea in his mind and buried Emperor Taizong simply, filled with shame.

It can be described as a simple burial, but it was not a hasty or perfunctory affair.

Instead, the gold, stones, pearls, and jade that should have been buried with the deceased were replaced with pottery and woodenware that, while seemingly less extravagant, were still quite expensive.

Why is it that something that seems inexpensive may actually be more expensive?

It's very simple.

The spot where a piece of gold was originally buried has been replaced with several pieces of pottery;

This means that what was originally a matter that only required one piece of gold has now become a matter that requires several craftsmen to meticulously carve several ceramic pieces to the standards of imperial burial goods.

For example, where a piece of pearl or jade was needed, a piece of ornament made of precious wood was replaced.

What should have been a simple replacement of a piece of precious wood worth a few dozen gold coins has now cost several dozen gold coins just for the replacement, not to mention the extra labor costs for carving and manufacturing...

The practice of elaborate funerals was one of the few ills and undesirable social customs in the Han Dynasty.

Liu Rong considered making changes, but ultimately abandoned drastic measures and could only adopt a gentler approach, spending over a hundred years to slowly change people's perceptions.

After all, the concept of ancestors holds a very special significance in Chinese culture.

Even as the emperor, Liu Rong should not act rashly.

Back to the topic.

In an era where everyone is busy giving elaborate funerals to their ancestors, Zhou Yafu, who once served as Grand Commandant to quell the Wu-Chu rebellion and later became Prime Minister, was naturally no exception.

Especially Zhou Yafu's son, it was even more impossible for him to escape this custom.

Deep down, Zhou Yafu still harbored some resentment towards the late emperor and the current emperor, Liu Rong, believing that he had not received the treatment due to a meritorious official.

Zhou Yafu's descendants and relatives had many complaints about this.

As Zhou Yafu grew older and frequently complained that "life is meaningless," his son naturally began preparing funeral supplies for him.

As a military general, especially a top-tier general who had served as Grand Commandant, Zhou Yafu's burial goods naturally included a significant amount of weaponry.

As mentioned earlier, the burial items for a commander of the Sima rank should include several swords and several bows;
For officers of the rank of colonel, in addition to this, they are given several halberds and spears.

For a captain-level officer, the requirement is even higher: one suit of armor, one sword, one bow, plus other expensive military equipment that reflects the type of soldier.

The difference between Zhou Yafu and a captain is not just a small difference.

—In the Han army system, a squad leader led five soldiers, a platoon leader led ten soldiers, a garrison leader led fifty soldiers, and a troop leader led one hundred soldiers.
The army was divided into five hundred captains, one thousand colonels, and five thousand lieutenants. Above the lieutenants, who were theoretically generals, were generals who were officially appointed by the court and granted the seal of a general, and who controlled three to five lieutenant divisions.

Further up, there are 'titled generals', namely the front, rear, left, and right generals;

Above that, the ranks are, in order, Supreme General, General of the Flying Cavalry, General of the Chariots and Cavalry, and Grand General.

Only lastly did he become the Grand Commandant.

It can be said that the gap between an ordinary captain and a Grand Commandant—especially the gap between a captain and Grand Commandant Zhou Yafu—was even greater than the gap between a common soldier and a captain.

Just in terms of rank, there's such a big difference between a captain and a grand captain;
Moreover, Zhou Yafu was not an ordinary Grand Commandant, but a powerful Grand Commandant with real merit who had saved the ancestral temple and the state, and had even served as Chancellor of the Han Dynasty!
In this way, the funeral supplies corresponding to Zhou Yafu's status and position would naturally be far superior to those of a captain.

There's no need to even mention Zhou Yafu's personal sword, armor, and crossbows;
We need to have a variety of weaponry, each with its own characteristics.

What's particularly outrageous is that, at Zhou Yafu's level, the burial goods were prepared in advance, including weapons for his personal guards in the afterlife.

This means that hundreds of swords, hundreds of crossbows, and hundreds of spears are absolutely essential.

And that's precisely where the problem lies.

The Han dynasty now tacitly accepts the practice of generals being buried with their armor.

In other words, generals were to take their worn armor with them as burial goods, which the Han dynasty no longer cared about.

As for the 'underworld guards,' as long as they don't go too far, and a few extra sets of armor are buried with them, the court usually turns a blind eye, and even allows the Imperial Treasury to use its own funds to make money from this shady business.

In a sense, this can be seen as a distorted compromise between the Han emperor and the generals.

—The emperor allowed generals to be buried with armor in a way that violated regulations and overstepped the bounds, so that they could have a 'better life in the underworld'.

Correspondingly, the emperor had this power to control every general. If a general disobeyed, he could be accused of disrespect or treason at any time, and several lives wouldn't be enough to kill him.

Of course, this is just a necessary precaution.

Just like the mushroom egg in later generations—its purpose is not to actually hit anyone, but to hold it in one's hand so that others dare not make any rash moves.

The same principle applies;

The emperor's possession of evidence against generals for violating regulations or overstepping authority was not intended to actually harm the generals.

Instead, they held onto this leverage to keep the generals from becoming arrogant or overshadowing their superiors.

Since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, there has only been one instance where the emperor of the Han Dynasty used this pretext to punish a descendant.

Marquis Jiang, Zhou Bo, was sentenced to seven days in the Tingwei prison by Emperor Taizong for the crime of 'privately possessing armor,' which made him realize the importance of prison guards.

As luck would have it, the second case of a high-ranking general in the Han Dynasty illegally possessing armor occurred with Zhou Bo's son, Zhou Yafu.

As mentioned above, the Han dynasty turned a blind eye to high-ranking generals having one or even several sets of armor buried with them, taking it as tacit approval.

Moreover, unless absolutely necessary, the Han emperor would never use this as an excuse to launch an attack or punish a general.

After all, a general who has made contributions to the ancestral temple and the country is already at the age where he should be considering funeral arrangements and preparing burial items for himself. It would be somewhat inappropriate for him to go and make trouble for others or find fault with them.

The problem was that Zhou Yafu was very arrogant and believed that his contributions to the Han Dynasty were no less than those of Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin!
This is really bad;

If the father himself thinks so, then the son naturally thinks that his father is much better than Han Xin!

If it were just a matter of discussing whether something is strong or not, that would be fine—Liu Rong has never cared much about these verbal disputes, and he is even less willing to get involved.

The problem is that Zhou Yafu's son actually arranged Zhou Yafu's funeral according to the standard that "my father is better than Han Xin".

As is well known, Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, was not originally the Marquis of Huaiyin of the Han Dynasty. He served as the King of Qi and the King of Chu before being demoted to a marquis due to a crime.

Therefore, in the eyes of Zhou Yang, the heir apparent of Zhou Yafu, since his father was more capable and had greater achievements than Han Xin, the specifications of his funeral items should naturally be higher than those of Han Xin.

What were the standards for Han Xin's funeral?
—Execute his entire family.

But Zhou Yang, the heir apparent of the Marquis of Tiao, clearly didn't care about that; he only cared that Han Xin had once been a feudal lord.

This time, things got really serious.

To prepare burial items of the rank of a prince for his father, Prince Zhou Yang, without batting an eye, had five hundred sets of armor custom-made!
Five hundred sets of armor—what does that even mean?!

It is no exaggeration to say that if five hundred armored soldiers could appear in an organized formation on the streets of Chang'an, they would be enough to storm into Weiyang Palace and capture Emperor Rong alive!
Moreover, the Han Dynasty today is no longer the same as when Emperor Gaozu founded the dynasty and everything was about stability.

Let alone non-royal princes like Han Xin—even princes who are members of the Liu clan are now being strictly guarded by the Han court.

Five hundred sets of armor, even if they appeared in the hands of a member of the imperial clan or a feudal lord, would be big news that would shake Chang'an, let alone the former Grand Commandant and deposed Prime Minister Zhou Yafu.
Even now, Liu Rong still hasn't completely hardened his heart.

Because Liu Rong knew very well that the historical Zhou Yafu had never even considered rebellion.

Therefore, even though he learned through the Embroidered Uniform Guard's information channels that Zhou Yafu's son, Zhou Yang, had ordered five hundred sets of armor to be made for his burial, Liu Rong still did not get angry.

If Zhou Yang could secretly acquire these five hundred sets of armor and discreetly place them in Zhou Yafu's tomb in the future, Liu Rong still wouldn't say anything.

Unfortunately, there is no if.

When ordering the custom-made armor, Zhou Yang was incredibly generous and immediately asked for five hundred sets!

Not only did he personally go out to place the order, but he also used the reputation of the Hou family as a guarantee!

When it came time to pay, not only could Prince Zhou Yang not even come up with a deposit, let alone the full amount, he even threatened the craftsmen: making armor privately is a capital offense!

You'd better make these 500 sets of armor for me for free, or I'll report you!

...

It can only be said that there is some truth to the matter of bloodlines and genes.

The results speak for themselves.

—In order to avoid being extorted into bankruptcy by Marquis Zhou Yang, those craftsmen decided to go all out and file a lawsuit against the Marquis's mansion directly with the Dali Court, which is a subordinate office of the Court of Justice.

This completely exposed the matter, bringing it directly into the public eye.

This forced Liu Rong to prioritize the dignity of the law, even if he wanted to downplay the matter and "take care" of Zhou Yafu, a meritorious official who had contributed to the country.

(End of this chapter)