Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

"My Fuwang is the oldest among the third generation of our Jiang family. It's only right for him to break the pot for the seventh brother."

"My Fuxing is the eldest grandson of the Jiang family. You, the second son, gave birth to Fuwang too early. That's an attempt to usurp the throne!"

The two men became louder and louder as they spoke, and looked like they were about to fight if they had a disagreement.

Several people nearby quickly grabbed the two and tried to stop the fight.

"Don't make fun of the villagers."

"If you ask me, the house should be smashed to pieces, and the rest of the property should be divided equally."

"By the way, the betrothal money for the seventh brother's daughter's marriage will be divided equally among our families."

Through the conversation, it is absolutely certain that they are eating up the entire family.

The practice of eating out a family's entire family flourished during the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Neo-Confucianism was highly valued.

Women are required to abide by the code of conduct for women and not to have casual contact with men.

After her husband's death, she must remain a widow and not remarry.

The famous Chastity Arch was built to honor women who voluntarily remained widows for their husbands or committed suicide for their husbands.

Later, wealthy families often competed with each other in the number of chastity arches they had.

They would force the widow to remain a widow, or even starve her to death and say that she died of love for her husband, in order to establish a chastity arch.

These forced incidents, on the surface, appear to be for the purpose of earning a chastity arch, but in reality they are destroying the entire family.

After being forced into widowhood or starving to death, relatives will use all means to seize the family property.

If you encounter evil relatives, they may even sell your widow and daughter to human traffickers, causing them to end up in brothels or become maids.

When this trend spread to the countryside, there was no need to cover it up with chastity.

The person who broke the pot will inherit the family property directly and forcibly.

Smashing the pot is an important part of the funeral.

Legend has it that after death, people must drink Mengpo soup before crossing the Naihe Bridge.

If you drink Meng Po soup, you will forget all your memories of your previous life.

The basin that was smashed during the funeral was the bowl of Mengpo soup that the deceased drank when crossing the Naihe Bridge.

In order for the deceased to retain memories of their lifetime and remember their relatives and friends, the soup bowl needs to be turned into a leaky bowl.

So on the night before the funeral, the children would drill holes in the basin, and the eldest son would smash the basin before the funeral.

In this way, a basin with a hole drilled in it and then broken into pieces will leak out the Meng Po soup, thus allowing the deceased to retain the memories of this life.

In addition to breaking the pot, another important thing during the funeral is waving the banner.

The flag is a soul-calling flag, also known as a spirit flag.

There are phrases like "Lotus flowers are blooming, leading you to the West" written on it.

Usually, when a father dies, the flag is beaten with the left hand, and when a mother dies, the flag is beaten with the right hand.

The shattering of pots and beating of banners are usually done by the eldest son or eldest grandson. In some places, the eldest son shatters the pots and the second son beats the banners.

But no matter what, it must be done by the men in the family.

If there is no male in the family, the nephew must be asked to do the breaking of pots and beating of banners on the family's behalf.

This presents a problem.

That is, the nephew cannot smash pots and hit banners for no reason.

The nephew breaks the pot and beats the banner on behalf of the filial son and grandson, which is equivalent to being the son of the deceased and seeing him off to his final resting place.

So smashing pots and beating banners became the excuse for the nephew to eat the deceased's property.

Those who have a conscience are cultured eaters.

He would not force the widow to hand over her property, but would promise to bury her and let her inherit the remaining property after her death.

Evil relatives are violent eaters.

The nephew who broke the pot seized the family property and land, forced the widow to leave home, and married off the daughter she left behind to earn some dowry money.

When there are many brothers and nephews, several families often share the property equally.

Even if some families have young children, evil relatives will find excuses to wipe out the family, and eventually the young children will be adopted out as foster children.

"Damn it! These people are so mean!" Cui Hao cursed in a low voice.

I quickly pulled him away.

If the Jiang family heard this, they would only need to shout and we would be surrounded by the entire village.

"Don't talk nonsense."

Whatever you fear will come true.

The people from the Jiang family looked over.

They looked us both up and down.

Then he walked over with a smile.

"It was Aunt Hua who introduced them to pick up the bride, right?"

"You guys are here really early. The funeral will be held tomorrow morning."

"But if you're in a hurry, you can take her away today, but the betrothal gift must be paid as agreed."

"Fifty yuan for the betrothal gift, not a cent less!"

They mistook us for people looking to buy wives.

Cui Hao and I were both stunned for a moment, then looked at each other.

His eyes were full of surprise.

A betrothal gift of fifty yuan is definitely a sky-high price!

At that time, the general bride price was eight yuan.

Including new clothes for the bride for all four seasons, the banquet, and cigarettes, alcohol, sugar and tea for the guests, the entire wedding cost less than fifty yuan.

It was not until the early and mid-1980s, when the custom of "three turns and one ring" for marriage became popular, that the cost of marrying a wife began to rise gradually.

"Fifty yuan? That's just the betrothal gift, it's robbery!" Cui Hao couldn't help but say.

The Jiang family's expressions changed.

The eyes looking at us were all unfriendly.

"After our Jiang family's daughter marries, she will sever all ties with her natal family and become a member of your Jin family."

"Fifty yuan for the bride price is equivalent to buying a living person."

"Not only can I give birth to babies and cook for your Jin family's idiot, but I can also serve him for the rest of his life. You won't lose anything at all."

The Jiang family members dispersed and surrounded us.

In the distance, many young and middle-aged people were gathering around.

Obviously they are trying to force the sale.

Cui Hao clenched his fists and looked around nervously: "Brother, I'll cover you."

"What a bullshit cover-up! It's just a matter of spending money to avoid disaster."

I calmed myself down and said to the Jiang family leader with a smile, "Uncle Jiang, don't take my brother's casual words to heart."

"Fifty dollars is in my bag."

I patted the army green shoulder bag hard.

Swish!

They all stared at the bag, greed in their eyes.

"But I have to inspect the goods first."

"If he's lame, blind, deaf, dumb, or something, then he's definitely not worth fifty dollars."

"Hahaha."

The Jiang family members all laughed.

"Then you worry too much."

"He's in the mourning shed. Go and see if you want."

I nodded and took Cui Hao towards the mourning shed.

The mourning shed is very simple.

It is made of bamboo poles and straw mats.

A thin coffin was placed on two benches more than one meter apart.

There was a table in front of the coffin.

On the table were a paper spirit tablet, an incense burner, two candles, and a bottle of white wine.

Loose liquor is used for libation ceremony.

When relatives and friends come to pay their respects, they usually perform a ceremony of bowing or offering libations.

Baili is a ritual of kneeling and kowtowing.

Depending on the degree of closeness to the deceased, there are rituals ranging from three to twenty-four bows.

The libation ceremony is similar, except that it involves pouring out the wine as a sacrifice.

Later on, these funeral rituals were simplified, and few young people understood them.

It is still popular only in rural areas where the customs are still strong.

The mourning shed was very deserted, with no filial sons and grandchildren standing on either side.

There was only a girl wearing a mourning hat and mourning clothes, kneeling in front of the table with red eyes.

The girl looked about fourteen or fifteen years old.

With her delicate face and short hair, she looks like a tomboy.

Especially the pair of sword-like eyebrows slanting into the ends of the hair, paired with the pair of phoenix eyes, add a bit of heroic spirit.

She bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth, glanced at me sideways, and then quickly looked away.

I thought to myself that the dead are greater.

Now that you are here, you have to express your condolences.

So he walked to the table, picked up three incense sticks and lit them.