Hanging coffin burial is a strange burial style in ancient times: on the bank of the river, choose a cliff with a towering wall, and hang (place) the coffin of the deceased and the ruler with him in a proper position halfway up the cliff in a way we don't know yet. Different burial sites have different burial methods: either make holes in the cliff, use rafters as piles, and put the ruler coffin in the enlarged space of the cliff piles; Or cut a stone niche in the wall and put the coffin in the niche; Or use the natural ravines, piers and caves on the cliff to place the corpse coffin ... When a person dies, he must find a home and find a proper placement method for the body that has lost his soul. In this sense, hanging coffin burial is as common as burial, cremation, water burial and celestial burial. However, hold your breath and think about it: how can a heavy corpse coffin and a cold skeleton "fly" to that high cliff? Who is the owner of the coffin? Our limited wisdom is still difficult to interpret this fable written with thousands of years of silence, and we can't escape the shadow of the hanging coffin in the nightmare. It is said that in 1933, a local official surnamed Chen hired two woodcutter to carry down two hanging coffins from the cliff of Doushaguan, and one of them was transported to Zhaotong Provincial Second Middle School for inspection and exhibition. Soon after, both woodcutter died unexpectedly. The following year, Xiong Tingquan, a large disaster relief official, visited Provincial No.2 Middle School after his official duties, saw the hanging coffins and the remains in the coffins, and inquired about the story of the woodcutter's tragic death. He was restless and repeatedly said to the headmaster, "Wen and his bones, why do you want to play with the remains of the ancients?" Please be polite. "The headmaster had to bury the remains of hanging coffins. Still uneasy, Lord Xiong wrote an obituary with trepidation: "first frost is sad, weathered, and welcomed by the sun and the moon. "Who wants a strong skeleton, who loves this Jeremy goldkorn? Evil is rewarded with evil, good with good, and the corpse is destroyed. Shan Ye is vast and boundless, thinking that the signboard of the house will be hidden here forever. This is a hundred blessings and a hundred auspicious things, long live the Millennium. "Away from ghosts and gods.

In Yunnan, the hanging coffins along the Jinsha River, Baishui River and Guanhe River basins in Zhaotong today are not unique, but must be the most widely distributed and concentrated areas. As far as the known situation is concerned, there are more than 10 in Doushaguan, Diping, Coffin Rock and Lingguan Rock in Yanjin County, Washi and Cave in Weixin County and Dihuanghua in Yongshan County. Stone piles, piers, niches, gullies, caves and other forms of hanging coffin burial are readily available. In particular, the hanging coffins in Doushaguan are the most intact and the most steep terrain, and are called "the remains of ancient times, the miracle of the world" and "the hanging coffin museum" by scholars.

The hanging coffin of Dousha Pass is on the precipice on the south bank of Guanhe River in Shimen Village, Dousha Township, Yanjin County, next to National Highway 2 13. Wuchi Road in Qin Dynasty, Nanyi Road in Han Dynasty, Pianliang Bridge Pavilion in Sui Dynasty and Shimen in Tang Dynasty all chose Dousha Pass as the gateway to Yunnan. "Guanjin Hub" and "South Yunnan Lock Key" are well-deserved. The monument of "Wuchi Road" on the north bank of Guanhe River, the ancient castle of Shimenguan and Nanzhao Cliff inscribed in the ten-year imperial history of Tang Zhenyuan all indicate that this place once flourished. On the south bank of Guanhe River, the wall is cut and stands, towering into the sky, with a height of 400-500 meters. The hanging coffin is stored in a square rock ridge half a waist away from the cliff. In the 1930s, there were more than 40 coffins. From then on, they either fell into Guanhe River or were destroyed by curious people and people with ulterior motives. Today, there are still more than 10 coffins. Overlooking, in the light and almost transparent sky, in the shadow of the cliff that is about to be dumped by great power, the bodies and coffins are hung heavily in the air, which really makes people give birth to many unspeakable thoughts and imagine many strange stories of ghosts and gods. No wonder Lord Xiong has to pray hard that "everything is blessed, everything is auspicious, and the century is long live."

The owner of the hanging coffin is generally considered to be the Gelao people who lived in southern Sichuan and northeastern Yunnan before the Spring and Autumn Period, so it is called "Gelao hanging coffin". Is it reliable? 1932, several scholars from Zhaotong visited the hanging coffin in Dousha Pass. Judging from the documents left at that time, the skull of the remains in the coffin is larger than that of modern people, and the bones of hands and feet are thicker and longer. The estimated height is between 1.8- 1.9 meters. The coffin was hollowed out with a whole log, about 2 meters long, 50 centimeters high, 4 1 cm wide and 4 1 cm thick. From wood grain, it looks like Chinese fir, and its shape is simple. Zhou Mengyun, who participated in the inspection, thought that "this thing came from ancient times, not hundreds of years ago. Why is there still a long way to go? According to historical records, after Dayu's death, he wore three collars and a coffin of three inches, which can be found in Mencius. Mencius also said: the world is big, and there are often people who don't bury their relatives. If he dies, he will be embarrassed. Where the coffin was found today, the river sank, which proves that the river must have been very high at that time, and many rivers on both sides of the strait caused houses. This is the so-called Grand Canyon in ancient times, no doubt. " Similarly, around 1932, an American scholar made an investigation on the hanging coffins in Chang 'an, Wei Xin, and he also got roughly the same understanding as Zhou Mengyun. In this case, "Bo people hanging coffins" should be the conclusion. Otherwise, Chen Yide, a famous natural scientist, questioned the judgment of Zhou Mengyun and American scholars: First, since the Spring and Autumn Period, Bo people living in southern Sichuan and northeastern Yunnan have either migrated to western Yunnan or merged with the Han nationality, prematurely ending their history as a single nation. In other words, people in Bohai lived before 250 BC. Secondly, if the hanging coffin of Doushaguan is a cliff hundreds of meters high due to the subsidence of the river, this process may not be completed for thousands of years. Chen Yide retorted: It lasted for two or three thousand years. "Any hard wood, soaked in the sun, will not turn into dust?" More importantly, the bones are intact and the coffin texture is clear. I have to admit that Chen Yide's backchat is reasonable. In fact, according to historical records, the Gelao people who lived in this area more recently 1000 years ago also have the custom of hanging coffins. "Dead coffin not buried. You put it in a cave. If you are the tallest, go to thousands of feet, or you will face the river. " Jing Li's "Dian Lue" in Yuan Dynasty and Zhou Rucheng's "Yanling Lue" in Ming Dynasty are recorded. Who can say that the hanging coffin will not be the work of Liao Bai and the Gelao people?

The fundamental reason why hanging coffins give people a mysterious and magical feeling and become the so-called "eternal mystery" lies in: how did hanging coffins "hang up"? In a book called "A Book of the Ruler and the Ruler", a hypothesis was put forward: firstly, the coffin of the corpse was carried to the top of the cliff, and then it was lowered by hanging rope and side piles. What I saw at the hanging coffin site proves that this statement is difficult to establish. Imagine that hanging coffins are mostly halfway up the cliff, far from the top, and are mostly placed in depressions on the cliff surface. How can we "lower" them? In another book, Mountain and Man, another idea is put forward: "Take the soil as a platform, transport the coffin in it, unload the soil in the background, and the coffin is the only landmark." There is some truth in what you say. It is also proved by the hanging coffin, which exposes its operability. Another point, that is, Zhou Mengyun's argument mentioned earlier, can be questioned by Mr. Chen Yide. The "eternal mystery" is somewhat puzzling, but puzzling is not the same as ghosts and gods.

Why were ancient ancestors interested in hanging coffins? What's the mystery? To put it bluntly, it is disappointment. "Yunnan Zhilue" says: "When a person dies, the coffin must be placed on the cliff of thousands of feet, and the one who falls first is lucky." ..... spare no effort to get up just to fall, in order to fall as soon as possible.

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