Longhu Mountain, 20 kilometers south of Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province, is the birthplace of Taoism in China, a world geological park and a national scenic spot.

Longhu Mountain Scenic Area is known as "the land where immortals live" and "the blessed land on earth". The ancient cliff tombs with a long history, Taoist culture and Danxia landform constitute the "three wonders" of Longhu Mountain's natural landscape and human landscape.

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The hanging coffins on the ancient cliff of Longhu Mountain are the most concentrated, dense and earliest tombs discovered in China so far.

In people's minds, it has always been an unsolved mystery: how did the coffin enter the cave of the 100-meter cliff in the ancient and primitive Spring and Autumn Period? Why did the ancient Vietnamese put their ancestors on the precipice in this way of funeral? Who in the tribe can enjoy this honor and so on. ?

1. What is the current solution for hanging coffins in Longhushan?

< 1 >, antique hoisting method?

1, antique hoisting method? .

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In 1980s, Tongji University and Guixi Museum jointly established the "China coffin hanging research group", and put forward an "antique coffin hanging method": let people climb up first, then slide down the rope from the top of the mountain and swing into the cave where the coffin was placed with the help of others.

Then put down the rope from the top of the mountain, fix the coffin, and then hoist the coffin to the hole where the coffin is placed with a winch. People who have been to the cave use ropes to pull the coffin into the cave and settle down.

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According to this method, Longhu Mountain Scenic Area designed and arranged the performance of "hanging coffins and ascending coffins", which was welcomed by tourists.

This method is the only one put forward by domestic experts and used in practical demonstration.

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2. What are the defects of antique hoisting method? We don't deny this method, but we think that this method is only a presumption, and it is not the best solution to solve the mystery of hanging coffins in Longhu Mountain.

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First, this method has been verified by relevant experts several times, and so far no literature has been found to confirm it.

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Second, among the 99 peaks around Xianshuiyan, some are too steep for people to climb. The backward productivity and backward production tools of the ancients could not solve the problem of placing coffins on these cliffs.

Like Jinzhong Peak, which is nearly 100 meters, people can't climb it.

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Third, reality is different from performance.

The weight of the coffin itself is different from the quality of wood: the Chinese fir coffin used for performance is empty and light.

According to CCTV? Science and technology video (://CCTV/science/20050221100780. According to records, 18 coffins unearthed in Longhu Mountain are all made of "single nanmu" ... The largest one is 1000 kilograms, and the lightest one is more than 300 kilograms.

Nanmu and Cunninghamia lanceolata are far apart in material and weight.

Heavy coffins, corpses and funerary objects should be pulled to a height of more than ten meters to several hundred meters above the water with ropes. In other words, even if they are pulled to the hole, it will be more difficult to move them, let alone put them back in place, with the help of one or two people.

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4. According to the excavated caves, the hole is facing the sun, and its diameter is very small (some unexplored caves are even smaller than the present performance), but there are no traces of artificial piling and drilling on the mountain around the hole. If you pull the coffin to the mouth of the cave, it will inevitably block the mouth of the cave. The narrow space is not only useless, but even the people inside can't get out.

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Because the above problems can't be solved by antique hoisting method, since they can't be solved, they can't represent the only or the best.

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Second, other methods?

People and experts from all walks of life in China have put forward many views on the mystery of hanging coffins in Longhu Mountain, and demonstrated them from many aspects. The existing theories are generally geological change, soil piling, tunnel, flood, mechanical hoisting, plank road, ladder erection and so on.

This paper analyzes the mystery of hanging coffins in Longhu Mountain from many aspects. Many explanations have some truth, but they are not sufficient and lack documentary evidence.

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Second, our understanding and solutions to the hanging coffins in Longhu Mountain?

1, the formation of hanging coffin burial?

According to textual research, the owner of the hanging coffin in Longhu Mountain is Baiyue people in ancient China, whose age has been determined as 2600.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Baiyue people once settled in today's Longhu Mountain and Wuyi Mountain.

They live in peace when they meet water, and choose water to live. In the long-term life of "traveling around the mountains", they have formed a unique culture and obvious national personality.

Because of their lifestyle, their architectural style is characterized by a dry fence along the mountain, that is, bamboo and wood are tied up along the mountain to build a high-rise residence.

The high-rise house is divided into two floors, the upper floor is for people and the lower floor is for raising livestock. It has some experience in bamboo scaffolding.

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Guyue people mainly live in areas with developed water systems.

Longhu Mountain Luxi River is the mother river and life river of Longhu Mountain. Therefore, use water tools (boats, rafts, etc. Fishing has become the main means of production for the survival of ancient Vietnamese, and draught products have also become their main customs.

Their lifestyle and survival tools determine their architectural style and funeral style.

As the saying goes: relying on mountains to eat mountains, relying on water to draft, relying on holes will naturally use holes.

It is human nature to be born and die.

Like burial and cremation, with the evolution of long-term living customs, hanging coffin burial has become an ancient funeral form unique to them.

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2. The owner in the hanging coffin.

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According to the excavation of Longhushan tombs by archaeologists in recent years, the unearthed cultural relics basically exclude the possession of foreign cultural relics, and the unearthed cultural relics are relatively cheap, indicating that the ancient Yue people were relatively closed at that time, and the owner in the hanging coffin did not have a special status, indicating that it should belong to ordinary civilians, and only tribes or tribal chiefs have status.

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3. The place and reason of hanging coffin burial.

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The burial place is generally chosen on the cliffs of Chaoyang and Linjiang, with the height ranging from low to high, from tens of meters to nearly 100 meters.

The location should not be a symbol of status at first, but a gradual evolution process from easy to difficult, from low to high, and from water to water.

Of course, it is difficult for families with poor family circumstances and bad popularity to bury their coffins on cliffs above the water.

With the development of productive forces, there may be a gap between the rich and the poor within the tribe. In order to show off, there is a comparison phenomenon, so that the higher you bury, the bigger you bury, and even it is best to bury it in a lonely cave to show off; In addition, it is safe to place coffins on the cliff to protect the deceased ancestors from harassment and chaos; Burying the coffin in the towering sky, the nearest place to the sky, there is a saying of ascension.

In addition, because the coffin is buried in a high place, it is sunny and well ventilated, which is convenient for the preservation of the coffin and ancestors, and later generations offer sacrifices to worship.

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4. Materials of hanging coffins. ?

Take materials nearby.

Mainly boats, boards, bamboo, hemp rope, etc.

Third, our solution to the hanging coffin of Longhu Mountain?

Luxi River is gentle, with bamboo forests on both sides and rich available resources.

According to historical records, more than 2,600 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Guyue people at that time had learned the skills of building and using ships, and mastered the techniques of binding scaffolding with bamboo strips (silk) and twisting fiber ropes with hemp ropes.

These are all essential materials and methods in hanging coffin tombs.

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<1> method: bamboo and fir scaffolding method?

(2) Step:?

1. Detect the water depth where the hanging coffin is placed.

When the depth is less than 3m, the erection method is directly adopted.

When it exceeds 3 meters, the platform method of first dissolving water should be adopted.

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2. Build a horizontal platform.

Because hanging coffins are mostly built on cliffs near the water surface, in order to facilitate the operation, a scaffold platform must be built on the water surface first, and operating scaffolding on the built platform is equivalent to land operation.

Methods: Arrange boats (increase or decrease the number of boats according to the requirements of coffin hanging height and erection height), pile them ashore and fix them in series with hemp rope.

Then spread a board with a thickness of more than 4CM on the fixed ship, and connect the ship's surface into a piece, which becomes a platform on the water (such as walking on land).

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3. Scaffolding.

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Choose thick, long and straight bamboo and Chinese fir, and build scaffolding according to building requirements.

Scaffolding is fixed with bamboo strips (this is a method that has been used in the history of local architecture until it was replaced by steel pipe scaffolding in recent years).

Scaffolding consists of bamboo or Chinese fir, tied up one by one and put up one by one.

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Where the water depth is less than 3 meters, bamboo or Chinese fir can be used to set up scaffolding directly in the water.

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4. Fixation of high-altitude shelves.

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When erecting a shelf, you only need to use caves, bamboo or fir strips on cliffs near the main frame or the edge of the frame, or pile or cable-stayed to ensure the stability and firmness of the shelf.

The passage in the shelf rises in zigzag steps until it reaches the hole where the hanging coffin is placed.

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5. Installation is complete. ?

After the shelf is set up, the cave size should be adjusted according to the needs of hanging coffins.

Then, the coffin is carried into the hole by the zigzag stairs in the passage of the scaffold, and the filling material is supplemented, the hole is closed, the scaffold is dismantled and the fixed platform is dismantled.

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In ancient times, there were indeed many mysteries that modern people could not solve, but the ancient people were limited by backward productivity and backward production tools, and their intelligence was definitely not as good as that of modern people.

After more than two thousand years, the ancient Yue people disappeared, but the ancient Yue culture and customs of the ancient Yue people had a great influence on later generations. The cliff group of Longhushan Tomb has left the world with a mystery of hanging coffins that has not been solved for thousands of years.

We believe that to solve this mystery, we should fully consider various factors at that time, the unique culture and customs of the ancient Vietnamese people, and the basic conditions and material sources for the development of productive forces at that time.

Our scaffolding method fully considers the above factors and draws on the advantages of other schemes.

In 2006, experts from home and abroad, such as Shanghai Jiaotong University, visited Longhu Mountain to solve puzzles. In Xiannv Rock, scaffolding is set up with steel pipes and climbing with zigzag ladders.

What is different from history today is only the material of scaffolding, but the method is strikingly similar.

We believe that around 2600, it is entirely possible for Guyue people to gather the strength of a village or a clan, draw materials from nearby places and cooperate with Qi Xin, which is simple, safe and convenient to operate.

▲▲▲▲▲ Live hanging coffin burial

For many people, hanging coffins, which are widely distributed in the south of China, have always been a mystery.

For thousands of years, people have faced the cliff, looked up at the hanging coffin and made all kinds of guesses.

Some people say that the coffin carrier climbed up to place the hanging coffin, and some people say that the fairy hung the hanging coffin with gold thread.

As for what is in the hanging coffin, it is widely circulated. Some people even say that Zhuge Liang's art books are hidden in hanging coffins in Sichuan.

In 2009, the Propaganda Department of Libo County Committee of Guizhou Province announced that the Yao nationality in Libo County still retains the custom of hanging coffins.

According to the news, the hanging coffin cave burial in this county is being declared as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units together with similar cultural relics in other parts of the province.

Li Xianyou, who works in Libo, Guizhou, visited Yao Township in Yao Lu, a local gathering place for Yao people.

Li Xianyou said: "If someone in the local area wants to be buried, the Yao people in the village will take advantage of the night and carry the coffin to the nearby mountain.

The boys carried coffins through the thorns, pulled them forward and pushed them back to the cave halfway up the cliff.

Then no one can look back, but must turn around and leave together, and stop disturbing the dead in the coffin. "

There seems to be some gap between the realistic version of hanging coffin burial and the unattainable hanging coffin in people's eyes.

Chen Mingfang, a researcher at Sichuan University for Nationalities, once defined hanging coffin burial in this way.

In her view, in order to distinguish it from burial customs such as burial, cremation and water burial, the burial customs of burying the dead on cliffs in southern China can be collectively called hanging coffin burial or cliff burial, and then named according to the characteristics and historical origins of various places, times and cliff burial types.

The hanging coffin burial continued by the Yao nationality in Libo belongs to the cliff cave burial custom.

As the name implies, cliff cave style is to place the coffin in a natural gap or cave between rock walls.

In addition, there are other ways of hanging coffins.

For example, the stake type is to manually drill a hole in the cliff and insert a stake, and then put the coffin on it; Cliff hole style is to cut a space between cliffs to put coffins.

However, these two burial customs are hard to find now.

▲▲▲▲ How to put the hanging coffin on it?

The hanging coffin cave in Longhu Mountain, Jiangxi Province, which fascinated the "tomb brother", is located on Longhu Mountain. Its mountain wall is smooth and flat, and Luxi River is at the foot of the rock. The hanging coffin at the top is more than 300 meters above the water.

How did the hanging coffin get up the cliff?

Lu Jingyan, a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, and others tried a hanging coffin placement method with the help of pulleys, winches and other tools.

Now, this method has been developed into an "antique coffin-carrying performance" by means of modern equipment in Longhu Mountain Scenic Area.

This performance requires five people to cooperate with each other: one person observes and directs at the bottom of the cliff, and the other four people climb to the top of the cliff, drill steel bars at the top of the cliff, and fix lifting equipment such as pulleys.

Four people cooperated with each other and hoisted the coffin into the cliff hole with pulleys and ropes.

The problem is that the ancients did not have modern equipment such as steel drills, nor did they dig holes at the top of the cliff to put pulleys.

Thousands of years ago, how the ancient Yue people placed hanging coffins is still a mystery.

Jiangxi Yingtan Longhu Mountain Scenic Area Management Committee once offered a reward for collecting answers, and the bonus soared from 300,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan! However, there is no conclusion so far.

Equally mysterious is the hanging coffin of the Gelao people in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province.

No one knows how this part of the Gelao people living in Sichuan carried the coffin weighing more than 100 kg onto the cliff in ancient times.

Some people say that the coffin floats when the river is high; Some people speculate that they approached the cliff by piling up soil or building a wooden frame, and the principle is the same as that of large-scale engineering construction in ancient times.

Now, Liu Xu, director of Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, has made a new discovery-he saw a hole in the cliff under the hanging coffin in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province? .

It can be inferred from the arranged holes that Bo people may approach the cliff top step by step by building a plank road, and then carry the coffin up step by step.

However, these plank roads have long been lost in the long river of history.

Experts also found some holes around the hanging coffins in Wuyishan, Fujian.

These holes are connected in a string, and the longest can reach tens of meters.

At this point, the placement of hanging coffins seems to have found some reasonable explanations.

At the same time, some archaeologists found gouge marks and strangulation marks on the hanging coffins in Wuyishan, Fujian.

As a result, some people thought of the "antique coffin-lifting performance" in Longhushan, Jiangxi Province, and it seems that the coffin-lifting method also found evidence.

Let's go back to Guizhou to explore the hanging coffins in these areas.

On the Getu River in Anshun, Guizhou, the mystery of the local hanging coffin was gradually uncovered through the study of "Spider Man".

Just like Spider-Man, the protagonist of the American film Spider-Man, some climbers along the Geto River are also called Spider-Man.

It is said that "Spider-Man", who first learned rock climbing, was trying to get the coffin to the cliff.

Climbers should not only transport coffins and dead people, but also know funeral etiquette.

Lin, a cultural consultant of Getuhe, studied Spider-Man. He said the local name was Spider-Man Goro.

"Goro" has rock climbing skills passed down from generation to generation. They carried wooden blocks on the cliff hole, then assembled the coffin in the cliff hole, and finally put the dead on their backs and put them in the coffin.

Although the valleys on both sides of the Getu River are steep, there are many uneven places for Spider-Man to climb, and there are almost no places to stand on the hanging coffin cliffs in Longhu Mountain in Jiangxi and Gongxian County in Sichuan. Even with today's climbing equipment, it is difficult to climb such a high place.

In addition, according to archaeological experts, the hanging coffin of the Gelao people in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province is hollowed out by a whole piece of nanmu, even if the heavy coffin is carried up by the plank road, it is by no means easy.

▲▲▲▲▲ Cultural information behind the hanging coffin

For thousands of years, people who follow the custom of hanging coffins have accomplished the impossible task with simple tools and manpower.

Why did these ancestors go to great lengths to put the coffin on the cliff? Some people say that this is related to the habit of ancient ancestors living in caves. The cave on the mountain is not only the place where they live, but also the place where they rest.

More people think that it comes from a concept of the universe, which is probably the embodiment of ancient people's worship ceremony for mountains.

Mei Huaquan, a researcher at Fujian Provincial Museum, said that there are now more than 20 places with hanging coffins of ancestors of ancient Fujian and Yue countries within 70 kilometers of Fiona Fang in Wuyishan Scenic Area.

Now, people passing through Wuyi Jiuquxi can still see such a scene: in some caves where hanging coffins are placed, there are wooden boards, which the locals call "Hongqiao Board" or "Golden Pole".

Some people think that the ancestors of Wuyishan were considerate of the dead, and in order to facilitate the souls of the dead, a bridge was built next to the hanging coffin.

Chen Long, deputy director of Fujian Provincial Museum, thinks that China people worship the sky and want to be as close to it as possible, so they put the hanging coffins on the mountains.

This cultural concept is "filial piety" for the younger generation, that is, the higher the coffin is placed, the more filial the younger generation is to the deceased.

Of course, in turbulent times, hanging coffins can also prevent being destroyed by war.

Chen Long believes that the water system in southern China is developed. If the coffin is placed in a very low place, it will be washed away at the first moment and placed in a high place, and the damage of natural disasters can be reduced.

In addition, hanging coffins also have the advantages of preventing the invasion of wild animals, facilitating long-term preservation and saving cultivated land.

Chen Mingfang, a researcher at Sichuan University for Nationalities, believes that the hanging coffins in some popular hanging coffin burial areas are similar to canoes, and boats are also important means of transportation in these areas.

At the same time, the custom of hanging coffins found in many areas in southwest China and even some countries in Southeast Asia originated from the people near the water, which all reflected the cultural characteristics of the maritime people.

The custom of hanging coffins for thousands of years contains too many puzzles, but hanging coffins on high cliffs helps us to study these national cultures.

When people look up and marvel at the hanging coffins, they may believe that the hanging coffins between the cliffs are the intermediary for the deceased to enter heaven from the underworld, and the high cliffs become the starting point of another life journey.