The Miao people guarding the mausoleum move bricks during the day, sleep 567 coffins at night and earn 300 yuan a month?

Death is a horrible and mysterious thing, so many people have inexplicable fear and awe of dead bodies. Dare to sleep with the coffin at night? I'm afraid many people will avoid it. However, in Pingba County, Guizhou Province, there is a Miao old man, Liu Chaoxian, who not only dares to sleep in the grave at night, but also has 567 coffins beside him!

Ancient Miao nationality cave burial custom

As one of the ethnic minorities in China, Miao people are curious about many customs, and cave burial is one of them. Cave burial means that Miao people don't bury themselves in the ground after death, but prepare fine coffins. Relatives will clean the dead and put them in the coffin, and then villagers will carry the coffin to the cave for storage.

Now this custom is becoming less and less. After all, life is getting better and better. Most Miao people no longer live in remote mountain villages, but turn to big cities. However, some places have retained this custom, such as Taohua Village, Pingba County, Guizhou Province.

Unlike Tao Yuanming's Xanadu, Taohua Village here is not delicious or colorful, but a small village surrounded by mountains. The residents of Taohua Village still maintain the ancient custom of cave burial, and these caves are hidden in the caves of these mountains. Looking closely, we can find an honest worker in the square in the center of the village, while moving bricks, looking at the caves hidden in the mountains with fiery eyes. He is Liu Chaoxian.

Liu Chaoxian is an ordinary worker during the day, but at night he works as a coffin keeper in the coffin hole of Pingba. Coincidentally, Liu Chaoxian applied for the post of cultural relic administrator of the local cultural relics museum, and the cultural relics he guarded were 567 coffins in the cave.

567 coffins representing historical changes

From the path near the village, you can walk along the mountain road to the burial cave. The cave is a very common karst cave, but there are hundreds of coffins extending from the edge of the cave to the depth at the entrance.

There are 567 coffins, all of which are well preserved and have not been damaged by manpower and time. Most of the coffins have different styles, such as boat coffins, log coffins and ordinary coffins. The earliest coffins here can be traced back to 1000 years ago, and the style is also the style of the Tang Dynasty, which has high archaeological research value.

As the first coffin was put in, the ancestors of Taohua Village made a rule that every once in a while, the elders of the clan died and had to be put in the burial cave. With the development of time, there are more and more coffins in burial caves, so there is such a spectacular situation today. These coffins are all made of wood. From these coffin burial styles, we can also see the development of cave burial customs and the changes of village culture in Taohua Village.

It's not that easy to get into the cave. Every villager will ask a ghost teacher to do it after he dies. Only people who die after practicing the law will not become ghosts, but will be attached to coffins so that they can sleep in burial pits.

Liu Chaoxian: They are all ancestors. What are you afraid of?

The family name of Taohua Village is Liu, and there are four branches from ancestors to now, corresponding to the four groups in the village, namely Taohua, Goose Holding Eggs, Xinzhai and Zhongzhai. There are reasons why Liu Chaoxian dares to sleep here at night. First, his ancestors are here. Second, he is not too jealous of the dead. Liu Chaoxian believes that if you are afraid and awed by the dead, there will really be dead bodies in the coffin. On weekdays, he talked and laughed with these coffins, but he could feel that these ancestors were still beside him to bless himself.

For Liu Chaoxian, this place is like his home, and these coffins are scattered and orderly, not randomly placed. The four groups in the village occupy four directions in the cave, and the innermost part is used to put seriously ill people, so Liu Chaoxian can remember who is lying in the coffin in turn every time he comes.

The burial cave is not flat, and there are many rugged rocks in it. Every time Liu Chaoxian comes, he needs to climb these stones, which are more than one person high. These coffins have become the tools for Liu Chaoxian to help the railing. Liu Chaoxian doesn't care whether such behavior is disrespectful to his ancestors. He thinks these coffins are the arms of ancestors.

For Liu Chaoxian, every coffin here has his story. For example, there is a big black coffin in the corridor. Liu Chaoxian knew that there were bodies of Liu and his wife in the village. Before Liu died, his family was poor and had no money to buy a good coffin. Until his wife died, his children bought a big black coffin for the couple and put it in it, symbolizing that they would never leave each other and die together.

There is a strange coffin in another place beside it. On the big coffin stood a small coffin, a father and son. The father had various expectations for the child, but he didn't expect the child to be sent here before he grew up, and the child died later. The villagers sent their children to his father, symbolizing that father and son are dependent on each other for life and death. For Liu Chaoxian, what lies in the coffin is not a cold body, but a fresh soul. They have their own experiences, whether sad or warm, and they tell their stories to Liu Chaoxian in their own way.

Working during the day, living in caves at night, sleeping in 567 coffins.

Some people may be curious. The earliest coffin in the cave came from the Tang Dynasty. Why are there only 567 coffins today? Liu Chaoxian also answered this question: Although the custom of cave burial is very popular in the village, it does not mean that anyone can enter. In addition to cave burial, Taohua Village will also find a wild place for field burial. Those who can be buried in caves are elders who died normally in the village, and those who have an accident or die outside are not allowed to enter the ancestral land.

There is another legend about this tradition. One year, after the death of an ancestor named Liu, people decided to send him outside the village for burial, but as soon as the coffin was carried out, there was a flood and the coffin was washed away by the water. The villagers searched for a few days and finally found a coffin in a cave. The ghost owners in the village thought that their ancestors didn't want to leave everyone. After discussion, they decided to make a rule that people surnamed Liu were put in caves on the mountain after their death, so the custom of cave burial gradually evolved.

Liu Chaoxian went to the construction site during the day and came over after dinner at night. He needs to count the coffins to be at ease, that is, to prevent grave robbers from stealing them. After counting, Liu Chaoxian sat quietly on the bench at the mouth of the cave. When someone asked Liu Chaoxian why he wanted to do this job, Liu Chaoxian also said that there was still 300 yuan for the wake!

Of course, this is just a joke of Liu Chaoxian. He works on the construction site, which costs several thousand yuan a month. There is no need to earn this 300 yuan. Liu Chaoxian is just afraid that his ancestors in the coffin hole will be stolen. Before Liu Chaoxian's wake, there was a case in which the coffin was stolen in the village. A * * * lost a dozen coffins. The thief has never been caught in this case, which makes Liu Chaoxian very sad. Later, the Cultural Relics Bureau locked the coffin hole, and Liu Chaoxian took the initiative to ask himself to be a wake.

Other people in the village don't understand Liu Chaoxian. Actually, they don't understand This is Liu Chaoxian's responsibility and guardian as a peach blossom village. People can't forget their roots.