Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

Chapter 356: Sitting in a Tank, Becoming a Buddha in the Flesh

I have heard Professor Zhang talk about jar burial before.

The Banpo site in Xi'an was discovered in 1953, and more than 200 tombs were found in the site area.

Human bones were found in urn-shaped pottery in the burial area.

Upon inspection, it was found that the urn-shaped pottery contained mostly the bones of infants and children.

A small number of urns contained the remains of adults.

In addition, the bottom of the urn-shaped pottery containing the bones has small holes drilled by humans.

After research, archaeologists believe that the jars served to protect corpses from being dug out and eaten by wild animals, and were only used to bury infants who died prematurely.

The adult skeletons in a small number of jars were all buried bones that were dug out and placed in the jars, which is a form of secondary burial.

Secondary burial is also called bone-picking burial, bone-washing burial, bone-picking burial, etc. It is a burial custom with a very long history.

Usually the deceased is buried, and after the flesh and skin of the deceased have completely decayed, the bones are dug out and moved to another place for a second or even multiple burials.

This burial custom has been passed down from ancient times and gradually formed a set of burial procedures.

First, use weathering, water immersion, burial and other methods to allow the flesh to rot and separate from the bones.

The bones are then collected, cleaned, dried, and placed in pre-prepared containers such as pottery jars and porcelain jars.

Finally, an auspicious day and place are chosen for burial.

The reason why this secondary burial has been passed down is mainly because the southern region is humid and the coffins are easy to rot, causing the corpses to be infested by snakes, insects, rats and ants.

So after the body decayed, the bones were placed in pottery or porcelain for burial.

To achieve the purpose of letting the deceased rest in peace without being disturbed by snakes, insects, rats and ants.

This burial custom has been passed down from eight thousand years ago to the present day.

Some areas in the south, as well as areas with strong Hakka customs, still have the custom of secondary burial.

However, with the popularization of cremation, secondary burial has gradually become history.

Therefore, urn burial and secondary storage of bones in containers such as urns, jars, pots, and vats are different forms of jar burial.

After telling you what I heard, let me talk about the current situation.

What I saw before me was the first time I had seen a jar burial.

Especially the size of those two vats, which are as big as the large vats used by villagers to store water.

Well, it's a big vat where a child could drown if they fell into it.

So if the boss stacked his two vats on top of each other, how many corpses would be inside them?

No wonder the seal is covered with talismans.

If you don’t put enough stickers on it, it definitely won’t be able to calm down!

When I stopped thinking, Uncle Chen also stopped.

"Shizi, why don't you continue going down?"

I nodded towards the two stacked vats and said, "Take a look at that first."

"There's a whole jar burial in the crypt, and there are so many talismans on it."

"What kind of weird feng shui scheme did that master set up?"

Uncle Chen tilted his head and looked down.

After just one glance, he gasped: "Hiss!"

He screamed in a shrill voice: "Sit in the jar!"

"Tie the seat!"

"Huh?" I was stunned for a moment: "Not a jar burial?"

Although both "sitting in a jar" and "jar burial" contain the word "jar", there is a big difference between the two.

Uncle Chen looked at me in surprise: "Hey, hey, is that true?"

"You don't even know what it means to sit in a jar?"

"You should know the true identity of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng in Nanhua Temple, right?"

I know the Sixth Patriarch Huineng.

The one who wrote: There is no Bodhi tree, nor is there a mirror stand. There is nothing at all, so how can there be any dust?

After Huineng inherited the mantle of the Fifth Patriarch, he was hunted down by his senior brother Shenxiu and fled all the way to the south. He is a legendary figure in Buddhism.

But I really don't know his true identity.

Seeing my confused look, Uncle Chen sighed softly.

"Go down first."

"I'll tell you slowly downstairs."

So we both pulled the rope and slid down.

When I reached the bottom of the cave, I was about to walk over to observe the two large vats stacked together, but Uncle Chen held my shoulder.

"Don't go there yet."

"Sitting in a jar means passing away while sitting, and a jar means being buried in a jar."

"You just said that jar burials are not difficult to calculate correctly."

"But jar burial is a funeral form that has been passed down from ancient times."

"And sitting in a jar can prevent the body from decaying, and the body can become a Buddha..."

Sitting and dying refers to the death of a person with great spiritual practice in a cross-legged sitting position.

It is also called sitting death or sitting death.

When ordinary people die, they usually lie in bed and experience pain, and their death is definitely not peaceful.

Being able to die while sitting cross-legged in meditation means that one dies peacefully without experiencing the pain of death, which is considered a blessing for great practitioners.

What does the great practitioner who passed away in meditation have to do with burial in a jar?

This requires us to talk about achieving Buddhahood in the physical body.

Monks believe that if the body does not decay after death, one can achieve the status of a living Buddha. Therefore, eminent monks in every dynasty have achieved the status of a living Buddha through secret methods.

Nowadays, many ancient temples also preserve the Buddha's body.

Among them, the six sets of Huineng's real bodies placed in the Lingzhao Pagoda of Nanhua Temple are the oldest.

After Huineng passed away, his disciple Fang Bian put a lot of effort into preserving his body.

The corpse is placed in a jar filled with quicklime and spices. This step is called sitting in a jar.

Then seal the cylinder. This step is to seal the cylinder.

Under the drying effect of quicklime and the preservative effect of spices, the body dehydrated and became a mummy over three years.

At this time, the jar needs to be opened and the mummy needs to be taken out of it.

Afterwards, Fang Bian used the mummy as a basis and used the papier-mâché method to shape the mummy.

The papier-mâché method is a very ancient sculpture technique.

First, use a clay sculpture as a base, then brush lacquer on the clay sculpture, stick linen on the lacquer, and after it dries, continue to brush lacquer and stick linen, and repeat this process dozens of times.

Finally, after removing the clay mold, you can get a statue with a soft texture and lifelike image.

The lacquer used here has a very strong anti-corrosion effect.

Fang Bian used the anti-corrosion properties of lacquer to repeatedly apply lacquer on the mummy and cover it with linen.

The mummy was completely sealed with many layers of lacquer.

This will prevent the corpse from decaying at all.

Since then, the technique of achieving the Buddha body through sitting in a jar has been passed down...

Gum!

After listening to Uncle Chen's explanation, I swallowed hard.

The four words "becoming a Buddha in the flesh" kept echoing in my mind.

Could it be that the master not only helped the gambling king’s family arrange feng shui, but also helped people achieve Buddhahood in the flesh?

This is too great a skill!

But deep down I felt something was not right.

If one really wanted to help people achieve Buddhahood in their physical bodies, why would he have hammered that golden nail into the corpse of the unjustly killed woman above?

What is the connection between the golden nails and the corpse in the vat?

Before I could figure it out, Uncle Chen had already raised his flashlight and shone it towards the cave wall.

"Take a closer look around first."

"Those two big vats... let's leave them for last."

You can see that Uncle Chen is a little nervous.

It seemed that he was reluctant to touch those two large vats.

"it is good."

We both held up flashlights and carefully looked at the cave walls from top to bottom.

Even the bottom of the cave was not spared.

A thick layer of lime was rammed into the walls and bottom of the cave.

I used a dagger to dig at the wall of the cave. After about ten centimeters, I saw soil.

It can be seen that a lot of money has been spent to maintain a dry environment underground.

But this dry environment is not suitable for earthworms to survive. How did the earthworm grow so big here?

"Uncle Chen, there's lime everywhere, it's not suitable for earth dragons to survive."

"Unless the earth dragon can get into the tank..."

Before I could finish my words, I heard a crisp sound coming from the tank.

Hey!

Da da!

Suddenly, there were three crisp sounds, one long and two short.

It makes my scalp explode!!!