Since ancient times, birth, old age, sickness and death have always been a natural cycle.
In ancient times, the ancients were for"Birth, death, burial".It is very important, so there has always been a trend of thick burials.
Not only does there be a special funeral process, but some large families attach great importance to it, and they began to build mausoleums in advance a few years ago or even more than ten years ago.
Because the ancients attached great importance to the funeral process and its specifications, they also developed related customs and culture.
In order to be buried in the earth, a tombstone needs to be erected after the death of a person, and a funeral ceremony is also required.
The family of the deceased will invite their relatives to attend the funeral, and there is a lot of attention to be paid to this process.
Among them, the words on the tombstone also have a profound meaning, and different characters have different elaboration and usage.
On ancient tombstones, it will often appear"Examination, Beauty, So, First, Manifest".and other texts.
What do these words mean?Don't make a mistake, it's a joke.
According to historical records, the earliest ancients practiced secret burials, that is"Graves but not graves
However, it does not mean that there is no burial, but that after death, a person is buried only in the ground, but does not seal the mound or plant trees on it.
Later, he gradually began to build a small mound on the mausoleum, which was the era when Confucius lived.
In the Book of Rites. Tan Gong records such an incident that Confucius said when burying his parents together:
I heard it: Ancient tombs are not graves;This hill is also, and the people of the east, west, north and south are also not allowed to know it. So he sealed it and worshiped four feet.Because of the great movement of many ** at that time, Confucius thought that he had been running around all the year round, and there was no fixed place to live, and he was worried that he would not be able to find his parents' grave in the future, so he built a four-foot-high mound for his parents' grave.
Later, there was the custom of "people die and erect a stele", in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the wind of erecting tombstones prevailed, the production of tombstones was very fine, and in the Tang Dynasty, the development of stele carvings was very developed, and the content on it was very rich.
In order to express the memory of the deceased and commemorate the significance of his life during his lifetime, after his death, important information such as his name and deeds during his life are usually engraved on his tombstone.
So what is the meaning of the words "examination, concubine, death, first, and manifestation" commonly found on the tombstone, and how to use these words after the death of a loved one?
Shangshu Shun Emperor said:
"The emperor is falling, and the people are like mourning. ”
"Such as mourning" expresses a person's grief as if he has lost his parents.
The word "Kao" first came from the poetry "Erya", that is, on behalf of parents, and later people began to use it separately, "Kao" refers to the father, and "妣" is the mother, which is an honorific title for parents.
When carving the inscription, the position of these two characters is also very particular, the test character is on the right, and the character 妣 is on the left.
The reason why there is such a typesetting, there is a difference between left and right, is because of the ancient idea of male superiority and inferiority of women.
The ancients respected the right, because the men in the family generally played the role of the pillar of the family, so the status of men was higher than that of women.
Many careful people found that some of the tombstones did not appear on the examination or concubine, because the person who erected the monument was not the child of the deceased.
For example, if it is a monument erected by his younger brother for his deceased brother, then the word "first brother" or "late brother" can not be used.
Nowadays, with the continuous development of society, people's concepts have also changed a lot, so the words engraved on the tombstones have also changed.
Many people no longer use the word "kaoyan" to refer to their deceased parents, but instead choose to directly use titles such as "father" and "loving mother" to refer to their deceased parents.
However, no matter which one is used, the child is expressing nostalgia and respect for the deceased parent.
Therefore, the word "therefore" is actually literal, representing the past, and in the tombstone, it represents the deceased.
Because in the traditional concept of our country, "death" is a particularly unlucky word, if it is particularly impolite to directly call the deceased "dead", it is a taboo, and cannot be directly used to indicate the deceased person.
The word "therefore" is much more euphemistic, and the word "therefore" also contains the respect of future generations for the deceased, and at the same time expresses the strong feelings of longing for the deceased relatives.
The word "xian" has the meaning of "obvious", "prominent" and "prominent" in Chinese, and is used on the deceased to highlight the deceased's "virtuous deeds", which is an honorific title for the deceased and has the meaning of praising his merits.
The word "show" is not engraved on anyone's stele, and the word can be engraved on the stele, which usually makes some contributions to the society during his lifetime and has a certain social influence.
Or they have a high status in the family, have a high seniority, and the parents of the deceased are no longer dead.
And under normal circumstances, if the deceased person has no grandchildren, the word "xian" cannot be used.
Therefore, many people's tombstones generally do not use the word "xian", and there are many fewer deceased people who can bear the standard of the word "xian" compared with the word "xian".
Although "obvious" and "first" read similarly, the meanings they represent are very different, so don't get it wrong and use them casually!
The words "考" and "妣" are usually used in conjunction with the words "first", and "first examination" and "first concubine" express the honorific title for the deceased parents.
The word "first" is actually a nickname for "death", which is mostly used to refer to a deceased person.
For example, the words "first emperor" and "first father" that we often hear in TV dramas are honorific titles for deceased people.
In "Dream of Red Mansions", when Jia Mu introduced Li Kun to Lin Daiyu, who had just arrived, she said something like this:"Xianzhu sister-in-law"., which means that the sister-in-law of the deceased cousin Jia Zhu's family also expressed her longing for the deceased.
In addition to the "first test" we have seen, there is also "so the exam", and the meaning of these two expressions is actually the same.
However, the feelings of the two are very different, the former expresses respect and longing for the deceased, while the latter has a deeper feeling, more respect, and is also very particular about use.
It feels the same, but don't use it wrong.
I have to say that Chinese culture has a long history, broad and profound, and every word has its own special meaning.
These words on the tombstone have their own meanings, and the difference between one word can be thousands of miles.
What do you think about this?Welcome to leave a message to discuss!
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