Both the East and the West have a "hermaphrodite" culture. For example, in the Bible, the birth of the female Eve is God's fear of Adam's loneliness and pulls out the ribs to become; In Chinese culture, there are similar legends.
This culture in turn influenced the human marriage and funeral system, forming a system that husband and wife should be "in the same hole" after death.
In ancient times, there was a Bianliang Confucian Meng Zhigang's wife Yishi, after her husband died, she instructed the coffin shop owner:"My husband is dead, and he can be in the same coffin. ”Then he committed suicide.
One of the particularly intriguing things about the life of Chiang Kai-shek, a modern politician, is that after the death of his parents, he was not buried together, so the tomb of his mother Wang Caiyu is independent.
This practice is obviously inconsistent with Chinese culture, and it is also obviously not in line with Chiang Kai-shek's character of "great filial son".
What is even more amazing is that in the sixties of the last century, after the tomb of his mother Wang Caiyu was opened, it was found that the coffin where the bones were placed did not fall to the ground, but was suspended in mid-air.
Wang Caiyu lived in a period of drastic social and cultural changes, as a traditional Chinese woman who came from the old era, Wang Caiyu's life was full of twists and turns, but it was also happy and healthy.
Chiang Kai-shek's mother, Wang Caiyu, was born in 1864 in Gezhu Village, Xikou Town, Zhejiang.
When she was young, her family was well-off, and she was a well-known family in the village.
When she was a child, her father's education of his daughter also followed the principle of "a woman is virtuous if she is not talented", and only taught her to be a female celebrity, but did not let her study. Even though he is smart and clever, he can't cross the rivers and lakes like the chivalrous girl "Qiu Jin".
When she was a teenager, Wang Caiyu was like a lotus flower after a summer rain, delicate and beautiful.
However, the situation of the family is not as good as day by day, and the curse of being rich for three generations has been fulfilled in her family, and her father Wang You is short-sighted and does not produce, so Wang Caiyu can only do needlework to supplement the family's expenses.
In 1881, Wang Caiyu was 17 years old, and when he reached the age of marriage, he married Zhu Mou, who was stationed in Cao Tian's family, through the matchmaker's peace.
Zhu's parents died early, and he worked long hours in Gezhu, with a simple nature and sharp hands and feet, which was appreciated by the owner.
His owner is Wang Youze's own family, and it is precisely because of this relationship that Wang Caiyu and Zhu have known each other for a long time.
From Gezhu to Caojiatian, it was only 20 miles away, and the next year after the marriage, the two officially became husband and wife.
After getting married, the beginning is very sweet. However, life is inevitably bumpy and bumpy, because Wang Caiyu is a lonely phoenix, she has been pampered since she was a child, and she can't help but be a little squeamish.
And Zhu is just a "worker", for a little thing, he starts a temper and even starts to move.
Wang Caiyu often went back to her parents' house to cry. Not long after such days, cholera broke out in Caojiatian, and many people died suddenly, including Wang Caiyu's husband.
Wang Caiyu became a widow at a young age, and her neighbors ridiculed her for "having the appearance of a Kefu Kezi", and she was mentally shocked and had the idea of escaping into the empty door.
Blessings are incomparable, and disasters are not one-way", Wang Caiyu's father also died of illness this year, and Wang Caiyu, who was discouraged, stayed in her mother's house for a while.
The old nun of the nearby Jinzhu Nunnery also died of illness, and the mother who believed in Buddhism took Wang Caiyu to take care of the funeral.
When encountering this opportunity, Wang Caiyu insisted on going to Jinzhu'an to practice, but her mother couldn't dissuade her, so she only allowed her daughter to wear her hair to practice.
Time is the best healing medicine, one day, Wang Caiyu met a looker in the nunnery, praised Wang Caiyu for being blessed and having a noble son, and persuaded her to remarry as soon as possible.
At that time, Wang Caiyu was young, and his quiet heart was restless.
In July 1886, 23-year-old Wang Caiyu was matched by his cousin Wang Xiandong, and remarried, becoming the step-room of Jiang Zhaocong, the 45-year-old owner of Xikou Yutai Salt Shop.
Wang Caiyu is gentle and simple, a qualified virtuous helper, very filial to his father-in-law, and treats his stepson Jiang Ruichun and Jiang Xihou as his own, and gets along very well with the workers in the store.
By the autumn of the following year, Wang Caiyu was pregnant.
On October 31, 1887, Wang Caiyu gave birth in the back room of the Yutai salt shop and gave birth to the "Demon King of the Mixed World", which was later known to everyone Chiang Kai-shek.
At first, Chiang Kai-shek was not called Chiang Kai-shek, but named "Jiang Ruiyuan", which was given by his grandfather Jiang Yubiao, hoping that starting from this child, he could bring auspicious happiness to the family.
Wang Caiyu and her father-in-law are both devout believers in Buddhism, and they are also superstitious in fortune-telling and appearance, and they are convinced of the prophecy that "a noble son will be produced".
For this reason, he loved Chiang Kai-shek very much, and let his bad habits run freely, so that he developed a naughty and stubborn character, which made the family restless.
Later, he also got a nickname on Xikou Street - "Xikou Scoundrel".
But the good times did not last long, and seven or eight years later, Chiang Kai-shek's father Chiang Zhaocong contracted an illness and died.
Chiang Kai-shek's half-brother Jiang Xihou (also known as Chiang Kai-qing) broke up and obtained all the assets, houses and field properties of Yutai Salt Shop.
Wang Caiyu and Chiang Kai-shek were given only three ancestral houses and 30 acres of cultivated land.
In order to raise the stubborn Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Caiyu can be said to have worked hard, saved money for him to study, and also funded Chiang Kai-shek to study in Japan. After returning to China, Chiang Kai-shek followed Mr. Sun Yat-sen and participated in the revolution.
After that, Chiang Kai-shek traveled all the year round, and there were only a handful of opportunities to meet his mother.
However, the years of dependence on his mother did make Chiang Kai-shek change his heart, no longer disobey his mother, and grow into a dutiful son.
On the evening of May 24, 1921, Chiang Kai-shek's dream was full of snow and snow, and the mountains were blank.
After waking up, his body was still shivering, silently reciting this bad omen, and it happened to be politically unsatisfactory, so he returned to his hometown Xikou and raised his family at home. Sure enough, at 7 a.m. on June 14, Wang Caiyu died in his old residence at the age of 58. When his mother was sick in bed, Chiang Kai-shek personally served the decoction, and after mourning, Chiang Kai-shek wrote a "Crying Mother's Text".
This article should not be a fake work, at the beginning, it is empathetic, writing "Sadness is not sad to die, pain is not painful to family difficulties, mourning is not mourning relatives and mourning, and suffering is not suffering to orphan children".
The article also mentioned that it was not easy for her mother, saying that her mother "worked hard to marry and received things from the family, and my mother helped me alone."
"Bitter Mother's Text" used more than a dozen "woohoo" in a row, and the whole article was miserable and miserable, and the affection for his mother and the grief for the loss of his mother jumped on the page.
From this point of view, Chiang Kai-shek, a filial son, is not in vain.
In addition, in Chiang Kai-shek's diary, it is also written:"Since I have had knowledge, whenever I want to go out, I will not abandon my mother, and when I am sixteen years old, I will wait for my mother to scold and scold me before going out, and so it will be when I am in my twenties. ”
In Chiang Kai-shek's emotional world, the nostalgia for his mother has actually transcended the specific feelings of mother and child, but has been sublimated to a source of spiritual sustenance and strength.
Although his mother has passed away, she has never left in Chiang Kai-shek's heart, and has always accompanied him and supported him, which may be the original motivation for Chiang Kai-shek to return to his hometown and live next to his mother's tomb whenever he encounters setbacks and injuries.
When his mother died, one of the wills left to Chiang Kai-shek was that he was unwilling to be buried with Chiang Zhaocong.
As early as June 1913, when Jiang Xihou buried his father in Yaokeng Mountain, considering that his father had married three wives, there were four caves in the tomb, Jiang Zhaocong, Xu, and Sun entered the three caves at the same time, and there was a hole left next to it for the Wang family. Wang Caiyu's tomb was the last.
However, Wang Caiyu told Chiang Kai-shek in advance that he was unwilling to be buried with Chiang Zhaocong, and Chiang Kai-shek could not go against his mother's wishes and buried his mother in Baiyan Mountain, about three miles north of Xikou.
In this regard, Chiang Kai-shek also wrote a "Ci'an Record" in October 1922 to explain. The text reads:"There is no need to attack the common rites and the same acupuncture, and the soul of the father is shocked."
In fact, as for the reason for the reluctance to be buried together, Zhang Minghao, who was ordered to run a martial arts study in Xikou, once said:"If Wang's coffin is buried with his father, he will have to succumb to Xu and Sun, which Mrs. Wang is absolutely unwilling. ”
In fact, thinking of the unfair treatment he received after Jiang Zhaocong's death, it is estimated that the Wang family will inevitably have resentment in his heart, and it is reasonable that he does not want to be buried together.
In order to let his mother sleep peacefully, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately looked for the "Jiazi acupoint" near the mouth of the river, accompanied the two feng shui gentlemen to explore for half a month, and finally selected a small piece of flat land in the north of the middle section of the fish scales of Baiyan Mountain, which is said to be the "navel eye of Maitreya Buddha", which is in line with the beliefs of the deceased before his death, and is an excellent feng shui treasure land.
In order to prevent crushing the dragon's lair, the stone tools should not be too heavy, and stone slabs and mud are not used much.
Unfortunately, in the sixties of the last century, when the tomb was opened, people looked at it and found that Mrs. Wang's coffin had not fallen to the ground, and the four corners of the cemetery were nailed with copper ring hooks and hung with wire ropes, which surprised everyone present.
In addition, the coffin is also brushed with thick tung oil, which is a natural protective layer, moisture-proof and anti-corrosion.
In fact, hanging coffin burial is a peculiar burial custom of the ancient Yue people south of the Yangtze River, which has a history of 3,000 years.
Hanging coffin burials are generally distributed in mountainous areas, with an environment close to mountains and rivers.
Because Zhejiang is located in the south, close to the coast, it is a humid environment, and the air and water molecules are high.
If the burial is carried out in general, the corpse will inevitably corrode very quickly. Keeping the coffin in mid-air helps with embalming.
As for Chiang Kai-shek doing this? It probably has something to do with his mother's belief in Buddhism.
Buddhists generally believe in reincarnation, and Wang Caiyu must be no exception.
In order to be reincarnated and reincarnated as a human being, one must have an uncorrupted body that serves as a vessel for the repositioning of the returning soul.
But for the materialists, this is simply nonsense, and of course it is not a big deal.
Chiang Kai-shek must have been furious when he learned of the destruction of his mother's grave, and in a letter to his grandson Chiang Xiaoyan, Chiang Kai-shek said:"Recently, my hometown Ci'an was destroyed by bandits, and I was infinitely saddened, which was the greatest unfilial sin in my life. ”
In order to commemorate his mother, Chiang Kai-shek built a ci nunnery near the official residence of Shilin in Taiwan. In addition, there is a scenic spot in Sun Moon Lake, a famous scenic spot in Taiwan, called "Ci'en Pagoda".
The pagoda adopts the traditional Chinese pagoda structure, built on the 954-meter-high Shabaran Mountain, the tower is 46 meters high, and the top of the tower is exactly 1,000 meters high.
The Pagoda of Mercy and Grace towers into the sky, and when you climb to the top, you can enjoy a panoramic view of the lake and mountains. The reason why the Ci'en Pagoda is famous is that Chiang Kai-shek built it to commemorate his mother.
Chiang Kai-shek converted to ** in his later years and became a **Catholic, which was completely contrary to his mother's beliefs.
After his death, Chiang Kai-shek's body did not enter the ground, but wanted to be buried in his hometown in Xikou. Perhaps in the depths of Chiang Kai-shek's heart, he was still willing to be buried next to his mother, it is unknown.
References
Chiang Kai-shek's Remembrance of His Mother-Interpretation of Chiang Kai-shek's Diary" Black Box**.
Mystery of Hanging Coffin Burial, Folklore Studies, No. 2, 1986.
Chiang Kai-shek Studies, Li Ao, China Friendship Publishing House.
Young Chiang Kai-shek" Cui Xiaozhong.