Three evils in western Hunan-"corpse driving"

? In Xiangxi, * * * has "three evils", one is "expelling corpses", the other is "casting spells" and the third is "lovelorn". It is these three evils that make Xiangxi an out-and-out mysterious place, and the corpse driver is one of the most widely known and shocking events. In recent years, many films and literary works have been adapted and interpreted based on this prototype, which has become more and more mysterious.

"Xiangxi corpse has a long history. People who died in other places walked step by step in the night of the mountain forest under the guidance of corpse drivers. The corpse driver shook the bronze bell by hand, and the corpse was wearing a spell. On the mountain road, where can you hear the sound of two bells, where chickens don't bark and dogs don't bark, birds and animals avoid it, and even fish swim deep into the water. "

? Driving a corpse, as the name implies, is that the living are driving the corpse away. In local jargon, it is also called moving spirits, walking shadows and walking feet. It rose in the middle of Qing Dynasty and originated in the upper reaches of Yuanjiang River. In China, there has always been the idea that fallen leaves return to their roots. Although people die like lights, they live to see people and die to see bodies. People who die in other places often have to be transported back to their hometown for burial. This gave birth to the special business of moving corpses.

? When it comes to the whole process of corpse driving, folklore is very extensive, and there are three important terms: corpse driver, corpse driver and corpse driver inn.

Before liberation, if you lived in a mysterious mountain village inn in western Hunan, you would probably see dead bodies walking. Of course, the dead body will not walk by itself, which requires a special person to guide the way in a special way. This man is Mr. Corpuser, and the locals call him "Corpuser". Generally speaking, no matter how many bodies there are, he drives them alone, and some corpse drivers will take one or two apprentices. First, they are afraid that the road will slip in the dark and their bodies will be overturned. Many people will take care of them. Second, some bodies are horrible when they die, so many people can give themselves courage. Corpsmen generally don't play lanterns, and they have a bronze bell called the mastermind clock in their hands, which rings tinklingly. In local parlance, it is to let these ghosts from other places behind him find his direction so that they will not be separated from each other and become ghosts.

The timing of "going" is also very particular. Paramedics usually walk at night, instead of crossing villages and towns, they choose some barren hills or mountain roads to walk slowly. This is also easy to understand. Wouldn't it be scary to walk around with a group of bodies in broad daylight? Secondly, it is forbidden for animals such as cats and dogs to collide with the body. If the body is incomplete, there is no way to explain it to the employer. There is a "dead man's inn" on the way to the corpse. Only the corpse driver and the corpse driver stay, and the living can't live any longer. Because of the high income, although these inns look deserted, they are also operating well. The corpse driver rushed to the inn before dawn and left quietly at night. The body leans neatly against the wall behind the door panel. When it rained heavily, they stopped in the shop for several days and nights. The employer will pay the corpse driver half the money first, and then hand over the corpse when he arrives at his destination, and then make up the rest. This line has been completed.

There is a lonely old man in Nanmupu Township, Yuanling County. According to the old man, in his grandfather's generation, there was a lame master in the village. He used to be a carpenter, and people called him' Li Lame'. After Li broke his lame leg, he couldn't do any work, so he opened a small shop in the nearby mountains. This shop has only two rooms and no name, but it is said that he made a little money. Li Lame later married his wife. The old man didn't make it clear, but we can probably guess that this should be what we often call the necromancer inn. The door of the death hotel is usually open. When asked if this would attract thieves, the old man grinned and said, "Who dares to go in and replace the dead!" " "

? According to detailed written records, corpse-driving activities mainly occurred in Yuanling, Luxi, Chenxi and Xupu counties in western Hunan.

? You can't cross Dongting Lake in the north, only Jingzhou in the east, Fuzhou and Wuzhou in the west and Yunnan-Guizhou in the southwest. Legend has it that these places are under the jurisdiction of the ghost country of Miao ancestors, far from the border, and the judicial skill of Taoism can't keep up with those bodies no matter how high it is. Shen Congwen, a famous Miao writer, wrote in one of his articles: "After Chenzhou (now Yuanling), cinnabar came out here, and some people drove the bodies away. If you have good eyesight, you will have a chance to see a group of dead bodies walking on the road. When the car is close, you know to avoid the roadside, just like the living. "

Xiangxi has a characteristic, where there are many ethnic minorities, including Tujia, Miao, Hui, Yao, Dong and Bai. The research results of many experts and scholars show that the Miao nationality was the first to invent weapons, criminal law and witchcraft, so the corpse driver was regarded as "half man and half witch" at that time and was highly respected. What is a witch? The ancients said that witches are doctors. The so-called "medicine", in the eyes of the ancients, is the highest realm of life and even all human social activities. Huangdi Neijing is evidence. In the era of underdeveloped science, it is generally believed that "medicine" is related to God. Hunan was the Chu State in the Warring States Period, and the "Chu Land" has been in use ever since. Both corpse removal and witchcraft are part of Chu witchcraft culture, and witchcraft can be divided into black witchcraft and white witchcraft, and corpse removal is usually considered as white witchcraft.

Corpse driver is a craft with many rules, and because of different technologies, it is divided into several schools, and the clan rules of each corpse driver family are different. There are two points that are widely circulated.

? First, pass on men but not women. In Xiangxi, corpses are passed on to men but not to women, and witchcraft is passed on to women but not to men. Why only pass the body to men? In fact, it is easy to understand that men are strong and brave. In the eyes of the corpse driver, the yang is heavy and can suppress the yin of the dead body.

Second, pass it inside but not outside. The corpse-driver family kept their craft strictly confidential and never leaked it. Only men who are related by blood have the right to inherit.

Those who are beheaded (their heads must be sewn together), hanged and put to death in cages can be driven away. Legend has it that because they were forced to die, they died unconvinced and missed their hometown and loved ones. You can hook their souls with spells, put them into their bodies with spells, and then use spells to drive them to climb mountains and mountains, or even board a boat and return to their hometown.

1. Those who were almost killed by lightning don't drive away. In the Miao people's view, such people are unfilial and reckless, and have long been killed by Raytheon.

Those who threw themselves into the river didn't catch up, and their souls were intertwined with wild ghosts. Recruiting them will affect the reincarnation of old ghosts, which is fate;

The sick and the dead don't catch up, their souls have been hooked by impermanence, and magic can't call them back from the gate of hell.

In Xiangxi, there has been an industry of corpse removal since ancient times, but when and who created this industry? It is said that this is closely related to Taoism. Taoist magic is metaphysics in Taoism, which is divided into magic and divination, and originated from Jiugong algorithm.

The origin of the corpse driver is recorded in folk books: it is said that thousands of years ago, the ancestor of Miao nationality, Apu (Miao language: father-in-law), Chiyou led his troops to fight against the enemy lines along the Yellow River until the corpses were everywhere and blood flowed into the river. After the war, he had to retreat to the rear. After the soldiers carried all the injured soldiers away, Apchiyou ordered Apchiyou to send the dead brothers back to their hometown.

So Apushi's military uniform dressed as Apchiyou stood among the bodies of the brothers who died in battle. After a period of meditation and praying to the gods, all the bodies lying on the ground immediately stood up and walked south behind Apchiyou's "Jeff". When the enemy's pursuers came, Apchiyou and Apu's military advisers joined forces to attract "Lian Fog" and trap the enemy in the maze ... This is the earliest version of corpse driving.

Because it was the spell "Si" (implementation and operation) of Apu Military Academy that saved everyone, everyone called him "Lao Si" from now on; Moreover, because the essence of Mr. Apu's last defense against the enemy is "fog", there are too many strokes of "fog" to finish, so he rewrote it into a word "witch" instead. In fact, this witch character is also a hieroglyph: the upper horizontal represents the sky or fog, the lower horizontal represents the ground, and the middle vertical represents "Jeff"; There is a figure on each side of the vertical, the one on the right represents Apchiyu, and the one on the left represents Apchiyu, which means that two people must unite to do witchcraft.

The first statement: the body is actually on the back. The corpse driver will coat the corpse with liquid medicine in advance, cover it with black cloth, and then take two or three disciples to carry the corpse in turn until the destination. As for the incantation in the mouth and the bell in the hand, it is actually to create a horrible atmosphere and keep strangers away. Because the corpse driver walks at night, it is prone to visual errors in the dark, so the corpse driver looks like he is walking by himself. This statement is widely circulated at present.

The second statement: the body is to be carried. This statement first came from an electronic version of "Machamp's God of Restlessness" in Taiwan Province Province. In 2006, an article was published in Machamp Rebellion, which revealed the secret of corpse driving. The general idea was that when driving a corpse, the corpse driver would put a slender bamboo pole under the armpit of the corpse and tie his arm to the bamboo pole. The corpse driver wears a wide shroud to cover the bamboo pole, and the corpse driver carries the bamboo pole. Because the bamboo pole bends after being stressed, it drives the corpse to shake, and at night it looks like an upright corpse jumping with both hands raised.

The third statement: transport after dismemberment. The CCTV 10 program "Approaching Science" once broadcast an issue of "The Walking Dead". It was reported that a corpse transport union left the body with only the head and limbs and abandoned the trunk, and tied a new trunk with straw. When carrying, a body porter will carry the body on his back and put on a black shroud together. In order not to let the family members of the deceased see through it, the corpse driver will collect it separately, and only let the family members have a rough look at the body. This explanation does not explain how to transport multiple bodies at the same time, nor does it explain how the bodies jump forward.

The fourth statement: suspended animation. This conspiracy theory holds that there is no corpse drive, the corpse is loaded by a living person, and the "corpse drive" is actually a smuggling activity of gangs. This creepy queue is used to cover up illegal drug trafficking. When "driving the corpse", the "fake dead" will wear a big straw hat, cover their heads, put on robes and robes, and give paper money to their arms. The purpose of tying bamboo pieces to limbs is to prevent the joints of hands and feet from bending, but it looks stiff like a dead body after a step back.

The article comes from the official account of WeChat WeChat: My Story Station.

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