Burial custom is the end of life custom, and most modern burial customs can find their source in the boundless distance. For example, the custom of "urn burial" (also known as "opening coffins to pick up bones") prevailing in the southeast coastal areas can be traced back to the Neolithic Age about 7,000 years ago. Among the excavated Yangshao cultural tombs, ceramic urn coffins are the earliest burial materials widely used by early people. This is human nature. It is worth noting that at that time, the vast majority of urns and coffins were funerary objects for children who died young, while the adult and juvenile dead were buried directly in graves. Take Banpo site as an example. Among the 250 graves that have been excavated, there are 174 adult graves, 73 children's urns and coffins, and only 3 children's graves. A large number of children's urns and coffins not only showed the low living standard of children at that time, but also showed that children were taken special care of. In addition, no matter Banpo site or Beishouling site, most of the pottery pots and bowls used for children's burial utensils have a small hole at the bottom or on the basin used as a coffin cover, some are drilled into a regular circle, and some are knocked into an irregular shape. A small piece of pottery is often covered on the small hole, and its inner surface is also coated with red pigment. What is the significance of all this has aroused people's speculations.
One view is that putting a dead child in an urn coffin instead of directly burying it in loess is to give him or her some space, while the hole in the lid or bottom of the urn coffin is to hope that he or she can breathe again and come back to life. When Guo Moruo visited Banpo site, a poem said: "Banpo children's tomb, urn coffin with bones;" There is a round hole on the lid of the urn to let air in and out. " (Four Visits to Banpo Site) seems to be an artistic expression of similar opinions. Since people are dead, why do you expect them to "breathe"? Some people speculate that this may be related to the backward diagnostic technology at that time and the phenomenon of children's "suspended animation", so adults have this kind of luck.
Another view is that this is related to people's belief in the soul at that time, and the small holes at the bottom of pots and bowls are used as channels for souls to enter and exit. This burial custom is consistent with the consciousness of burying children in branches instead of underground in some modern areas. It is believed that children's souls are fragile, and they can't get out if they are buried underground (Song et al., Primitive Social History of China, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1983).
There is also a view that the concept of reproductive worship of ancient humans dominated the children's urn coffin burial device. In this burial method, the urn coffin symbolizes the uterus of women, the pottery covering the hole of the coffin is painted red to symbolize menstrual blood, and the lower limbs of the child's body in the urn coffin are curled up, which is to restore the state of living in the mother's uterus. Therefore, the purpose of burying a child with an urn coffin is actually to pray for his or her resurrection and regeneration.
It is said that in the remains of some ancient stone tombs in Western Europe, South Asia and the Far East, a phenomenon similar to China's urn coffin has also been found. It seems that this mystery can be revealed from the perspective of multiple comparisons.