Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Complete Record of the History of Tomb Raiders in China

Chapter 1 Preface
The ancient tomb is the final freeze frame at the end of life, and it is also a treasury that stores some cultural information of the tomb owner's life time.The piles of ancient tombs have undergone many vicissitudes of life, and are often destroyed due to various reasons.The most common form of destruction is deliberate theft.Tomb robbery was quite common in history, and it even became a local custom in some regions, a means of livelihood for some families, and an industry characteristic of certain social groups.

Tomb robbery is a social and cultural phenomenon with ancient origins.There has been a long history of robbery and excavation of ancient tombs in our country.Neolithic archaeological sources can already see the remains of the destruction of conscious burials.The earliest robbed tomb recorded in history is the tomb of Shang Tang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty, about 3600 years ago.After the social changes in the Spring and Autumn Period of "Ceremony broke down and music collapsed", the trend of thick burials rose, so tomb robbery became more and more popular.Qingong No. 1 tomb in Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province is the largest tomb in the pre-Qin period discovered so far, and it is also the largest tomb excavated by scientific archaeological methods in my country.247 robbery holes were found in this ancient tomb, and more than 10 of them were directly driven into the coffin chamber.

Poems such as "there are many robbers and mosquitoes", "the sound of hoes entering the barren grave", "half the marrow and skeleton out of the ground", "the bones are vertical and horizontal" and other poems by the people of the Tang Dynasty also reflect the prevalence of tomb robbery.During the Tang Dynasty, the tomb of Guo Ziyi's father was robbed, and some people suspected that Yu Chao'en was instigating it.When Guo Ziyi talked about this matter in front of the emperor, he admitted that the army he commanded also destroyed the tombs.According to historical records, from the end of the Tang Dynasty to the beginning of the Five Dynasties, the tombs of Tang emperors in Guanzhong were robbed one by one, except for Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian who were buried together in Qianling.

The history of tomb excavation and tomb destruction in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties is endless.As a government action, the most typical example is the large-scale destruction of the tombs of the two capitals in the Central Plains by the Puppet Qi regime supported by the Jin Dynasty.Liu Yu once set up "Henan Taosha Official" and "Bianjing Taosha Official" to be in charge of robbing and digging mausoleums.Monks trusted by the Mongolian nobles in the Yuan Dynasty also excavated the tombs of the Southern Song Dynasty.During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch Chen Feng handled the case of stealing the tomb of Li Linfu's wife Yang's family. He was lured by "getting a huge amount of gold" and actually "distributed all the tombs in the territory". , almost forming a riot.

From ancient times to the present, there have been three peaks of tomb robbery in Chinese history, namely in the Western Han Dynasty, Qing Dynasty and modern times.The reason why we regard the Western Han Dynasty as the first peak of tomb robbery is because the government allowed private private coins to be minted at that time, and the tombs of the Spring and Autumn, Warring States and Qin Dynasties had the most burial objects of bronze and weapons, which became the direct driving force for minters to rob graves. .The Qing Dynasty became the second peak of tomb robbery. It was a research-based tomb robbery by history and cultural relics researchers for the purpose of textual research. This time, the peak of tomb robbery was not very destructive to ancient tombs, and it did provide a lot of precious materials for later historical research.The third peak of tomb robbery is the modern peak of tomb robbery. This time the peak of tomb robbery lasted the longest.

Throughout ancient and modern times, there are as many tomb robbers involved in tomb robbery.Looking through the roster of tomb robbers, there are not only the emperor who is the emperor, but also the thieves who came from the grassroots, and even the tomb owner's own family.Official thieves fight with open flames, civilian thieves gather in piles of ants, guards and self-thieves are hard to guard against, you steal and I steal, and everyone steals together. Without exception, these people have achieved brilliant "performance" in this shady industry. ...

What makes these people more and more keen on tomb robbery, and why does the tomb robbery last for a long time?This is the answer to the saying "If you want to get rich, dig a tomb, you can make a household worth [-] yuan a night" that has been widely circulated among tomb robbers.Driven by the temptation of huge interests, these tomb robbers are willing to risk their lives to engage in this ancient and tempting profession-to obtain the property in the tomb.

Tomb robbers generally value light, portable and expensive metal wares, and sometimes maliciously destroy large pieces of pottery because they cannot be moved out of the narrow robbery hole. care.

In the 30s and [-]s, the Luoyang tomb robbery movement had a world-shaking effect.The destruction of the Mangshan ancient tombs may be unprecedented in history.When we hold the gorgeous atlases of ancient treasures unearthed in Luoyang during this period compiled by foreign cultural relics scholars, we naturally think of how many seemingly simple and unpretentious cultural relics are there when these exquisite and splendid cultural relics are resold for collection. However, cultural relics that may have more precious historical and cultural value have been irreparably damaged.

The ancient tombs in Changsha have also suffered serious robbery in modern times.Professional tomb robbers in Changsha are called "Tufu" or "Tufuzi".The famous Changsha Bullet Bank Chu silk script was unearthed in 1942 by Changsha "Tufuzi" and was later lost abroad.

Archeology of official tombs in China began in 1921, when the Central Geological Survey of the Kuomintang organized archaeological excavations. In October 1950, the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established, marking the arrival of a new era in Chinese archaeology.The phenomenon of robbing underground cultural relics also subsided for a time, but since the 10s, tomb robbery has become rampant again.In the past, Mangshan Mountain in Luoyang, where the tombs were densely arranged and "a place without lying cows", has been harassed by tomb robbers for a long time, and now "ten tombs are empty, or even ninety-nine are empty."At the beginning of the excavation of the Zhougongmiao ruins, dozens of robbery caves of various sizes formed in various periods can be seen everywhere in the ruins area of ​​the 20 large-scale noble tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty and 80 chariot and horse pits scattered among them.Nowadays, except for the underground palace of the first emperor's mausoleum and most imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is very rare that the tombs of the emperors have not been stolen.

Tomb robbery is the greatest disrespect to the dead; it will bring unspeakable pain to the living; it is a huge disaster to civilized workers.

British scholars Kerry Marton and Kerry Lewis Thomas said: "We still have a chance. It is not too late. We must change now. Each of us is much stronger than we think. We must use this A force with a strong sense of responsibility to create a better world: a world that does not put matter over spirit, a world where humans live in harmony with the universe and nature."

I hope that for such a "world", everyone can shoulder the historical responsibility of anti-theft and protection of treasures.

In order to let more people understand our country’s burial culture and historical facts of tomb robbery, we have compiled this book. We have no intention of fueling the flames of tomb robbery. We only hope that the dead underground can rest in peace!

In the process of writing this book, I have received guidance and help from many teachers and friends, and I would like to express my gratitude here!
editor

April 2010

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