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

Chapter 11 Who Are the Tomb Robbers: The Past and Present of the Tomb Robbers (1)
The crown prince also robs the tomb

Since our country entered the class society, there has been the ruling class of the society - the princes.In ancient society, a prince was a symbol of status, prosperity and wealth.For these people, money seems to be just a symbol, after all, the world belongs to them.They should have nothing to lack when they are enjoying their splendor and wealth.Because of their noble status, princes and princes do things differently.Even the most shameless deeds are embellished with correctness, even tenderness.Taking tomb robbery as an example can best illustrate the grandeur of princes.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Wu Zixu dug up the tomb of King Chu Zhao and flogged the body of King Chu Zhao, saying that it was to avenge the hatred of King Ao, the father of King Chu Zhao, who killed his father and brother instead of reusing him.At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu excavated the tomb of Qin Shihuang, which is said to be the end of Qin Shihuang's tyranny over the people of the world.And Guangchuan Wang Liu went to dig graves frantically everywhere, saying that he wanted to enjoy the fun of archaeology.

Cao Cao even set up Mojin Xiaowei and Faqiu Zhonglang to rob tombs in the future, saying that it was to unify China.

Emperor Tianqi of the Ming Dynasty excavated Jinling, saying that he wanted to break the Jurchen's royal spirit.

Emperor Qianlong, who is known as the "Shiquan old man", stole a large amount of fine nanmu from Yongling in the name of repairing the Ming Tombs to build his own mausoleum.

What is the purpose of the prince's tomb robbery?To vent personal anger?To make money?Or maybe both?Summarizing the tomb robbery behavior of princes and princes in the history of our country, there are roughly four purposes for their tomb robbery: to vent their personal anger, for money, to satisfy perverted desires, or a combination of these.

A history of the emperor's tomb robbery should be quite exciting.Moreover, history is so real, the mysterious ancient tomb is like a charming and glamorous woman, even the emperor will also be obsessed with the cave of desire.

Let’s start with the fact that princely tomb robbery is for the purpose of venting personal anger. Tomb robbery for this purpose mostly occurred at the beginning of a dynasty, or during the period of warlord melee.In fact, this is very easy to understand.

Tomb robbery can be divided into four situations for venting personal anger:

The first situation can be attributed to national hatred.This kind of tomb robbery is carried out because of the hatred of the state.No matter how dark the final society of a dying dynasty is and how brutal the rulers are, there will still be a group of survivors.Most of these people have received the favor of the ruler, so they are extremely loyal to this dynasty. No matter how corrupt this dynasty is in the end, they all hope that it will last forever.Against this historical background, in the early days of a new dynasty, people from the previous dynasty will inevitably oppose it, and even want to overthrow the new dynasty and restore the old one.Then, in order to strengthen the rule of the new regime, the new dynasty will inevitably introduce some very strict policies.These princes would not let them go after the death of the rulers of the previous dynasty, so there was the matter of whipping corpses and graves.

The second situation is ethnic hatred.This kind of situation mostly happened when the minority regime entered the Central Plains or when the Han regime expelled the minority regime from the Central Plains.my country has been a multi-ethnic country since ancient times, and some minority regimes have made great progress in the long-term development, especially the northern nomads.When the Han regime in the Central Plains was relatively dark or weak, it was easy to be harassed by ethnic minorities from the north.When the level of productivity is relatively low and the war is in the era of cold weapons, broadswords, spears and war horses are the main combat tools.Because of their natural conditions, the ethnic minorities from the north are their strengths in fighting on horseback, which gives them a great advantage in the war.Once these ethnic minorities seized the opportunity to fight, they would lead the cavalry army to drive straight in and deal a heavy blow to the Han regime.There are many examples of ethnic minorities defeating the Han regime and taking control of the Central Plains, such as the rule of the Yuan and Qing dynasties.

However, Han Chinese make up the vast majority of the population, how can they easily submit to the minority?Moreover, the Han people in the Central Plains have always been proud of their own culture, and deep down, they look down on ethnic minorities.Therefore, they will cause some troubles for the new minority regimes from time to time, and sometimes this kind of resistance may run through the entire period of the minority regimes. For example, since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the anti-Qing struggle has never stopped.Because of this, the rulers of these ethnic minorities will use the method of stealing graves to deter the Han people in order to strengthen their rule.Similarly, once the struggle against minority regimes is won, the Han regime will inevitably use the same method to vent its resentment against them.

The third situation is the so-called family hatred.This is mostly due to the fact that the ruler of a new regime hated the previous ruler because he had been humiliated and persecuted by the previous ruler or his ancestors had been humiliated and killed by the previous ruler.They have worked hard to govern, and after gaining power, they will inevitably take revenge.Sometimes because the previous ruler is dead, they can only seek revenge on the dead bones in the tomb.

Another situation is that in a relatively chaotic historical period, the princes from all walks of life fought with each other in order to fight for the final ruling power, and the princes competed for hegemony.Winning or losing is a common matter in military affairs, so there are often situations where you sing and I come on stage.There will inevitably be a lot of enmity among the vassal states in these melees, so after they defeat one side, they may dig up the graves of the other's ancestors to revenge, and at the same time show their power to the world.

From the point of view that princes rob tombs for the purpose of collecting money, there is generally no specific time for this kind of situation, and it may happen in various historical periods.Although these princely tomb robberies are all for the purpose of collecting money, the specific circumstances are different. They can be divided into three categories: just collecting money naked because of love for money, to raise military salaries, and to build gardens and mausoleums.

It's just that there are not many princes who rob tombs because of their endless desire for money.Robbing graves out of love for money is really incomprehensible.Because when they were in the supreme ruling position of society, money piles were not a problem for them at all. The princes who robbed graves for this purpose can only be said to be due to their personal characteristics.Their endless robbery is just to satisfy their endless desire for money.The brothers Shi Le and Shi Hu, kings of Later Zhao during the Sixteen Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, are typical representatives of this situation.The two of them lived in poverty since they were young. Shi Le was sold to the Han people as slaves many times, and Shi Hu was often wronged at the bottom of society.The experiences of these miserable teenage years will inevitably have a profound impact on their lives, leading to their mental state of regarding money as their life.It is precisely because of this that although these two people later ascended to the position of monarch, they still have a fanatical demand and desire for money.This kind of fanatical desire is tormenting them all the time, which makes them go to extremes in order to make money.

In the historical period of social turmoil, it happened from time to time to dig up mausoleums in order to raise military pay.Because of social turmoil, there are countless separatist forces fighting with each other, which is somewhat similar to the situation of tomb robbery for the country's hatred mentioned above.But their purposes are different.The purpose of the princes in these melees to steal and dig the tombs is to raise military salaries in an attempt to win the feudal hegemony.Stand out among the many princes, unify the world, and ascend to the throne of God. This is the dream of every prince with great ambitions.However, this is easier said than done.If you want to be king and hegemony, there will inevitably be a situation of warlord melee, and warlord melee will inevitably lead to serious damage to social productivity, and agricultural production may also suffer a devastating blow.The soldiers couldn't even eat enough to eat, and they couldn't even wear warm clothes. How could they have the heart to train and go to war!Without sufficient combat power, it will inevitably fail in the melee of the princes.Therefore, these princes who want to unify the world are all struggling to raise military salaries.Cao Cao is such a typical representative.Cao Cao is a very smart person. Before his political ambition of unifying the world, he added the high-sounding reason of "supporting the Han Dynasty", which provided a righteous reason for his tomb robbery.This made him not feel ashamed of his grave robbery.

There is also a way of robbing tombs for money that seems a little hidden, which is to steal more precious building materials in the tombs in the name of building gardens and tombs.The ancients, especially princes and generals, attached great importance to their own affairs.Therefore, their tombs are mostly built with very precious building materials.Once the princes of later generations lack precious building materials when building tombs and gardens, they will inevitably think of those exquisitely built ancient tombs.In this case, Sun Quan is far away, and Emperor Qianlong is close.After Sun Quan broke through Changsha, he sent people to dig up Wu Rui's tomb, and used the coffin in the mausoleum to build a temple for his father, Sun Jian.Qianlong used the method of "stealing beams and changing pillars" to rob the tomb in order to obtain the precious golden nanmu from Ming Changling and Yongling to build his own tomb.Although this kind of tomb robbery for the purpose of obtaining building materials does not seem to be for money at first glance, its essence is inseparable from money.

From the point of view that the purpose of princely tomb robbery is to satisfy morbid hobbies or perverted psychological needs, there is no time pattern for this situation. It can only be seen in which era the princes with such morbid hobbies or psychological needs are.

The princes who have a morbid hobby for tomb robbery are represented by Liu Quji, the king of Guangchuan in the Western Han Dynasty.Liu Quji lived a good life since he was a child, but somehow he developed such a cruel hobby, which is very disproportionate to his education background, which is rich in poetry and books.He played tomb robbery as a game, and the process of tomb robbery as a kind of enjoyment.He strives for excitement and thrills in tomb robbery, and the greater the difficulty, the more his interest will be aroused.It can be said that Liu Quji is a person who really lives by robbing tombs, and he experiences happiness in robbing tombs, which is unmatched by future generations.

In order to meet the abnormal psychological needs, the representative of the princes who robbed the tomb was Chen Shuling, the king of Chen State during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.His perverted psychological needs may be related to his brutal character since he was a child. He takes pleasure in seeing others suffer.Accustomed to seeing the pain of living people, he also found it meaningless, so he went to look for greater excitement, and tomb robbery was the "good medicine" that could satisfy his inner needs.Whenever he saw the treasures obtained from the tomb robbery and the remains taken out of the tomb, he would feel infinite satisfaction in his heart.

From the perspective that princes and princes rob tombs for multiple purposes, some are a combination of venting personal anger and collecting money, some are combining collecting money and special psychological needs, and some are a combination of the three.

Xiang Yu's robbery of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum happened under such various reasons.In terms of venting personal anger, Xiang Yu's grandfather Xiang Yan was killed by Qin general Wang Jian. Therefore, Xiang Yu hated Qin Shihuang extremely.Furthermore, Xiang Yu is a native of Chu, and Qin destroyed Chu and unified the world. He also has national hatred against Qin Shihuang.Another extremely important point is that it was the time when Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, Chu and Han were fighting for hegemony.Xiang Yu's army of one million must be backed by strong economic strength, but at this time, Xiang Yu has just entered the customs, and the time to gain a foothold is still short.Moreover, due to the war, the social economy was severely damaged, so the theft of Qin Shihuang's tomb can bring Xiang Yu triple benefits, revenge for the family, revenge for the country, and raise military pay.

Although the purpose of the princes' tomb robbery is different, the consequences are the same, which is to seriously damage the cultural heritage of our country.Most of the grave robbers themselves did not end well.For example, although Xiang Yu obtained sufficient military pay due to tomb robbery, he eventually lost to Liu Bang because of the loss of popular support, and finally committed suicide; He was executed for rebellion, and his corpse was in the wilderness, and no one collected his corpse; although Qianlong used the stolen golden nanmu to build a luxurious Yuling, it was eventually stolen by Sun Dianying, a tomb robber in the Republic of China, and finally fell to a different place. end.

Fighting with open flames as an official robber

Just like the emergence of princes, since my country entered class society, an upper social class—official class—has emerged to help the ruler manage the country.

In our country, since the Xia Dynasty with accurate written records, a relatively complete official system has been formed.Since then, after thousands of years of development, the official system has become more and more perfect.The ruler divided the people who helped him manage the country into different grades, and added many titles to reward those officials with outstanding achievements.These officials, ranging from grand masters and prime ministers to county magistrates, have certain powers to varying degrees.These powers are extremely flexible. If the current emperor is a virtuous emperor, then the officials under him may be more good officials.These good officials can not only help the emperor rule the country, but also help the emperor govern the country.If the current dynasty is a senseless and fatuous emperor, then there will be many treacherous parties and evil officials in the ruling and opposition parties.Those evil officials not only failed to help the emperor to stabilize the country, but they were also moths of the country and the country, and they were the factors that destroyed a dynasty.In the thousands of years of official history in our country, there have been many good officials such as Bigan, Bao Zheng, Kou Zhun, Fang Xuanling, and Wei Zheng.At the same time, a series of bad officials such as Zhao Gao, Yang Guozhong, Cai Jing, and Gao Qiu also appeared.

These officials have done many good and bad things within the scope of their power.However, there is one thing that both good and bad officials may do, and that is tomb robbery.Of course, the goals of good officials and bad officials are different.In official tomb robbery, the purpose of tomb robbery can be divided into five categories: the first category is revenge; the second category is for money; the third category is to please those in power and seek a future; In order to meet the abnormal psychological needs.Of course, many of these purposes are intertwined with each other.

Official robbers, as the name suggests, are tomb robbery activities organized by rulers or officials.This kind of tomb robbery is covered with a legal cloak, so there is no need to worry about violating the law and worrying about it all day long.As we all know, all dynasties have expressly stipulated that stealing graves is a felony. It can be seen that the rulers are extremely disgusted and firmly resist the act of tomb robbery.So, what prompted these rulers who should have cracked down on tomb robbers to go to the road of tomb robbery?
Count down the famous official robbers in ancient China, such as Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao in the late Han Dynasty, Wen Tao in the Five Dynasties, and Sun Dianying in the Republic of China.

In the Three Kingdoms period, there were even specialized tomb-robbing institutions and full-time personnel in charge of tomb-robbing in Chinese history.The instigator of this "pioneering act" was the hero Cao Cao in the classic "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", who set up "General Faqiu Zhonglang" and "Lieutenant Mojin" in the army to be responsible for searching for tombs, carrying out Robbery can be called the most professional representative of official tomb robbery in ancient and modern times.The reason why Cao Cao did this kind of immoral thing of "leading generals and officials, digging in person, breaking the coffin and naked corpse, and shedding tears in the Holy Dynasty, and the soldiers and people are sad" is because the army was short of food and rations at that time, and it was a last resort to supplement self-support. . (The content of Cao Cao’s tomb robbery will be described in later chapters, so I won’t repeat it here.)
In fact, some officials rob tombs in order to obtain the acquiescence of a certain system.For example, the famous Chen Feng tomb robbery incident was acquiesced by Emperor Wanli.Although there have been various legal regulations on tomb robbery in the past dynasties, these legal regulations are basically formulated by officials. In addition, the ancient Chinese legal tradition is that doctors cannot be punished, so those basic laws on tomb robbery have no binding force on officials.

From the root of the system, because the officials were not well supervised in ancient times, the emperor turned a blind eye to the officials' tomb robbery.Of course, officials must also grasp a basic principle in robbing tombs, that is, not to cause trouble, and not to violate the basic moral norms of filial piety and Confucianism too much.In history, officials were investigated and dealt with by the emperor for robbing tombs.For example, during the time of Song Huizong, an official in Shaanxi excavated the tomb of Bigan in the Shang Dynasty, and gave a bronze plate to Song Huizong, but Song Huizong did not accept it, returned the copper plate, and severely criticized the tomb robber The official said: "The tomb of Zhongxian of the previous generation must not be excavated!" Then the official was dismissed.Obviously, this tomb robber violated the basic moral policy of the society, so his fate was to be dismissed from office and go home.

From the point of view that officials rob tombs for revenge, the typical representative is Wu Zixu.There is a certain difference between this kind of revenge and that of a prince.The purpose of the prince's revenge is family feud and national feud, but there is no national feud when officials rob graves. They just trouble those dead enemies for themselves and their families.In order to avenge his father and elder brother, Wu Zixu dug up the body of King Ping of Chu and flogged the corpse three hundred times.He even betrayed his motherland for his own personal grievances, and led Wu's army to destroy Chu.Wu Zixu's political actions can be regarded as a good official, and most of the tombs of good officials are for revenge.

(End of this chapter)