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

Chapter 16 Those who come are not good, but those who are kind do not come: Secrets of the motives of the tomb robbers (1)
Stealing property is preferred

Sima Qian once said: "The prosperity of the world is all for profit, and the chaos of the world is for profit." Tomb robbers are no exception. Perhaps since the day when social hierarchy was divided and large-scale tombs were produced, tomb robbers have been following them like a shadow ancient tomb.Huang Fumi, a famous writer and medical scientist in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, once said: "A rich and rich burial is used to inspire treachery, or open the coffin, or drag the skeleton, or strip the arm and stroke the gold ring, or feel the intestines for pearls and jade." "Since ancient times and Today, there is no one who is immortal, and there is no tomb where there is no death." It is the rich burial objects in the tombs that stimulate the desire of the tomb robbers to amass wealth, making them ignore the severe sanctions of the law and the ruthless rejection of traditional morals, and embark on The road to the excavation of ancient tombs.

The profits from excavating ancient tombs are simply beyond people's imagination. Individual robbing behaviors can certainly make people rich overnight, and the wealth collected by military groups from excavating ancient tombs can even support the expenditure of a regime and maintain a war.During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao set up positions such as Mojin Xiaowei and Faqiu Zhonglang, who were responsible for excavating tombs and searching for wealth. With an economic foundation, Cao Cao's military group was able to rise rapidly.During the Five Dynasties, the famous tomb robber Wen Tao almost excavated the Eighteen Tombs of Tang Guanzhong, thus maintaining his huge military expenses as a Jiedu envoy.The benefits of tomb robbery can be seen from this.

As if to support the saying that "Mount Tai does not allow soil, and rivers and seas do not choose trickles", the tomb robbers did not give up easily because the scale of the tomb was small and there were not many burial objects in it.In the era when tomb robbery was rampant, large tombs were robbed, and small civilian tombs were also doomed. Even if there were only personal clothes, they were swept away by tomb robbers.Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty mentioned in "Lunheng" that "thousands of people excavate mounds and tombs to get clothes", which shows that digging civilian tombs and stealing clothes was common at that time.At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the warlord Li Kan entered Chang'an, and the soldiers lacked clothes. Li Kan sent troops to dig the graves of civilians and strip off the undecomposed clothes of the dead.

It seems that what the ancients said "there is no tomb that does not exist in ancient and modern times" is well-founded. Driven by huge interests, tomb robbers abandoned all morality and fear, took risks, and mercened for profit.

According to historical records, the ancient activity of tomb robbery has appeared in our country as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties.With the passage of time, the means of these tomb robbers have become more and more sophisticated, more advanced, and more rampant.

What makes these people more and more keen on tomb robbery, and why does the tomb robbery last for a long time?Perhaps the widely circulated saying among tomb robbers, "If you want to get rich, dig a tomb, and a household of [-] yuan a night" can be used as the answer to the question.Indeed, the lure of huge profits made these tomb robbers willing to risk their lives to engage in this ancient and tempting profession.

Throughout the ages, the most common motive for tomb robbery may be to rob the tomb owner's burial objects.

The ancients had a strong sense of clan, and attached great importance to the funeral of the deceased parent. The so-called "death is like life", "the country is bigger, the family is richer, and the burial is thicker". The custom of thick burial has a long history, dating back to the Xia and Shang Dynasties. , reached its heyday in the Qin and Han Dynasties.For example, the system of the Han Dynasty stipulated that one-third of the world's tribute would be used to "fill the mountain mausoleum" and build the emperor's tomb one year after the emperor ascended the throne.Therefore, the large amount of property in the mausoleum is the most direct reason for the tomb robbers to move around.

Huang Fumi, a native of the Jin Dynasty, once "worked on the system of burial, called "Du Zhong", in which he explained the idea of ​​thin burial: "The one who buries the husband is hidden; the one who hides is hidden from others. And the coffin is big. It is like burying gold in a corner of the road and writing it on the top. People who are very stupid will laugh at it.” Huangfumi also said in particular: Rich wealth and rich burials are used to inspire treacherous hearts, or to open the coffin , or pull the skeleton, or strip the arm and stroke the gold ring, or feel the intestines for pearls and jade.Burning like punishment, isn't it painful?From ancient times to the present, there is no immortal person, and there is no immortal tomb.The ruthless destruction of tombs by tomb robbers and the extreme injury and humiliation of the dead are mostly out of "desire" for treasure.The so-called "rich burials to inspire treacherous hearts" has reversed the relationship between initiative and passivity, but it roughly explains that the main reason for "everything in the tomb" "from ancient times to the present" lies in the desire for "rich wealth".As for the sayings of "dissecting the inner and outer coffins, or dragging the bones, or stripping the arms and stroking the gold ring, or touching the intestines to ask for pearls and jade", they pointed out very concretely and vividly that robbing the tomb makes the dead suffer "burning like punishment"; It also explained from the side that all the things that the tomb robbers did to hurt the feelings of the relatives of the tomb owner had only one purpose, to seek money.

Under the historical environment at that time, in order to keep the glory and wealth of their lifetime with them forever, princes, nobles and ordinary people will spare no effort to use a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to build the paradise behind them.And the emperor, as the king of a country, intensified, and the degree of waste and luxury was beyond people's imagination.In Chinese history, from the proclaiming of Emperor Qin Shihuang in 221 BC to the abdication of Emperor Xuantong in 1911, more than 2132 emperors appeared before and after in 200.Each of them left behind an out-and-out "national treasure".Some of these treasures can last for thousands of years, some have passed away with time, some have been robbed tragically, and some only exist in legends... All the glory and wealth of his lifetime were taken to the underground mausoleum.This is a mausoleum that almost replicates the entire Great Qin Empire underground. If it weren't for the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprisings, it would have continued to be built endlessly.According to "Historical Records: The Benji of Qin Shihuang", the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was dug under the spring, and then cast with copper juice to strengthen it.In the tomb palace, palaces, pavilions and ranks of officials were built, and they were filled with rare treasures.In order to prevent theft, there is a hidden arrow in the tomb.The top of the tomb is decorated with precious stones and pearls, which symbolize the celestial bodies and stars; the bottom is the geographical situation of Baichuan, Wuyue and Kyushu Island. Mercury is infused with machinery to symbolize the continuous flow of rivers and seas, and a golden pheasant is floating on it; the tomb is lit with whale oil. The "eternal lamp" made.There are also giant terracotta warriors and horses around the mausoleum.The design of the mausoleum reflects the supreme power and majesty of the first emperor everywhere.

The talented and generous Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was also not to be outdone. Shortly after he ascended the throne (139 BC), he began to build the mausoleum for himself. It lasted for 53 years and the project was not completed until after his death.It is unbelievable that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used one-third of the total state tax revenue to build mausoleums and collect funeral objects.From the beginning of Maoling's construction, gold and silver treasures were hidden in the underground palace every year. Until Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was buried after his death, the underground palace was filled to the brim.How big is Maoling's underground palace?According to historical records, "the underground palace covers an area of ​​one hectare". Calculated according to the current size, the underground palace covers an area of ​​about 5334 square meters. What kind of underground palace is this!Just by looking at the funeral objects in Maoling, we can know how serious the trend of thick burials was at that time.According to "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes", "The emperor of the Han Dynasty sent his death to a jade box with pearls and jackets. The box is shaped like an armor and is connected with gold strands. In Zigong, Emperor Wu has a cicada jade in his mouth and wears a jade box with gold strands. All the boxes are engraved with dragons. The statue of the phoenix, fish and lin is known as the dragon jade box.” The jade garment worn by Emperor Wu is composed of about 2498 pieces of jade, with a total length of 1.88 meters and a total weight of about 1100 grams inlaid with gold threads.The underground palace is filled with a large number of rare treasures. "A lot of money and property are hidden. Birds, animals, money, turtles, cows, horses, tigers, leopards, and poultry are all ninety things, and they are all hidden." According to another record, the king of Kangju Kingdom presented the jade box of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, The jade stick and the 30 volumes of miscellaneous scriptures read by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty were stored in a gold box and buried in the tomb together.

The prevalence of rich burials in ancient society made social wealth gradually concentrated in the tombs of emperors and nobles.In modern times, a poor and weak China still measures China's material resources and wins the favor of "Lafayette".The Nala family, who played with two generations of emperors in the palm of his hand, not only let the phoenix fly high above the dragon, but also built her tomb into the most exquisite and luxurious underground palace in the Eastern Tombs of Qing Dynasty.

Cixi, nicknamed Lan'er, was a famous "luxury" empress dowager in history. During her lifetime, she loved pearls, agate, gemstones, jade, gold and silver vessels and other treasures. After her death, she buried countless treasures in her coffin.How many treasures were buried with Empress Dowager Cixi?The great eunuch Li Lianying once personally participated in the ceremony of burying the treasure in Cixi's coffin.According to the "Notes of Ai Yuexuan" written by Li Lianying and her nephew, before Cixi's corpse was placed in the coffin, three layers of gold silk beaded brocade mattresses and a layer of pearls were laid on the bottom of the coffin, about one foot thick.An emerald lotus leaf is placed on the top of the head in the coffin, which is full of green and green, which is completely natural.There are pink tourmaline lotus flowers under the feet. Such a large tourmaline is rare in the world.Cixi's body has lotus leaves on its head and lotus flowers on its feet, which means "lotus grows step by step".Cixi wears a pearl phoenix crown on her head, and the largest pearl on the crown is as big as a chicken egg.There are 27 Buddha statues carved with gold, gemstones, jade and emerald beside him.There are more than 200 emerald watermelons, melons, cabbage, and peaches, plums, apricots, and dates made of precious stones on both sides of the feet.Put a jade lotus on the left side of the body, and a jade-carved coral tree on the right side of the body.In addition, there are 8 jade horses and 18 jade arhats, totaling more than 700 pieces.After the caustic burial was completed, four liters of pearls and 2200 gemstones were poured into the coffin.According to estimates, the rare treasures in this coffin are worth more than 5000 million taels of silver. The inventory of silver in the Qing Dynasty was less than 265 million taels.This crazy Empress Dowager wanted to bring all the belongings of the Qing Dynasty underground.

These grotesque underground treasures ignited the greedy fire of greed from the moment they were buried underground.

Just as Huang Fumi, a native of Jin, said: "A rich and rich burial is used to inspire treacherous hearts, or torn open the coffin, or pulls the skeleton, or strips the arms to remove the gold ring, or palps the intestines for pearls and jade. Burning is like a punishment, so it doesn't hurt? Since ancient times Up to now, there is no one who is immortal, and there is no tomb that will not be buried." The most direct reason for the ruthless destruction of tombs by tomb robbers is their greed for wealth.The so-called "rich burials to inspire treachery" has reversed the relationship between initiative and passivity, but it generally shows that the reason why tomb robbers do all kinds of harm to the tomb owner has only one purpose-seeking money.

From the perspective of the entire ancient Chinese history, the last years of each dynasty are the most chaotic period, with heroes fighting for hegemony, bandits rampant, and society in a state of anarchy.This is a good time for tomb robbers to dig graves. Almost all the tombs of the past dynasties were robbed at this time.The Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is rich in burials, which will inevitably arouse the covetousness of various figures.Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty said in his "Shui Jing Zhu" that after Xiang Yu led the crowd to attack Xianyang, he sent 30 people to transport it for a month without transporting all the things in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.Later, the Kanto thieves stole the copper coffin.Later, a shepherd boy holding a torch entered the tomb to look for the lost lamb, and accidentally caused a fire. The fire lasted for 90 days and turned the tomb into scorched earth.

The motive of tomb robbers for digging civilian tombs is nothing more than seeking money. Of course, the property here is incomparable to those kings, generals, princes and princes.However, at least a simple burial object can be obtained. "Lunheng Death Puppet" said: "There are tens of millions of people digging up mounds and tombs to get clothes." This is what it says.Tomb robbers even dig up the graves of the dead just to plunder their clothes, which can be described as frenzied.

"Book of Jin" once recorded the situation that Shi Le and Shi Hu, the rulers of the Zhao regime after the Sixteen Kingdoms period, robbed the tombs of the previous generation: "(Shi) Le and (Shi) Jilong are both greedy and rude, since the king has ten states In this land, gold, silk, pearls, jade and foreign rare and exotic goods are invincible, but they are still considered insufficient, and the tombs of emperors and sages of the past (nǎng) were not excavated, but their treasures were taken.” Regarding the pursuit of "treasures" buried in tombs, It is regarded as the motive of Shi Le and Shi Hu to steal ancient tombs, although Shi Chen still thinks that they have occupied the "land of ten states" in northern China, and "the gold, silk, pearls, jade and foreign rare goods are invincible, and they still think it is not enough." I feel incomprehensible, but this fully demonstrates the insatiable psychology of tomb robbers.

Tomb robbery is only for tomb materials

Another important motivation for excavating other people's graves is to use the materials from other people's graves as materials for building their own tombs or other buildings.The materials of the tombs are mostly earth pit tombs, brick and stone tombs, and stone chamber tombs. Many of the tombs also have temples and other buildings, which are generally built of wood. Therefore, the use of materials from tombs has become an important reason for tomb robbery.

The "Old Tang Book" mentioned that during the Anshi Rebellion, Xue Yuan commanded the Yingchuan defense battle, "From the first month to November of the first year of Zhide, the bandits attacked day and night, hundreds of miles away from the city, and the houses, graves, forests and trees were developed and cut. It was completely exhausted, but no foreign aid came." It can be seen that the timber in the "tomb" was also "exploited" to build enemy fortifications and serve as city defense tools.There is a sentence in Tang poetry that "Desolate tombs are opened for urn city cultivation", which shows that this situation may be quite common at that time.

In the Tang Dynasty, bricks from tombs were taken to build the city, and examples can also be seen in the notes of the Ming Dynasty.For example, Shen Defu's "Wanli Yehuo Bian" wrote: "In the fourth year of Zhengde, the eunuch Shi Yan of Nanjing was in charge of the Shouxue, and he was short of big bricks. Or he made a statement, saying that the ancient tombs near the clouds were very big. So they demolished To make use of it. Look at its stone, it is Jiefu.” Who would have thought that after 423 years, the tomb bricks used in the tomb of Wang Anshi, the famous Prime Minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, were excavated by the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty when they built the tomb, and “dismantled for use.”

In the archaeological excavation materials in Nanyang, Henan, we can also directly see examples of Jin people excavating Han tombs and using Han pictorial stones as tomb materials. In March 1962, archaeologists were clearing a tomb located in the courtyard of the Commercial Bureau outside the East Gate of Nanyang. The burial objects unearthed in the tomb were all relics of the Jin Dynasty, but the stone portraits used as building materials for the tomb had a strong theme and plastic arts. Han style.The author of the clearing briefing thinks, “Judging from the position of some pictorial stones in this tomb, it is obvious that the people of the Jin Dynasty used the pictorial stone carvings of the Han Dynasty as the stone materials for the tomb. The front half of a green dragon is obviously half of a portrait. The top stone of the tomb is a strip of feldspar, on which is a relief of a gatekeeper, which is generally used as a gatepost in stone tombs with portraits in the Han Dynasty. In this tomb, it was used as a roof. These examples are enough to prove that later generations built tombs and used the relics of predecessors."

If it is understandable to use burial masonry materials to excavate ancient tombs, it may not be understandable for ordinary people to destroy Yang Guifei's tomb due to the unusual request to take the soil from the tomb.

Yang Guifei's tomb is located in Maweipo, Xingping, Shaanxi.Its cemetery is small and exquisite. On the front of the entrance is a three-room antique-style dedication hall. Crossing the dedication hall is the tomb. It covers an area of ​​about one hectare and is about three meters high. The tomb is covered with blue bricks.There are corridors on the east, west and north sides of the tomb, inlaid with stone tablets of different sizes, engraved with travel notes and inscriptions of historical celebrities.Because of the local legend that women use the soil from the tomb of the imperial concubine to paint their faces, which can remove dark spots on the face and make the facial muscles delicate and tender. I also have to bring a bag of grave soil back, so the tomb pile is getting smaller and smaller.The gravekeeper kept adding soil to the tomb, but it was taken away soon.In order to protect the tomb, it had to be covered with blue bricks to prevent people from continuing to take soil from the tomb of the imperial concubine.

The ancients invested a lot in the construction of tombs. Some building materials are not only beautifully designed, but also durable, which are coveted by others.So some people came up with the idea of ​​excavating tombs to get tomb materials to build their own tombs or use them as other building materials.

Robbing tombs in order to borrow other people's tomb materials was not uncommon in ancient times.

During the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, the rebels attacked Yingchuan, and Xue Yuan, the prefect of Yingchuan who was in charge of guarding, led troops to resist.In order to build fortifications, houses in nearby forests were demolished, even graves were dug up, and coffins were taken out for use.

During the Song Dynasty, excavating tomb materials had become a relatively common act of tomb robbery.As a result, some people no longer use bricks and wood in order to avoid being dug by thieves when building tombs.Wu Chunqing of the Northern Song Dynasty was buried after his death. He dug down two feet and five feet deep, and then dug a hole according to the size of the coffin, put the coffin into the small pit, covered it with things to cover it, and filled the two feet five feet deep pit with soil and tamped it down. , without bricks.Wu Chunqing also used this method to bury his ancestors. The purpose was to prevent someone from digging up the bricks and using them for other purposes.

In the fourth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch Shi Yan built a tomb, but there were no large bricks to use. Someone suggested to Shi Yan: "There is a large-scale ancient tomb nearby, and there are many large bricks in it, which can be used. So Shi Yan sent people to dismantle the ancient tomb, and dug out all the big bricks inside to build his own tomb.According to the stele of the ancient tomb, the excavated ancient tomb is the tomb of Wang Anshi, a famous prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The most famous and most skillful misappropriation of tomb materials in history occurred during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.Emperor Qianlong was greedy for the golden nanmu in the Ming Tombs, disregarding the face of the Ninth Five-Year Lord, and insisted on going his own way, leaving a scandal of the emperor stealing wood for later generations.

tomb excavation

In history, we can also see examples of directly occupying the original tombs after excavating the tombs of the previous generation.In the Six Dynasties, high-ranking officials and dignitaries were mostly buried in Meiling, Yuling after their death. In the Southern Dynasties, there was a man named Chen Shuling in Chen Guo. Before his mother died, he hoped that he could be buried in Meiling after death. There are already tombs at one point.Chen Shuling dug up the tomb of Xie An, the famous prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, took out his coffin, and buried his mother in the original tomb.

Volume [-] of "Taiping Guangji" quotes "Sou Shen Ji" to have a story of "Wang Boyang", talking about the situation where he was punished by the owner of the ancient tomb for destroying the ancient tomb for burial:

Wang Boyang's home is in Jingkou, and there is a tomb to the east of the house, which is rumored to be the tomb of Lu Su. (Wang) Boyang's wife, Xi Jian's brother and daughter, are also mourned, and they are buried in Wang Ping's tomb.A few days later, (Wang) Boyang was sitting in the hall at daytime, and saw a nobleman riding on his shoulders, serving hundreds of people, and there was an endless stream of people and horses.Yao Lai said: "I am Lu Zijing, why did you destroy my tomb?" Because of his eyes, he was pulled out of the bed, and he hit hundreds of people with a knife and iridium and left.Absolutely revived, gangrene was found in all the hit places.Died in a few days.This story very directly shows that Wang Boyang occupied Lu Su's tomb to bury his wife.

(End of this chapter)