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

Chapter 24 Dangerous games under harsh punishments and harsh laws: Punishment of tomb robbers in the past (2)
The five chief culprits were tortured. Their hearts, livers, and lungs were dug out, fried in a hot oil pan, and sacrificed to Concubine Hua.This method of punishing tomb robbers is probably only heard of in ancient and modern times, and it is frightening to hear.

In the Tang Dynasty, stealing and digging graves was one of the most heinous crimes.In feudal society, when feudal emperors ascended the throne, changed their year names, established queens, established princes, and big weddings, etc., in order to show their benevolence, in the name of kindness, they would either be exiled to the frontiers or Various preferential policies such as reduced sentences for demoted officials, exhortation to return to their hometowns, official reinstatement or promotion.Sometimes it will be accompanied by some tax relief and other policies.However, if the person commits the crime of robbery, even when the world is amnesty, his guilt cannot be pardoned.It can be seen the seriousness of the crime of digging graves at that time.In the late Tang Dynasty, Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty issued an edict of amnesty in June in the tenth year of Xiantong (869 A.D.), requiring all prisoners in the capital and other places to identify the severity of their crimes, and release them as soon as possible without imprisoning them.For several crimes such as digging graves, there will be no amnesty; two years later, Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty gave amnesty to the world again, and those who dig graves and robbers are still not granted amnesty; two years later, Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty welcomed the bones of Buddha into Beijing, and gave amnesty to the world again "Except for ten vicious rebellions, intentional homicide, official crimes, co-creation of poison, arson and war, and robbery of graves, the severity of remaining crimes is reduced by one level."

According to the "New Tang Book", Lulong Jiedu envoy Zhang Hongjing rebelled against An Lushan and Shi Siming at the beginning, but the local people still worshiped An Lushan and Shi Siming, so they "punished the beginning of chaos and wanted to change their customs. "Destroy the tomb and destroy the coffin", but it backfired, resulting in "the displeasure of the public", which made the public more inclined to Ann and Shi and to deviate from the imperial court.This is why the practice of "distributing tombs and destroying coffins" is too extreme and does not conform to the traditional emotional habits of the people. "Old Tang Book" also records that Zhang Hongjing "distributed (An) Lushan tomb and destroyed his coffin, people are especially disappointed."The "displeasure" and "disappointment" of the people all show a common psychological tendency of disgust with "distributing tombs and destroying coffins".

Therefore, as early as the Tang Dynasty, no matter from the perspective of national laws or the psychological tendency of the people, people were extremely disgusted or hated the behavior of tomb robbery.

felony for minorities

People of the Han nationality were not the only ones who were indignant about the shameless act of digging graves. Even the rulers of ethnic minorities who did not attach great importance to tombs at that time also enacted relevant laws to punish them.

The period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was a period of unprecedented prosperity for tomb robbers. At this time, tomb robbers were rampant, and all tombs were unearthed. The instigators were those high-ranking rulers.Even in this era when the rulers take the lead in tomb robbery, national laws and regulations still clearly stipulate that tomb robbery is illegal and should be severely punished. "Book of Wei·Gaozong Benji" records that Emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty visited Yinshan Mountain and saw the tombs on the mountain that were stolen and abandoned.The edict said: "From now on, those who destroy the tombs will be beheaded!" Since Emperor Wencheng issued this edict, beheading grave robbers has become an express stipulation in the Northern Wei Dynasty.From this record, we can see that tomb robbery in the Northern Wei Dynasty was also explicitly prohibited by those in power.

It is worth noting that Tuoba, the ruler of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was from Xianbei.The Xianbei are Donghu people, born on horseback, galloping on the grasslands, and believe in Shamanism. Therefore, the Xianbei people pay far less attention to burials and funeral etiquette than the Han people.The ruler ordered severe punishment for tomb robbers, which is also one of the manifestations of the Sinicization of this northern minority.The Empress Dowager Wenming of the Northern Wei Dynasty was the initiator of Sinicization, but her husband, Emperor Wencheng, took the lead in punishing tomb robbers before her.

If the Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty was the pioneer of the ethnic minority rulers' anti-tomb robbery, then the later Jin Taizong and the Mongolian rulers of the Yuan Dynasty undoubtedly made great progress in the anti-tomb robbery of ethnic minorities.

In February of the second year of Emperor Taizong of the Jin Dynasty (AD 1124), the imperial edict stated that "those who steal the Liao Tomb will be punished by death." The order to severely punish those who robbed the Liao Tomb was written in the "History of Jin" Emperor Ji, which shows that the highest ruler at that time The severe attitude towards tomb robbers once formed a certain political influence. "History of Jin" Volume 12 "Xing Zhi" also records that in the 1172th year of Jin Shizong's Dading (AD [-]): "Shang Shu Sheng Zuo, who stole a grave, said: 'There are also those who have been found in the tombs of heroes. There is no reward for arrest, so people are fearless. From now on, those who tell the truth will be rewarded.'” This passage can even show the clear attitude of the supreme ruler at that time towards tomb robbery. The rewards are given according to the situation.Since ancient times, it is not uncommon for people to reward informers, but Jin Shizong may be the first one in history to reward informers of tomb robbers.It can be seen that the establishment of the informant system combined with punishment is to effectively punish tomb robbery.

In the Yuan Dynasty, there were also clear legal provisions on the sanctions against tomb robbery. "Yuan History" Volume [-] "Criminal Law Records [-]" wrote: "The officers in charge, the Aulu officer and the salt transportation department, arrested the Yingfang military craftsmen, and each cast a person in charge of various colors, etc., but committed robbers, thieves, Counterfeit banknotes, slightly sell people, set fire to graves, commit adultery, and other capital crimes, all of which will be questioned by the court." In the law of the Yuan Dynasty, there are also "those who open coffins and injure corpses in the graves, and those who should be exiled inside", "one hundred sticks Seventh, issue the provisions of "Zhaozhou Tunzhong".

"Yuan Shi" Volume [-] "Criminal Law Zhi III" "Great Evil" also has this content: All descendants, either because of poverty, or because of the temptation of witchcraft, excavated the tombs of their ancestors, robbed their property, and sold their tombs. Those who are convicted will be convicted according to the severity of the crime.Those who remove the corpses and do not serve as sacrifices will close the case with the evil.If the buyer knows, the crime will be reduced to second-class, and the price will not be official; if the buyer does not know, the matter will be examined in detail, and the company still cannot issue a certificate of sale of the cemetery.Those who are the descendants of the people, who are the leaders and other robbers who dig up the tombs of their ancestors and steal property, are regarded as evil and rebellious.Obviously, this is a decree about "excavating ancestors' graves and stealing their property".It can be seen how much people at that time hated grave robbery.Even if you stole your own grave, even if you took the property of your ancestors, according to the law, you are still guilty, and it is still a crime of "great evil". Tun species".

"Yuan Shi" Volume [-] "Criminal Law Records III" also has different treatment methods for different plots of hair theft tombs under the "thief" article: all hair tombs, those who have opened the tombs are the same as robbers, those who opened the coffins are robbers, and the corpses are destroyed Those who hurt others are the same, and the family members of the prisoners are still collecting money for burning and burying.

All those who hold grudges in graves and steal their corpses will be executed.

All the hair graves get rich without hurting the corpse, one hundred and seven sticks, and stabs.

All the thieves who found the graves of the princes' sons-in-law, regardless of their leaders, were all executed.

Here we can see that the laws of the Yuan Dynasty gave special protection to the cemeteries of princes and nobles. On the one hand, it may be because the status of princes and nobles is relatively high. It is said that there are many and good, so the chance of being stolen is much higher than that of the poor peasants' tombs, so felonies have to be used to prevent the frequent occurrence of tomb robberies.

Stealing the Wrong Tomb and Losing His Family Fortune

The legal sanctions against tomb robbers in all dynasties are quite severe.What tended to be more reasonable and complete were the laws and regulations of the Ming and Qing dynasties.According to the "Minghui Code of Criminal Laws": "Anyone who commits treason and great rebellion (that is, conspiring to destroy ancestral temples, tombs, and palaces), and all conspirators, regardless of who they are, will be executed at the end of the day. Grandfather, father, son, grandson, brother, Brothers and cohabitants, regardless of surnames and sons of uncles, uncles, brothers, regardless of similarities and differences of origin, who are over [-] years old, no matter whether they are seriously ill or disabled, shall be beheaded; those under [-] years old, as well as mothers, daughters, wives, concubines, and sisters, shall be executed. If the son's wife and concubine are slaves to the family of the hero, the property will be transferred to the official; if the daughter's marriage has been decided to belong to her husband, the offspring will have a house with others, and those who fail to engage a wife will not chase after him (the next article permits this). If you know it, let it go , Hidden beheaded. Anyone who can be captured, the people will be awarded civilian officials, the army will be awarded military positions, and the prisoner’s property will still be rewarded. If you know the first to report, the official is the capture, and only give the property. Those who are not the first can stick a hundred , flow three thousand miles."

Judging from the above regulations, the punishment for conspiring to destroy a mountain (tomb robbery) is quite severe. The accomplices will be cut off one by one, that is, "Ling Chi" to death. Death, the most lenient ones will also be "traveled for three thousand miles", punished to serve hard labor in the desolate frontier, and never return to their hometown.

During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a far-reaching incident of folk tomb robbery occurred.

In order to cater to the emperor's greed for money, Qiu Shiheng, a hundred households of the left guard of Tengxiang, sent a memorial to Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun, and said nonsense: Huguang 25 prefectures and counties, the surplus of various taxes, omissions of tax money, and penalties for stolen goods The redemption silver, the salary silver for the air soldiers, the silver for the property of extinct households, the silver for the tenant price of the river pastures, the silver for the fish tax, etc., are more than hundreds of millions of taels, and they should be investigated by officials.And it is sensational to say that according to a report by Qi, a scholar in Xingguo Prefecture, Xu, a local, and others "digged ten thousand taels of gold, and there was a gold medal ordered by Tang Prime Minister Li Linfu's wife, Yang, on one side, the other two feet, two inches thick, a pair of golden boys, and a pair of black gold. Stove bottles and candle pots, there are still left and right gold and silver cellars that have not been opened." Yun Yun.Anyone with a discerning eye will know that this is purely nonsense made by small hundred households to claim credit.The tax silver paid to Taicang by the whole country is only three or four million taels a year, and the accumulated silver taels in Taicang over the years have not reached the amount of "more than one hundred million taels".As for the excavation of the golden treasure from the tomb of Li Linfu's wife, Yang's family, it is even more rumored in the streets and alleys.However, Shenzong, who was obsessed with money, believed it and was very excited and seriously issued an edict, asking Chen Feng to take care of the matter.He said: "In this play, the prefectures and counties of Huguangtong Province have accumulated various reserves of envy and other silver, which are about more than one hundred million taels; There is a shortage of funds, so why don’t you use them for Jinji! Chen Feng, the official in charge of the mining tax, may as well take charge of the original affairs, and the supervisor will lead the original official Qiu Shiheng, the former guard Dai Ye, and the scholar Qi Youguang to go to the place to caress, It was also found out by the officials of the Department of Management that half of the money was reserved for the relief of the soldiers in the province, and half of it was used together with gold and silver.

It was later proved that this was an "unjust case" of tomb robbery, because the local traitor Qi Youguang reported to the government, which led to Xu Ding's tomb robbery.The tomb that Xu Ding robbed was not the tomb of Li Linfu's wife, but the tomb of Lu Wende's wife in the Yuan Dynasty.

Lu Wende was also a well-known figure in the Yuan Dynasty, a general of the Southern Song Dynasty, a native of Xi'an Feng (now Shou County, Anhui Province), a woodcutter, and Zhao Kui recruited him under his command.It was originally the envoy of Jinghu system in the Southern Song Dynasty.But this man is very greedy. During the Battle of Xiangfan, an important battle for the Mongols to unify China in the Southern Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan saw the fatal weakness of the Han people's greed for money, so he quietly sent people to bribe Lu Wende with a jade belt. As a result, Lu Wende let the Yuan army fight in Xiangfan Occupied a favorable position outside.For such a corrupt official, his wife's funeral objects will naturally not be missing.But Xu Ding probably shouldn't have had such a windfall, and the incident alarmed the court. His life was guaranteed, but he lost all his family's wealth.

Inspired by this incident, Chen Feng publicly robbed tombs in the Xingguo area of ​​Hubei Province in order to fulfill Zhu Yijun's instructions to "accumulate wealth". The idea of ​​Xianling triggered the most serious trend of tomb robbery in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the anti-tomb robbery protests among the people were fierce.This led to Chen Feng, the most daring tomb robber mentioned in Chapter 14 of this book.

Hanging

The Ming Dynasty died and the Qing Dynasty prospered, and the Dragon Chair changed hands.In the Qing Dynasty, the punishment for tomb robbery was more detailed.

There are no rules, and the Manchus, who are a minority ethnic group, understand the truth better than the Han people after entering the pass.When the Qing army first entered the customs, there was no systematic law, and the Ming law set by Zhu Yuanzhang was temporarily used.Later, according to the situation of the Qing Dynasty, the "Laws of the Qing Dynasty" was formulated by "participating in the national system and discussing what is appropriate". The "Laws of the Qing Dynasty" has more detailed regulations on tomb robbery, stipulating culpability in 36 situations, and there are as many as 22 regulations.

In the "Thieves and Robbers" in the "Criminal Law", there is a special section on "Fat Tombs".For folk tomb robbery, seven types are listed according to the severity of its nature and the closeness of the objects of the robbery.The first article states, "Those who excavate the tomb and see the coffin will have a hundred sticks, and they will flow three thousand miles; And those who steal the coffin before the funeral, the stick is ninety, and the prison is two years; the half-opened coffin and the corpse are also strangled..." It is no different from the Ming law.It can be seen that the governments of all dynasties have consistently opposed tomb robbery.

In addition to punishing the act of tomb robbery itself, the Qing law also made clearer regulations on the sanction of "humiliating corpses": "Whoever mutilates other people's dead corpses or throws them into the water will be punished with one hundred sticks each and flow three thousand miles." (It is said that the dead body is burned at home or in the wild without burial, etc. If the deceased has been buried, he will open the coffin and see the dead body according to the law); Those who are injured will be reduced by one class." There are also regulations on the behavior among relatives, "Whoever destroys the dead bodies of descendants, the cane is eighty;

Severe punishment for tomb robbery with exceptions

In ancient times, tomb robbers were not always severely punished, and some would be dealt with leniently, and they would be understood by the people. This is the robbery of the graves of corrupt officials, treacherous officials, wicked people and other "bad people".

Zhou Hui was a Nanjing literati in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. He wrote "Jinling Trivia", "Continued Jinling Trivia", "Second Continued Jinling Trivia" and "Trivial Remaining Records".It focuses on the anecdotes of Jinling since the early Ming Dynasty, covering national allusions, celebrity stories, and street talks and folk customs.Nanjing is the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and there are many tombs and tombs in the surrounding area, and tomb robberies are also frequent, which is naturally indispensable in Zhou Hui's works.

"Continued Jinling Trivia" (volume [-]) records that when Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen of the Ming Dynasty was emperor, Jiangning people robbed Qin Hui's tomb. After being caught, they were not severely punished and were given a lighter punishment: Jiu Zhenwu. In the eighth month of autumn in Yisi, Chenghua, it was issued by robbers, and the goods obtained were worth tens of thousands. The robbers were arrested, and the judiciary did not reduce their crimes. Evil juniper. There is Cai Xipu, who is famous. Read the prisoners' slips to write poems quickly."

According to modern archaeological excavations, the tombs of Qin Hui and his family members are located in Jiangning Town, south of Nanjing today. Qin tombs have been stolen many times in history. In 2004, a large tomb of the Song Dynasty was discovered in Nanjing. At that time, the media once reported that it was the tomb of Qin Hui. Since no epitaph was found from the tomb, the archaeological team of the Nanjing Museum involved in the archaeology could not identify it for a while.According to unconfirmed information, later experts deduced from the items unearthed in the tomb and transported to the Nanjing Museum that this tomb is the tomb of Qin Hui. The woman's bones found at that time should be one of Qin Hui's wives and concubines.

(End of this chapter)