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

Chapter 26 The first wave of tomb robbery: the history of tomb robbery in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties (2)
Therefore, after killing all the descendants of Qin Shihuang and burning all the palaces of Qin Shihuang, Xiang Yu turned his goal to another more magnificent building-the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. "Historical Records The Benji of Gaozu" records that when the Chu and Han were fighting, Liu Bang once listed Xiang Yu's ten crimes, the fourth of which was Xiang Yu burning the Qin Palace and stealing the Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum. "Shui Jing Zhu" also records that after Xiang Yu entered the customs, 30 people dug up the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, and the excavated treasures were not shipped out after 30 days.In a remonstrance letter written by Liu Xiang to Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, it is also recorded that Xiang Yu burned the Qin Palace and dug the Qin Mausoleum.It can be seen from these historical books that Xiang Yu's robbery of Qin Shihuang's tomb is indeed true.

There are also many records in history about Xiang Yu's excavation of Qin Shihuang's tomb:
Sima Qian's "Historical Records" used Liu Bang's mouth to scold Xiang Yu: "Dig the tomb of the first emperor and privately collect his property."

Han Dynasty historian Ban Gu wrote in "Hanshu·Liu Xiangzhuan":

Qin Shihuang was buried in A of Lishan Mountain, with three springs in the lower gu and three tombs in the upper Chong.The stone coffin is the swimming pool, the human ointment is the lamp and candle, the mercury is the river and the sea, and the gold is the wild goose...Xiang Yu burned his palace and camp, and those who went there saw the excavation.Afterwards, the shepherd lost the sheep, and the sheep went into the chisel, and the shepherd held the fire to light the sheep, and the fire burned the coffin.

Li Daoyuan, a geographer of the Northern Wei Dynasty, described it in his "Shui Jing Weishui Zhu":

The first emperor of Qin made a great burial and built a tomb in Lixu Mountain. It is called Lantian, and its yin is rich in gold and its yang is rich in jade.The first emperor was greedy for his good name, so he was buried.Cut the mountain and chisel stones, imprison the three springs, and use copper as the coffin.Traveling sideways for more than 30 li in a circle, the upper part is painted with the images of astronomical stars, and the lower part is surrounded by mercury.The geographical situation of the five prisons and Kyushu island counties are full of palaces, hundreds of rooms, and rare artifacts and treasures.The grave was five feet high, and Xiang Yu sent it out after entering the customs. With [-] people, it would not be poor to transport goods in thirty days.The thieves in the Kanto region sold the outer coffins for copper.The shepherd found the sheep and burned them, and the fire could not be extinguished for ninety days.

In addition, among the people, there are also legends about Xiang Yu digging the tomb of Qin Shihuang:

In 206 BC, after Xiang Yu entered the customs, he ordered Yingbu to steal the tomb of Qin Shihuang.When the gate of the underground imperial city was opened, countless arrows were shot out from inside. Arrows shot out like rain, and many soldiers were shot dead on the spot.Then countless strange birds flew out from the tomb, pecking many soldiers.The soldiers who were still in shock fled in all directions, and were chased by monsters rushing out of the tomb, biting countless people.Yingbo didn't dare to enter the door, so he hurriedly reported to Xiang Yu.Xiang Yu was furious when he heard this, and personally led his soldiers into the tomb gate.After arriving in the tomb, Xiang Yu took a closer look and was immediately shocked by the scene in front of him.I saw bright stars, undulating mountains, and green vegetation inside. Isn’t this Hangu Pass?Xiang Yu led his troops to charge forward, but at this time there was another burst of random arrows, Xiang Yu had no choice but to lead his troops to retreat.

Another story says that after Xiang Yu destroyed Qin, he sent [-] soldiers to dig the tomb of Qin Shihuang.Soldiers searched for the tomb passages in the south and northwest of the mausoleum. After digging for more than half a month, there was no trace.After Xiang Yu heard about it, he rushed to the site and personally supervised the excavation, but there was still no result. When he was hesitating, an old man with white hair and a childlike face suddenly came from the northwest.The old man said to Xiang Yu: "You shouldn't use so many labors to dig the tomb. You should know how Qin Shihuang died, and you must not repeat the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty." After listening to the old man's words, Xiang Yu thought After a long time, I finally realized something.So he immediately ordered the soldiers to stop digging and return to Chu.But after all, the soldiers dug two ditches here, which were later called "Bawang Ditch" in history.

Xiang Yu did not find Qin Shihuang's coffin, so his wish to open the coffin and kill the corpse did not come true.In fact, he himself didn't care too much about whether he could find Qin Shihuang's body for revenge, and the many rare treasures had already made him divert his target.Now that the treasure has been found, what else is there to care about?However, Xiang Yu didn't want Qin Shihuang to rest in the underground palace, and in order to prevent future generations from knowing his tomb robbery, he set a fire after excavating the treasures and tried to burn the entire tomb.Fortunately, the tomb of Qin Shihuang discovered by Xiang Yu is only a small part of the actual tomb, and there are good fire prevention facilities between the tombs of the tomb itself.Therefore, the underground palace of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum can be preserved to this day, and it has not been destroyed by Xiang Yu's fire.

The large number of treasures Xiang Yu stole did not bring him any good luck, but instead brought a huge negative impact on his reputation.Liu Bang is much wiser than Xiang Yu.After Liu Bang entered the customs, he heard that the tomb of Qin Shihuang was extremely luxurious and had the idea of ​​robbing the tomb.However, the counselors around him advised him that if he did that, he would lose the hearts of the people and lose the world.Therefore, not only did he not rob the tomb, he also ordered the troops to do nothing to the local people, thus winning the hearts of the people.Later, after Xiang Yu failed, Liu Bang listed Xiang Yu's crimes as stealing Qin Shihuang's tomb.It can be seen from this that it is really not a wise move for Xiang Yu to rob the tomb, because the small loses the big.

Xiang Yu's excavation of Qin Shihuang's tomb was the earliest catastrophe that Qin Shihuang's tomb encountered.However, Qin Ling did not become peaceful because of this, and this behavior of the Overlord of Western Chu became the fuse of Qin Ling's catastrophe.In the thousands of years since then, the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang has never been peaceful.

The shadow of Xiang Yu's robbery of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum has not yet dissipated, and Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum ushered in batch after batch of tomb robbers.Both Wang Mang and the Red Eyebrow Army of the Western Han Dynasty carried out large-scale treasure theft against Qin Ling.In the subsequent dynasties, many people have kept their eyes on the tomb of Qin Shihuang and tried their best to steal the treasures in it.

In 1974, following the discovery of the terracotta warriors and horses in the cemetery, archaeologists made long-term and unremitting efforts to find out the whole picture of the Qin Mausoleum. Its scale is far greater than that of the Egyptian pyramids, and it is incomparable to any tombs in ancient and modern Chinese and foreign history.

On the ground of the cemetery, there used to be a double city wall inside and outside, which was narrow and long in the shape of "Hui" in the north and south.The circumference of the outer city is more than 6000 meters.Two groups of bronze chariots and horses have been unearthed in a side room of the tomb passage to the west of the mausoleum.The part of the underground palace where the mausoleum is located has a strong abnormal reaction of mercury, which preliminarily confirms the statement in "Historical Records" that "mercury is the river and the sea".A large number of cultural relics were found in the architectural ruins, including a large tile with a diameter of 61 cm, which is the largest tile in China.

More than 300 burial pits and more than 5 important cultural relics have been discovered in the mausoleum area. The largest burial pit is more than 1 square meters, and the smallest is only 1 square meter.In addition to pits No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 of the terracotta warriors and horses that have been excavated and are yet to be excavated, 98 large-scale stable pits and terracotta warrior pits, 31 pits of rare birds and animals, and 103 tombs of migrant workers have been discovered. There are 18 buried tombs of court officials who were executed, one stone processing plant where prisoners served, many kiln sites, and the ruins of flood embankments and fish ponds.

According to archaeological surveys, the underground palace under the sealing soil layer covers an area of ​​nearly 25 square meters, which is 6 square meters larger than the sealing soil layer covering it.The top of the underground palace is 515 meters long from north to south and 485 meters wide from east to west. It is surrounded by a palace wall about 4 meters high and 2.7 meters thick.There are doors around the palace wall, and sloped doorways on the east, west, north, and north sides.

The underground palace is divided into the outer palace and the inner palace within the scope of the palace wall. From the inner palace to the tomb, it is like three inverted trapezoids, one level deeper than one level, and the third level is about 2 square meters. The inner and outer coffins are located, and it is also in this central part that produces a strong abnormal mercury reaction, with an area of ​​1.2 square meters, which is larger than a football field.The Underground Palace of the Qin Mausoleum is a three-dimensional structure with a presumed depth of at least 50 meters. Its tomb size far exceeds that of any mausoleum excavated in my country.

Although people continue to rob and dig the Qin Mausoleum, the tomb robbery operations they did only touched the part above the Qin Mausoleum's underground palace, and the underground palace has never been opened.Therefore, thousands of years have passed before we can see the well-preserved Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.

Super perverted King Guangchuan
Some tomb robbers are to vent anger, some are greedy for money, but there is a tomb robber in Chinese history who is very abnormal. First of all, he is for fun, a kind of game psychology. He is Liu Qu, the king of Guangchuan in the Western Han Dynasty (also known as "Liu Quji" in historical books) .Liu Qu is No. 1 who regards tomb robbery as a game.He is a small figure in the history of China. He has neither earth-shattering achievements nor the ability to turn the world around, but he has been infamous for thousands of years because of his brilliant achievements in tomb robbery.

In order to consolidate his rule, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, followed the enfeoffment system of the Shang and Zhou dynasties to strengthen the government's jurisdiction over local forces.In the early years when he proclaimed himself emperor, he entrusted a group of children surnamed Liu to various vassal states to become kings. He wanted to rely on the power of the Liu clan as the wings of the imperial power.

However, the original intention of Han Gaozu to entrust the princes and kings did not achieve the desired effect, and even planted a very serious hidden danger for the rule of his descendants. The subsequent Seven Kingdoms Rebellion is a typical example.As the supreme ruler of the local forces, the princes and kings self-govern their countries.Later, the vassal states became independent kingdoms, economically and politically independent, and did not even have to obey the rule of the central government.Among the many vassal kingdoms, there is the Guangchuan royal family.

The first generation of King Guangchuan was named Liu Yue, the No.11 son of Emperor Jing.In 155 BC, Liu Yue was conferred the title of King of Guangchuan, established his capital in Xindu (now Ji County, Hebei Province), and created the Guangchuan King Family in the Han clan.However, the Guangchuan royal family became increasingly decadent and depraved, and gradually became the worst branch of the Han Dynasty royal family, which was despised by future generations.

Liu Yue, an extremely mediocre and mediocre person, died after 12 years in power, and was posthumously named King Hui of Guangchuan after his death.Liu Yue had 7 sons, the eldest son Liu Qi succeeded to the throne, he was King Miao of Guangchuan, who reigned for 44 years.Liu Qi was an extremely licentious and shameless person. He had incest with his sisters and committed a crime of disrespect. After all, evil was rewarded with evil. He died of illness before being severely punished by the court.The fact that what Liu Qi did was too shameless, the people complained greatly, and he could not escape punishment after death. He was deposed as a prince by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the Guangchuan Kingdom was also abolished.

Not long after, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took into account the affection of the clan and couldn't bear Liu Yue's sacrifice incense, and named Liu Qi's son Liu Qu as the third generation King of Guangchuan to restore the Guangchuan Kingdom.Unexpectedly, the Guangchuan King's branch was really unable to support it, and one generation was not as good as the next generation, and it was a complete embarrassment to the royal family.Liu Qu is more licentious than his father Liu Qi.Liu Qu is proficient in Confucian classics and writes good articles. He should be a scholar who is educated and reasonable, but he is cruel. According to the current words, he has an anti-social and anti-human split personality in his subconscious. There are disturbances in nervous system function.At the same time, he also has a perverted hobby, that is, he likes to rob and dig tombs, and even becomes addicted to tomb robbery.

When Liu Qu was young, he didn't do business properly. He hung out with some hooligans all day long, playing eagles, walking dogs, hunting, and looking for ancient tombs. "Hanshu·Jing Thirteen Kings Biography" (Volume 53) records that Liu last year was a complete "hooligan" when he was young, with a violent nature.His grandfather Liu Yue persuaded him to do less bad things many times, but he never learned well, and in the end he didn't even return home, and often spent the night fooling around.When he was [-] or [-] years old, his family asked him to learn "Book of Changes" from his teacher. Because the teacher repeatedly advised him to displease him, he secretly sent his subordinates to assassinate the teacher and his son.He didn't act right at the banquet, and liked to let female actors sit naked on his lap for fun.Not to mention, his treatment of the women around him is even more heinous than tomb robbery.

There are many concubines around Liu Qu, and his method of sanctioning the women around him that he thinks is unfaithful to him is extremely cruel.There are records in the history books: one is "cutting raw and pouring lead", "removing the bollard, burning the eyes with a knife, cutting two strands raw, pinning lead and pouring it into the mouth"; In a large wok (huò) (an iron utensil shaped like a large pot, used to cook food), take the peach ash poison and boil it"; thirdly, use a stick to pound and poke the lower body, "Zhuóyì) in its genitals, cut its nose and lips , and cut off her tongue"; four times, the woman was stripped naked, and the naked woman was burned with red-hot chromium iron; in addition, there was acupuncture, "If you don't accept it, use an iron needle to force it."While being violent, he also forced other concubines around him to "watch and emulate", "calling all the concubines to watch, and spent days and nights exhausted."It can be said that Liu Qu was a man who committed all kinds of crimes, and he killed 16 beautiful women in this way.

It is not surprising that such an evil king would commit tomb robbery.

The sky is high and the emperor is far away, Liu Qu can do whatever he wants in his own kingdom, and he is not ashamed of tomb robbery, but enjoys it.He even wrote a "Book of Alchemists" based on his own tomb-robbing experience, which shamelessly introduced some experiences and methods about tomb-robbing.Liu Qu played the role of leader and decision maker throughout the tomb robbery process. How to find ancient tombs is his strong point. After the location is determined, his subordinates will do it.This twisted prince only cared about the process of robbing the tomb, but he didn't care too much about the result.Under his strong advocacy, most of the ancient tombs of a certain size and reputation in Fengguo were stolen by him.

The first tomb Liu went to tomb robbery was the Jinling Cemetery he had coveted for a long time.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the states were divided into separate regimes, and the lords competed for hegemony, and there were constant merger wars among the vassal states.After many years of war, there are Yan, Qi, Jin, Wei, Zhao and other states in North China. The princes and generals of these vassal states have relatively luxurious cemeteries after their deaths.Many rare treasures are buried in these ancient tombs, and they have been coveted by tomb robbers for thousands of years.Duke Ling of Jin is a monarch who lived in this era.

Duke Ling of Jin was originally the grandson of Duke Wen of Jin. He became emperor since he was a child, and he was spoiled and pampered without any suffering.When Linggong grew up, he was licentious and had a cruel temperament.Satisfy the extravagant life with heavy taxes, and search for a lot of people's money to beautify their palace walls.He shot passers-by with a slingshot from a high platform, taking pleasure in watching them dodge the projectiles.Once, because the chef didn't stew the bear's paw thoroughly, he killed the chef, put the body in a basket and carried it out of the palace.

Under Linggong, there is a favorite minister named Tu Anjia, who is a complete villain.

One year, Duke Ling asked Tu Anjia to build a garden for him in the royal city.All kinds of exotic flowers and plants are planted in the garden, which are unbeatable all the year round. Among them, peach blossoms are the most, so it is called Taoyuan.Linggong especially likes to hunt birds, and often uses a slingshot to shoot birds for fun in the garden.

There is a high platform in the Taoyuan. Standing on the platform, you can see all kinds of city life in the whole Wangcheng. Linggong often stood on it to watch the excitement.Once, Linggong asked people to perform on a high platform, which attracted countless people to watch from outside the wall.Linggong suddenly had an idea, and said to Tu Anjia, "I often shoot birds on weekdays, and I don't know what it's like to hit people with a slingshot." So the two shot wildly into the crowd on the stage.It made the people unspeakable, and everyone hated Jin Linggong.He has committed a heinous crime and is a well-known faint king in the history of our country.Maybe it's evil that comes with evil. After the death of this innocent king, he met Liu Qu, the king of Guangchuan who was even more cruel than him.

Duke Ling of Jin was a famous faint king in history, who was licentious and immoral during his lifetime, and buried with him a large amount of treasures he had found after his death.His tomb is in the shape of a steamed bun, made of five-flower soil.Liu Qu was coveting the rare treasures in the tomb. He led his tomb robbers to Jin Linggong's tomb. Since the tomb did not have any anti-theft measures, the tomb thieves dug into the tomb door without much effort. .After the door of the tomb was opened, Liu Qu hurried forward to watch it.I saw the coffin of Jin Linggong parked in the center of the tomb. Due to the long period of time, the coffin has decayed into a bad shape. At the four corners are carved eagles and dogs, silently guarding the dead. More than 40 stone figures of men and women stood around the coffin holding lamps and candles.After the coffin was opened.Jin Linggong's corpse was actually well preserved, and his skin was still elastic.Based on past experience, Liu Qu believed that there must be anti-corrosion treasures inside the corpse.He hurriedly ordered everyone to pry open Jin Linggong's nine orifices.Sure enough, many gold and jade treasures were found.

Liu Qu had gained a lot as soon as he entered the industry, but he was not satisfied with such small troubles, and then set his sights on the large-scale tomb of King Wei Xiang.The outer coffin of King Wei Xiang's tomb is made of textured stone. It is eight feet high and wide and narrow enough to accommodate 30 people. It is as smooth as new when touched by hand.The interior of the tomb is also made of stone, with stone beds and stone screens placed in the middle.In order to prevent future generations from robbing the tomb, and to show his style, the tomb of King Wei Xiang was poured with molten iron.It takes a lot of effort to dig such a solid ancient tomb, but Liu Qu, who has a hobby of tomb robbers, is more willing to challenge the difficulty.He led the tomb robbers to carry forward the spirit of continuous combat, and successfully opened the stone door of the tomb in three full days.Just when Liu Qu was very excited, a bitter and spicy yellow thick fog suddenly appeared in the tomb. The soldiers thought that they had offended the souls in the tomb and were about to suffer retribution. Running, reacting slowly, stood on the spot, at a loss.Relying on his rich knowledge of tombs, Liu Qu thinks that this is just a mechanism set up to prevent tomb robbers and to scare people.

(End of this chapter)