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

Chapter 35 The third wave of tomb robbery: the trend of tomb robbery in the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (4)
Corresponding to the prosperity and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty advocated generous burials. The tombs of the Tang Dynasty were all exquisitely decorated and full of rare treasures, especially the imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty. The cemetery is magnificent, magnificent and magnificent.These imperial mausoleums are all ingeniously designed, and there are many huge stones.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in the Tang Dynasty, there have been 21 dynasties, 290 years in total, among which Empress Wu Zetian was buried together with Gaozong Li Zhi and his wife, so there were 20 imperial mausoleums in the Tang Dynasty.Except for Emperor Zhaozong Li Ye (yè) who was hijacked by Zhu Quanzhong to Luoyang at the end of the Tang Dynasty, who was buried in Heling in Mianchi, Henan, and Emperor Ai (zhù) who was buried in Wenling in Heze, Shandong, the other eighteen Tang tombs are all located in the Guanzhong area.These mausoleums are distributed in the six counties of Liquan, Qianxian, Jingyang, Sanyuan, Fuping, and Pucheng in the north of the Weihe River, stretching for more than 100 miles from east to west, centered on Chang'an, unfolding in an arc, facing the majestic Qinling Mountains far away .Since these eighteen tombs are all located in the Guanzhong area, later generations called these Tang tombs "Eighteen Tombs in Guanzhong".Each of the Eighteen Tombs in Guanzhong is based on a mountain. Because of the mountains, the mausoleums were sealed with soil or dug into the mountains. impregnable.But 17 of them were all stolen, and the first culprit was Wen Tao, the Jiedu envoy in the late Tang and Five Dynasties.Wen Tao can also be regarded as the person who looted the most emperor's tombs in history. Many precious cultural relics were destroyed by him. He is really the most harmful tomb robber.

We say that Wen Tao has two characteristics.One is to pretend to be children and grandchildren, whoever has the strongest power is the real parent, and they tend to be in power, capricious to the extreme; the other is to rob and dig ancient tombs, especially the Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and collect the history of the Chinese nation and even human civilization. Invading and destroying, becoming an eternal thief.

Wen Tao, a native of Liang during the Five Dynasties, was born in Huayuan, north of Beijing (now Yaoxian County, Shaanxi Province), and was born in the turbulent end of the Tang Dynasty.He once served as Jiedushi of Yaozhou, Chongzhou, Yuzhou and other places, and the town governed the Guanzhong area.Perhaps it was to accompany Wen Tao's later tomb-robbing madness. There is a legend circulating in later generations that when Wen Tao was born, a bandit star fell on Mount Saga.It is steep and looks east to Jiuyi Mountain, which is where the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty is located. It is on the bank of the Wei River in the south and the Loess Plateau in the north is hidden between the majestic Cangshan Mountains.The superstitious people then passed on the birth of a person who would bring disaster to the Tang Emperor's Mausoleum.Sure enough, this absurd prophecy came true when Wen Tao was the chief executive of Chang'an.

Wen Tao was less than 10 years old, and he became a famous little thief in his hometown. He was the youngest among those who joined the bandit gang.At first, the people laughed when they saw this little doll playing tricks with guns and sticks, but when he swung a knife to kill people without blinking an eye, they woke up like a dream.Born during the war at the end of Tang Dynasty, when he was 10 years old, Wen Tao went to Cuó Asan to recruit troops and develop a bandit team.As the saying goes: Rabbits don't eat grass beside their nests.Wen Tao was just the opposite. He started his family by eating grass on the edge of the nest, causing disasters in his hometown and making him famous in his hometown Huayuan.

Even so, at this time, he was only limited to making small troubles, and he did not yet have the strength to conquer cities.The cunning and treacherous Wen Tao manages his Saga Mountain base on the one hand, and on the other hand sits on the mountain to observe the general situation of the world, waiting for an opportunity to come out of the mountain to dominate the world.

News kept coming from the nearest place, that the Tang imperial family was completely disintegrated, and the "Prince of the West Mansion" Li Maozhen became stronger day by day.Li Maozhen holds the post of Fengxiang Jiedu Envoy, constantly expanding her strength, and coveting the world at any time.At this time, Li Maozhen became his guide on the official career, and Wen Tao immediately attached himself to Li Maozhen as a "thief commander".Li Maozhen, who was setting up a new center, saw Wen Tao's thieves, and thought that it was just the time for employing people, and warmly accepted Wen Tao's thieves who came to vote.From this, we can see that both of them have their own little calculations, and they both want to use each other's strength to strengthen their own team. The two people with their own ghosts hit it off and came together.In order to make herself free from worries, Li Maozhen wanted to recognize Wen Tao as her godson, Wen Tao was naturally willing, worshiped Li Maozhen as her godfather, and took the initiative to change her surname, asking Li Maozhen to give her a new name, and Li Maozhen gave him the name Yantao , Appointed him as Huayuan Town General.

We have already explained before that Wen Tao is a capricious person, such a person is simply unreliable.In the era of frequent wars, Wen Tao is very easy to defect.

In October of the second year of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang Dynasty (902 A.D.), Zhu Wen’s army, which stood out from the chaos of warlord wars, was unstoppable and conquered Chang’an. The offensive of Zhu Wen's army came to the last juncture. Li Yantao (Wen Tao) saw that Li Maozhen's situation was over, so he defected to the enemy and surrendered to Zhu Wen.Li Maozhen fled in despair and went to Shuofang to regroup.

However, what was not good for Wen Tao was that after Zhu Wendong returned, he became a son without a father or a mother.With no one to rely on, in order not to be eaten by other warlords, Wen Taozhong returned to the stronghold where he robbed his family - Saga Mountain.Here, he once again used his two hands, sitting and watching the world with one hand, waiting for the changes, and with the other hand, he stepped up to accumulate property and frantically plundered the counties near Chang'an, and became a bandit again.But Li Maozhen returned to his Fengxiang, kept a low profile again, and tried to make a comeback. Seeing that Wen Tao had been abandoned by others, he ignored the old accusation of betraying him yesterday, sent someone to write a letter, and repaired the father-son relationship with Wen Tao.

In the third year of Tianyou (906 A.D.), Li Maozhen named Huayuan County as Yaozhou, and Meiyuan County (now Meiyuan Town in the northeast of Fuping County) as Dingzhou. ) took the order and sat on the top spot of Jiedushi.

With the fall of the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Ji, who was wandering and fleeing, the Tang Dynasty came to an end. Zhu Wen, who buried Li and the Tang Dynasty, opened up a new dynasty with a sword and halberd on his horse. The fifth generation begins.

During this period, Wen Tao served as Jiedushi in Yaozhou, Chongzhou, Yuzhou and other places.During his seven years as the Jiedu envoy of Yaozhou, Wen Tao excavated seventeen imperial tombs except Qianling among the Eighteen Tombs in Guanzhong, and collected countless gold, silver and jewels from the tombs. "New History of the Five Dynasties · Wen Tao Biography" records: "(Wen) Tao was in the town for seven years, and those who were in the Tang Dynasty's tombs were all excavated and took the gold treasures hidden." There is a similar record in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" : "Wen Tao, the commander-in-chief of Huayuan, gathered people on Mount Saga, and violently plundered the counties of Yongzhou, and all the tombs of the Tang Emperor were destroyed." Mount Saga is close to Emperor Taizong's Zhaoling Mausoleum, and Yongzhou is the Guanzhong area. "Zizhi Tongjian" also records: "(The Taizu of the Later Zhou Dynasty) repeatedly admonished the king of Jin to say, 'In the past, when I went to the west, I saw all the eighteen tombs of the Tang Dynasty. There is no other, but there are more gold and jade hidden'." This record Not only did it prove that Wen Tao's tomb robbery was confirmed, but it also showed that Wen Tao's tomb robbery had only one purpose, and that was to rob property naked.Thanks to the strange celestial phenomena, Qianling was able to keep from being stolen.Cheng Dachang of the Song Dynasty said in "Archaeological Edition", "Wen Tao in the history generally published the Tang Tomb, and the Qianling Mausoleum alone cannot be approached, and there is always wind and rain in the vicinity." , Lightning and thunder, Wen Tao, who was afraid of retribution, was scared away.

The damage Wen Tao brought to the Chinese imperial mausoleum was catastrophic and irreversible, and many precious cultural relics were destroyed.Therefore, the historians and archaeologists all believe that Wen Tao is the most dangerous tomb robber in the history of Chinese tomb robbers, and he is guilty of eternal crimes.After the death of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, many precious authentic paintings and calligraphy by famous masters such as "Lanting Preface" were brought into Zhaoling as funeral objects.

The stupidest yellow nest
History is constantly moving forward.After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty gradually turned from the peak of feudal society to decline.The incompetence of the rulers made social conflicts more and more intense, and rebellions continued to occur everywhere.This triggered a series of peasant uprisings.

Huang Chao was the leader of the peasant uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Because of his charisma and courage, he eventually replaced Wang Xianzhi as the general leader of the uprising.The great uprising led by him destroyed the decadent Li Tang Dynasty, and broke the deadlocked situation of the dark society where the warlords fought in chaos at the end of Tang Dynasty.Conditions were prepared for the transition of society from division to unity, thus promoting the continuous development of history.

Huang Chao was born in a family of salt merchants. He was good at riding and shooting. He was proficient in writing and ink.In the second year of Qianfu (875 A.D.), Wang Xianzhi, Shang Rang and others set up troops in Changyuan (now northeast of Changyuan, Henan).In Yuanju (now southwest of Heze City, Shandong Province), Huang Chao, his nephew Huang Kuí (kuí) and Huang Enye raised an army in response to Wang Xianzhi.

Huang Chao's army initially failed to attack Yizhou (now Linyi, Shandong) in the east; then turned to Shandong, Henan and other places, and captured eight counties including Yangzhai (now Yu County, Henan) and Jia (jiá) City (now Jia County, Henan); State (governing today Linru, Henan).

In September of the third year of Qianfu, he conquered Ruzhou, killed Tang general Dong Hanxun, captured Ruzhou governor Wang Liao, and pointed directly at Luoyang, the eastern capital.Wang Liao was the cousin of Prime Minister Wang Duo, and Wang Xianzhi wrote to Qizhou Inspector Pei Xie (wò) on behalf of Wang Xianzhi, expressing his willingness to accept "recruitment".At the end of the year, Pei Xie lured Wang Xianzhi to surrender, and offered to give Zuo Shence the post of censor and supervisor. Huang Chao resolutely opposed it, and cursed Xianzhi, "Shiwu and you made a big oath to run rampant in the world. Now you take the official and leave alone. , so where do these five thousand people belong?" Then he wounded Xianzhi's head with a staff, and the head was bleeding, and the crowd made a lot of noise.The recruitment failed, Qizhou Inspector Pei Xun fled to Ezhou, and soon the two armies split, and more than 877 people came from Xianzhi. Xianzhi plundered Qizhou, and Huang Chao led [-] troops to the north.In February of the fourth year of Qianfu ([-] A.D.), Huang Chao led his army to capture Yunzhou (now Yuncheng, Shandong) and killed Jiedu envoy Xue Chong.In March, Yizhou was broken again.

Wang Xianzhi once broke through Ezhou (now Wuchang, Hubei), and Wang and Huang once again joined forces to attack Songzhou (now south of Shangqiu, Henan). Shangjunchang, Chu Yanwei and others negotiated the surrender, but were hijacked by Song Wei, the recruiter of the Tang Dynasty. Song Wei was greedy for merit and falsely reported the victory. Attempted again.The imperial court used Song Wei to "kill Shangjun's long-standing wrongdoing", suppressed "ineffectiveness", relieved his military power, promoted Zeng Yuanyu as a recruitment envoy, and transferred Xichuan Jiedu envoy Gao Pian to serve as Jingnan Jiedu envoy.

At the beginning of the fifth year of Qianfu, Wang Xianzhi's army broke through Luocheng in Jingnan (now Jiangling, Hubei). Due to the arrival of reinforcements from Shatuo soldiers, they burned Jiangling and transferred to Shenzhou.In February of the fifth year of Qianfu (878 A.D.), Wang Xianzhi was defeated in Huangmei (northwest of Huangmei, Hubei) and was beheaded by Zeng Yuanyu's tribe. "Great General Soaring to the Sky", moved to the Huanghuai River Basin, and then marched into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Huang Chao's rebel army had strict discipline, and even put forward the quite popular slogan "Equal".Huang Chao said to the outside world, "The king of Huang raised his troops for the common people. It's not like the Li family doesn't love Ru Cao. Ru Cao can live in peace and fear!" The rebel army, which won the hearts of the people, grew rapidly.In November 880 AD, he occupied Luoyang, the eastern capital, and took over the capital Chang'an the following year, and established a peasant regime with the country name "Daqi".But three years later, on June 11, 883 A.D., Huang Chao was defeated and committed suicide, and Tang also perished. Chinese history entered a more chaotic "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" period.Huang Chao's army "worked as a whole and did not plagiarize wealth" in the early stage. Then where did he claim that the 6 troops got their food and salaries?Raiding tombs and digging treasures should be one of its sources of income.

Huang Chao became a madman in the history of Chinese tomb robbery because the objects he robbed were all heavyweights.One is to imitate Xiang Yu and excavate the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin; the other is to learn from the Red Eyebrow Army and Dong Zhuo and excavate the mausoleum of Han Wudi Liu Che; the third is to excavate the Qianling tomb where Wu Zetian and Li Zhi were buried together.The texts about Huangchao's looting can be found scattered in the looting records of Zhuling.

In the historical text of the Qianling Mausoleum being violated, when Huang Chao dug the mausoleum, he used 40 rebels to dig mountains on the west side of Liangshan. It is said that almost half of Liangshan was dug, but in the end only a 40-meter-deep "Huangchao Ditch" was dug out. , which can still be found today.Due to the small number of educated people in the peasant army, and the structure of the Qianling Mausoleum was too strong, the soldiers could not figure out the internal structure of the Qianling Mausoleum, so they dug in the wrong direction. The Qianling Mausoleum escaped the catastrophe, otherwise it would not be preserved today.It seems that tomb robbing also requires knowledge, and it is impossible to do it recklessly.

With so many people under his command, he can find a lot of treasures by digging casually, how stupid.Based on the analysis of the actual situation at that time, among the three imperial mausoleums, Huang Chao will not fail to succeed. Maoling is most likely to be excavated. Maoling has been robbed many times before, and the entrance to the underground palace is easy to find.Analyzing now, Huang Chao led the rebel army to rob and excavate the emperor's tomb, digging randomly, not just stealing treasures, but also venting hatred, which is a political challenge to the feudal imperial power.

Digging Dong Zhong for the secret book

In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and it was the golden age of tomb robbers.Since it has been rumored for a long time that Dong Zhongshu's mother's tomb was buried with magical cheats, some grave robbers set their sights on Dong's mother's tomb at this time.

Dong Zhongshu (179 BC-104 BC), honored as Dong Zi, was a thinker and statesman in the Han Dynasty, who made great contributions to the orthodox status of Confucianism.Sima Qian said in "Historical Records": "Dong Zhongshu, a native of Guangchuan, now Jingxian County, Hebei." He devoted himself to studying Confucianism since he was a child, and worked very hard.There is a very exquisite garden outside his study, but he has never stepped into it after studying in the study for three years.For the horses he often rides, he can't tell the difference between male and female.By the time he was in his 20s, he had become a great scholar who had studied "Gongyang Chunqiu" and other classics.Although he was erudite, he did not enter an official career because of it.However, his reputation has grown because of the development of his disciples in official careers, which has attracted the attention of the emperor.

At the age of 39, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty summoned him.He conquered Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty with the answer of the famous "Three Strategies of Heaven and Man" in history.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted his proposition and implemented the policy of "abolishing all schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone". As a result, Confucianism became the orthodox thought of Chinese feudal society in the Western Han Dynasty and even later.In the same year, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty granted Dong Zhongshu the title of "President of Jiangdu", and Dong Zhongshu began a bumpy official career.After that, he served as the Prime Minister of Liu Fei, King Yi of Jiangdu for ten years; in the fourth year of Yuanshuo (125 BC), he served as the Prime Minister of Liu Duan, King of Jiaoxi, and resigned to write a book four years later.However, whenever the imperial court had a big discussion, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent envoys and court officials to ask about his family.

In 104 BC, Dong Zhongshu, a great scholar of a generation, passed away and was buried in the western suburbs of Chang'an after his death.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once visited the cemetery, and in order to commend his achievements, he dismounted from his horse to pay tribute, so Dong Zhongshu's cemetery is also called "the mausoleum of dismounting".Xiama Mausoleum, also known as Hama Mausoleum, is located near the Heping Gate in today's Xi'an City, on the campus of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

There is another story about the origin of Xiama Mausoleum.According to legend, one day after Dong Zhongshu's death, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dismounted from his horse and walked on foot in order to show respect for Dong Zhongshu when he passed by here, so the people called it Xiamaling.However, because the word "xiama" in Shaanxi dialect has the same pronunciation as "toad", it has been passed down for several times, and it is called Hama Mausoleum.There is a famous sentence in "Pipa Xing" written by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty: "I said that I was originally a girl from the capital, and my family lived under Hama Mausoleum", which made Hama Mausoleum famous far and wide.From the Ming Dynasty, from the Confucian Temple to the Guanzhong Academy, and then to the Hama Mausoleum, it has always been a place where literati hang out.During the Anti-Japanese War, Hama Mausoleum was once the most important political center in Xi'an.

Judging from the current situation, Xia Ma Mausoleum has not been stolen.From this point of view, the tomb robber is also very shrewd, because a great Confucian probably does not have much gold and silver treasures, and may be just some useless letters in the eyes of the tomb robber.Of course, it is also possible that Dong Zhongshu's tomb was not moved because of respect for him.However, there are records in history that the tomb of Dong Zhongshu's mother was stolen.

Folk legends have long believed that Dong Zhongshu's parents were Dong Yonghe and the seven fairies mentioned in the famous "Pairing of Immortals" in history. Later, because his parents ascended to heaven and became immortals, Dong Zhongshu could not serve them to fulfill his filial piety, so he repaired the tomb and worshiped in the Spring and Autumn Period.Regarding this matter, Du Guangting of the Tang Dynasty recorded in "Spirits and Stories":

There is a fairy tomb in Pingyu County, Baili, northwest of Caizhou, where Dong Zhongshu buried his mother's clothes. It is said that Dong Yong first lived in Xuanshan.

After Dong Zhongshu visited his mother, news spread that Dong's mother was a fairy.Some people thought that since Dong's mother was a fairy, there must be something used by the gods hidden in the tomb, maybe there is some magic weapon of immortality.Moreover, Dong Zhongshu himself is very good, has a profound study of theology, knows many secrets of yin and yang, and often makes some magic talismans and elixir.Could it be that he deliberately hid these fairy things in Dong's mother's tomb in order to deceive people's eyes and ears.Therefore, these people began to have the idea of ​​Dong's mother's tomb.

According to historians' research, Dong Zhongshu's hometown is Guangchuan, which is thousands of miles away from Pingyu.The legendary Dong Yong may have someone, but he will not be the father of Dong Zhongshu, a famous historical figure. It may be that ancient literati searched and found Dong Zhongshu in order to find the most famous descendant of Dong Yong for Dong Yong.However, there are still people who believe in this literati's performance thousands of years after Dong Zhongshu's death, which led to a heinous tomb robbery case, which probably no one expected.

In fact, the thing about Dong's mother descending from a fairy is just a folklore and does not exist.The record of this legend first appeared in Du Guangting's "Ling Yi Ji", which said: "There is a fairy tomb in Pingyu County, Baili, northwest of Caizhou, which is the place where Dong Zhongshu buried his mother's clothes. It is said that Dong Yong first lived in Xuanshan. Since Zhongshu grew up, he remembered his mother because of the construction of a tomb. When Qin Zongquan was in power, it might be that Zhongshu's mother was a celestial girl, and there was no tomb in the world. It may be that Zhongshu hid the gods and elixir and the secrets of yin and yang here. The general led more than a hundred people to excavate it..."

Judging from the above records, the reason for the robbery of Dong's mother's tomb is actually Dong Zhongshu's theology.His theological thoughts are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the people will naturally myth him, which led to the tragedy of Dong Mu's tomb being stolen.

(End of this chapter)