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

Chapter 41 The fifth wave of tomb robbery: the tragedy of tomb robbery in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (2)
When Chen Feng opened the Zaoyang Mine, Wang Zhihan, the county magistrate, resolutely opposed it because it was close to Xianling.Chen Feng then impeached Wang Zhihan, the Xiangyang Tongju Mansion, the promoted official He Dongru, and some officials who had tried to rescue Feng Yingjing.Tiqi went to Wuchang to arrest these people and chased Feng Yingjing.During Feng Yingjing's tenure, he cared more about the people. When the people saw him arrested, they cried bitterly and sent him on his way.Chen Feng posted notices everywhere on the street, listing Feng Yingjing's crimes.The scholars and people were even more angry. In March of the 29th year of Wanli (1601 AD), they rioted again, gathered around Chen Feng's office, and vowed to kill Chen Feng.Chen Feng escaped from the back door and hid in the palace of the king of Chu. The rioting people tied up Chen Feng's henchman Geng Wendeng and 16 people and threw them into the Yangtze River;However, Chen Feng secretly dispatched his lackeys to accompany 300 people with soldiers, chase and shoot the masses.Feng Yingjing persuaded them in the carriage, and the people dispersed.After Emperor Wanli knew about this incident, he did not "seriously deal with" Chen Feng, but only recalled the incident.To be an emperor and do this, I really fainted.

After news of another civil uprising in Wuchang spread to the capital, the imperial court dared not send anyone to Wuchang for investigation for more than two months.Li Dai, Shangshu of the Ministry of Officials, together with all the officials, pointed out that half of the students and officials imprisoned by the Zhenfu Division were arrested and imprisoned because of Chen Feng's false report, and asked for their release.Shen Yiguan and Yao Wenwei also requested to withdraw Chen and return to the capital, but their memorials were withheld and not reported.At this time, Li Daozheng, the Prime Minister of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, supervised the handling of the Hukou boat tax, and also went to the public to expose Chen Feng's interception of merchant ships on the waterway and traffickers on the land. Take Chen Feng to appease the complaints of business people.Only then did Shenzong decree in April: "The rent of Huguang shop, mining, coin casting, money and food, etc., will be managed by Du Mao, an internal garrison official, and Chen Feng will send his official companions back to Beijing for punishment."

During Chen Feng's two years in Huguang, he searched for a large amount of gold and silver treasures.Zhi Ke was afraid that the people would intercept him, so he sent troops to escort him out of the country.After Chen Feng returned to the capital, Chen Weichun and Guo Ruxing exposed his crimes again, and he was demoted to a miscellaneous position, and Zhi Keda was dismissed.Feng Yingjing was released in 32 years (AD 1604), and Wang Zhihan finally died in prison.

After the riots of the common people subsided, Chen Fengcai sneaked out of Chu Palace.After that, he immediately mobilized a large number of troops as a guarantee for his tomb robbery.Under the awe of the army, the people had to let Chen Feng do anything wrong.

In this way, Chen Feng led a large number of troops to station in Mingmingling again in the name of mining.This time it was obvious that the mausoleum failed to escape the catastrophe. Not only were a large number of ground buildings destroyed, but the underground palace of the mausoleum was also looted.All the funerary objects in the mausoleum, as well as the gold, silver and jewelry in Zhu Youzhao's coffin, were looted by Chen Feng.

Facing so many rare treasures in the royal tomb, Chen Feng actually had the idea of ​​plotting against Ming Shenzong.Although he took bribes and openly looted many treasures, those treasures were far from those in the obvious mausoleum.Dazed by his profit, he secretly took most of the treasures in the Ming Mausoleum for himself, and only presented the not very precious funerary objects to Ming Shenzong.

It is said that when Chen Feng returned to Beijing to report on his duties, tens of thousands of gold and silver treasures were seized, and the boats carrying the treasures were connected end to end and stretched for several miles.In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, Chen Fenghuan specially sent a large number of soldiers to escort the treasure.

Although Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty was very stupid in politics, he was very economical in collecting money.He looked at the obvious treasures in the mausoleum sent up by Chen Feng, and immediately saw Chen Feng's tricks.Ming Shenzong was very angry, and from time to time, ministers impeached Chen Feng for his brutal rule over the people of Huguang and his crime of tomb robbery, Ming Shenzong decided to punish this disloyal slave.On the one hand, it is to distinguish himself from Chen Feng's viciousness, to appease the anger of the court and the people all over the world, and on the other hand, he also kills chickens for monkeys to warn his money-grabbing officials.

So, as soon as Chen Feng returned to the capital, Ming Shenzong imprisoned him and tortured him to death.The heinous Chen Feng finally got the punishment he deserved.

Ming Shenzong, who acquiesced to Chen Feng's act of stealing his ancestor's tomb, also failed to rest peacefully in the ground after death.The emperor who even dared to dig his own ancestral grave is too stupid! 300 years later, Ming Shenzong's Dingling Tomb was also robbed by later generations.This may be his retribution for stealing the ancestral grave!

Although the Ming Ming Mausoleum has been destroyed for a long time, it can still show the majesty and magnificence of that year.The entire cemetery of its Wai Mausoleum is very large, consisting of two feudal cities, with red walls and yellow tiles, resplendent and resplendent, winding up and down among the mountains and hazy peaks.The cemetery consists of the inner and outer cities, the front and rear Baocheng, Fangcheng Minglou, Sengen Temple, Sengenmen, Shenchu, Shenku, Mausoleum, Military Households, Jingongjian, Gongde Monument, New Red Gate, Old Red Gate, Inner and Outer Ming It is composed of more than 30 large-scale architectural complexes, including the pond, the Jiuqu Yuhe, and the dragon-shaped Shinto.Its layout concept is ingenious, the craft reliefs are exquisite, and the double mounds of a mausoleum are rare in the world, and they are treasures in ancient Chinese architectural art.

Emperor Qianlong stole the beam and changed his post

Many people may be surprised that tomb robbery is associated with the King of One Dynasty. How is this possible?However, for the sake of self-interest and out of the consideration of bad people's feng shui, the emperor was not exempt from the custom and started stealing. There is no shortage of such emperors in history.The famous Emperor Qianlong did this kind of thing.

Qianlong, named Hongli, was the fourth son of Yongzheng. After Yongzheng's death, he inherited the throne and changed his name to Qianlong, who became the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty.When Qianlong succeeded to the throne, the Qing Dynasty had been governed by Kangxi and Yongzheng for more than 70 years. The economy had achieved considerable development, the society was stable, and the people were well-off.Qianlong made great efforts to govern and promoted development, and the last swan song of Chinese feudal society appeared, which is the "prosperous age of Kang and Qianlong".Qianlong reigned for 60 years and died at the age of 89, plus three years as the Supreme Emperor, making him the emperor who actually reigned the longest and lived the longest among Chinese emperors.Qianlong was an emperor with outstanding literary and martial arts. He created the "Kang and Qian Dynasty" and pushed the feudal system in ancient China to its final peak.Qianlong was conceited throughout his life, thinking that he had made outstanding achievements that no one could match, and in his later years he called himself "the old man of perfection".

After Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty broke the funeral system of "the son is buried with his father, and the ancestors continue to succeed", Emperor Qianlong believed that if the emperors of all dynasties after himself were buried in the Xiling Mausoleum, then the incense in the Dongling Mausoleum must gradually decline and feel deserted and helpless. , it will be ruined for a long time.In order to take into account the ups and downs of the East and West Mausoleums, Qianlong also made a rigid rule of "the system of Zhao burials", that is, if the father is in the Dongling Tomb, the son will be in the West Tomb; if the father is in the Xiling Tomb, the son will be in the Dongling Tomb.It is also specially stipulated that the future imperial mausoleum will choose either the east or the west, and it is not possible to choose another mausoleum site at will.

The Shiquan old man pursues perfection in everything, and building a mausoleum is no exception.His mausoleum, Yuling, is grand in scale, majestic in momentum, exquisite in design, and strives for perfection in every detail.In terms of the selection of mausoleum materials, Qianlong also demanded to be the best.At that time, the Qing Dynasty was at its peak, the national power was strong, and the national treasury was full. Qianlong spared no effort to find high-quality wood from all over the world as the material for the ground construction of his mausoleum. These wood came from all over the country and were sent to Beijing thousands of miles away.However, what Qianlong liked the most was the building materials used in the Ming Tombs.

In the history of Chinese tomb robbers, Qianlong should be regarded as the most powerful and noble tomb robber, and his motive for tomb robbery is also strange.It is said that it was only for the purpose of stealing the large nanmu pillars in the mausoleum-stealing beams and replacing pillars.

Initially, Emperor Qianlong set his sights on the Changling Mausoleum of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di.The pillars of Changling's Cheng'en Hall are made of golden nanmu.Golden nanmu is a high-quality wood. It can be said to be a late bloomer. It has a hard texture and a glossy wood surface. It does not need to be painted (xiū) varnish. It has a pleasant smell and is not close to mosquitoes.The Ling'en Hall of the Changling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is the largest hall of golden nanmu in China, which made Qianlong, who was eager for exquisite materials, very tempted.After Liu Yong (Liu Luoguo), Ji Xiaolan and others knew that Qianlong had taken a fancy to the golden-threaded nanmu pillars on the Changling Hall of Zhu Di, Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty, they tried their best to dissuade them, so they had to keep Changling.But Qianlong still didn't give up, and he was uneasy every day if he didn't get the golden nanmu.

Under the planning of some ministers, Emperor Qianlong finally found an excuse, which was to repair the Ming Tombs.

In the 55th year of Qianlong (AD 1790), Qianlong ordered the repair of the Ming Tombs.Qianlong took advantage of this opportunity to cheat.In charge of this project were Jin Jian, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Cao Wenyu, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.The construction of the Ming Tombs is a huge project with a reasonable structure, especially the Yongling Tomb, which is still as beautiful as before despite hundreds of years of wind and rain, only some parts need to be repaired.However, the person in charge of the repair project was well aware of Qianlong's intentions, and on the grounds that the golden nanmu had been harvested, he asked the ground buildings of Changling and Yongling to "remove the large and small" parts of the palace gates of Yongling. , Xiangdian was demolished, scaled down, and rebuilt into five Jianen halls and three palace gates.In this way, not only the Yongling Mausoleum was completely renewed, but also a lot of wood was left over, and the remaining wood was naturally taken by Qianlong for himself.According to the "Daming Huidian", there were originally 7 rooms in Yongling's Yan'en Hall, 9 in the left and right side halls, and 5 rooms in the width of the door. In the 50th year of Qianlong, the Yan'en Hall was demolished and rebuilt. There are 5 rooms, and the Yan'en Gate is also reduced to 2 rooms.The width and space of the Dingling Zun'en Hall have also been reduced, and the distribution of column grids is also different from the old system.

The story of "Qianlong stealing wood" widely spread among the people happened during the process of building the tomb.In this way, Qianlong not only stole the golden nanmu, but also gained a reputation for repairing the Ming Tomb.There is no impenetrable wall in the world, and the scandal of Qianlong stealing wood was still publicized.The incident of the emperor stealing the mausoleum is really appalling. In the end, Qianlong directed a farce in which he was dispatched to the south of the Yangtze River in order to stop the world from talking. .

The emperors were all "thieves" who stole the country, and the emperors of the Qing Dynasty really liked "being thieves".Since Emperor Shunzhi, there are many records of demolition of Ming Dynasty buildings to build mausoleums and temples. It is said that they are all because of the high-quality materials used in Ming Dynasty buildings.But only Qianlong dared to "steal the tomb".Qianlong's Yuling was later robbed and humiliated. I don't know if it is a coincidence.

(End of this chapter)