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

Chapter 43 The Sixth Wave of Tomb Raiders: Tomb Raiders in Modern Times (2)
At this time, Dang Yukun's rule over Fengxiang was not stable. The armies he defeated often fought back against him, and he was also facing the threat of an even bigger warlord annexing him.As the saying goes, "On the side of the couch, how can you let others sleep peacefully?" In order to expand his power and consolidate his position, Dang Yukun began to amass money crazily.But no matter what method he tried, the property he got was very limited, which made him troubled.Dang Yukun, who is known as an "antique addict", certainly knows the great value of cultural relics and understands the practical uses of antiques.He collects cultural relics for nothing more than two purposes: to manage contacts, exchange funds to buy firearms, and earn capital for him to dominate.

At that time, there was a squire named Yang Wansheng in Doujitai, who ran rampant in the village on weekdays, full of crimes and great public anger.Later, he aroused the righteous indignation of the local farmers because he privately increased the opium tax.Some farmers united to report his crimes, and some threatened to assassinate him to eliminate harm for the people.

Yang Wansheng couldn't help panicking.He asked Ma Bian (biàn) of the party and Zhang Zhixian from his hometown to intercede with him and exonerate him.Later, Yang Wansheng, who had a guilty conscience, learned that Dang Yukun liked cultural relics and was hunting for treasures everywhere. In order to find a backer and to thank Zhang Zhixian, he revealed to Zhang:
"In the ditch behind Daijiawan Village, there are several caves near the cliff, and there are antiques in the caves. As long as you move the hammer in the caves, you will be able to dig out some treasures, and you can sell them for dozens or hundreds of Baiyang. It's a common thing. If you send someone to dig it out, you will definitely make a fortune."

After Zhang Zhixian heard Yang Wansheng's strange talk, he felt that this was a good opportunity to please his master, so he provided clues to Dang Yukun, saying: "There are a lot of antiques buried in a cave in the north of Daijiawan Village. , you can dig out cultural relics.” Hearing this report, Dang Yukun was very happy, and felt that the time for him to make a fortune had come.In order to find out the facts, Dang Yukun personally went to Daijiawan Village to conduct an investigation in the spring of 1927.After intensive and careful research and deployment, a large-scale treasure-robbing operation began after the autumn harvest that year. The treasure-robbing headquarters was set up at Yang Wansheng's home. They all live in Yang Wansheng's home.

After getting a detailed understanding of the situation, Dang Yukun, who couldn't wait, decided to act immediately, and soon after returning home, he prepared the belly draft of the treasure robbery plan.Subsequently, he ordered to find someone to make a plan, and accordingly selected suitable personnel to carry out his treasure-robbing task.The specific arrangements are as follows: He Yutang, the brigade commander stationed in Guo Town, Baoji County, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of treasure digging; Fan Chunfang, general manager of Fengxiang "Baoxingcheng" Bank, was appointed as the general manager of on-site excavation. There are quite a lot of connections in antiques trading in Zhuangzhuang; four people from Fengxiang, nicknamed "Da Ya", Ma Chenglong, Chai Guanchang, Zhang Fu, and Bai Shoucai, the squad leader of the guards, were sent as the supervisors. Xiang Shoucai is a native of Baoji County, and he is very familiar with the local customs and customs, which is extremely beneficial to the treasure digging work; in addition, Zheng Yuwen, a well-known local antique dealer in Baoji, was hired as a secretary (known as "Mr. Digging Treasure") , the actual task of this person is to be the on-site instructor of treasure digging, responsible for repairing, appraising and grading and pricing the various cultural relics excavated; After the treasure digging operation started, every time Dang Yukun came here to check, he also stayed at Yang Wansheng's house and was in charge of reception.

After Dang Yukun arranged the above-mentioned main people responsible for stealing treasures one by one, he ordered everyone to start digging.

The migrant workers who are specifically engaged in treasure-digging work are all young and middle-aged men captured from rural areas in nearby counties and districts.At the beginning, the workload was not large, and it was enough to forcefully apportion the nearby tombs; as the area of ​​the tomb continued to expand, more and more manpower was required, and the nearby villages could not apportion, so it suddenly expanded to Baoji, Fengxiang, and Qishan. most of the villages in the county.In this way, at peak times, more than 1000 people are digging for treasure a day, and the entire Daijiawan is full of treasure diggers.

During the eight months from the autumn of 1927 to the spring of 1928, this patchwork army of treasure diggers turned the good ground on both sides of Daijiawan upside down, and the excavated soil also filled up a huge deep ditch. .

Under the guidance of Yang Wansheng, on the first day of construction, a lot of bronzes and pottery were dug out in a cave in the east of Daijiawan, including bronze mirrors, bronze francium, and pottery stoves, all of which came from the same Han Dynasty tomb. .

On the third day, another precious bronze object was dug out in another place. Ma Chenglong and others said that the object was an incense tube.But after being appraised by Zheng Yuwen, the "treasure digging guide", it was said to be "Zhì".Then, a tripod with an inscription on it, a Yi (gui) and several broken utensils were dug out in this pit, as well as Ge and copper bubbles.Soon, another large tripod was dug out from another tomb, and there was a lamb in it. Although the skin and meat had rotted away, the skeleton was intact.

At the beginning of stealing treasures, he was successful and harvested a lot, and Dang Yukun couldn't help being overjoyed.His appetite for treasure-digging has become greater, and his arrogance has become more arrogant. Not only has his organization been more strictly controlled, but his manpower has also been constantly enriched and strengthened.This has harmed the people in the Doujitai area and its vicinity, and caused both people and gods to be angry and miserable.

The treasure digging activities continued until the end of November of that year, when migrant workers dug out a large tomb.According to the recollection of those who participated in the treasure robbery, there are murals on the tomb wall, which depict mountains, cattle and sheep.The screen is divided into two parts.The first part is: there is a herd of sheep at the foot of the overlapping mountains, and there are clay pots and pots beside the road; the second part is a herd of cows, lying down and standing up, and there seems to be a person in the herd (unclear).The mountains are drawn as neat triangles of large and small sizes.The body parts of the cattle and sheep are not very proportionate, with rough outlines and inaccurate images, but the heads are lifelike and lifelike, and the eyes are extremely energetic.

The painting is painted in vermilion, although it has fallen off in many places, it is generally intact.On the screen, there are living utensils and other paintings beside the road, which is likely to be a portrayal of the nomadic life of the Qin people at that time.There are many artifacts unearthed in this tomb, most of which are bronzes, including square tripods with black patterns, tripods with flat feet, and statues with animal faces.It is particularly worth mentioning that three bronze bans, commonly known as "copper zhào (zhào) sons", were unearthed in this tomb.There are three bronze vessels on the smaller one, and a 卣 (yǒu) (an ancient utensil for holding wine, with a small mouth and a large belly, a cover and a handle) in the middle.These unearthed utensils are all beautiful and elegant in shape, decorated with patterns, some of which are painted with birds and animals, with fluent and straight lines, which are really rare works of art.

As the saying goes, "If you grow your own, you cannot live."Dang Yukun stole treasures wantonly in Baoji, amassing property, and gradually expanded his power, which soon attracted Feng Yuxiang's attention.In addition, during the process of excavating ancient tombs, Dang Yukun and others cruelly oppressed the people and did a lot of evil, which caused anger and resentment among the people, and made Feng Yuxiang feel that they must be eliminated first and then quickly. In May 1928, Feng Yuxiang, then commander-in-chief of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army, ordered Song Zheyuan, commander-in-chief of the Fourth Front Army, to lead three divisions and one brigade, with a total of about 5 horses, to encircle and suppress Fengxiang City. Song Zheyuan personally supervised the troops. In the midst of gunpowder, he ventured into the city. After a short street battle, he won a complete victory and occupied Fengxiang.Dang Yukun was shot dead under the east wall of Fengxiang, and all the officers and soldiers under his command were dismissed.

At that time, Dang Yukun put some of the treasures stolen from the tomb on the treasure shelf in his bedroom, and the other part was placed in the living room of his second concubine Zhang Caixia. Most of the important utensils were hidden in a secret warehouse guarded by guards. guard.After Dang Yukun's entire army was annihilated, all these treasures fell into the hands of Song Zheyuan.

In September 1928, Song Zheyuan took out all the treasures he had obtained and exhibited them at the military headquarters of Simianting, Xi'an New City for one day, to feast his eyes on the subordinates who attacked Fengxiang.Later, he ordered Xiao Zhenying, Chief of Military Law, to lead troops to escort all the treasures to the Xi'an Military Headquarters.Since then, these very precious treasures have begun to circulate and disappear dramatically, and have been greatly damaged as a result.After these treasures arrived in Xi'an, Song Zheyuan first sent someone to Luzhen Photo Studio to ask photographers to take photos of them all.Then, he asked Xue Chongxun, who knew cultural relics appraisal, to conduct appraisals one by one in Xincheng Guangming Academy.

Dang Yukun's purpose of stealing treasures is only to make money. Because of his personal special preference for cultural relics, he only needs copper ware and not other cultural relics. When it is time, it is either smashed or thrown away.These treasure diggers dug treasures for Dang Yukun for free, and were often severely beaten and scolded by the supervisors. The cultural relics suffered serious damage for no reason.

Song Zheyuan first gave part of the identified treasures to his boss Feng Yuxiang.The water tripod Feng Yuxiang obtained was donated to the Palace Museum by his wife Li Dequan after the liberation of the whole country.Most of the remaining treasures owned by Song Zheyuan were brought to Tianjin by his concubine and Xiao Zhenying, who was then the mayor of Tianjin when he left Xi'an, and stored in Song Zheyuan's home in the British Concession.Later, some of them were sold to foreigners through antique dealers in Tianjin.

Japanese archaeologist Umehara Miji said in the book "Minutes of Oriental Studies": "The bronze wares unearthed in Baoji were bought from Tianjin by the Chinese antique dealer Dai Yunzhai Yao (Shu Lai) in New York. Yao said that Dang Yu The bronze wares that Kun unearthed in Baoji were first attributed to Feng Yuxiang. It is also heard that Gaotian Gong (gōng) (now in Hong Kong), which was once collected by the Xijin family in Boston, was also purchased from Tianjin through a Japanese antique dealer in New York."

In this passage, except that "Song Zheyuan" was mistaken for "Feng Yuxiang", the other contents are conclusive and credible.It can be seen from this that most of the precious cultural relics stolen by Dang Yukun from the Baoji Fighting Terrace were actually lost after Song Zheyuan and his subordinate Xiao Zhenying arrived in Tianjin: including Baoji in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Most of the treasures of the cockfighting platform are lost overseas due to this.This has caused irreparable damage to the precious cultural heritage of the motherland.

When appraising this batch of cultural relics back then, Xue Chongxun, who was quite careful, used ink to rub the inscriptions on dozens of sheets of paper.Most of the inscriptions are 1 to 3 characters, with a maximum of a dozen characters.When Song Zheyuan was transferred from Xi'an, these photos of cultural relics and precious rubbings may not have been taken away, but they were later discovered by a farmer in the Northwest Pass.At that time, these precious materials had been bound into 5 booklets, which were framed like copybooks and bought by an antique dealer named Wang Zishan.These five booklets were the source of the photos of Dang Yukun’s theft and excavation of Daijiagou bronze wares in the cockfighting platform, which were later circulated at home and abroad.

In 1945, Mr. Liu Anguo (Yi Ren) from Xi'an happened to meet Wang Zishan who was selling these 5 photo albums in the tattered market on North Street in Xi'an.Wang Zishan was from Hanzhong, and his son was studying in the middle school where Liu Anguo was the principal.Liu took advantage of this relationship and bought the photo album through his son.At that time, the words "Youfuhuan Baoliuzhen" inscribed by the calligrapher Mr. Liu Zizhen already appeared on these five photo albums.

After Liu Anguo got the photo album, he asked Yang Zhongjian, a famous antique expert, to look at it, and asked Mr. Xue Chongxun, who had identified this batch of cultural relics one by one and preserved some rubbings of the cultural relics, to identify them, and got their affirmation.

After Mr. Xue Chongxun saw these photos again, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion, so he happily ordered his pen to write on the front volume of the booklet: "The five volumes of Yi wares and landscapes were issued by Fuping Party Yukun (Yukun) stationed in Fengxiang. It was excavated by a civilian husband at the Siji Terrace. The party was defeated in Wuchen (1928), and the artifact was obtained by General Song Mingxuan (Zheyuan), the chairman of Shaanxi. He invited Yu to comment on Guangmingyuan in Xincheng. It has been 15 years since he left... Unexpectedly, Yiyou In spring, Brother Yi obtained it in Chang’an City, and copied it on the same day, with the original inscription written by me...Yiyou (1945) summer, April [-]nd, Sanyuan Xue Chongxun (Dingfu) acquainted.”

From 1955 to 1966, Liu Anguo asked archaeologists Shi Xingbang and Zheng Zhenduo twice to bring mimeograph albums and 30 rubbings from Xue Chongxun to Beijing. Experts such as Chen Mengjia read it, and please try to edit and publish it.After receiving these precious materials, Mr. Tang and Mr. Chen reproduced some photos of the collected cultural relics, and Mr. Chen also made notes, but in the end they were not published and all the originals were returned. After the "Cultural Revolution" began, both Liu and Xue's homes were ransacked, and unfortunately all these precious original photos and rubbings were lost.

After liberation, through the in-depth investigation and hard work of cultural relics and archaeologists, the situation of the cultural relics stolen by Dang Yukun was basically clarified.

Dang Yukun unearthed more than 1500 pieces of bronze and jade wares in Daijiagou, of which more than 740 pieces are well preserved, and 153 pieces are complete and can be used for research.The eras it belongs to include Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han and other periods, especially the two dynasties of Zhou and Qin.Among these cultural relics, there are also important bronze wares belonging to the early Western Zhou Dynasty.

Among the 1500 cultural relics, there are more than 70 cooking (rèn) food utensils, 39 tripod, gui, tile, bean, and wine utensils, gong, yi, qian, bucket, horn, ban, zun, you, jue, zhi, Spoons; 9 pieces of water utensils, pans, large Han copper pots, and square pots; 2 pieces of tools, including axes and sharpeners; 18 pieces of weapons, including crossbow machines, fishing halberds, bows, spears, and spears; and many others Miscellaneous, etc.

While excavating these important bronze artifacts, a chariot and horse pit was also excavated in early December 1927, containing car ornaments, horse ornaments, and a complete horse skeleton.The well-preserved chariot and horse pits of the early Western Zhou Dynasty are very important archaeological research materials, but unfortunately they were all destroyed by Dang Yukun.If scientific methods are used to excavate, it will not only provide information on the structure and craftsmanship of the chariots and horses in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, but also provide relevant information on the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty.

These precious cultural relics, which are called national treasures, not only have extremely high archaeological research value, but also have good artistic appreciation value, and have been recorded by many academic and art books at home and abroad.Some also fill in the lack of records in previous cultural relics, such as the bronze ware "Forbidden", that is the case.

The Curtain Queen was robbed

The Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty is one of the imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty. There are five imperial tombs in the Qing Dynasty, three in Liaoning Province and two in Hebei Province.Dongling is located in Malanyu, Zunhua County, Hebei Province, with Changrui Mountain in the north, Jinxing Mountain in the south, Daoyang Mountain in the east, and Huanghua Mountain in the west.Surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery, it is the mausoleum personally selected by Emperor Shunzhi.

Located in Zunhua, Hebei Province, the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty is the largest, most complete system and most appropriate layout of imperial tombs in China.In the 78 mausoleums covering an area of ​​15 square kilometers, 161 emperors, empresses, concubines and princes and princesses are buried forever.

The Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty is a rare treasure land of "feng shui".In the north, there is Changrui Mountain, which is like a Jinping emerald tent, in the south, there is Jinxing Mountain, which is like holding a wat (hù) court, in the middle is Yingbi Mountain, which can be used as a book case, and in the east, there is an eagle flying upside down like a green dragon , there is Huanghua Mountain in the west like a white tiger, and two big rivers in the east and west flow like two jade belts.The hall surrounded by mountains is vast and open, graceful and unobtrusive. It can be said that it is truly beautiful and the scenery is natural.

The architecture of the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty is magnificent, spectacular and exquisite. Among the huge ancient building complex composed of more than 580 individual buildings, there is the stone archway with the widest surface in China, the imitation wood structure with five rooms, six columns and eleven floors is exquisite; The road, which rises and falls with the mountains, is full of artistic appeal; the exquisite Buddhist stone carvings in the Qianlong Yuling Underground Palace are breathtaking, and were praised by the Panchen Lama as "a rare treasure house of stone carving art"; The luxury is rare in the world, and the stone carvings of "Phoenix on the Dragon and Down" are ingenious...

The Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty have a history of more than 300 years. Each mausoleum records a history of glory or decline, and each mausoleum inherits a touching or mysterious story.Shunzhi, the first emperor who entered the customs, Emperor Kangxi who created the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong, Qianlong, a perfect old man with both civil and military skills, empress Xiaozhuang Wen, an outstanding female politician who assisted the saint and the second ancestor, and Ci'an and Cixi who listened to politics twice behind the curtain. The confusing concubine Xiang, as well as Xianfeng and Tongzhi... These figures who once dominated the destiny of the country and played an extremely important role on the political stage of the Qing Dynasty are all buried here.

After the end of the Qing Dynasty, the rule of my country's feudal dynasty came to an end.Then came the period of the Republic of China. During this period, there were frequent wars and tomb robberies, especially warlords.During the period of the Republic of China, Dang Yukun was not the only warlord who had the idea of ​​robbing tombs. Compared with him, another warlord, Sun Dianying, was even worse.Sun Dianying is not worth mentioning in the history of our country, but since he stole the Eastern Qing Tomb, his status has risen rapidly, and he has become a notorious and hated national scum.

Sun Dianying, named Kuiyuan.Most people call him Sun Laodian, and because he had smallpox on his face, he is also called Sun Mazi. In the first month of 1889, Sun Dianying was born in a poor peasant family in Sunjiazhuang, Xiaoma Muji, Yongcheng County, Henan Province.He lost his father when he was young, and his mother doted on him, and he developed a naughty and mischievous character since childhood.When he was a teenager, he started to hang out with local gangsters, often in and out of gambling halls, and soon became a well-known gambler.With his intelligence and perseverance, Sun Dianying has practiced a whole body of stunts and developed a passion for making friends from all over the world.

(End of this chapter)