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

Chapter 56 Murder Intent Hidden in the Darkness——Anti-Tomb Raider Technology (1)
Brainstorming against the tomb

"Book of Jin · Lin Biography" records such a dialogue between the monarch and his ministers: "The emperor asked Lin: "What is there in the Han Mausoleum, why is there so much?" Lin said to him: "The emperor of Han ascended the throne for one year and made the mausoleum. The world pays tribute One third is for the ancestral temple, one for the guests, and one for the mountain mausoleum." One third of the country's fiscal revenue is used to build tombs for emperors, which shows how much wealth is buried underground.

The noble tomb owners knew that the priceless national treasures accompanying them were destined to attract thieves from the day they were buried.Therefore, the anti-theft measures for tombs can be described as racking their brains: setting up suspicious tombs, empty tombs, and laying out confusion arrays; The invading tomb robbers die outside the tomb door... Tomb robbery and anti-theft are like a pair of spears and shields.In response to the turbulent tomb robbery in history, the ruling classes of all dynasties have taken various measures to strictly guard against it.

Summarizing the anti-theft measures of tombs in the past dynasties, they can be roughly divided into two categories: humanistic means and technical means.

Humanistic means mainly include moral propaganda, legislative prohibition and guarding tombs.

For example, the Tang Dynasty stipulated that where there is an amnesty order, the ten evils of disobedience and the development of tombs shall not be included in the amnesty. In "Tang Law Discussion", there are special criminal regulations for the crime of posting tombs. The severity of the punishment is determined according to the degree of excavation damage. Sentenced to one year in prison.

The Ming Dynasty adopted strict systems and measures for the protection of the mausoleum. The "Law of the Ming Dynasty" stipulates that anyone who steals and digs a mausoleum will be punished as a crime of treason, regardless of the first offender and accomplices, they will all be sentenced to the death penalty of "Ling Chi"; anyone who steals sacrificial utensils, curtains, jade, silk, and animal prisons from Lu Tombs will be beheaded for public display; If you dare to steal trees in the mausoleum area, not only will you be beheaded, but your family members will also be sent to the frontier to serve as soldiers.

Moral propaganda and legislative prohibition cost a lot, but gain little.Guarding mausoleums and tombs is an effective measure, especially to deal with self-employed tomb robbers.However, although the Ming Tombs were heavily guarded, they were still destroyed by the Dashun Army and the Qing Army.

The technical means mainly include strong mausoleums, anti-theft organs, cursing and intimidation, secret burials, suspected tombs and fake graves, thick burials and thin burials, and no ashes left.

Regarding the anti-theft technology of the mausoleum, this chapter will introduce it to readers one by one.

The anti-theft trick is thin burial

In the previous chapters, we have already said that tomb thieves are rampant, and the trend of tomb robbery is repeated.In the late Neolithic Age, there were large-scale tombs with hundreds of burial objects.Entering a class society, a special manifestation of social behavior norms is the thick burial. The Confucian classic "The Doctrine of the Mean", which is listed as one of the four books, mentions that "death is like life, death is like survival, and filial piety is the ultimate."It is the embodiment of filial piety to treat a person after death as he was alive.Therefore, the ancients would bury the most precious treasures with the owner of the tomb, making it a funerary object, and they would be buried underground with the owner of the tomb. The cultural relics in the tomb often represented the highest level of social civilization development at that time.And the ancient Chinese were also happy to show the great power of the dead and the living with luxurious funerals.

Throughout the dynasties, people, headed by emperors, competed in luxury when building tombs to show the filial piety of the living and the honor of the dead.However, the wind of thick burials has inevitably caused such a bad result, that is, it has attracted countless tomb robbers who are chasing interests.The ancients said that "rich burials can inspire treacherous hearts". The rich burial objects in the tomb greatly stimulated the desire of the tomb robbers to amass wealth. Many people became rich overnight by excavating ancient tombs.Tomb robbery can even maintain the expenditure of a regime and an army.As a result, driven by profit, people broke through the constraints of morality, ignored the law and sanctioned them, took risks and joined the ranks of tomb robbers.Hence the surprising but inevitable phenomenon that "since ancient times to the present, there has been no immortal person, and no immortal tomb".

On the other hand, the ancient theory of ghosts and gods believes that burials are the resting place of human beings after death. In order to continue to enjoy the honor of life after death, people will also build magnificent tombs, just like palaces on earth.The large tombs in the Han Dynasty were modeled on the palaces of the living, with up to a dozen tombs at most.The magnificence of the imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty can even occupy the entire mountain.The burial objects in the tomb are a collection of rare treasures at that time, such as the Simuwu Fangding, which weighed hundreds of catties and represented the pinnacle of ancient Chinese bronze manufacturing technology, and the exquisitely crafted and expensive golden jade clothes, made of gold, Exquisite grassland decorations, these material civilization carriers that symbolize the times and nations, are all used as funerary objects and buried deep in the ground to accompany the dead for a long time.Not only Qin Shihuang, but also his favorite playthings were buried in Lishan.In the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, a pit of rare birds and animals was discovered, and the animal skeletons in the pit were densely covered, and they were all buried for Qin Shihuang.Tang Taizong Li Shimin once ordered Wang Xizhi's favorite work "Lanting Preface" to be buried in Zhaoling Mausoleum, causing "the best running script in the world" to be annihilated.The aristocratic class in the pre-Qin period even used people to be buried.

It is obvious to all that the thick burials have triggered a frenzy of tomb robberies, but few people have proposed relatively reasonable solutions.In fact, the method to fundamentally eliminate tomb robbery is very simple, that is thin burial.

Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty was the first emperor to propose thin burials. "Han Shu Wendi Benji" records that "the imperial edict said:' Lian Wenzhi covers the birth of all things in the world, and there is no death. The principle of heaven and earth, the nature of things, Xi Ke is very sad! In today's world, Xian Jiasheng However, if you hate death, you will lose your career if you are buried richly, and you will be injured if you wear heavy clothes. I will not take it."'"

After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, Han Gaozu, Emperor Hui, and Empress Lu all focused on developing agricultural production and stabilizing the ruling order, and achieved remarkable results.However, when Emperor Wen came to the throne, not only was the country's financial resources seriously insufficient, but the people's lives were also quite difficult.This kind of poverty is caused by the fact that "one man plows it, and ten people eat it together", the peasants suffer from cruel exploitation, the trend of prostitution and extravagance is becoming more and more serious, and the society is at the end of its roots.This shows that the social contradictions that were once eased in the early Han Dynasty gradually became superficial in the Wenjing period.How can we resolve this contradiction?How can we seek economic recovery and development?

The young Jia Yi wrote "On the Passing of the Qin Dynasty" and proposed for Emperor Wen that the fundamental policy of governing the country was "the way of herdsmen, and the task lies in peace".This social trend of thought that requires peace of mind is the common demand of the government and the public since Emperor Hui, and it is also the need to consolidate the rule of the Western Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was named Liu Heng, the third son of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty.In his early years, he was named king.The fief is in today's Shanxi.After Taiwei Zhou Bo and others quelled the rebellion of Empress Lu, they welcomed him as emperor.In Chinese history, Emperor Han Wen was known for his frugality. He was 23 years old at the time.During the 23 years of Emperor Wen's reign, he insisted on implementing the policy of "living with the people", reducing taxes and servitude, omitting punishments and prisons, restoring agricultural production, taking measures to weaken the power of the princes, and consolidating the central government.Thus created the famous "Government of Wenjing".Even in the last edict before his death, he never forgot the harm to the national economy and the people's livelihood caused by the heavy burial, and he must personally change this social phenomenon, ordering "the mountains and rivers of Baling Mountains will not be changed for this reason."This is the beginning of mountain-based mausoleums in ancient China.

Regarding the matter of building his own mausoleum, Emperor Wen changed the practice of previous emperors to move soil and build tombs, and chose the northern foot of Bailuyuan in Ba'an as his mausoleum.He advocates thin burials and opposes state funerals that disturb the people.Before he was alive, he left a will, "A heavy burial will break the business, and heavy clothing will hurt the life. I don't take it." During the funeral, the people "do not forbid marrying wives, marrying daughters, offering sacrifices, drinking alcohol, and eating meat." It is required to "announce the world so that I know my intentions." According to historical records, "the tombs of the tyrants are all made of pottery, not gold and silver. After the death of Emperor Wen, the funeral ceremony was very simple. The coffin was as far away as the cemetery, and it was buried in the ground immediately The people in the vicinity were very puzzled by this, and many even suspected that there was no coffin in the tomb. But Emperor Wen was a good emperor, so a beautiful legend of "Buying Emperor Wen of Han in the sky" spread among the kind-hearted people. During the Song Dynasty, Tyrant A Mo Ling Temple (also known as Mo Ye Temple) was built near the mausoleum to commemorate it.

Emperor Cheng of the Western Han Dynasty also ordered a thin burial.Different from Emperor Wen, Emperor Cheng prohibited rich burials because the society was full of extravagance at that time, and the emperor had to decree to promote frugality and prohibit extravagant weddings and funerals.But Emperor Cheng's thin burial order was only for the common people.He still buried himself generously, carried out large-scale construction projects, and conscripted corvees.

As if to inherit the behest of their ancestors, Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Ming, Emperor Zhang, and Emperor He of the Eastern Han Dynasty all advertised thin burials.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a trend of thin burials gradually formed.Dayu, Mozi, and Zhuangzi in the pre-Qin Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty, and Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty all required or implemented thin burials, but they did not have an impact on the thick burials of the upper class. They are still anti-traditional behaviors. Virtue, thin burial is despicable".However, the thin burials during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties have a completely different nature, with a wide range of implementation and a long duration.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was Cao Cao who first advocated thin burials. His dying order was: "The world is not yet stable, and the ancient times have not been followed. After the burial, everyone will be removed from their uniforms. Those who are stationed in the garrison are not allowed to leave the garrison. There are divisions with their own duties. Burial in the clothes of the time, no treasures of gold and jade are hidden." This is the earliest edict in China to specify the matter of thin burial.In fact, Cao Cao himself was the biggest tomb robber at that time. A large part of the credit for the success of the Cao Group should be attributed to the Mojin Xiaowei and Faqiu Zhonglang, who were set up by Cao Cao to be responsible for tomb robbery. The most easily stolen truth.When Cao Cao passed away, it was the time when the Three Kingdoms were beginning to take shape. The thin burial of the will can not only prevent tomb robbers, but also reduce the burden, and use energy to fight against Wu and Shu.

Cao Cao's successor, Wei Wendi Cao Pi, inherited Cao Cao's behest and continued to advocate thin burials.Cao Pi clearly saw the fact that there has never been a tomb that has not been found throughout the ages. He left such a will during his lifetime: "The coffin is enough to rot the bones, and the clothes are enough to rot the flesh. Therefore, our camp is a place where there is no food. In order to make it unknown after the Yi Dynasty. No reed charcoal was used, no gold, silver, copper and iron were hidden, and a pottery vessel was used to match the ancient meaning of painting a car and being a spirit. But the lacquer will pass through the coffin three times, and the rice contains no pearls and jade. There are no pearls, jackets and jade boxes, which is what fools and vulgar people do.” Cao Pi’s burial is extremely thin, the majestic mausoleum, the inner and outer coffins can only accommodate people, and only pottery is used as burial objects, even ordinary people, the funeral will not be so simple.What's more worth mentioning is that after Cao Pi's death, the burial was strictly in accordance with his will, and a thin burial was truly achieved.

At that time, thin burial had become the national system, the family rules of the gentry, and the conscious behavior of ordinary people. It was implemented in the form of decrees to save social wealth, support wars and deal with famines. Then the living will suffer from waste of money. The sage king knows this, so he proclaims it with etiquette and treats it with laws....The old charter of today’s charter is only a precedent, and the laws and regulations written are always the norm. At that time, the gentry with powerful social forces also adopted a supportive attitude towards thin burials and made it a family rule handed down from time to time.For example, Liu, Song and Zhang Shao "at the end of their lives, apples are offered as sacrifices, and the reed mat is like a cart, and all the sons use it." The support of relatives and friends for thin burials is further reflected in the courage to refuse the emperor's and dignitaries' gifts of official titles and funeral expenses for the deceased. superior.At that time, there were still many public opinions in support of thin burials, which provided theoretical basis and made it a rare phenomenon in history.For example, Huang Fumi said in "Du Zhong Lun" that "the order of existence and death of heaven and earth, human reason must come. ... What the wife covets, lives. What she hates, dies. Even though she is greedy, she cannot exceed the deadline; even if she is evil , can not escape." "Corpse and earth together, anti-truth also."

In the heyday of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, some people continued to propose thin burials, and the representative among them was Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.Most of the imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty were based on mountains. The reason is that Li Shimin believed that relying on mountains as mausoleums could save manpower and expenses for building mausoleums.He said in the edict: "The queen is frugal, and her last words are buried lightly. She thinks: 'The heart of a thief should stop seeking precious goods. If there are no precious goods, what else can I ask for.' The original aspirations of the couplet are the same. The king regards the world as his home. , why bother to keep things in the mausoleum, they are their own. Today, because the Jiujun Mountain is the mausoleum, there are more than a hundred people who chisel the stone, and it took decades to complete it. There is no gold, jade, men, horses, and utensils. They are all made of earth, wood and tools If there are no valuable burial objects in the tomb, can the tomb robbers still come and steal?Therefore, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty requested that after his death, gold, jade, figurines and luxurious utensils should not be hidden in the mausoleum.

After the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the chaotic times of China's feudal society came to an end, but many emperors still flaunted thin burials, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties.It's just that the thin burials at this time were mostly a face project for the emperor's advocacy of wisdom and frugality, so the matter of preventing theft was rarely mentioned.

There are many emperors who advocated thin burial in history, but not many actually practiced it and fulfilled the promise of thin burial.The first emperor who advocated thin burials, although he strongly advocated thin burials, "Hanshu" records that tens of thousands of civilians were used to build Emperor Wen's mausoleum, and the burial objects in the underground palace were "a lot of treasures".

It is recorded in the official history that the mausoleum of Wei Wendi Cao Pi is as stated in his will, but whether Cao Cao was really buried in a thin way is not recorded in the official history.But if the 72 suspected tombs widely circulated in unofficial history are true, then Cao Cao's thin burial is also a lie.

During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the chaos, the tombs of the emperors were not sealed or treed, so that we can hardly find them today. It seems that thin burials were really achieved.

The thin burial of the wise and mighty Tang Taizong Li Shimin was a big lie.Emperor Taizong's Zhaoling Mausoleum covers an area of ​​more than 2 hectares, with a circumference of 60 kilometers. The ground is complete with ritual buildings, the city wall is surrounded by hills, and there are many stone carvings. It takes amazing manpower and material resources to build these ground buildings and stone carvings.The burial objects in the underground palace are even more luxurious, and the tomb robber Wen Tao made a fortune when he robbed Zhaoling.The mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was magnificently built. Not only that, but also the precious authentic works of previous great calligraphers such as Wang Xizhi and Zhong Yao were buried. It can be seen that Li Shimin's theory of thin burial has not been put into practice.

As for the imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties, they were extravagantly built. The Ming Tombs, the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty, and the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty are all magnificent, and the mausoleums are still majestic and stretching.

Thin burials are the simplest anti-theft measures. Although most emperors strongly advocated thin burials, they did not practice them and kept their promises. Of course, tomb robbers would not let these luxurious tombs go.The simplest measures, but the most difficult to implement.

It is most effective to relocate and guard the mausoleum
Thin burial is the simplest anti-theft measure, but it is abandoned and not used.Perhaps it is because thin burials cannot reveal the status and influence of the tomb owner during his lifetime, so the trend of thick burials is difficult to suppress. In order to prevent the tomb from being stolen, corresponding measures must be taken.Among them, using manpower to guard the tomb to prevent theft is the most effective method of anti-tomb robbery.

China has always had the custom of "guarding the grave", that is, guarding the tomb.That is to say, shanty families are placed next to the tombs, and they are responsible for guarding them. One is to fulfill filial piety, and the other is to prevent tomb robbers.During the Han Dynasty, after the death of parents and elders, children had the custom of "keeping filial piety for three years", and guarding the tomb of their parents for three years.There is even a righteous and filial son who has been guarding the tomb for ten years.

The emperor's mausoleum has the method of "relocating households and guarding the mausoleum", that is, moving a certain number of people around their mausoleum to live, live, and guard the mausoleum.During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Chang, the king of Huainan, was exiled to Sichuan by Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty for committing the crime of treason, and committed suicide on the way.Therefore, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was very sad, and buried Liu Chang as a lieutenant, and moved more than [-] families to Liu Chang's tomb to guard his spirit.If the princes are like this, then the number of princes and even emperors who are more noble than the princes will move to guard the mausoleum.

According to historical data, two years after the emperor ascended the throne in the Western Han Dynasty, he had to consider the construction of the mausoleum.After selecting the tomb site, it is necessary to plan the construction of the mausoleum.The so-called mausoleum is to build a city next to the tomb. The mausoleum is very large, with tens of thousands or even 10,000+ people.This anti-theft method works well.Tomb robbers generally act stealthily, and most of the objects they rob are remote and desolate tombs. For tombs in prosperous places, because there are too many people, they will not easily succeed, so they will not attack these tombs.

In addition to preventing theft, the system of moving households and guarding mausoleums has political reasons.After the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, they took all the royal families and nobles of the original six kingdoms as hostages and moved them to Xianyang to guard their spirits, in order to coerce the subjects of the six kingdoms not to dare to rebel.After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang enfeoffed a large number of princes, which caused a situation where the princes threatened the central government.In order to strengthen the rule of the central government, Liu Bang implemented the system of relocating households and guarding mausoleums, and moved all the tyrants from various places to the Guanzhong area, so as to coerce the princes from various places and not act rashly.This not only weakens local power, but also strengthens centralization.

The people who were moved to guard the tomb did not enjoy the state's salary, so they just moved passively and changed their living place and living environment.These people are very familiar with the situation of the tombs, and they often guard and steal themselves.As a result, the method of guarding the mausoleum against theft also went bankrupt.

Since it is unreliable to move households to guard the mausoleum, armed forces will be used to guard the imperial mausoleum.In the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent theft, the state strengthened the guarding force of the mausoleum, and specially set up the Shrine Supervising Army to strictly guard the emperor's mausoleum.There are various departments under the Jingu Supervisor Army, including the Mountain Patrol Army and Patrol Army, which are similar to modern patrols and guards, as well as the Royal Women Army, Royal Horse Supervisor Army, Chaofang Watching Army, Qianjin Mountain Army, and Mourning Tomb Army, etc. , strict organization, comprehensive departments, and a large number of soldiers, with a total of 6024 soldiers.In addition, each mausoleum also has a guard, who is responsible for guarding the mausoleum.During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the above-mentioned organizations, "Yong'an Camp" and "Gong Hua Guan" were also established, with 4000 and 3000 troops respectively as mobile troops.I usually practice in the teaching ground, and once something happens, I can quickly perform the task, and rush to the intersections of the main roads as quickly as possible to block them, and the guards are very strict.

Stone coffins and iron walls line up

In addition to hiding the tomb site and setting up false suspicious tombs, building the coffin and tomb walls to be indestructible is also a means of preventing theft.

(End of this chapter)