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

Chapter 62 There Are Tombs Within Tombs, and Tombs Within Tombs: False Tombs, False Tombs, and Doubtful Tombs (2)
According to historical records, Cao Pi, Emperor Wendi of Wei Dynasty, went to pay homage to his father by waterway. The waterway refers to going upstream along the Zhanghe River, and the location of Xigaoxue Village is just on the south bank of the Zhanghe River, very close to the Zhanghe River.Researcher Pan Weibin of the Henan Institute of Archaeology, through field surveys and archaeological evidence, believes that the area where Cao Cao's tomb was buried is within a radius of less than 1700 square meters to the north of Xigaoxue Village, Anyang County, Henan Province.Pan Weibin called this flat land full of crops the Cao Cao Mausoleum Park.This area is about [-] miles away from the ruins of Yecheng. At the same time, it is on a high hill west of Ximen Leopard Temple in Fengluo Town, Anyang County, Henan Province.Pan Weibin described that more than [-] years ago, this piece of land should have been a high hill, but it was only in modern times that the land was leveled and transformed into farmland.Such topography can still be seen today through some remaining topographical features.Because this high hill is more than ten meters higher than the Zhang River, it is impossible to irrigate with the water of the Zhang River, and it should be a barren land.Pan Weibin said: This place has the Zhanghe River in the north, so there are inevitably mountain ridges, and it is also a mountainous area to the northwest, so this place should be very good. It is high in the north and low in the south, and it is very low in the east.It is said that Cao Cao said in the last order that the place where the vacant room was left in front of his tomb was used as the location of the accompanying tomb. According to the current location, the front area is relatively flat, and it should be a more suitable location for his accompanying tomb.

In 2006, archaeologists in Henan Province discovered a tomb in Xigaoxue Village, which was identified by experts as Cao Cao’s Mausoleum. A large tomb from the Eastern Han Dynasty is at least at the princely level.The location of this large tomb is about one kilometer to the southeast of the unearthed epitaph of Lu Qian. Archaeologists boldly speculate that this is most likely Cao Cao's tomb or one of his accompanying tombs. In 2006, several cultural relics were robbed and unearthed from the robbed tomb at Xigao Cave, with the inscription "Emperor Wu's Family" on them.After Cao Cao's death, he was revered as Emperor Wu of Wei, and the inscription "Emperor Wu's Household" indicates that it was a utensil used by Cao Cao during his lifetime.So, is this large tomb within the possible range of Cao Cao's tomb described in Lu Qian's epitaph?

Combining various archaeological evidence and information of Cao Cao's tomb, Pan Weibin drew a specific orientation map of Cao Cao's tomb.In this picture, the possible locations of Tongque Terrace in Yecheng, Lu Qian’s Epitaph Excavation, Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb, Ximen Leopard Temple, Wucheng and Zhanghe Tongcao’s tomb are most consistent with historical records.

It is the consensus of most archaeologists that Cao Cao's tomb is located in the west of Yecheng.After Cao Cao unified the north, Yecheng became the strategic rear for his unification war, and Yecheng became an important political, military and cultural center in the Yellow River Basin. Therefore, Cao Cao chose this cemetery when he died.When Cao Cao was alive, he did not stand on his own in place of the Han Dynasty, and he made too many enemies in his life. It was impossible to choose the cemetery near Xuchang or Luoyang, the capital at that time. However, his hometown, Bozhou, was far away from the Central Plains and close to Sun Quan's Wu State, so it was very easy for Sun Wu to choose him. Sneak attack.From safety considerations, Cao Cao is also most likely to choose the cemetery in Yecheng, his fiefdom.There are two results, one is that Cao Cao's tomb can be uncovered, and the other may become a mystery of history forever. If Cao Cao's tomb is not washed away by the flood of the Zhang River, then Cao Cao's tomb still exists in the land of China There will be a day when the mystery will be revealed.

Xuzuka suspects that it is smoke

For thousands of years, tomb builders and tomb robbers have fought wits and wits. Tomb robbery and anti-tomb robbery technologies have emerged in an endless stream, constantly changing and innovating.Virtual burial was once a popular anti-theft method. In the era of increasingly rampant tomb robbery, the specific form of virtual burial has also changed again and again. After the suspicious tomb and blindfold method, another form of virtual burial came into being. This is the virtual tomb. .

False tombs are just one of the secret burial methods, also known as false tombs, virtual tombs, virtual burials, hidden burials, and hidden burials.To put it bluntly, it is to build some fake tombs and hide the real corpses.

There are great similarities between virtual tombs and suspicious tombs and the method of blinding eyes.Suspicious tombs are false tombs erected all over to confuse tomb robbers. When setting up suspicious tombs, the tomb builders have sent a clear signal to the tomb robbers that the remains of the tomb owner are not among these suspicious tombs.The essence of the blindfold method is the same as that of the suspicious tomb. Multiple coffins are buried at the same time. The remains of the real tomb owner may or may not be in it, so that people do not know where the real coffin is. It is just that the blindfold method is used during the funeral process, and the suspected tomb is used during the burial process. middle.The difference between the virtual tomb and the previous two is that the virtual tomb is not a confuse, but a lie.

Setting up one tomb and double-layer tomb are two manifestations of virtual tombs.The setting of the tomb made the tomb robbers think that this was the place where the owner of the tomb and the precious burial objects were buried, but when the tomb robbers tried their best to open the tomb, they found that it was an empty tomb.Double-layer tombs are set up, that is, one tomb has two real and fake tomb chambers. Tomb robbers often enter the fake tomb chambers located in the open, and the result is also nothing.

Like suspicious tombs and blinding methods, virtual tombs were also popular in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.The most famous virtual tomb is the tomb of Shi Hu, the third ruler of Zhao Kingdom among the Sixteen Kingdoms.

After the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms Period (AD 319-AD 351), Shi Le, the founder of the Zhao Dynasty, was born in Wuxiang, Shangdang, and his style name was Shilong.At the beginning, he returned to Liu Yuan and occupied Xiangguo.After Shi Le killed Liu Yao, the last ruler of the former Zhao Dynasty (304-329 AD), he proclaimed himself emperor, and owned the ten prefectures of Hebei, Yu, Yan, Qing, Xu, Yong and Qin.

Among the sixteen states at that time, Hou Zhao was the most powerful.Shi Le was emperor for 15 years, and died of illness in the seventh year of Xianhe (333 AD).After his death, Shi Le adopted the method of "virtual burial" to deal with his own affairs, and secretly buried him at night.

History records that Shi Le's funeral was quite low-key. "Book of Jin Shile" (volume [-]) records that when Shile was critically ill, he issued a will: "For three days to be buried, the internal and external bureaucrats will be buried without clothes, and there is no prohibition on marriage, sacrifice, drinking, and eating meat. Mu Shou is not allowed to leave the office. The department is going to the funeral, collects the clothes of the time, and carries the regular car. There is no treasure to hide, and no internal equipment to play with. Da Ya Chong is young, I am afraid that he will not be able to build my ambition. Zhongshan has issued the codes of his various departments, and there is no It is against my orders. Daya and Bin Yi are good at maintaining each other, and Sima and others have learned from you, and it is for Dun Mu. The king of Zhongshan can think twice about Zhou Huo, and don't make excuses for the future."

Shi Le's burial was exactly the same as Cao Cao's, and the secret burial was carried out at the same time.It is said that Shi Le's tomb was not buried with gold, silver, treasures and jewels, and the funeral was extremely simple. Officials were not allowed to attend the funeral.

Shi Le's anti-tomb robbery method was actually "experimented" before his death, and Shi Le's mother was buried in a "virtual burial". "Book of Jin Shi Le" (Volume 105) records, "The mother of Le Mu Wang died and buried in the (biǎn) valley. I don't know where it is. Then I prepared the ceremony of nine lives and buried it in the south of Xiangguo city."

According to the records of the people at the time, Shi Le was secretly buried in Qushan, and more than ten coffins were carried out from the city at the same night to confuse the common people.Whether Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the later Ming Dynasty, was influenced by Shi Le's secret burial method when "exiting the coffin at the thirteen city gates" is not certain, but his inspiration for anti-tomb robbery should be the same.

After Shi Le died, his second son Shi Hong succeeded to the throne. Maybe his son was too young, so his nephew Shi Hu took the throne.Shihu abolished Shihong as the king of Haiyang, established himself as the "Da Zhao Tianwang", and moved his capital to the city of "Ye".

Shihu was buried in Xianyuan Mausoleum after his death.According to historical records, Xianyuan Mausoleum is also a virtual tomb, and the stone tiger was not buried in the mausoleum. "Zi Zhi Tong Jian Jin Ji" (Volume 359) records that in the third year of Emperor Wu of Dongmu (AD [-]), Murong Jun, the former emperor of Yan, had a dream. He dreamed that Shihu, who had died at that time, bit his arm. After Murong Jun woke up, he was furious. In a fit of rage, he ordered people to dig Xianyuan Mausoleum, wanting to whip the corpse to vent his anger. Unexpectedly, after the aggressive Murong Jun mobilized his troops to dig Xianyuan Mausoleum, the tomb was empty. Shihu's remains.Murong Jun was even more annoyed when he knew he had been duped, so he "purchased it for a hundred gold, and Li Tu, a woman from Ye, told her about it, and the corpse was placed under Dongming's view, stiff but not rotten."

Finally, one of Shihu's concubines told Murong Jun that Shihu was buried under Dongming Temple, and Murong Jun ordered the excavation, "Going down to the three springs", and finally dug up Shihu's coffin, so he ordered the coffin to be opened. Whip corpse.Murong Jun pointed at Shihu's body and yelled, "Damn barbarians, you dare to scare me when you're dead." Finally, he threw Shihu's body into the Zhang River.The Xianyuan Mausoleum that Murong Jun excavated for the first time was the virtual tomb, and the tomb that Murong Jun excavated for the second time under Dongming Temple was the real tomb that buried the stone tiger.Although Shihu's Xuzuo saved him once, it did not protect him to enjoy peace forever.

Virtual tombs and suspected tombs have a common feature, that is, there is no corpse in the tomb.In order to convince tomb robbers that the corpse in the virtual tomb is the owner of the tomb, some virtual tombs will even find some real human bones to replace the tomb owner's body.When the tomb robbers dug the empty tomb, although the meager burial objects inside disappointed the tomb robbers, but seeing the corpses in the coffin, the grave robbers would not doubt the authenticity of the tomb.

False burials were once popular during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. No human bones were found in the main chamber of some tombs, but coffins and human bones were often found in the ear chambers.Scholars have different opinions on this.Some people think that this is a popular funeral custom in the Wei and Jin Dynasties - lining burial, that is, other people are buried in the tomb of a high-status person.Another point of view is that this situation is a virtual tomb set up by the tomb builders to confuse the tomb robbers.

Some tombs are built with double-layer structures, the upper layer is a false tomb, and the lower layer is the real tomb chamber where the body of the owner of the tomb and precious burial objects are placed (this point was also mentioned earlier).Tomb robbers dig holes, usually from the surface down, and from the top of the tomb. In this way, the first thing the tomb robbers enter is the upper tomb, which is the fake tomb built by the tomb maker.In this way, the real tomb hidden under the upper virtual tomb can be preserved, and the real corpse of the tomb owner will also be saved from catastrophe.

Clothes tombs are also a special form of virtual tombs.Clothes tombs are tombs in which the clothes and other items of the deceased are buried but not the remains of the deceased.This is because the body of the deceased could not be found, or had been buried in another place, and then a tomb was set up here to commemorate it.But on the other hand, the clothes tomb can also function as a virtual tomb. When the tomb robbers opened a tomb with hope, they found that it was just a clothes tomb, but the real tomb was nowhere to be found.

Kongming's secret burial without a trace

For thousands of years, there has been a smokeless contest between tomb robbers and anti-tomb robbers, and this contest has never stopped.No matter how ingenious anti-theft measures people design, they cannot escape the bad luck of being driven by profit-driven tomb robbers.However, there is such an anti-theft method that effectively prevents tomb robbers from getting their hands on the tomb. Even using modern high-tech survey technology, it is difficult to locate the exact location of the tomb. This is a secret burial.

Secret burial, also known as hidden burial, refers to the secret burial after death. No one is allowed to know the location of the tomb. There is no seal or tree above the tomb. It looks nothing like a tomb.Secret burial is a special burial custom. Even if a prominent person is buried, no written records about the specific location of the tomb will be left, making it impossible for grave robbers to start.

The anti-theft effect of secret burials is very significant, but secret burials are rare. The deep-seated reason is that since ancient times in China, the custom of thick burials and the custom of treating death as life does not allow people to bury the dead so hastily.According to the traditional etiquette customs of the Han nationality, funeral is a complex etiquette process. Generally, large-scale tombs are built with ground buildings such as halls dedicated to worship, standing high beside the seal, indicating that dignitaries are buried here, and conveying With the message that there is treasure under the earth here.This is not just a show off of the powerful, but also a respect for the dead.

Many documents in ancient China have recorded the Mongolian secret burial customs.Not only did the Mongolian tombs have no ceremonial buildings, nor did they even have the most basic seal of the tomb, but they also had to ride horses to level the surface of the tomb after the deceased was buried.Not only that, sometimes in order to ensure that the secret of the tomb location is not leaked, people who come to the funeral are even killed.

It is not only the Mongols who adopt secret burials, nor does it begin in the Song and Yuan Dynasties when the Mongols flourished.As early as the Three Kingdoms period, there had been secret burials in the Central Plains, and it was Zhuge Liang's tomb that used the secret burial.

Zhuge Liang abided by etiquette all his life, why did he adopt this burial method that deviates from the traditional etiquette of the Han nationality?Is it just to guard against tomb robbers who covet the treasures in the tomb?

In fact, the secret burial of Zhuge Liang's tomb is not different from the secret burial of Mongolians.First of all, there should be no rich burial objects in Zhuge Liang's tomb that could attract tomb robbers.Zhuge Liang has a noble character and is a model of ancient Chinese scholar-bureaucrats. He was loyal to the Shu Han all his life, was upright and upright, and devoted himself to governing the Shu Han, but he did not care about other livelihoods.He said in the above table to the post-lord: "If the minister dies, don't let your majesty suffer if you don't have surplus silk inside and gain money outside." Until his death, it was as he said before his death.Therefore, there are no valuables to be buried with him.Moreover, Zhuge Liang died in 234 A.D., when he was marching and fighting, Zhuge Liang died of an accident, forcing the Shu army to withdraw its troops early.In such a situation, Zhuge Liang naturally cannot be buried with cumbersome etiquette.Therefore, Zhuge Liang's tomb should be a simple thin burial.

According to legend, Zhuge Liang became ill after the method of prolonging life was destroyed because of Wei Yanye's intrusion.When he was dying, he left a letter to his empress Liu Chan, asking him to put his body in a coffin after his death, and four soldiers would carry his body to the south.

How could Liu Chan not obey the last words of the prime minister who made great contributions to the Shu Han?So he ordered four strong men from Kansai to carry his coffin all the way south.After lifting for a day and a night, the four men finally lost their strength, but at this time the bars were not broken and the ropes were not rotten.After the four discussed, they buried Zhuge Liang's coffin on the spot.After returning, they reported to Liu Chan that they buried the prime minister's coffin in the place where the rope was broken.After listening to the report, Liu Chan felt that something was wrong. How could the rope be broken so quickly?So the four people were arrested and interrogated severely.The four strong men couldn't bear the pain of flesh and blood, so they had to confess.Liu Chan was furious and killed the four people for the crime of deceiving the emperor.Since only four people knew about Zhuge Liang's burial, and after these four people were killed, no one knew the specific location of the tomb anymore, so it can be described as an absolute secret burial.

This is where the story should end.However, in order to exaggerate Zhuge Liang's wit, later generations believed that all this was expected by Zhuge Liang, because Kong Ming had already expected that after his death, the Sima family would destroy the Shu Kingdom, and the Sima family would come to dig his grave after the death of the Shu Kingdom. , so he "directed" the play after his death to ensure his own peace after death.

Today, there are many Zhuge Liang's tombs and Zhuge Liang's shrines across the country. The academic circles generally believe that the Zhuge Liang's tomb located 20 miles away from the western suburbs of Mian County, Shaanxi Province today is the real tomb.There are temples built in the past dynasties on the tombs, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties.The green pines and verdant cypresses in the cemetery are just like the Wuhou Temple in Jinguan City.

(End of this chapter)