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

Chapter 65 Four Cultural Legends in the History of Chinese Tomb Raiders (1)
Bu Xun Steals "Ji Zhong Shu"

It is a mirror of history and a beacon of social development.Since ancient times, it has been repeatedly quoted in the history books of later generations and used by historians as evidence for their own historical theories. It seems that the exploration of history is not enough without it, and without it, it would be less confident.

It is the "Book of Jizhong".

Because of Qin Shihuang's "burning books and burying Confucianism", before the appearance of "Jizhong Books", Chinese history was mostly hidden in the dark night.

In the 34th year of Qin Shihuang (213 BC), Chun Yuyue, a senior official of the imperial court, opposed the "prefecture and county system" implemented at that time, and demanded that the children should be entrusted according to the ancient system.Prime Minister Li Si refuted it, and advocated that "Confucian scholars" should not use the ancient times to slander the government with their private knowledge.Qin Shihuang adopted Li Si's suggestion and ordered the burning of historical records of other countries other than "Qin Ji", and also handed over and burned the private collections of "Poems" and "Books" that were not part of the Doctor's Hall; Put to death, praise the genocide who discussed the current policy in the past; private education is prohibited, and those who want to learn laws and regulations must use officials as teachers.This measure caused dissatisfaction among many scholars.In the second year, many alchemists and Confucian scholars attacked Qin Shihuang.Qin Shihuang sent people to investigate, and more than 460 alchemists and Confucian scholars dug big pits and buried them alive.In history, these things are called "burning books and burying scholars".

Qin Shihuang's "burning books and burying Confucianism" was intended to maintain a unified centralized politics, oppose the past and the present, and crack down on alchemists' absurd and strange talks, but it did not achieve the expected results.This was beyond Qin Shihuang's and Li Si's expectations.

Another direct consequence of "burning books and burying Confucianism" was the destruction of historical records of countries other than Qin during the Warring States period, which led to a great fragmentation of Chinese history and a certain degree of rupture and loss of Chinese culture.However, in the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, this loss was unexpectedly made up to a certain extent—this is the discovery of "Ji Zhong Shu".

Jizhongshu, as the name suggests, is the book published in Jizhong.The place where the "Jizhong Book" was discovered was in the ancient Jidi—now Niangniangmiao Village, Sun Xingyuan Town, Weihui City.

This person who is famous in the historian circle for rediscovering the famous document "Jizhongshu" is not a person who specializes in history or archaeology. He turned out to be a tomb robber in the Western Jin Dynasty named Buzhu (zhǔn).Like most tomb robbers, the purpose of digging ancient tombs is to steal the precious burial objects in the tomb and obtain ill-gotten gains.But he never expected that when he opened an ancient tomb, he also opened a new era of historical research.

The ancient tomb excavated by Buzhen was located in Jidi (now southwest of Ji County, Henan Province), so later generations called this ancient tomb "Jizhong".One night in the fifth year of Xianning, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty (279 A.D.), a major event called a blessing in Chinese historians happened in Ji County, Henan Province.A tomb robber named Buxu secretly dug an ancient tomb here in the dead of night. At that time, he didn't know that it was the tomb of King Wei. Like other tomb robbers, he just wanted to get some Windfall.However, after the tomb was opened, there were not as many gold and silver treasures as he expected. What appeared in front of his eyes were some disorderly pieces of bamboo with characters on them. Word.Later statistics totaled more than [-] words.Bu Xun was greatly disappointed, because these things were of no use to him, so he "didn't care, and was often scattered."Because the tomb was dark, it was inconvenient to look for burial objects, and he did not light the bamboo slips for lighting. Fearing that people would find out, he was disappointed, took some items that could be exchanged for money and ran away.

The tomb thief didn't know that when he opened the door of this tomb, he made an indelible contribution to the history of China for thousands of years; What an irreparable loss that history has brought.

Later, local people in Jidi found scattered bamboo slips near the tomb and reported it to the local government.The government sent people to collect the bamboo slips and slips that were buried in the tomb and scattered outside the tomb. There were so many that they filled several carts.This incident caused quite a stir at the time, and was recorded in the "Book of Jin".

The ancient bamboo slips are a kind of literature written on bamboo and wood chips, and the bamboo chips are interspersed with leather strips.Due to the long-term burial of the bamboo slips in the tomb, the leather strips rotted and the bamboo slips were scattered and messy.For this batch of precious ancient books, the government of the Western Jin Dynasty appointed special personnel to organize and interpret the characters of the Warring States Period used on the bamboo slips into official script.At that time, Xun Jue and Fu Zan, famous scholars in the Western Jin Dynasty, were in charge of sorting out the work.

This ancient book obtained from tomb robbery is called "Jizhong Book" because it was unearthed in Jizhong.After sorting out and texturing by scholars, it was determined that the "Jizhong Book" was the history book of Wei State in the Warring States Period, recording the history from Xia Jianguo to Wei Xiangwang.

“汲冢书”中包括很多晋代或流行或散佚的古代文献，经整理确定的文献有《易经》2篇、《易繇阴阳卦》2篇、《卦下易经》1篇、《公孙段》2篇、《国语》3篇、《名》3篇、《师春》l篇、《巢语》11篇、《梁丘藏》1篇、《缴书》2篇、《生封》1篇、《大历》2篇、《图诗》1篇、《杂书》19篇、《穆天子传》5篇。其收录的古籍大多散佚不全，只有《穆天子传》保存完好。

During the period of Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty, that is, around 300 A.D., scholars such as Wei Heng further sorted out the "Jizhong Shu" and compiled it into a chronological history book, namely "Bamboo Book Ji Nian".The name "Bamboo Book Chronicles" naturally has its reasons.In ancient times, there was no paper, and books were written and said, and the broken bamboo was flattened into bamboo slips, and the characters were written on the bamboo slips.Many compendiums are compiled into one book, so it is called Bamboo Book.Chronicle is to arrange historical events by year, which has become a genre of history books. "Bamboo Book Chronicle" means that it is a history book. The chronology used in "Bamboo Book Chronicles" is Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, and Jin in sequence.Regrettably, the original slips of "Bamboo Book Chronicles" were lost during the Yongjia Rebellion in the following years, and the manuscripts at that time became popular later. "Bamboo Book Chronicles" has been handed down to the Tang Dynasty, and the academic circles call it "ancient bamboo books".Therefore, the academic circles call it "the present bamboo book chronicle".

The appearance of "Jizhong Shu" is undoubtedly a blessing in Chinese history. It filled the gaps in the history of various countries during the Warring States Period. Many historical materials can be compared with "Spring and Autumn" and other historical books. "Historical Records" is China's first biographical general history. Sima Qian referred to a large number of documents when writing "Historical Records", but there are still many historical facts that cannot be sorted out clearly.

The emergence of "Bamboo Book Chronicles" corrected the mistakes in "Historical Records", connected some ambiguous records in "Historical Records", and provided a lot of precious materials for historical research. The greatest influence of "Bamboo Book Chronicles" in the academic circle is that it promoted the independence of historiography.In the Han Dynasty, Confucian classics ruled the academic world, and historical materials were also included in the scope of classics. Famous scholars in the Han and Jin dynasties were all good at Confucian classics. Over the years of progress, the value of historical research has been gradually discovered by scholars, and finally, historical research as a specialized discipline has become independent from Confucian classics.

No matter whether it is to use the existing knowledge to supplement the text, or to correct and annotate the text, the result is the misfortune that is contrary to the wishes of all the organizers——"Bamboo Book Chronicles" is lost.Why is it lost?When did it die?This became a mystery.Some scholars believe that this is likely to be a tragedy brought about by document sorting. Firstly, the unearthed document sorting should keep its original appearance as much as possible, and secondly, it should be an independent sorting research, and this kind of sorting research must be able to distinguish it from the original at any time.Failure to clearly understand and practice this point can only bring about the extinction of unearthed documents.The possible result is that after sorting out, the collator thought that the original was not very useful, so it was lost.

This book is a beacon for future historical research.In the 34th year of Qin Shihuang, that is, in 213 BC, the greatest cultural catastrophe in ancient times broke out-burning books and burying Confucianism.It caused a break in the continuation of ancient cultural history and a historical incompleteness.In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, some veterans of the Warring States period wrote Confucian classics silently from memory, which is what later generations called Jinwen Jing.Although it can make up for the lack of shock, the history of various countries during the Warring States Period can never be restored.This is a setback in the history of Chinese culture, which has brought immeasurable losses to the entire Chinese nation, resulting in a break in the continuation of ancient history and culture and a historical incompleteness.

"Book of Filial Piety" Collected by Overlords of Western Chu

The tomb robbers stretched out their black hands to the ancient tombs, but they found ancient documents in a crooked way. In addition to the "Jizhong Book", the famous "Book of Filial Piety" and other famous lost documents were discovered in this way.

"Book of Filial Piety" occupies an important position in the history of ancient Chinese culture, and is one of the most important works of Confucian classics.

Ban Gu, a historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, believed that "filial piety is the great scripture and law of the world", and the "Book of Filial Piety" used to be a compulsory book for scholars. The "Book of Filial Piety" is divided into eighteen chapters, which is the shortest of the twelve Confucian classics. The "Book of Filial Piety" is divided into "Jin Wen Xiao Jing" and "Ancient Text of Xiao Jing". There is a lot of controversy about its author. The discovery of "Book of Filial Piety" is another cultural legend, and its discovery and inheritance are also dramatic.

As early as when Qin Shihuang burned books, the Confucian classics were completely destroyed. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Confucian classics from the Warring States period were found in the old residence of Confucius, which is called Guwenjing in academic circles.But in the Thirteen Classics, there are other sources for the ancient texts of the "Book of Filial Piety".Scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty once recorded: "There is also the "Ancient Wen Xiao Jing" from the tomb of Xiang Yu's concubine." This sentence clearly shows that the "Ancient Wen Xiao Jing" comes from the tomb of Xiang Yu's concubine.Prior to this, Fu Yiji of the Sui Dynasty recorded in the book "Laozi Jiexu" that the tomb of Xiang Yu's concubine was robbed and excavated during the Northern Qi Dynasty, and documents were unearthed from the tomb, but the "Ancient Wen Xiaojing" was not mentioned in the documents.Combining the two historical materials, we can infer that the tomb of Xiang Yu's concubine was stolen during the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the "Ancient Wen Xiaojing" was unearthed in this tomb.This undoubtedly adds a lot of legendary color to the ancient text of "Book of Filial Piety".

What is even more legendary is that people speculate that the owner of the tomb unearthed in the "Ancient Text of Filial Piety" is the concubine Yu Ji who performed the soul-stirring Farewell My Concubine.

Ji Yun of the Qing Dynasty pointed out in the "General Catalog of Siku Quanshu" that the book was Confucius' "last words of the seventy disciples" and was written during the Qin and Han Dynasties.From the Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were hundreds of annotators.The current popular version is Tang Xuanzong Li Longji Notes, Song Dynasty Xing Bingshu.The book is divided into 18 chapters.

The book focuses on filial piety, and expounds Confucian ethical thought in a relatively concentrated manner.It affirms that "filial piety" is the norm set by heaven, "the filial piety of a husband is the scriptures of heaven, the righteousness of the earth, and the behavior of people." "The monarch can use filial piety to govern the country, and the subjects can use filial piety to build a family and maintain their rank and wealth. The "Book of Filial Piety" is the first to link filial piety with loyalty to the emperor in Chinese ethical thought, and believes that "loyalty" is the development and expansion of "filial piety". " will be able to "communicate with the gods, light in the four seas, omniscient".

The "Book of Filial Piety" also makes systematic and cumbersome regulations on the requirements and methods of implementing "filial piety".It advocates that "filial piety" should be permeated in all human behaviors. "The body and skin should be treated by parents, and dare not damage them." This is the beginning of filial piety;It links the maintenance of the patriarchal clan relationship with serving the feudal autocratic monarch, and advocates that "filial piety" should "begin with serving relatives, center with serving the monarch, and finally establish oneself", and put forward the specific "filial piety" according to the life process of father's birth, old age, sickness and death. Requirements: "Respect for living, joy for raising, sorrow for illness, mourning for mourning, and strictness for sacrifice."The book also stipulates the different contents of "filial piety" according to the differences of different people's grades: the "filial piety" of the emperor requires that "love and respect should be given to his relatives, and moral education is imposed on the people and punished in the whole world"; "Requires "not arrogant, high but not dangerous, restraint and restraint, full but not overflowing"; The "filial piety" of the Qing and the doctor means everything is done according to the way of the previous kings, "do not speak illegally, do not follow the law, have no choice in what to say, and have no choice in what to do." , keep sacrifices; the "filial piety" of the common people should "use the way of heaven, share the benefits of the land, and use them with restraint to support their parents."

Lost and Found "Lanting Preface"

The original "Lanting Preface" written by the calligrapher Wang Xizhi was lost and recovered, and it was lost again. It is also very legendary in the history of Chinese tomb robbery.

(End of this chapter)