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

Chapter 80 The Emperor’s Tomb That Makes Tomb Robbers Covet (3)
Regarding the site selection of Qianling, there is such an interesting legend: Soon after Tang Gaozong ascended the throne, he sent his uncle, eldest grandson Wuji, and Taishi, who was in charge of astronomy and calendar, to order Li Chunfeng to choose the place for his mausoleum.One day, the two looked up to Mount Liang, only to see three towering peaks on this mountain, with the main peak reaching straight into the sky.It faces Jiuyi Mountain across Wushui in the east, and Qishui connects with Loujing Mountain and Qishan Mountain in the west.The two waters of Wu and Qi are hugged together in front of the mountain, forming a water wall, enclosing the dragon spirit in the ground.Liangshan is a rare "sacred land of dragon veins" in the world.After Changsun Wuji and Li Chunfeng selected the mausoleum site, they returned to Beijing to report to Emperor Gaozong.After Yuan Tiangang heard about it, he strongly opposed it.It turned out that he had been to Liangshan to select the mausoleum site for Gaozu, and he knew the advantages and disadvantages of Fengshui in this mountain.He said to Emperor Gaozong: "From the outside, Liangshan is a treasure land of geomantic omen, but there are many shortcomings when you look closely: First, although Liangshan is surrounded by water on both sides of the east and west, it can surround the dragon, but it is cut off from Taizong's dragon veins. The ancestral tombs here can prosper for three generations, but as the site of the emperor's mausoleum, it is feared that the country will be in danger after three generations. The Dragon Vessel of the Tang Dynasty branched from the Kunlun Mountains and crossed the Yellow River, entered the Guanzhong, and spread eastward to Mount Jiuyi with Qishan as the head. , Jinsu Mountain, Saga Mountain, and Yao Mountain. Today Emperor Taizong has buried Jiuyi Mountain as the head of the dragon. Your majesty cannot come from behind, and Liangshan is not the head of the dragon, but the tail of the dragon vein in the Zhou Dynasty. The second is that the north peak of Liangshan is high, and there are two peaks in front of it that look like women's milk. The second south peak is round and sharp, and belongs to the golden grid. Although the three peaks are tall and straight, they are square and flat when viewed from a distance. Your Majesty must be under the control of Jinge's people. According to my humble opinion, if the site of the mausoleum is set on this mountain, Your Majesty will be hurt by a woman in the future!" Hearing Yuan Tiangang's grand remarks, Gaozong hesitated, so he withdrew from the court. discuss.Wu Zetian was told by a close friend of Wu Zetian a long time ago, and Wu was very happy to hear that. She thought to herself: When I was young, I heard from my father that Yuan Tiangang said that I would be a female emperor in the future, and it seemed to be fulfilled.In the evening, Gao Zong was given a pillow breeze, which naturally praised Changsun Wuji and belittled Yuan Tiangang.

In the early morning of the next day, Emperor Gaozong issued an imperial decree to designate Liangshan as the mausoleum site.When Yuan Tiangang heard this, he looked up to the sky and sighed: "The one who replaces the Tang Dynasty must be Wu Zhaoyi." He was afraid that he would be implicated in the future, so he resigned from office and went out to travel.

After the site of the mausoleum was selected, the ministers debated endlessly about how to name it.A minister suggested that the name of Taizong's mountain mausoleum is Zhaoling, which has the meaning of showing the emperor's aura, so the mausoleum of His Majesty should be named Chengling to inherit Taizong's favor.Changsun Wuji said: "Liangshan is located in the northwest of Chang'an. In the gossip, it belongs to the position of Qian. Qian is Yang, heaven, and emperor. Chang'an is the imperial capital of your majesty today, and Liangshan is naturally the heavenly capital of your majesty's longevity. , The heaven and the earth are united, and the heaven and the earth are united. The lord will make His Majesty the emperor forever. According to the minister’s opinion, let’s name it Qianling!” Gaozong was very happy to hear that, so he named it Qianling.How did Changsun Wuji know that what Yuan Tiangang said meant that Liangshan was full of yin and could not be chosen as the mausoleum site.Now it is named Qianling, isn't it destined that a woman will be the emperor?All subsequent developments were in line with Yuan Tiangang's predictions.

Legends are legends after all.According to literature records, after Emperor Gaozong died in the first year of Hongdao, Empress Wu Zetian chose an auspicious place on the Weibei Plateau in Guanzhong in accordance with Gaozong's last wish of "returning Chang'an, and there will be no regrets in death". According to the burial system of "because the mountain is a mausoleum", Wei Taizhen, a doctor from the household department, used more than 20 soldiers and migrant workers as a master craftsman. He used the main peak of Liangshan as a mausoleum and dug holes on the mountainside to build an underground palace. "New Book of Tang Chen Zi'ang Biography" contains: "Mountain mausoleums will be worn and restored, and they must be vassals. They will lead the evil (qú) people and raise tens of thousands of troops. It's done." After more than 300 days and nights of intensive construction, the main project was completed when the funeral was buried in August of the first year of Civilization (684 AD).After the burial of Emperor Gaozong, the construction of Qianling Mausoleum continued. 22 years later, Wu Zetian died of illness in the first year of Shenlong.On the issue of burying Wu Zetian, there was some controversy in the court. Zhongzong wanted to fulfill his mother's last wish of "returning to the mausoleum", but the minister Yan Shansi strongly opposed it.He said: "The venerable is buried first, and the humble should not touch the venerable before burying. The Empress Dowager is inferior to the Emperor. If the mausoleum is opened today, it will move the venerable and fear the dragon's veins. I heard that the Qianling Mausoleum is mysterious." , the door was closed with stones, and the gaps in the stones were fixed with cast iron. If the mausoleum is to be opened today, it must be chiseled. Mobilize the crowd to do more work, and the damage will be deeper. Looking at the side of the Qianling Mausoleum, choose an auspicious place, and don’t build a mausoleum. It is not only a burial ceremony, but also a solid foundation. If the gods have knowledge, you will be able to pass through the secluded way. If you are ignorant, what is the benefit of joining together." The generous and benevolent Emperor Zhongzong did not accept this suggestion, in order to show his filial piety , ordered people to dig the Qianling Road, opened the tomb door, and buried Wu Zetian in the Qianling Xuan Palace in May of the second year of Shenlong.Since then, the Qianling Mausoleum has become the only mausoleum of ancient Chinese emperors where two emperors are buried in one mausoleum.After Wu Zetian was buried together, the Zhongzong and Ruizong dynasties buried 17 people, including the second prince, third king, fourth princess, and eight ministers, in Qianling.Therefore, all the construction projects of the Qianling Mausoleum were completed after Wu Zetian, Zhongzong to the early Ruizong Dynasty, which lasted for 57 years.

When the Qianling Mausoleum was built, it was in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, and the national power was full. The cemetery was large in scale and the buildings were majestic and magnificent.At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Taizong Li Shimin learned the historical lessons from ancient times to the present that there is no country that cannot perish, and there is no tomb that cannot be dug. Starting from the Zhaoling Mausoleum of him and Empress Changsun, he created the burial system of "the mountain is the mausoleum". Yan Lide and Yan Liben, masters of the famous art masters, presided over the design. The mausoleum is a combination of architectural complexes and sculpture complexes, and is arranged unevenly on the mountains with the momentum of "dragon and phoenix".

The Qianling Mausoleum of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty developed and improved the shape of Zhaoling Mausoleum. The mausoleum was built after the pattern of Chang'an City, the capital of Tang Dynasty.According to literature records, the Qianling Mausoleum is "eighty miles in a week". The original city wall was double-layered, and there were four gates in the inner city.According to the investigation by archaeologists, the inner city of the cemetery is approximately square, with the north and south walls each 4.9 meters long, the east wall 1450 meters long, and the west wall 1582 meters long, with a total area of ​​about 1438 million square meters.In the city, there are many splendid architectural complexes such as dedicated halls, side rooms, cloisters, que towers, Di Renjie ancestral halls, lower palaces and other 230 courtiers. After the "Anshi Rebellion", the Qianling Mausoleum has experienced more than 60 years of vicissitudes, and the magnificent buildings on the ground of the Qianling Mausoleum have disappeared. Only the ground buildings along the main axis outside the Suzaku Gate in the inner city of the cemetery were seriously damaged. "Tang Huiyao" records that in the 1300th year of Zhenyuan (14 AD), 798 houses were built during the renovation of Qianling Mausoleum.Since then, more than 378 exquisite and large-scale stone carvings have been installed, which have become a true portrayal of the prosperous society of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and let people feel the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty embodied in it.Starting from the natural double towers on the second southern peak of Liangshan Mountain, they are arranged symmetrically to the north.Standing at the top is a pair of eight-meter-high octagonal stone watches, which are the symbols of the emperor's mausoleum.Then there is a pair of round and magnificent stone-carved winged horses with their heads held high and their chests held high. The wings of the horses are carved with cirrus patterns, which seem to be about to take off.To the north of the winged horse is a pair of beautiful high-relief ostriches, which is a symbol of cultural exchanges and friendly exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and the people of the Western Regions.Next to the ostriches are 120 pairs of stone battle horses with drivers and 1 pairs of Shi Wengzhong (or General Zhige) about 8 meters high.Legend has it that Weng Zhong, surnamed Ruan, was a general guarding Lintao in the Qin Dynasty, who shocked Yidi.The first emperor of Qin built a statue of Weng Zhong outside the Sima Gate of Xianyang Palace, and later emperors used the statue of Weng Zhong to guard the cemetery.To the north of Weng Zhongzhi are two stone steles, and to the west is a stele with gold characters "Shu Sheng Ji" written by Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty. It is a monument erected by Empress Wu Zetian to sing praises to Emperor Gaozong.There are more than 1 characters in the inscription. Empress Wu Zetian personally wrote the text, and Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian wrote it.On the east side is Wu Zetian's wordless stele, which is 1 meters high, 5 meters wide, 10 meters thick and weighs about 4 tons.Eight intertwined chilongs are carved on the body of the stele, four on each side.The body of the stele is carved from a complete boulder, and the lines on both sides are carved with a 6.30-meter-high "dragon picture".The "Lion and Horse Picture" is engraved on the Yang surface of the stele seat, which is 1.86 meters long and 5600 meters wide.The whole wordless stele is tall and majestic, with exquisite carvings, and it is a giant among the steles of all Chinese dynasties.The wordless stele was erected in the Tang Dynasty, but the word Tang Ren was not inscribed, leaving many mysteries to be solved.It has been a practice since ancient times to set up a stele to pass on a biography, and there were no shortage of emperors in the past, but Wu Zetian was an exception.As the first and only female emperor in history, Wu Zetian "does not write a word" on the stele built after her death, leaving the world with the mystery of "no word stele", which has attracted people's attention for thousands of years. guess.The world is puzzled by this, and people have speculated about why Wu Zetian erected the stele without characters. There are three main theories.

One is "the theory of immeasurable merit and virtue", which says that Wu Zetian believed that she had such great merit and virtue that she could not even express it in words.In Wu Zetian's view, although she is a woman, her talents are definitely higher than Gaozong's. She supported the weak, attacked the wealthy, developed imperial examinations, and rewarded farmers. Under her rule, the society was stable and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.Therefore, she believes that her political achievements are outstanding, shining in the annals of history, and her achievements are far beyond what a single inscription can contain.Therefore, Wu Zetian left an empty stele to show that he had passed away.Hu Ji also pointed out in "The Only Female Emperor Wu Zetian in Chinese History" that "this famous wordless stele has stood upright for more than a thousand years despite the wind and rain. It seems to symbolize Wu Zetian's confidence in his career. Leave it blank on purpose, let the world comment on it!"

The second is "difficult to say", saying that Wu Zetian thought of being buried with Emperor Gaozong after his death, and it was difficult to write whether he called himself emperor or empress.If the inscription is engraved with "Great Zhou Tianzhu Jinlun Shengshen Emperor", it would make Gaozong feel so embarrassing, and Li Tang's descendants would not accept it; It is true that he has been the emperor of the "Great Zhou" for 16 years.So after thinking about it, she finally decided to "not write a single word" and let future generations comment.It is also said that after Wu Zetian changed the dynasty, she felt guilty and uneasy, and she wanted to return the country to the Tang family after her death.However, due to her experience of becoming emperor, she had no confidence in her situation after death, and she was even more afraid that the world would scold her for the crime of usurping the throne, so she left a tablet without writing to redeem herself.

The third is the "clear theory of self-knowledge", saying that Wu Zetian was smart and alert all his life, and often did amazing things.This statement is exactly the opposite of the previous statement.Wu Zetian has been busy all her life, there is something worthy of affirmation, but there is also something that should be denied.Facing the intricate political situation, she was able to turn the tide and showed extraordinary political talent.However, in the later period of her rule, politics became increasingly corrupt; coupled with "usurping the throne" and the so-called "excessive lewdness" among the people, perhaps Wu Zetian also knew that she was guilty of serious crimes, and it was difficult for her to praise or criticize the inscription, so she "set up a stele without words" "It is a very smart move, and the "right and wrong" is left to future generations to comment.

The great charm of Qianling Mausoleum lies not only in that it is the only burial mausoleum of emperors of two dynasties and a husband and wife emperor in the world, but also in the priceless cultural relics treasured in it.People have always been very concerned about whether the underground palace of Qianling Mausoleum was stolen and the treasures in it.

(End of this chapter)