Chapter 75 first quarter

History is full of threads. If we can summarize this complex process in one sentence, one of the answers can be: the process of human history is the process of birth and death of generations. People will always die, and at a time when cremation was far from being understood, accepted, and popular, the remains of the deceased had to be buried, which gave birth to graves. People are emotional animals, they will not let their relatives die in the wild, and their relatives lie in the ground after death, and their cemetery should be taken care of with the comfort and luxury standards of the world, as if the dead can still enjoy it; people are members of a hierarchical society, and death is a The completion of life requires the use of burials to summarize and prove the status of life; man is the spirit of all things, and he is born to pursue "eternity" and "immortality", and always hopes that his achievements, thoughts, spirit and even body can exist in this world for a long time However, life is short and cannot be reversed, so I entrusted these hopes to the tomb after death...

Containing so many feelings and dreams, tombs have become a major historical and cultural achievement that condenses human wisdom and wealth.The sleeping underground tombs form a rich and colorful world; the burial culture has a long history all over the world. In China, in the late Paleolithic Age, the cave dwellers in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, used the upper room of the cave as their residence and the lower room as their burial place, reflecting the Chinese people’s initial management of tombs; In the two public cemeteries in the north and the south, the tombs gradually formed a culture; and in the Hongshan cultural relics in Inner Mongolia, which is called "the dawn of oriental civilization", it was found that the members of the upper class were not buried in the public cemetery of ordinary members of the society, but chose another place to be buried On the top of the mountain, soil and rocks are sealed to form a unique stone mound on the mountain.

Step by step, the grand, luxurious, exquisite and mysterious tombs of emperors, generals, nobles and rich people appeared. For the construction of these luxurious tombs, there began to appear some types of work dedicated to tombs, such as masonry, carpentry, lacquerwork, kiln workers, painters, and craftsmen specializing in the manufacture of Mingware (referring to the utensils specially used by the dead in the tomb for the underworld) etc.; of course, the "geomantic masters" who look at "feng shui" are even more prosperous. While a large amount of social wealth is buried in catacombs to accompany the noble dead, a new "industry" inevitably emerges - tomb robbery.

Tomb robbery is a criminal activity that violates human moral standards: one is to harass the soul of the dead and insult the corpse; the other is not to do production and steal property.More importantly, the tomb itself contains rich and precious historical and cultural information, and tomb robbery activities have seriously damaged the funeral cultural heritage, making it impossible for us to obtain an accurate understanding of history through tombs—this is also the case except whether it is determined by the state or not. In addition to organization approval and illegal possession of tomb property, it is also the essential difference between digging graves, archaeology and tomb robbery.

In the world, archaeological activities carried out in a planned and organized manner by the state are only about a hundred years old, but tomb robbery has a long history.The earliest recorded incident of tomb robbery in history occurred in the late Western Zhou Dynasty more than 2,770 years ago. Someone got a jade seal with a cross on it from an excavated ancient tomb, but no one recognized it at the time; The oldest tomb here is Shangtang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty, about 3,600 years ago. The fabulous huge profits of tomb robbery have driven people to "deeply worry" about it from generation to generation.Among the thousands of Han tombs that have been excavated across the country, it is said that only three have not been stolen at all.

The "wisdom" of the tomb robbers is almost as developed as that of the tomb builders, or even more advanced.They are historians, who can judge the construction characteristics of the tomb, the value of the property in the tomb according to the dynasty of the tomb, the identity of the tomb owner, etc., and make an accurate plan for the robbery; they are technical experts, no matter how strong and dangerous the cemetery is Can get the door to enter.The surroundings of large tombs are generally solid and indestructible. They dug a deep well from the side of the tomb, then dug a section horizontally to the bottom of the tomb, and then dug upwards, so that they entered the tomb from the bottom of the tomb. This process will last for a long time. Two months; in order to cover, they will first plant sorghum around the hole to cover, or buy land at the hole to build a house, and then start construction inside the house.What is especially miraculous is that a clever tomb robber can dig a deep pit of more than ten meters without a little excavated soil on the ground!

Tomb-robbing tools are also the crystallization of tomb-robbing techniques in the past dynasties.The famous Luoyang shovel was invented by a person nicknamed "Li Yazi" in the early 20th century in Henan, a land in the Central Plains with extremely rich historical accumulation and rich tombs.This semi-cylindrical shovel is 20 to 40 centimeters long and 5 to 20 centimeters in diameter. After being equipped with a tough wooden pole, it can penetrate more than ten meters underground. And the identification of inclusions can determine the soil quality and whether there are ancient tombs underground.There are more than 20 steps in the production process of Luoyang shovel. The most important thing is to create a radian when forming, which requires careful beating. If there is a little carelessness, the shovel produced will not be able to carry the soil.This kind of shovel can only be made by hand so far.

In the south where the climate is humid, Luoyang shovels are difficult to play a role, so generations of tomb robbers have practiced the unique skills of "looking, smelling, asking, and cutting".These four skills are summed up playfully with the help of the "four diagnosis methods" of traditional Chinese medicine: looking, that is, mastering the art of looking at Fengshui. Where there is "good Fengshui", there are likely to be large tombs underground; Smell, proficient people can judge the dynasty from the smell of the soil; ask, that is, visit the old people in the village, and get tomb information while chatting about ancient things; It means that you can judge the value of the items in the tomb by touching them with your hands.

Under such "careful research" by the tomb robbers, a large number of ancient tombs were stolen. How many people who were powerful and extravagant during their lifetimes were dug up and humiliated after death, and the priceless burial treasures were even looted.And the more honorable the emperor, the more the grave robbers dream of.Out of worries and fears about cemeteries being looted and looted, "anti-tomb robbery" methods have emerged in endlessly. The most basic is to increase the difficulty of stealing.For example, use the iron wall of the stone coffin to prevent ordinary metal tools from being damaged; store water and sand on the side of the tomb, and counterattack the robbers after being robbed; Severely kill.

Or set up "suspect tombs", that is, build multiple tombs and release false and confusing information so that tomb robbers cannot find the real tombs.It is said that Cao Cao had seventy-two "suspect tombs"; and the "general" Shi Lang also had seven "empty tombs". There is also the unique funeral method of the Mongolians.After the death of their chief leader, heavy soldiers were sent to seal off a large area of ​​the burial place, the body was buried deeply, and the funeral traces left on the ground were "stomped down with ten thousand horses".Such an approach, not to mention making the tomb robbers helpless, on the monotonous prairie, even those who have personally participated in the funeral may not be able to identify the place of the burial after a while.So up to now, the location of Genghis Khan's mausoleum is a big mystery that has been debated endlessly by historians at home and abroad.

So, with such a funeral method, how can future generations find the exact place to worship?The Mongols have their own unique wisdom: at the time of burial, kill a lamb in front of the mother goat in the cemetery, and take the ewe away after the funeral; on the day of sacrifice, bring the ewe again, and the mother goat will Weeping all the way to the place where the child was killed - that is, the burial place.Of course, such identification methods cannot be passed on for a long time. Although the Mongolian method of leaving no marks and stepping ten thousand horses down is very safe, it is difficult to be recognized and used by the vast majority of Chinese people. The reason is obvious: the second is not being able to bear ten thousand horses trampled on the grave. The key is Well, building a luxurious tomb is originally a matter of promoting the dignity of the deceased. It is not only to show off to future generations, but also to leave a memorial for future generations. If no signs are left and no one knows, what is the difference from not building?An extremely mournful burial without leaving a trace is the same as putting on clothes and walking around at night, getting rich and not returning to your hometown. It has no taste at all! This is really a dilemma. How many princes and rich families are hesitant to show their dignity in life and glory after death, and to deal with the black hands of tomb robbers. However, this problem is easier for the emperor, because in addition to using the power of a country to carefully design and build a fortified tomb, it can also allow future generations to set up a guardian institution and send heavy troops to guard it. The question is, what if the dynasty is over?For example, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, does the tomb of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty still have that safe honor in the Republic of China? In theory, there should be no problem.According to Article 4 of the "Conditions for Preferential Treatment after the Resignation of the Qing Emperor" when the Qing Emperor abdicated in 1912: "The ancestral temple mausoleum of the Qing Emperor will be enshrined forever, and the government of the Republic of China will set up guards to protect it." But in the Republic of China, from modern times to modern times In the stage of initial transformation and everything is far from mature, many laws written in black and white have become empty words.From a political point of view, it is the mausoleum of a dynasty overthrown by the revolution, not a cemetery of revolutionary martyrs; from the point of view of cultural relics protection, what kind of cultural and museum undertakings could there be in that era?It is already a miracle that the Palace Museum can be built like that under the care of a group of elites in the cultural circle.