Gan Long is the only mausoleum in China where two emperors and their husbands were buried together, and it is also the most complete imperial mausoleum in China so far. Due to the background of the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the special status of the two tomb owners, countless people have tried to steal the treasures inside for thousands of years, but in the end they all ended in vain.
In the first year of Hongdao (683), Wu Zetian appointed Wei Daijia, an official of the official department, to be in charge of the Ganling project, and Li Zhi was buried in August the following year. Since then, the Ganling project has continued. In May of the second year of Dragon (706), Tang Zhongzong Li Xian ordered Wu Zetian to be buried. The year before last, Tang Zhongzong also pardoned the royal family who were persecuted to death because of political problems during the reign of Wu Zetian, and reburied them, including Princess Li Xianhui of Yongtai, Prince Li Zhongrun of Yide and Prince Li Xian of Zhang Huai. In addition, in 706, Xu Wangli, Ze Wangli and Yiyang Princess Li were all built in Ganling.
Ganling is located in Liangshan, about six kilometers north of Ganxian County, Shaanxi Province. It was built in 684 AD, and it took 23 years to be basically completed. Because Ganling is "because the mountain is a mausoleum", Liangshan is the protective layer of the mausoleum. In ancient times, if you want to find the underground palace, you must dig up the whole mountain, which was tantamount to a fantasy at that time.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, when Huang Chao rebelled, Huang Chao planned to rob the tomb, so he used 400,000 troops to dig a ditch more than 40 meters deep, but he didn't find the entrance to the pyramid-shaped mound, so he had to give up angrily. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Wen Tao organized troops to excavate all the tombs of emperors in the Tang Dynasty, but only Ganling survived because of its solid architecture.
1960, several local farmers shot and blew stones, and accidentally blew out the tomb door. 1960 February, the "Ganling Excavation Committee" was established in Shaanxi. After preliminary excavation, it is confirmed that the bombed place is the catacombs, and it is ready to continue excavation. However, the State Council Prime Minister Zhou Enlai gave instructions on the excavation plan of Ganling. "We can't finish the good work, but this matter can be left to future generations.". Later, the State Council sent a notice asking "Don't dig in front of the National Imperial Mausoleum", and the excavation of Ganling stopped.
Many experts believe that Ganling is the only tomb among the eighteen tombs in the Tang Dynasty that has not been excavated, because the tunnel in Ganling is complete and no new stolen caves have been found. Magnificent momentum. Lingqu imitates the organizational system of Chang 'an, the capital of Beijing. Liangshan is a conical limestone mountain with three peaks, the north peak is the highest, with an altitude of 106 1.5m, and Ganling is just above the north peak. The two peaks in the south of Liangshan are low-lying, east-west, with Sima Dao in the middle, so they are named "Feng Ru". According to historical records, the mausoleum originally had two inner and outer walls, four city gates, and many magnificent buildings such as Xiandian Quelou. Exploration shows that the total area of the inner city is 2.4 million square meters. There are Zhuque Gate in the south, Xuanwu Gate in the north, Qinglong Gate in the east and Baihu Gate in the west.
Although Ganling was not excavated in those years, several buried tombs of Ganling were excavated. Therefore, experts speculate that Ganling is composed of the tomb, the tunnel, the patio, the tunnel and the front, middle and back three burial chambers, and the area of the three burial chambers will be very large. After so many years of exploration, especially the addition of various advanced equipment, archaeologists have a general understanding of Dingling underground palace, and one of them has been widely recognized by historians: it is conservatively estimated that there are 500 tons of cultural relics in Dingling underground palace!
Among them, the most striking national treasure of Ganling Underground Palace is Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Lanting Pavilion. Although the Preface to Lanting was placed on Li Shimin's head when he was asked to be buried, Wen Tao, the secretariat of Yaozhou in the Five Dynasties, did not find the Preface to Lanting when he excavated the Zhaoling Tomb of Emperor Taizong, so now people think that this top national treasure is likely to be in Ganling Underground Palace.
There is an interesting legend about the location of Ganling: Shortly after Tang Gaozong ascended the throne, he sent his uncles Sun Chang Wuji and Taishiling, and Li Ganling, who specializes in astronomical calendars, to choose the location of the mausoleum for himself. One day, when they were looking for Liangshan, they saw three peaks of this mountain towering into the sky, and the main peak went straight into the sky. Black water in the east and nine? What happened to the old one? Hydrazine? Is porcelain student (2) more angry? Ordinary? The water hugs in front of the mountain, forming a water wall and surrounding the earth and atmosphere. Liangshan is a rare "Holy Land of Long Mai" in the world.
Wuji and Li will report back to Beijing after choosing the mausoleum site. When Yuan Tiangang heard about it, he strongly opposed it. It turned out that he went to Liangshan for the sake of Gao Zuling and knew the advantages and disadvantages of Feng Shui in this mountain. He said to Emperor Gaozong: "From the outside, Liangshan is a treasure trove of geomantic omen, but if you look closely, there are many shortcomings. First, although Liangshan is surrounded by water on both sides, it can surround the dragon soul, but it is isolated from Long Mai of Emperor Taizong. If people choose their ancestors here, they can prosper for three generations. However, as the mausoleum of the emperor, Houjiangshan will be in danger for three generations. Long Mai, a branch of the Tang Dynasty, crossed the Yellow River from Kunlun Mountain, and spread eastward to Jiu? Old Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jian Peijun Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane Jane? Gossip? Old sword? Are you worried about staying in the hospital? He Juan address sleigh? May you invade? Bo? Money? Hey? Martingale wheel feed? Tiller α? /p & gt；
Second, the northern peak of Liangshan is high, and the two peaks are like female breasts. The whole mountain shape looks like a young woman lying flat. Your majesty chose the mausoleum here for fear that she would be controlled by women from now on. Third, the main peak of Liangshan is straight, which belongs to wooden lattice, and the second peak of South is round and profitable, which belongs to golden lattice. Although the three peaks are tall and straight, they look flat and earthy from a distance. Gold can make wood, soil can make gold, and the whole mountain dragon can help gold. Under the main peak of the underground palace camp, your majesty will be controlled by the people of the golden pavilion. In my humble opinion, if the mausoleum is located on this mountain, your majesty will be harmed by women in the future! "The emperor listened to Yuan Tiangang's macro theory, hesitated, and left the DPRK. Wu Shi was told by Wu Zetian's cronies that Wu Shi was very happy. She thought to herself: When I was a child, I heard from my father that Yuan Tiangang said that I could be a female emperor in the future, and it seems that it will come true. In the evening, I sent a pillow breeze to the emperor, which naturally praised Sun Chang's promise and demoted Yuan Tiangang.
When Ganling was built, it was in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, with strong national strength, grand cemetery scale and magnificent architecture, and was called "the crown of emperors' tombs in past dynasties". At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong's Li Shimin Chicken Liver Tomb Map learned the historical lesson that there was no fairy country and no tomb digging. Starting from the Zhaoling Tomb of Emperor Taizong and his eldest grandson, a burial system with mountains as the tomb was created, which was designed by famous artists Yan Lide and Yan Brothers at that time. Mausoleum is composed of architecture and sculpture, which is arranged on the hill in a "dragon board phoenix" trend.
The dry tombs of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian developed and perfected the shape of Zhaoling. The cemetery is modeled after Chang 'an, Tang Dou, and is divided into Imperial City, Miyagi City and Outer Guo Cheng. The north-south main axis is 4.9 kilometers long. According to documents, there are two original city walls in the "Eight Miles a Week" of Ganling, and four city gates in the inner city, namely, Dongqinglongmen, Nanzhuquemen, Xibaihumen and Beixuanwumen. According to the investigation by archaeologists, the inner city of the cemetery is square, with a length of 1450m from north to south, 1582m from east wall and 1438m from west wall, with a total area of about 2.3 million square meters. There are many magnificent buildings in the city, such as 60 courtiers, such as the memorial hall, wing, cloister, Quelou and Di Renjie, as well as the ancestral temple and Xiagong. After the "An Shi Rebellion", Ganling experienced the vicissitudes of 1300 years, and the Li Hong building on the ground of Ganling has disappeared.
According to Tang Yao Hui, in the 14th year of Zhenyuan (798), when Ganling was rebuilt, a total of 378 houses were built. Since then, 120 pieces of exquisite large-scale stone carvings have become a true portrayal of the vigorous development of the society in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, making people feel the spiritual outlook of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Starting from the natural shuangque, the second peak in the south of Liangshan, it is arranged symmetrically to the north in turn. The top spot is 1 pair of octagonal Chinese watches, which are more than 8 meters high. This is the symbol of the imperial mausoleum, and its shape shows the concept of eternal life and the worship of ancient ancestors for human reproductive behavior. Furthermore, 1 holds its head high, which is round and spectacular, and the horse's wings are engraved with cirrus patterns, which seems to take off. To the north of Yima are 1 pairs of beautiful high-relief ostriches, symbolizing the cultural exchanges and friendly exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and the people of the western regions. Next to the ostrich are five pairs of stone war horses with riders and 10 pairs of stone Weng Zhong (or General Naoko) about 4 meters high. According to legend, the general who guarded Lintao in Qin Dynasty was Ruan, a mighty Man Zi. Weng Zhong, the tree of Qin Shihuang, stands outside Sima Gate of Xianyang Palace. Later emperors guarded the cemetery with Weng Zhong stone statues.
There are two stone tablets in the north of Weng Zhong, and one in the west is Tang Gaozong's gold-lettered tablet "Xu Shengji", which was erected by Wu Zetian to praise Emperor Gaozong. The monument is 6.30m high and1.86m wide. The inscription is about 5,600 words, written by Wu Zetian and Li Dan. The first one was filled with gold chips, and the gold marks of some words still exist today.
On the east side is Wu Zetian's wordless tablet, which is 7.53m high, 2. 1 m wide, 0/0/.49m thick and weighs about 98.8 tons. The tablet is engraved with eight intertwined dragons, four on the left and four on the right. The monument is carved from a complete boulder, and the carved height of the lines on both sides is 4.12m. "Lion Horse Map" is carved on the front of the monument, with a length of 2. 14m and a width of 0.66m The whole wordless monument is tall and majestic, beautifully carved, and it is a giant in China's inscriptions. The tablet without words was built in the Tang Dynasty, but it did not name the Tang people, leaving many mysteries to be solved. There are mainly "theory of virtue and greatness" and "legacy". "Virtue and virtue" means that Wu Zetian thinks she is a married emperor, which is difficult to express in words, so she only set up a white monument; "Last words" refers to Wu Zetian's last words: "Leave your merits and demerits to future generations to comment on", so it is not a sentence.
What is particularly striking about Ganling is that there are two groups of stone statues on the east and west sides of Shinto outside Zhuquemen, which are neatly and respectfully arranged in front of Yuling. There are 32 statues in the west, and 29 statues in the east of Ganling Map, ***6 1 statue.
These stone statues are about the size of real people. People used to call them "Fan Xiang", "Wang Bing" and "Sixty-one Chen Fan". These life-size stone men wear different clothes, from robes and tunics to lapels and purple sleeves. But they all stood side by side, their hands arched forward, and their posture was extremely humble, as if they were lined up here to welcome the arrival of the emperor. But the strangest thing is that these stone statues have no heads, which makes people have many questions. Why did Ganling use these headless stone statues to guard the mausoleum? If you look at them carefully, you will find that the heads of stone statues can be seen from their necks. So, is the disappearance of these stone heads man-made or natural disasters?
There are different opinions about the reason why the stone statue has no head. One theory is that the heads of these stone statues were cut off by the Ming Dynasty. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a foreign envoy came to Ganling and found his ancestors standing here guarding the mausoleum for the Tang emperor. He felt that this was not only detrimental to national dignity, but also a humiliation to his own personality, and his self-esteem was greatly damaged, so he wanted to destroy these stone statues. But he was afraid of causing dissatisfaction among the local people, so he came up with a clever plan. Every night, he tramples on grain in the farmland near Ganling, and then the next day, just like fanning the flames, he tells the people that these statues are all made, and at night they become refined and begin to spoil crops. If you want to protect crops and food, you must destroy these stone statues and cut off their heads so that they can't hurt crops. The local people thought that what the foreign envoys said was very reasonable, so they cut off the heads of these stone statues in a rage.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, some poets used the poem "Red Horse Stripped from the Side" to describe Ganling, which should mean that horses and stone statues in Ganling fell to the ground one after another. The scene of the stone statue falling to the ground described in the poem seems to be similar to the folklore in time.
Although all of the above are folklore, which can't be used as a basis, archaeologists have further analyzed this phenomenon and found that natural disasters may have brought disasters to these stone statues in Ganling. It is proved by a large number of data that a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 8- 1 1 occurred in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, that is, on June 23, 556. As the earthquake happened at midnight, more than 800,000 people were killed in the earthquake. Ganling is only 100 km away from Huaxian, which also belongs to the epicenter. Ganling suffered a devastating blow, which is the Huaxian earthquake that shocked China and foreign countries. According to experts' inference, this earthquake is one of the main reasons for the fracture of the head of 6 1 stone statue. Coincidentally, many stone statues and horses in front of the mausoleum suffered head injuries. And the material of these stone statues is not very strong. Because the stone used at that time had some stone defects, when the stone statue was damaged, the head was the most prone to problems.
The researchers concluded that the 6 1 stone statue was probably partly destroyed by the earthquake and partly by the war in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Even though these stone statues have been destroyed, we can still find the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty from their images.