In mid-August 2008, the Cultural Relics Census Team of Shizhong District, Neijiang City, Sichuan Province discovered the tomb of Zhao Zhenji in Beiting Bay, Group 12, Sanshan Village, Sihe Township, Shizhong District, Neijiang City, Sichuan Province, and immediately began to confirm and investigate the tomb. excavation work.
Zhao Zhenji’s cemetery is located in the center of the “U”-shaped bottom platform of Beiting Bay, leaning against the mountain ridge and looking at the Tuojiang River. This coincides with the folk saying that “three bays facing each other must have good Feng Shui”. The compass shows that the direction is 100°, roughly from west to east. The GPS satellite locator shows that the cemetery is located at 29°37′211″ north latitude, 104°59′17″ east longitude, and 361 meters above sea level. This may not only be a simple positioning annotation in the sense of geographical coordinates, but also an important breakthrough in the archaeological work of Zhao Zhenji's tomb over the years. It is a relatively complete and eye-catching positioning annotation in the study of Neijiang local history. The sealing soil of the cemetery has long since disappeared, and the surface is covered with weeds. A few dozen centimeters below the surface, a tomb surrounded by neatly processed and tightly built red sandstone is revealed. However, there is a hole about 60 × 40 cm on the top of the tomb. Has the tomb been stolen? Out of professional sensitivity, archaeologists couldn't help but sigh.
According to villagers’ recollections, this was “opened” during the land reform period in 1952. Perhaps they believed that there was a “golden head” in the tomb, and the armed team of the rural peasant association sent people with guns to guard the excavation. "Obviously it was just a rumor and disappeared, but the big hole remained without any doubt. This huge gap, which is called the "robber's hole" in archeology, is the on-site physical evidence left behind when tools such as sledgehammers and steel drills were used to forcefully dig into the tomb. At that time, the villager, who was only 12 years old, watched the scene. Due to the situation at that time, it is said that the excavated tomb was backfilled and covered up by the descendants of the surname Zhao overnight. What funerary objects were exhumed and taken away? What else is disrupted and destroyed? It has become an unsolvable suspense that makes people unable to let it go.
Archaeology is an empirical science that relies on scientific and standardized field excavation methods to obtain cultural relics and then study their characteristics and connotations. Just as criminal policemen attach great importance to the first scene when solving crimes, cultural relics and archaeologists also value the integrity of cultural relics. They are completely different from tomb robbing activities that are motivated by money and digging for gold and treasures. Instead, they strive to reveal and preserve culture in the most complete and accurate manner. The original form of the remains, the most comprehensive and rich collection, research and analysis of historical comprehensive information.
For cultural relics and archaeological research, this kind of excavation is undoubtedly destruction, and the comprehensive historical and academic value of the tombs is also greatly reduced, which is lamentable. Seeing the scene, the sound of a hammer echoed, which shocked the excitement of the cultural relics census team members.
After excavation and survey, it was found that the tomb was a typical Ming Dynasty style stone chamber tomb. It was built with finely processed strips and slabs, and the entrance and roof of the tomb were sealed with stone slabs. The tomb chamber is rectangular in plan, with a flat roof and a maximum internal space of 1.63 meters. A front room runs across the front, with standing statues of civil servants and military generals engraved on both ends, which means to protect the tomb. The back room is divided into three coffin rooms, and one side of the front room corresponds to three niches for placing sacrifices or funerary objects.
The tomb of Zhao Zhenji consists of a corridor, a main chamber and two side chambers. There are inscriptions and portraits of military officials standing on the walls on the left and right sides of the corridor; in the middle of the three back chambers is Zhao Zhenji's coffin chamber, which is 2.78 meters long and 1.26 meters wide. Tomb of Confucianism. "The main wall is engraved with a clear and exquisite picture of a waiter, and the words "Ming Dynasty built the tomb of Shaobao Zhao Wensu in Dazhou" written in vertical regular script. The main walls of the left and right chambers are also engraved with "The Tomb of the First-Rank Lady Chen" and "The Tomb of the Taigong Man Guo" respectively. The three-chamber tombs all have flat roofs, and the entire tomb covers an area of ??17 square meters. After preliminary excavation, cleaning, photography, mapping, rubbings and other procedures, as well as comparison of relevant cultural and historical materials, the archaeological team confirmed that the owners of the ancient tomb were Zhao Zhenji, the Minister of Rites of the Ming Dynasty and the Wenyuan Pavilion scholar.
The two wives are buried on the left and right sides of Zhao Zhenji's main chamber respectively. In ancient times, the left was superior to the right, and the original wife was buried in the left coffin chamber. The inscription in the middle of the back wall reads: "On the 16th day of the seventh month of the Bingyin year of Zhengde, a first-class wife was born at an auspicious time." Chen's tomb died on June 21, the final year of Dingwei in Jiajing, at an auspicious time." On the right side of the coffin chamber is the burial chamber, with an inscription in the middle of the back wall: "Tomb of Guo, a Taigong native". The entire tomb is for Zhao Zhenji and his wife, with an area of ??about 17 square meters. Compared with the official rank and status of the tomb owner, the size of the tomb chamber is not large. The decoration inside the tomb is not flashy and can be called simple.
During the excavation and cleaning, it was observed that due to the destructive excavation in 1952, the heads and bones of the three tombs were basically intact. The coffin in the silt was severely corroded and could still be identified. The bronze mirror used to ward off evil spirits embedded in the circular groove above the spiritual place on the back wall of Zhao Zhenji's coffin chamber has been pried away. The entire tomb showed obvious signs of disturbance. What is even more regrettable is that there is no trace of the epitaph describing the owner's life and achievements and an unknown number of funerary objects that should be left in the tomb. Counting from the time when the tomb owner Zhao Zhenji died and was buried in 1576, it has been 432 years since archaeologists entered the tomb in 2008.
According to China Neijiang Net, the renovation project of Zhao Zhenji’s cemetery has been completed, and a sweeping ceremony was held on April 4, 2009. The scene was lively, and is recorded below: April 4, 2009, Coinciding with the Qingming Festival of the Jichou Year of the lunar calendar, the Zhao Zhenji Cemetery was inaugurated and the worship ceremony was held grandly in Sanshan Village, Sihe Township, Shizhong District. Descendants of the Zhao family raised funds and, under the guidance of the urban cultural relics department, began a cemetery renovation and protection project at the end of 2008. The project used bluestone to build a retaining wall, a circular tomb circle and an archway in front of the tomb. It is simple, elegant, solemn and solemn. , the project was completed on the eve of Qingming Festival. The cemetery was completed and at the sweeping ceremony, the heads of the CPPCC, Municipal Culture Bureau, District Culture and Sports Bureau, District Cultural Management Office, Sihe Township, Sanshan Village and other relevant units and 300 descendants of Zhao Zhenji from Neijiang, Guizhou and other places came together , read the sacrificial rites, reflect on the good achievements, and pay homage to the sages. (See China Neijiang Net, published on April 8, 2009)