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"Cry the poor", a simple anti-grave robbing method
The author of this article, Ni Fangliu
Recently, the topic of tomb robbing has become hot again.
TV shows adapted from some popular tomb-robbery novels are being broadcast on several platforms. I watched them casually and found them quite interesting. Why do you find it fun? Because watching this kind of TV is like watching Zhao Benshan's sketch - let him chew maggots, real tomb robbing will not be like this!
(People’s tombs are all piled with tombs)
After studying tomb robbing for so many years, I found a problem, "The devil is as high as one foot, and the road is as high as one foot." Even good things can be stolen.
What is a tomb? It is also called a tomb among the people, but in the early days there was a strict distinction between tombs and tombs. In the pre-Qin Dynasty, a tomb that was not sealed, planted, or left with no ground markings was called a "tomb", which means "nothing". It would be gone if it was buried underground. This was the original intention of the ancients for burial. Later, when the ancients understood "tomb" as a homophonic word for "mu" and thought it was "the place where a filial son longs for", they piled up soil on the tomb and the "grave head" appeared. The saying "it's easy to cry when there is a grave" is a reflection of this burial custom.
The emergence of grave mounds can be said to be the genesis of the concept of mourning in the ancient Central Plains, followed by the rise of thick burials. The so-called rich burial means to serve the deceased like a waiter and bury the deceased with some delicious, useful and fun things, which are called "treasures" among the people. Burying treasures in tombs is mainly for the purpose of stealing treasures, and the bad custom of tomb robbing has been formed for thousands of years.
(The tomb of Zhang Wenzao from the Liao Dynasty discovered in 1993, excavation site)
Since tomb robbing is caused by generous burials, "crying the poor" is naturally the best way to prevent tomb robbing before it happens, so someone proposed The slogan of "thin burial" was adopted to prevent tomb robbers from having any wrong ideas - this is the simplest anti-grave robbing method.
One of the most famous figures who advocated thin burials in ancient times was Cao Cao, the king of Wei in the late Han Dynasty. Cao Cao left a will before his death, stating that after his death "no treasures of gold and jade should be hidden". On the surface, these words were meant as a family lesson for his children and grandchildren, but in fact they were telling the tomb robbers, please don’t worry about my Cao Cao’s tomb. There are no funerary objects in it, nothing good, and it’s not worth digging.
(Inscription stone plate unearthed from Cao Wei Tomb in Xizhu Village)
From the Cao Wei tombs discovered in recent years, there are some buried treasures, but they are not many. The representative ones are Using engraved stone tablets instead of real objects is like the original burial of real people, but later changed to figurines and paper figures. For example, the so-called "Cao Cao's Tomb" discovered in the Xigao Cave in Anyang has unearthed cards like Gong Gun. In the Cao Wei Tomb in Xizhu Village, Luoyang, one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in 2016, more than 300 inscriptions reflecting the thin burial were also unearthed.
The engraved tablets buried in the tombs cannot stop the tomb robbers from giving up. The Xigaoxue Tomb and the Xizhucun Tomb have long been visited by tomb robbers, and there are tomb robbers from different dynasties. . Would it be more effective if the inscriptions were placed outside the tomb? During the Han and Wei dynasties, some people actually carved such words on stele stones.
(Archaeological site of Cao Wei Tomb in Xizhu Village)
According to "Jingzhou Ji", after the death of Wei Zhengnan general Zhang Zhan, he was buried in the east of Guanjian County (now Dengzhou City, Liaoning Province) territory), there is a text engraved on the back of his tombstone, some of which are like this - "A white catalpa coffin is a perishable garment. Copper and iron cannot enter, and earthenware cannot be hidden. Descendants, please don't be lucky for me." Injury!"
In ancient times, people who had the conditions often used rot-resistant nanmu to make coffins. The wood of white catalpa was very poor and not resistant to rot. The "white catalpa coffin" was a low-end coffin. The meaning of the inscription on Zhang Zhan's tombstone is very clear: I was buried lightly, the coffin was made of white catalpa wood, and the clothes I wore were not gold and jade clothes. Not to mention the gold and silver treasures, not even the copper, iron, or even earthenware was buried with me. Therefore, I hope that future generations of tomb robber brothers will not worry about me and make me uneasy!
(Ancient Tomb Cave Robbery)
Many tomb robbers believed this cry of poverty. No tomb robbers had visited Zhang Zhan’s tomb for a long time, which really deceived them. Even during the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the late Jin Dynasty, when the trend of tomb robbing among the people was particularly serious, Zhang Zhan's tomb was not excavated until the sixth year of Yuanjia in the Southern Dynasty (AD 429).
Zhang Zhan was from the Taihe period of Wei Dynasty, and it had been 200 years since he was buried when it was stolen.
It was a year of famine at that time. The hungry people didn’t care whether Zhang Zhan’s cry about poverty was true or not, they dug it up first. After opening the tomb, the hungry people were overjoyed. They saw in front of them a very luxurious quilt and a high-end coffin, which was full of treasures: "Gold, silver, tin, and copper utensils were splendidly prepared. There were two red lacquer coffins, and a thin bamboo curtain hung in front of the coffin." , golden nails nailed it."
Even the nails used to drive the coffin were made of gold. You can imagine the value of the treasures buried with Zhang Zhan.
Although Zhang Zhan’s tomb could not avoid being stolen in the end, no tomb robbers wanted to dig it up for 200 years. From the perspective of anti-grave robbing, it was still successful.
(Excavated ancient tomb)
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