the explosion in the depths of history
the Qing Dongling was once an isolated and sacred imperial forbidden area. Since the emperor shunzhi, five emperors have been buried in this place, which is like a tiger sitting on a dragon plate and full of kingliness.
Yuling is the mausoleum of Emperor Qianlong. It was built in the heyday of the Qing dynasty, and it cost more than two million yuan. It was selected all over the world with exquisite workmanship and beautiful materials, and its architectural art was exquisite and gorgeous, ranking first among the Qing tombs.
Dingdong Mausoleum, the Empress Dowager Cixi who ruled modern China for half a century, was built in the late Qing Dynasty, and the project cost 2.27 million yuan, which lasted for 14 years and was not completed until her death. Cixi Dingdong Mausoleum is resplendent and luxurious, and even the Palace and the Forbidden City are hard to match. The most important part of the mausoleum in the East of Qing Dynasty is the underground palace under the top of the earth-sealed treasure, which is where the coffin of the Empress Dowager was placed.
In the 192s, after looting by bandits and warlords, there were few treasures left in the tombs on the ground, only the underground palace was left. At this time, a mysterious note probably helped the grave robbers. According to experts, it is said that there was a "Notes on Love Moon Xuan" at that time, which was dictated by Li Lianying, a great eunuch in the late Qing Dynasty, and written down by his nephew. It records in detail many priceless treasures buried in the underground palace of Cixi.
In addition, Qianlong in the heyday of the Qing Dynasty was the richest emperor. Their tombs are magnificent, and the sacrifices must be extremely luxurious. Therefore, Qianlong Yuling and Cixi Dingdong Mausoleum underground palace became the primary targets.
Above the underground palaces of the Emperors of the Qing Dynasty, there are tall Fangcheng buildings, and the rear is built by mountains. If you can't find the entrance accurately, it is very difficult to enter the underground palace.
Since the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang, built the underground palace for himself, emperors in ancient China paid great attention to the construction of the underground palace, which was the place where their souls were reincarnated, the place where coffins and treasures were buried, and the most mysterious link in the imperial tombs. In order to guard against theft, they piled up high seals, built strong city walls, set up thousands of soldiers guarding tombs, formulated the most stringent laws, and killed grave builders to keep secrets. The construction of the Tomb of the Eastern Qing Dynasty absorbed the experience of the past dynasties, and it was not without care and careful precautions in terms of anti-theft measures ...
In July 1928, one army, which played the leading role in stealing the tomb, rushed to Dingdong Mausoleum, Cixi, while the other army rushed to Yuling, Qianlong.
The tomb raiders finally found the entrance to the underground palace.
The photos left in those years show that at first, the bandits did not know the entrance to the underground palace, but dug everywhere, leaving traces of their excavation on the top of the treasure house, outside the annex hall and in the Ming building.
In p>1928, the tomb raiding team finally found the entrance to the underground palace. It turns out that behind the tall building, there is a "dumb courtyard". It is said that all the craftsmen recruited are dumb to prevent workers from revealing the secrets of the project. There is a glazed screen wall in the north of the dumb courtyard, and under the screen wall is the tunnel entrance.
The mausoleum structure of the Qing Dongling is similar. The entrance to the underground palace is hidden under the glass screen wall. If you dig horizontally from the front, you will encounter a brick tunnel; If you dig vertically down from the top of the treasure, it will increase the distance by many times; And if you fall directly from under the glass shadow wall, you can get through the King Kong wall nearby and enter the underground palace in the shortest way. Those who can find this shortcut are probably familiar with the inside story.
Cixi Mausoleum is slightly different from Ganlong Mausoleum. Due to the limitation of feudal hierarchy, Cixi Mausoleum has no dumb courtyard. Entering the ancient cave gate under the Ming building, at the end of the corridor is a wall with iron bars cast inside, and inside it is the "King Kong Wall". The entrance to the underground palace is right under this king kong wall.
Dongling was built very firmly, so it was not easy to completely dig up the floor tiles. The bandits were eager to steal treasures, so they used explosives. In the smoke-filled rubble, dig down several feet, and finally reveal a white marble wall, which is the King Kong Wall. A few stones were removed from the middle of the wall to reveal a dark hole.
Experts said that after Dongling was stolen, there were some legends left in the local area, among which soldiers who stole the tomb died in the underground palace. At that time, the underground palace in Qianlong was full of accumulated water. Because of its age, the accumulated water was four or five feet deep. When the clean room was re-collected, it took five days to be drained by a water pump. Even now, it is necessary to pump water regularly. With such deep water, and the passage is steep and slippery, it is possible that the tomb raiding soldiers who don't understand it slipped in the toxic water and died of fright and suffocation.
After a shock, the bandits, driven by the desire to make a fortune, moved on. Finally, they saw a tall white marble door. Each stone door in the underground palace weighs 3 tons, and there are 1, Jin copper fans on the door, and there is a top door stone behind the door. At that time, people used a thin iron ring to trap the top stone behind the door, while using a wooden stick to open the stone door. This does not need to damage the stone gate, nor will it break the top stone. It can be inferred that the bandit soldiers did not know the mystery behind Shimen at first. On the first stone gate of Cixi Mausoleum, there are still traces of destruction that year. Finally, the top stone behind the stone gate broke in two. It was not until the first stone gate of Cixi underground palace was opened that the bandit soldiers suddenly realized that they had opened the stone gate behind them without brute force. Therefore, the second stone gate of Cixi underground palace and the first three stone gates of Qianlong underground palace are well preserved so far. Compared with the underground palace of Cixi, the underground palace of Qianlong is much more complicated. It has four stone gates and nine ticket halls. The whole structure forms a "main" shape, with a depth of 54 meters and a lost area of more than 3 square meters, which is equivalent to an underground palace.
The tragedy began at that moment
This is a strange world: Bodhisattvas symbolizing great compassion, universal salvation and boundless Buddhism are carved on the stone gate. The hideous four heavenly kings guard the four directions, exorcise evil spirits and avoid evil, and take charge of good weather. There are also five desires for color, fragrance, taste, sound and touch. There are countless Buddhist incantations carved on the wall.
the whole Qianlong underground palace is like a solemn and beautiful underground Buddhist temple. Emperors who enjoyed splendor during their lifetime dreamed of ascending to the paradise of the West after their death. After experiencing the initial shock and terror, the grave robbers who were eager to make a fortune continued to touch the fourth stone gate with trepidation.
No matter how hard the bandits tried, they couldn't open the last stone gate in Yuling by the previous method. Experts said that the bandit soldiers simply used explosives again. After the last stone door in Yuling was bombed, one door collapsed and broke, and the other one was skewed, which was in jeopardy. What is the reason why the fourth stone gate can't be opened?
It turned out that the Yuling was full of water, and the huge coffin floated up and left the stone platform to resist the stone gate, so the stone gate could not be broken open.
While the bandits who robbed the Qianlong Yuling Mausoleum struggled for stone gates one after another, the bandits in Dingdong Mausoleum of Cixi were excited to find that there were only two stone gates in the underground palace of Cixi.
They first entered the last main tomb and saw the coffin and treasure.
This is a stone room completely paved with white marble and facing south, also called "golden coupon". In the middle of the golden ticket is a one-foot-high white marble platform, which is also the "treasure bed". On it, there is a huge coffin, which is the Zigong of Empress Dowager Cixi. On both sides of the golden coupon are two stone piers, named "Book Throne", on which there was originally a book of incense treasures recording Cixi posthumous title.
coffins in Qing dynasty had two layers, which were divided into outer coffins and inner coffins.
In those days, how did the bandit soldiers open the coffin of Cixi? This used to be a mystery. Until many years later, a book called "Miscellaneous Memories of the World Hall" revealed the memories of a company commander who allegedly stole the tomb.
According to the company commander's confession, when the outer coffin and the inner coffin were pried open, the glittering gold lacquer outer coffin was chopped to pieces by the bandits' knives and axes. After the gangsters removed the broken wood, an inner coffin with red paint and Yunnan gold was revealed. The bandit officer was afraid of chopping with a knife and axe to damage the treasures in the coffin, and strictly ordered the bandit soldiers to pry open the coffin carefully with a knife.
"At that time, when the coffin lid was lifted, it was found that the coffin was full of glow, and each soldier held a big flashlight, and everyone was amazed at the light. Looking down at the coffin, the Western Empress Dowager looks like life, and her fingers are white and hairy ... There are no jewels in the coffin, the big ones are taken away by the officials, and the small ones are put in the pockets of the soldiers. So the commander ordered that the dragon robe be removed and the personal jewels be searched out. "
The sad scene of the reunion
After the theft of Dongling, the representatives of the Qing dynasty's survivors went to Dongling to deal with the aftermath. At that time, a witness named Bao Xi wrote the Diary of Dongling in Service, which recorded the reburial in detail.
... The body of Cixi fell on the broken coffin lid. Long divergence without chaos, the red-headed rope with braids is still there. When her body was turned over, it was found that it was covered with white hair and there were broken marks at the mouth.
Liu Renrui, a witness, described the tragic situation he saw when he entered the Fuling underground palace in Qianlong: he entered the underground palace with a lamp and saw several pieces of white bones floating in the mud. The recapturer found four heads, but he couldn't tell whether they were male or female, and his situation was one hundred times more miserable than that of the Western Empress Dowager Mausoleum.
According to historical records, Emperor Qianlong, two empresses and three imperial concubines were buried in Yuling Underground Palace. Because it lasted for a hundred years, it suffered this catastrophe again, leaving only messy bones in front of those who had recovered. When people cleaned up the remains, only four heads were found at first.
According to experts, six people only found four skulls when the room was cleared and reassembled, and the remains were all broken. One coffin was pressed under the stone door, and one skull was found, which was judged to be a dry skull.
After the skull of Ganlong was found, there was still a skull missing, and the coffin was searched everywhere, but it was not found. People speculated that it might have been taken out of the underground palace by grave robbers.
Just when people were about to give up the search, something surprising happened. A complete female corpse appeared in the deep water in the northwest corner of the underground palace, which was amazing. According to inference, this female corpse should be the queen of filial piety.
Imperial concubine Ling Yi was the biological mother of Emperor Jiaqing, and was posthumously named as the filial piety queen.
Before she died in Qianlong, this filial piety queen was in the same underground palace. Why did her bones remain so intact? The bequests were puzzled. The doubts in the hearts of the heirs have not yet been solved, and another problem has made them difficult: how to distinguish the identities of those scattered bones? After discussion for several days, it was finally decided to bury a coffin together, which created the only special case since the Qing Dynasty when emperors and empresses were buried together.
After reburied the remains of Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Qianlong, people covered the broken coffin, closed the stone gate, and then completely sealed the tunnel. It was not until the 197s and 198s that these two underground palaces were opened and cleaned again.
In p>1984, the Qing Dongling Cultural Relics Management Office sorted out the two tombs of Qianlong and Cixi. The results of the coffin opening verify the records of the Qing dynasty's survivors who died again.
in p>2, Qing Dongling was listed in the world cultural heritage protection list.