Archaeological excavations in Chinese history second only to the tomb of Qin Shi Huang have unearthed the tomb of the Jin monarch two thousand years ago

As early as 1993, in order to reward units and individuals who have made outstanding achievements in field archaeology, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage set up an award called the "Field Archaeology Award". As the undisputed industry's highest honor at that time, the biennial selection event soon became a grand ceremony for the Chinese archaeological community.

The first prize of the award was awarded to the Qin Terracotta Army, which began to be excavated in 1974 and is known as the "Eighth Wonder of the World", which is well deserved. Regrettably, however, due to the strict requirements, the first prize has been vacant ever since.

It was not until 2006 that the news came again that the project had won the first prize, and it was the Hengshui Western Zhou Cemetery led by these two tombs. For a time, public opinion was in an uproar, and everyone was exploring, what is the mystery of this Hengshui cemetery?

What is the magic of Shanxi DaiXian County, located in the hometown of the Jin Dynasty, Shanxi DaiXian county, there are traces of ancient people's life almost everywhere under the loess soil. Due to the needs of cultural relics protection, cultural relics workers often do not carry out active excavations.

However, in the spring of 2004, the occurrence of a tomb robbery case broke the tranquility that lasted for more than 2,000 years, at the scene of the tomb robbery, after preliminary investigation, Chai Guangsheng, director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of DaiXian County, judged from experience that the stolen tombs were most likely noble tombs in the pre-Qin period. The technicians who arrived later also supported his views. Chai Guangsheng said: "Then we reported to the Yuncheng City Cultural Relics Bureau, and the Yuncheng City Cultural Relics Bureau sent the technicians of the Yuncheng City Cultural Relics Station to explore and judge based on the pottery pieces stolen from the tomb, which was judged by the tomb of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty."

Daixian is only a dozen kilometers away from the xintian ruins, the capital of the middle Jin dynasty, and according to this fact, people have initially determined that the cemetery should belong to the nobles of the Jin state.

In this ancient cemetery, which is at least 2700 years old, three tombs of different sizes were quickly discovered. Thankfully, the stolen tomb is the smallest of the three, and in a ranking of position and size, it is numbered Tomb No. 3.

DaiXian belongs to today's Yuncheng City, Shanxi, from the stolen cemetery of Hengshui Town, less than 20 kilometers to the east, two small hills in the county, according to legend, are the tombs of the two famous monarchs in the history of the Jin Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty.

The idiom that people know today: the story of the cold of the lips and the cold of the teeth and the false way of extinction, took place during the Jin Dynasty. Duke Wen's name was Zhong'er, the son of Duke Xian of Jin, and after encountering a palace coup and exile in the countries, it was he who experienced upheavals and displacements and various hardships and hardships that finally created the 150-year-long Spring and Autumn hegemony of the Jin state.

To this day, as descendants of the Jin Dynasty, the masses of Daixian County still hold sacrifices for them at the corresponding seasons. In such a sensitive area close to the cultural core of the Jin Dynasty, the occurrence of tomb robbery has touched the hearts of many cultural relics workers.

This is a typical tomb with Western Zhou characteristics, the width of the tomb opening on the surface is only less than 3.3 meters, but the width of the chamber surface in the tomb has easily broken through 4 meters. The whole tomb is in a state of small mouth and large bottom, and people stand underground ten meters deep, and only a small piece of sky can be seen when they look up. Although it has been supported, the loess that surrounds the walls is still at risk of collapsing at any time.

At this time, a special sign appeared, which quickly diverted everyone's attention. When the archaeologists of the Institute of Cultural Relics had just taken over, they found something with a red color like a textile on both sides of the chamber, exposed, and its area was still very large, and it was not known how large it was at that time. At that time, it was only a part of the exposed, and it seemed that there were very exquisite patterns on it.

The archaeologists present at the time were shocked by the sight in front of them and speculated what kind of thing it would be.

In China's archaeological history, since the new era, there have been physical materials of textiles produced by hand using natural fibers such as hemp, silk and cotton as raw materials. In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the social economy developed further, and the demand for textiles in the royal court increased day by day.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, China began to appear as officials in charge of textile affairs management, who were in charge of the production and collection of textiles. However, because textiles made of organic textures such as natural fibers are difficult to preserve, even in the humid south, they have only been found in a very few tombs. For example, In 1982, Mashan No. 1 excavated in Jiangling, Hubei Province, was excavated in the tombs of the middle and late Warring States period, because a number of extremely rare silk fabric cultural relics were unearthed, which was called "ancient silk treasure house". A little later in 2006, the tomb of Li Zhou Ao Ofu of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Jing'an, Jiangxi Province, was excavated because of the excavation of the earliest and largest number of silk fabrics of the era, as well as the earliest clothing in China, which rewrote the history of textile weaving.

So will this dry northern tomb in front of you unearth textiles with brighter colors from earlier times? What exactly is its composition, and why has it been preserved in the soil to this day?

Looking at the amazing scene in front of them, archaeologists vaguely felt that it seemed to be somewhat similar to a scene recorded in ancient documents. But in the absence of more powerful evidence before it was revealed on a large scale, he could only bury this speculation deep in his heart for the time being.

What kind of phenomenon is the whole phenomenon? And those in the literature can not be hooked? Archaeologists at that time only had a vague feeling in their minds, but there was no direct impression. To this end, Director Song Jianzhong and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage quickly contacted and reported the situation in the tomb to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

At this moment, although the cleaning of the rafters of Tomb No. 1 has just begun, people have long had high hopes for the identity of the owner of the tomb. In the speculation of some people, it even linked him to a successful monarch in the history of the Jin Dynasty.

Based on a judgment, it is believed that the tombs were in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty and may be monarch-level tombs, so the archaeological team combined with the historical data, once mentioned: The Marquis of Jincheng once migrated south to Quwo.

According to the early documents, the Western Han Dynasty edited and sorted out the "Book of Poetry", there is a record of "Chenghou Nan migrated, Juquwo", as the third generation of the Jin state, it was precisely because of the southward migration of Jin Chenghou that the foundation for the unprecedented strength of the Jin state was laid.

The ancient place name Quwo mentioned in the text is not today's Quwo County in Shaanxi Province, but in Wenxi, which is close to Dai County, less than 10 kilometers away from Hengshui Town.

So who will be the owner of this tomb? Because we all know that at the Qucun Tianma site, archaeologists have excavated the tomb of Marquis Chenghou of Jin, so will this passage in the historical data become a source of no origin? If this passage in the historical data is credible, then what archaeologists excavated at the Qucun Tianma site is believed to be the tomb of the Marquis of Jincheng, will he be the Marquis of Jincheng? So whose tomb will this newly discovered tomb be?

Because of the 9 groups of Jinhou tombs at the Qucun Tianma site, only a few tombs have been excavated, and the bronze vessels recorded in the inscription can clarify the identity of the owner of the tomb. Other tombs are based on the Zhaomu system and the order of the burial of the generals, and finally determined.