He was the 3rd emperor of the Han Dynasty, the fourth son of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and the younger brother of Liu Ying, the Emperor Hui of Han. He was Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han, who reigned for 23 years, lightly dispensed with thin endowments, rested with the people, and the four seas were peaceful.
Where is the Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han? This is a mystery that has not been solved in the imperial tombs of the Han Dynasty.
△ Exterior view of BalingLing District
On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an online conference in Beijing to focus on three important archaeological discoveries and research results in Gansu, Henan and Shaanxi. At the meeting, it was announced that the great tomb of Bailuyuan Jiangcun in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, was the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han. Archaeologists believe that the greatest significance of this archaeology is to correct the thousand-year-old fallacy: the Tomb of the Han Emperor is not in the mouth of the phoenix.
Baling in the "Phoenix Mouth"? Fallacy!
From Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu to Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han Wen, from Liu Che of Han Wu to Liu Qing, the Emperor xuan of Han, there were 11 emperors in the Western Han Dynasty. Among them, the Changling Tombs of Liu Bang and Lü Hou of Han Gaozu, the An Tomb of Liu Ying of the Han Hui Emperor, and the Yang Tomb of Liu Qi, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty... A total of 9 emperors were buried on the Xianyang Plateau on the north bank of the Wei River.
All along, among the 11 emperors, only the Tomb of Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han Wen, did not know the real location.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Luo Tianhua's "Chronicle of Chang'an" records that Emperor Wen's tomb was forty miles east of Jingzhao Tonghua Gate, under the mouth of the northern phoenix of Bailuyuan.
Is the Han Wen Emperor really in the "phoenix mouth", or is it a fallacy? From 2011 to 2013, the Shaanxi Hanling Archaeological Team repeatedly conducted a large-scale and meticulous exploration of the "Phoenix Mouth" by using various technical means such as archaeological exploration and geological exploration. In addition to more than a dozen Ming and Qing dynasty stele stones, archaeologists have not found any Han Dynasty mausoleum remains in the "Phoenix Mouth".
In 2016, the outer pit of the Jiangcun Tomb was disturbed, in order to confirm the preservation status of the tomb and the distribution of the surrounding cultural relics, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, archaeologists conducted systematic archaeological investigation and exploration of the Jiangcun Tomb and its nearby Empress Dou Mausoleum, the Southern Tomb of Empress Bo and the "Phoenix Mouth" that is said to be the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, which once again confirmed that the claim that the Tomb of emperor Han Wen was in the "Phoenix Mouth" was a fallacy that had been circulated for thousands of years. In fact, the Jiangcun Tomb is the tomb of emperor Wen of Han.
"Ya" glyph mausoleum, Emperor Wen of Han and Empress Dou are in the same cave
Jiangcun Tomb is located in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an At the western end of Bailuyuan, the surface is not sealed, the burial chamber is about 72 meters long and more than 30 meters deep, more than 110 outer pits have been found around the burial chamber, and there are pebble-paved cemetery facilities on the outskirts of the outer pits, with a side length of about 390 meters ...
The tombs of the Western Han Emperors were all tombs with vertical pits, and the same was true for the tombs of Emperor Wen of Han. The tombs of the princes are more following the traditional form of the Eastern Zhou, and some princely kingdoms have also innovated. Li Yinde, former director of the Xuzhou Museum, said that because the mountain is a mausoleum, the vertical pit tomb is a common form system for the tombs of the Western Han Dynasty.
How can we be sure that the Gangchon Tomb is a baling tomb? "The tomb system of Jiangcun Tomb is 'Ya' shape, with 4 tomb passages, which is the highest level of burial specifications in the Western Han Dynasty." Ma Yongyi, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the leader of the Hanling Archaeological Team, introduced that there are more than 110 outer pits around the mausoleum, and a large number of pottery figurines have been found in the outer pits. The outer pit is a burial facility used for burial instruments in ancient high-grade tombs, generally located around the tomb, and the surrounding part is the main mausoleum. The surrounding cemetery facilities, gates, etc. are all imperial-level configurations. This is a series of evidence.
The most crucial evidence is the discovery of a larger rammed earth garden wall outside the Jiangcun Tomb and Empress Dou's mausoleum. The rammed earth garden wall is actually a large cemetery that encloses the Great Tomb of Gangchon and the Mausoleum of Empress Dou. Ma Yongyi said, so that it can be determined, "because the Han Dynasty practiced the emperor and empress in the same cave, that is, buried in the same cemetery, each built a tomb." The large mausoleum that appears outside the jiangcun tomb shows that he and Empress Dou are the same. "
The structural layout of the double mausoleum, the center of the imperial tomb and the outer hidden pit shows obvious differences with the Mausoleum of the Ancestor of Han Gao and the Tomb of Emperor Hui of Han, which lays the foundation of the imperial tomb system in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, and is of great significance to the in-depth study of the imperial tomb system in ancient China.
Most of the funerary items were pottery, copper and iron, and Emperor Wen was a simple emperor
In emperor Wendi's funeral, what treasures are there? Judging from the current excavations, the funerary products of Baling are very simple, mostly pottery, copper and iron.
△ Pottery figurines unearthed from Baling
In the 8 outer pits excavated by archaeologists, more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horses, iron and pottery were unearthed. The copper seal inscriptions include "Chefu", "Instrument House", "Riding Thousand People in the Middle", "Fuyin", "Cangyin", "ZhongsikongYin", etc., indicating that the outer pits around the Jiangcun Tomb should be built to imitate the actual official office and the prefectural treasury.
Painted nude figurines are known in archaeology as "dressed figurines", and according to preliminary cleansing, there are thousands of these figurines. Archaeologist Jiao Nanfeng introduced: "The excavated pottery figurines and other funerary utensils are only 1/3 large, not practical utensils, and there are very few high-grade gold and silver decorative utensils unearthed. "
Ma Yongyi explained that Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han, was a very frugal emperor, Wencheng Wude, who reigned for 23 years and rested. Before his death, he made a testament: The tombs of the rulers are all made of tiles, and they must not be decorated with gold, silver, copper and tin, and they will not rule the graves, but they will be provinces and will not bother the people.
The simplicity of Emperor Wen of Han stemmed from his experience. He was the fourth son of Han Gaozu's ancestor Liu Bang, his mother Bo Ji, who was lowly and unloved. After succeeding to the throne, he exerted great efforts to govern and lightly dispensed with thin endowments, kicking off the prelude to the "rule of Wenjing".
Eagles, cranes, golden snub-nosed monkeys... Empress Bo's mausoleum has an "underground zoo"
Two kilometers south of the Jiangcun Tomb, there is also a "Ya" shaped tomb, which is the southern tomb of Empress Bo, the mother of Emperor Wen of Han.
There is a local saying that the southern tomb of Empress Bo is called "WangziZun", which stands quietly in the south of the Baling Tomb, and also looks at the Ancestral Tomb of Han Gao in the direction of Xianyang. Archaeologists carried out rescue excavations of 3 outer pits from south to north on the west side of the Nanling Tomb, unveiling the dust of history little by little, and more stories of the Nanling Tomb were gradually revealed.
△ Turtle excavated in Nanling
Roe deer, golden monkey, turtle, crane... Rare animals have been found in nanling, and common figures such as keepers and food boxes have also appeared in the tombs. Among them, a huge turtle shell attracted everyone's attention, according to Hu Songmei, a researcher at the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute, the tortoise shell is 52 cm long and 48 cm wide, generally distributed in the southern region, Shaanxi is not. She believes that the turtle should have come from a small country, with an auspicious symbol. It is worth noting that the crane, which has the meaning of "turtle crane longevity" along with the turtle, was also found in the tomb not far away.
At the same time, in the pit being excavated, archaeologists also found the figure of birds of prey such as eagles, and Hu Songmei believes that in the process of subsequent excavations, there will be wild geese, wild geese, swans and other rare birds and animals that symbolize a certain meaning.
Equally eye-catching as the "underground zoo" are hundreds of gold and silver artifacts unearthed from Nanling, including a large number of car and horse ornaments, exquisite shapes, complex craftsmanship, shining in the sun, and good quality and ornamentation. After careful observation, archaeologists found that the modeling style of these artifacts is very different from the Central Plains style, with a typical grassland culture exotic style, and some scholars believe that this is related to the experience of Emperor Wen of Han as a child.
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Tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty, 28 were found in Jiangsu
All said, the great Han is majestic.
The archaeological excavations of the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han have aroused the great curiosity of history fans.
As we all know, after the peasant revolt at the end of the Qin Dynasty overthrew the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu "dominated the world and subjected the princes" and divided 19 princely states, so in addition to the tombs of 11 emperors, the tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty were huge.
Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, Henan, Shandong, Beijing, Shaanxi, and Shanxi have all found tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty. Li Yinde, former director of the Xuzhou Museum, said that there are 43 and 86 tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty that have been discovered and excavated throughout the country. Among them, Jiangsu found 28 tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty and excavated 22.
Among the tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty found in Jiangsu, Xuzhou found the most tombs of the Chu kings, with a total of 8 places and 18 tombs. Among them, 16 tombs of Chu kings have been excavated, and only 2 of Chuwang Mountain have not been excavated.
△ A set of copper chimes excavated from Liu Fei's tomb Data map
Secondly, Yangzhou and Xuyi also excavated the tombs of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty. Among them, the Tomb of Dayunshan Han in Xuyi is the mausoleum of Liu Fei, the half-brother of Emperor Wu of Han and the King of Jiangdu, while yangzhou has unearthed the tomb of Liu Xu, the King of Guangling.
In Siyang, Suqian, a tomb of the princes of the Western Han Dynasty has also been excavated in Surabaya.
The imperial tombs of the Han Dynasty were all mausoleums because of mountains, but they were slightly different. Baling is to dig a pit on the flat ground on the mound, and no graves are built on it. King Jiang Du chiseled a pit on the mountain, and king Chu chiseled a hole in the mountain, both of which are different from Baling. Li Yinde said.
Modern Express + reporter Liu Jingyan Ding Mengsha Hu Yumei trainee reporter Zhang Wenying
(The pictures in the text are all screenshots except for the annotations Edited by Huang Yuanyuan)