Yesterday (December 14), the Jiangcun Tomb in Bailuyuan was officially announced by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, becoming one of the most sensational archaeological news of the day. The local TV station did a live broadcast, and the mystery and tortuous discovery process of the imperial tomb were also heatedly discussed by countless netizens.
Before this was officially confirmed, for many years Baling was believed to be in the Phoenix Mouth area, also located in Bailuyuan, and the real Baling was called Gangchon Tomb.
A large number of clay figurines exposed at the scene were excavated during the live broadcast
Ma Yongying, the main person in charge of the archaeological excavation and a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, told the Red Star News reporter: The naming of the Jiangcun tomb is in accordance with the norms of archaeology, and the name of the unowned site and tomb is named according to the name of the local minimum place name. "This tomb is located on the east side of Jiangcun, and it is called Jiangcun Tomb."
In yesterday's report, Jiao Nanfeng, a senior expert of the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute, also mentioned in the live broadcast: As early as 2002, there were black clay figurines stolen from the Jiangcun Tomb that were nearly auctioned in the United States, and after unremitting efforts to be recovered, the ancient tomb gradually attracted the attention of archaeologists.
In 2006, after determining that the figurines were from the ancient tomb of Gangchon, archaeologists conducted an archaeological survey of the place and found that it was an imperial tomb with four burial lanes. "We have been doing archaeological research for so many years, and once this shape of the cemetery is constructed, the intuition is emperor level." Ma Yongyi said, "But archaeology pays attention to evidence, and it is necessary to make rigorous speculations based on evidence, not based on feelings." ”
Jiangcun Tomb was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 2019
Therefore, from 2006 to 2019, archaeologists spent more than a decade exploring the corners of the entire cemetery bit by bit and in detail, and became more and more confident about the conclusion that it was actually the tomb of the Han Emperor. In October 2019, Jiangcun Tomb was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit. "Why has it been so long, in order to determine the strength and scope of this protection, we must figure out all the remains of the cemetery." Ma Yongyi said.
So, who initially thought that the "Phoenix Mouth" was the location of the Tombs?
Ma Yongyi told reporters that Li Daoyuan, a famous geographer in the Northern Wei Dynasty, clearly mentioned in his famous book "Notes on the Water Classics" that the tomb of the Han Emperor was on the White Deer Plain. But did not mention the specific address.
Luo Tianjun's "Class Editor Chang'an Zhi"
"According to the historical data I know, the earliest is in the "Chronicle of Chang'an" compiled by a man named Luo Tianjun in the Yuan Dynasty, who wrote in detail a sentence 'Emperor Wen's Baling Tomb is under the mouth of the Northern Phoenix of Bailuyuan, forty miles east of jingzhao Tonghua Gate'--this is the earliest record of the specific location of the Baling that we have found so far."
Located in the Phoenix Mouth of Bailuyuan in Xi'an, the shape of the pyramid is very similar to the sealing soil of other imperial tombs. In the cherry orchard at the bottom of the mountain, there are several stone monuments erected since the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the first half of the 20th century, a number of Chinese and foreign scholars successively went to the Phoenix Mouth to investigate, and they all believed that the Phoenix Mouth was the Baling Tomb, and after the founding of New China, after several archaeological investigations, the same conclusion was also reached.
But in 2011, in the archaeological work of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, archaeologists from Shaanxi Province and Xi'an City conducted more than a month of exploration of Fenghuangzui and found no trace of artificial excavation. "At that time, I wondered if our work was not meticulous enough, what clues were missed, and I did not dare to jump to conclusions easily for a while." Ma Yongyi recalled.
Immediately afterwards, the staff conducted a second archaeological exploration, which took nearly half a year and still found nothing. Archaeologists then invited a geological and mineral enterprise in Shaanxi to survey Fenghuangzui through modern means such as geomagnetic radar, high-density resistance method, and radon measurement method.
However, all the survey results show that this place, which has been considered the tomb of the emperor for thousands of years, has not found any traces of ancient tombs. Archaeologists looked for earlier documentary clues and found that in the Northern Song Dynasty's "Chang'an Zhi", it was only written that Emperor Wen's tomb was buried on the White Deer Plain, and the three words "phoenix mouth" were not mentioned at all.
Luo Tianjun was born in the old family of the family living in Chang'an, and he also liked to search for historical sites, and was very familiar with the relics and traces around Chang'an. Therefore, his "Class Editor An Zhi" has a high reference value in the eyes of scholars.
Why did such a scholar, who is familiar with monuments and ancient documents, "look away"? Today, we have no way to verify it, but according to expert speculation, scholars after the Han Dynasty are likely to be influenced by the history books' description of Baling "because the mountain is hidden, and the tomb is not restored", thus comparing the appearance of the Baling tomb with the imperial tomb of the Tang Dynasty, and concluding that the phoenix mouth is a baling.
May mislead scholars about the similarities of the mountain shape
Ma Yongying also said that because the so-called "because of the mountain as a mausoleum" in the Tang Dynasty, such as zhaoling and qianling, are all looking for a handsome small mountain, scholars like Luo Tianjun can easily imagine that Emperor Wen of Han's "because the mountain is a mausoleum" is about the same as the Tang Dynasty. "So he had to find a handsome little mountain near (White Deer Plain), just the phoenix mouth, if you look up from the location of the Bahe River, it is indeed imposing and handsome, and it looks very much like that."
In addition, according to the records of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the imperial tombs of the Han Dynasty were basically excavated during the great chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, and the only thing that was not destroyed at that time was the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han. But unfortunately, in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and Baling also suffered a catastrophe - Sima Ye, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, was besieged by the former Han army in Chang'an City, and a serious famine occurred in the city, and thousands of hungry families such as Yin Huan and Xie Wu "stole Han Ba, Du Erling, and obtained many treasures."
In the long years since, private theft by the people has not been stopped. Therefore, when the archaeologists excavated this time, only more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horses, iron tools, pottery, etc. were unearthed, all of which were not valuable enough in the eyes of tomb robbers.
How many percent of these surviving artifacts can be compared to all the artifacts buried with them in that year? "We'll never know that." Ma Yongwei sighed, "Unless you travel back in time and follow those grave robbers and watch." ”
According to him, the current archaeological work on Baling is still continuing, and the cultural relics that have been excavated are currently properly stored in the archaeological unit, and are restored, protected and studied by professionals one by one. As for which museum or cultural protection unit will be sent to display later, including whether to build a site museum on the original site, etc., it depends on the arrangement of the relevant competent unit. "Of course, we hope that these hard-won archaeological achievements can be better and more comprehensively displayed, so that more people can feel the history and culture of more than 2,000 years ago." Ma Yongyi said.
Red Star News reporter | Qiao Xueyang
Edited | Duan Xueying
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