In front of Wu Zetian's tomb, there are 61 headless stone people. Their true identities have been verified by history, but why don't they have a head?
As the legendary queen of a generation, Wu Zetian has many anecdotes not only in her life, but also in the mausoleum after her death. Although Wu Zetian was returned to the Throne to Li after his death and buried in the Qianling Tombs as emperor, the distribution and size of the tomb remains a mystery. Whether it is the Qianling Tombs, which have not been stolen for thousands of years, or the well-preserved unrecorded monuments, they are hot topics in the archaeological community. This discussion is about the 61 stone people in front of Wu Zetian's tomb, who are also missing. Stone statues in front of the tombs of ancient emperors are not in the minority. And 61 stone statues together without heads are rare. Xiaobian will talk about it at this time: The 61 headless stone people in front of Wu Zetian's cemetery have been identified as having been identified, but why are there no heads?
As for why the stone men's heads fell, we should first discuss why these stone men stood there. As we all know, the Tang Dynasty, especially since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, was a representative era of China's great national strength and strong cultural influence. Although the Zhou Dynasty established by Wu Zetian was the product of coup politics and the appointment of cruel laws in imperial court politics, which tickled most historians, she was more enlightened outside the imperial court. Wu Zetian's reign extended the reign of Zhenguan. This is definitely an excellent gentleman for the people. After all, even in the Tang Dynasty, women could walk to the front of the stage and be recognized under the feudal system, and achieved a lot. The 61 headless stone statues identified as foreign officials who came to worship, but why did they not have heads?
The stone man's head was not completely lost. In fact, in later excavations, stone heads carved with foreign facial features were found around the stone statues. These heads have braids and facial features have distinctly Turkic features. There are also hidden inscriptions on the stone carvings, such as King Stoller of Mujuhan and Prince Of Tocharian holding the Karma Da Gan, etc., in fact, most of these are statues of vassals and a small number of officials of the dynasty.
Although most of these stone statues are ethnic minorities today, many of them have high-density portraits very close to the heads of foreigners, and the color should be white, so the heads are removed. Some people speculate that it is precisely because when the Eight-Power Alliance attacked the Central Plains, they saw a bunch of stone statues of foreigners in front of the tomb of the Chinese emperor, and they all worshiped respectfully, so they directly and angrily cut off their heads. But that's just one of those conjectures. The fracture of these stone statues suggests that their heads were actually broken at different times actually earlier.
Legend has it that foreign envoys visited this place during the Ming Dynasty. They found that their ancestors were nodding and bowing to the Chinese emperor. They felt disgraced, so they tore their heads apart. There are some similarities between the two legends. But local residents believe that a plague occurred in Qianxian county in the early Ming Dynasty, and it is said that the stone statues would come alive at night and bite people like rice dumplings, so they were cut off and sealed. No wonder there are so many accounts of strange things that happened during the excavation of dry graves many times. Even if there is nowhere to guess, people think it has been shaken by the earthquake.
In any case, sometimes it is more necessary to leave a little reverence. In fact, Wu Zetian's tomb does not need to be excavated, just as empty as the wordless monument, to unload the head of the stone statue itself is a great obsession, in fact, no matter what the answer is, it is better to keep a little mysterious!