On December 14, 2021, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially announced that the Jiangcun Tomb in Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, is the real Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
Image source: Weibo screenshot
In the traditional understanding of the academic circles, the Hanwen Emperor's Tomb is located in a place called The Phoenix's Mouth, and the Jiangcun Tomb is confirmed as the Hanwen Emperor's Mausoleum, which can be said to correct a mistake that has been circulated for thousands of years.
So, how did archaeologists make Baling come to life? Let's take a look.
Emperor Wen of Han's tomb in the "Phoenix Mouth"? Fallacy!
In fact, Emperor Wen of Han was buried in Baling, which was a very clear thing in the Han Dynasty, because it was Emperor Wen himself who chose the location of the mausoleum for himself, and changed the selected address (then called Zhiyang) to "Baling".
Before his death, Emperor Wen explicitly demanded in his will that "the Baling Mountains and Rivers should not be changed because of their reasons", that is, the original topography of the mausoleum should not be changed because of the construction of the mausoleum. Therefore, Baling did not have a tall enclosure.
But later, after the destruction of the cemetery building on the ground under the wear and tear of the historical years, the specific location became an unsolved case. "Baling" became an area centered on the White Deer Plain, and although it was surrounded by low hills and bashui and xunshui, there was no clear marker.
Ancient documents are relatively vague, the "History" and "Book of Han" all say that Emperor Wen was buried in Baling, there is no clear location; instead, a Guanzhong geography book called "Three Auxiliary Yellow Maps" says that Baling is in the "seventy miles east of Chang'an City", "seventy miles" seems to be very accurate, but in fact, it is only a general range. In terms of orientation, the White Deer Plain was not in the east of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty, but in the southeast. However, this record of the "Three Auxiliary Yellow Figures" is likely to have caused some misleading to future generations.
The literature after the Han Dynasty does not go beyond the above records. Strangely, in the Yuan Dynasty, a person named Luo Tianhua suddenly recorded the specific location of The Tomb in his own "Class Editor Chang'an Zhi", "under the mouth of the Northern Phoenix of Bailuyuan in the forty miles east of Jingzhao Tonghuamen", and the Phoenix Mouth was at the northern end of bailuyuan south of Maoyaoyuan Village in Xiwang Street, Baqiao District today, where there was a low cliff, which was indeed a bit like the sealed mound of the imperial tomb.
Image source: CCTV news client
Luo Tianjun was a native of Chang'an, and his career was not smooth, but seeing that the Chang'an area was suffering from the raging fires of war and many monuments were destroyed, he compiled the "Chronicle of Chang'an" based on the "Chang'an Zhi" of the Northern Song Dynasty, which recorded the historical changes in the Guanzhong area since the Zhou Dynasty for more than 2,000 years. Perhaps because Luo Tianjun was a native and recorded the location of Baling in an unusually specific way, his statement has become a conclusive conclusion in the past thousand years.
Many people in the Ming and Qing dynasties have visited Baling to visit the monuments, many people have erected inscriptions specifically for Baling, in today's archaeological survey found a total of more than 10 pieces, among the people who erected the monument are more clearly bi Yuan, who served as the envoy of Shaanxi Province, the inspector of Shaanxi and is proficient in epigraphy, which undoubtedly increases the credibility of Baling's location in the mouth of the phoenix. Therefore, after the founding of New China, the Baling of Fenghuangzui was once established as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
However, the claim that the Phoenix Mouth is where the Baling is located was rejected by 2011. That year, archaeologists spent half a year surveying the phoenix mouth, but the result was that people cried and laughed, there were no graves here! Not to mention Emperor Wen's tomb, there is not even an ordinary tomb. Therefore, Baling can only be in other places.
How to determine that the Jiangcun Tomb is the tomb of the Han Emperor?
In 2001, some cultural materials stolen from the Jiangcun Tomb were scattered, which attracted great attention from the state, and archaeologists began to carry out protective surveys and excavations of the Jiangcun Tomb. In 2011, after the Phoenix Zui Baling tomb was denied, archaeologists focused more on the Jiangcun Tomb, which was being surveyed.
The location of the Gangchon Tomb is special. 0.8 kilometers to the east of it is the long-established Tomb of Empress Dou, who is Emperor Wen's empress and Emperor Jing's birth mother Dou Yifang. 2 kilometers southwest of it is the Nanling Tomb, and the tomb owner is Empress Bo, the biological mother of Emperor Wen. Judging from this relationship, the tomb owner of the Jiangcun Tomb should have a relatively close relationship with Empress Dou and Empress Bo.
Before the Phoenix Mouth was denied, the owner of the Jiangcun Tomb was once considered to be the daughter of Emperor Wen and Empress Dou, and the granddaughter of Empress Bo, Princess Guantao, who was both the aunt of Emperor Wu of Han and his mother-in-law.
However, the shape of the Gangchon Tomb exceeded the specifications that Princess Guantao should have. Archaeologists found that the Jiangcun Tomb is in the shape of an "Ya", which has four tomb passages in the southeast, south, and northwest, and is generally a tomb system dedicated to emperors and empresses in the Han Dynasty. One level lower than the "Ya" glyph is the "Middle" glyph, two tomb passages, which are generally the specifications of the princes; further down is the "A" glyph, a tomb road, which is generally the specification of the marquis. Princess Guantao is only a princess, and she absolutely cannot use the tomb specifications of the emperor and empress, and she naturally cannot be the owner of the tomb.
Image source: Screenshot of CCTV News Weibo
Next, the relative position of the Gangchon Tomb and the Tomb of Empress Dou has aroused the interest of archaeologists. Those imperial tombs on xianyang yuan originally had cemeteries, and the mausoleums all had tombs of emperors and empresses (or equivalent to empresses), and the relative position was exactly the same as the Jiangcun Tomb and the Tomb of Empress Dou, one west and one east. Since Baling is not in the phoenix mouth, will it be this Jiangcun tomb with the specifications of the "Ya" shaped emperor?
In fact, as early as 2015, some experts speculated that this Jiangcun tomb was likely to be the tomb of Emperor Wen. This speculation was soon corroborated as archaeological excavations progressed.
Exterior view of Balingling District (Source: CCTV news client)
In order to find out the relationship between the Jiangcun Tomb and the Tomb of Empress Dou, archaeologists delineated a larger area for exploration, and sure enough, they found a rectangular rammed earth wall, about 1200 meters from east to west, and about 860 meters from north to south, which happened to circle the two tombs in the same area, which is most likely the cemetery of Baling. Being able to be buried in the same area as Empress Dou, and also using the emperor's specification "Ya" glyph tomb, in fact, there will be no one else except Emperor Wen of Han.
In addition, archaeologists have also excavated 8 external burial pits around the Jiangcun Tomb, as well as some pottery kiln sites, funerary tombs (pits), etc., and unearthed many cultural relics, of which two types are worth noting:
1. Clay figurines
The number of about thousands, are painted nude pottery figurines, actually very similar to the pottery figurines unearthed from the Yang Mausoleum of the Han Jing Emperor, will it be the special pottery figurines made during the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, who have successively been emperors?
Second, some small copper seals nearly 1 cm square
The Indian words "Zhongsikong Yin", "Chefu", "Instrumenter", "Cangyin", "Fuyin", etc. actually symbolize the various institutions surrounding the emperor's governance of the country, and are the funerary characteristics of the Qin and Han Dynasties, such as "death is like life", and the tombs of Qin Shi Huang and The Yang Tomb of Emperor Jing have found ming organ seals symbolizing official offices.
Therefore, these official seals of the Jiangcun Tomb are strong evidence of the identity of the tomb owner as the emperor, because no one else can lead these administrative institutions to govern the world.
The discovery of the Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han is related to tomb robbery?
Since 2001, the excavation of the Gangcun Tomb by criminals has triggered a repositioning and reflection on the tomb of Emperor Wen, which is a fact, and there is some happiness but no joy.
Fortunately, these excavations only destroyed some of the auxiliary funerary facilities of Baling, but did not directly excavate Baling itself. Even so, these ancillary funerary facilities and related cultural relics that were destroyed are still important materials for us to understand the Baling and Han Dynasty imperial tomb systems today, and if we can see the original appearance before the destruction, the natural reference value is higher.
Archaeological work is very arduous, but it adheres to scientific principles.
From the denial of the Phoenix Zui Baling Tomb to the official confirmation by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage that the real location is the Jiangcun Tomb, it has taken 10 years. In the past 10 years, through the scientific investigation and analysis of the shape, location, and cultural relics excavated from the funerary tomb (pit) of jiangcun tomb, combined with documentary records, a relatively complete chain of evidence has finally been formed, which has locked the true location of Baling.
We have no way of knowing why Luo Tianjun had such a wrong record, so that it caused a thousand years of misleading. However, the recording and circulation of literature will always be affected by man, and it is inevitable that there will be false rumors, at this time, scientific archaeological excavations can provide direct underground evidence and open the way for the exploration of historical truths.
Illegal excavation is entirely for the purpose of pursuing profits, and will never consider the protection of relics and cultural relics in their original state, which is not only disrespectful to the deceased, but also the destruction of cultural relics and relics, which is not conducive to the exploration of Chinese civilization.
The best way to protect underground cultural relics is not to disturb, in the case of immature excavation conditions, underground relics and cultural relics should be temporarily kept in their original state, leaving it until the future scientific and technological means have made sufficient progress before excavation.
Expert of this article: Shi Hongbo, teacher of the School of History and Culture of Tianjin Normal University, master tutor
This article is reviewed by Wang Yuliang, Vice Dean of the School of History and Culture of Tianjin Normal University, Professor, Master Supervisor