On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced at the "Archaeological China" major project work conference that the Jiangcun Tomb in Bailuyuan, Xi'an City, is the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, the third emperor of the Western Han Dynasty. This news quickly swept the circle of friends and landed on the hot search.
What is Gangchon Tomb? What is the basis for determining that the Jiangcun Tomb is the mausoleum of emperor Wen of Han? With these questions, the reporter of China Social Science Daily personally came to the scene to explore the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
The mysterious Gangchon Tomb
In the eastern suburbs of Xi'an in winter, there is a lot of fog. The White Deer Plain, which is surrounded by mountains and rivers, is located on the Bahe River, and is historically called "Bashang", also known as "Bashang". The Historian Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty wrote in the "History of Xiang Yu Benji": "Pei Gongjun was hegemonic, and he did not have to meet Xiang Yu. The "Hegemon" here is the White Deer Plain in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an. Jiangcun, on the White Deer Plain, has recently become famous for a large tomb.
It is handed down as the "Phoenix Mouth" of emperor Wendi of han Dynasty and the "phoenix mouth" of the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute
On the afternoon of December 14, the reporter entered the archaeological site of Jiangcun Tomb. At that time, excavation site No. 1 had been fenced with a large rain tent made of steel, tarpaulin and colored steel tiles. The reporter and his party passed through the steel frame built in the pit and descended down the steps step by step, and nearly a thousand pieces of overlapping and stacked Han Dynasty pottery figurines appeared in front of them.
More than 2,000 years ago, these terracotta figurines lying on the ground were originally lined up in neat rows inside the wooden rafters of the outer pit. The figurines are about 50-60 cm tall and have 1/3 the size of a real person. Their shape conforms to the proportions of the human body structure, and the various parts of the body are delicately worked, and even the hair holes are meticulous. The painted expressions are also colorful, they look different, thousands of faces. Through close observation, the male and female characteristics of the clay figurines are clearly recognizable, and even the gender characteristics of the eunuch figurines are very clear.
Excavation site 2 is located in another outer pit, flanked by a slope path that can only be passed by one person. The reporter went down to the bottom of the outer pit and found that the soil and stones were relatively flat, with a depth of about 8 meters, and a section of the staircase was left, preserving the traces of excavation by the archaeological staff. The staff responsible for managing and maintaining the outer pit of the site told reporters that the excavation site began excavation in 2017 and was completed in 2019, and the items excavated were all pottery figurines, and no other funerary objects were seen.
Up to now, a total of 115 outer pits have been explored in Jiangcun Tomb. Archaeologists have carried out archaeological excavations in 8 outer pits in the northeast and southwest areas of Jiangcun Tomb, and unearthed more than 1,000 pottery figurines of various types of clothing (individually wearing torture instruments), more than 3,000 gold, silver, copper, iron and pottery cultural relics, as well as many lacquered wood remains. What is particularly eye-catching is that many ming organ seals such as "Zhongsikong Seal", "Zhongsikong Cheng", "Mountain Official", and "Cangyin" have also been cleared out of the Outer Tibet Pit, which indicates that the Outer Hidden Pit around the Jiangcun Tomb should be built to imitate the actual official office and the government treasury.
At the important progress work meeting of the "Archaeology China" major project held by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Ma Yongyi, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the leader of the Hanling Archaeological Team, said that the archaeological work has continued since 2017, and the exploration and trial excavation of the "stone boundary" of the Jiangcun Tomb, the outer cemetery wall of the Jiangcun Tomb and the Tomb of Empress Dou, as well as architectural sites and pottery kilns, excavated the Jiangcun North Pottery Kiln Site, the Jiangcun Tomb Outer Hidden Pit, the Nanling Outer Hidden Pit, the Lijia Village Han Tomb, etc., with fruitful results.
Part of the painted clothed pottery figurines excavated from Jiangcun Tomb K15 Courtesy of the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute
The clock was set back to the hot summer of 10 years ago, when the reporter had followed the police of the cultural relics detachment of the Xi'an Municipal Public Security Bureau to come here to inspect the pirate hole exposed in the wheat field. Jiangcun, located on the White Deer Plain, the land is flat, and in the fields where the wheat has just been harvested, the golden yellow wheat stubble is spread like a carpet to the distant Qinling Mountains. Whether you look up from the ground or from the sky with a drone, you can't see that there is an ancient tomb here. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, tomb robbery was rampant. The remains of ancient tombs in Xi'an and Xianyang during the Han and Tang dynasties have been repeatedly excavated. In 2001, zhang Xiaoyan, a tomb robber, excavated 180 nude clay figurines from the Western Han Dynasty in Bailuyuan, and after several changes of hands, some of the pottery figurines were sold upside down. In March 2002, Shaanxi police learned that Southby Auction House in the United States was about to auction six nude black clay figurines from Xi'an, China, with a starting price of $6,000-8,000 each. There was only one day and two nights left before the auction began. In this regard, the Shaanxi provincial government sent a special urgent telegram to the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and other government departments, requesting urgent recourse. Jiao Nanfeng, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute who was the leader of the Yangling Archaeological Team at the time, was entrusted by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to negotiate with the auction agency and argue with 11 pieces of evidence: Why is it said that the 6 pottery figurines are Chinese? Why is it said that 6 pieces of pottery figurines are from Shaanxi? Why do you say that the 6 pieces of pottery figurines are from the Western Han Dynasty? ...... Finally, under the strong negotiation of Chinese embassies abroad, 6 pieces of stolen Western Han black pottery figurines were withdrawn. On June 17, 2003, after more than a year of diplomatic representations by the Chinese government, the United States returned the six naked black clay figurines to China.
After the observation and research of many archaeologists, in addition to the black body surface, the shape, size and structure of these 6 pottery figurines are almost exactly the same as the clothed pottery figurines excavated from Hanyang Mausoleum. Subsequently, the public security department launched an investigation into the origin of these 6 pottery figurines, and finally determined that the pottery figurines were excavated by Zhang Xiaoyan from the ancient tomb of Jiangcun in Bailuyuan, Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. According to Zhang Xiaoyan, these pottery figurines came from the ancient tomb of Jiangcun. As for why the whole body is black, it may be related to the charcoal that was ignited when the tomb was stolen earlier.
After determining that the figurines were from the village of Hakuluhara, archaeologists conducted an archaeological survey of the site. From 2006 to 2009, the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology conducted rescue exploration and test excavation here. The results of the exploration surprised the archaeologists, and there was a hidden "Sub" shaped tomb with four burial passages. Until the identity of the owner of the tomb was confirmed, the tomb was called "Gangchon Tomb" by the archaeological community.
Mausoleum Ruoduyi
The ancients "died as if they were born", and the scenes of the daily life of the tomb owner were usually copied into the ground intact. The tomb plane is "Ya" glyph, the length of the tomb chamber is about 72 meters, and 115 outer pits were found around the burial chamber, with pottery figurines as a burial, supplemented by "Zhongsikong Seal", "Zhongsikong Cheng", "Mountain Official", "Cangyin" and other Ming organ seals, which should be a reproduction of the official office of the Secretary of State of the Han Dynasty.
Why are the clay figurines buried in the outer pit naked? Cao Long, an associate researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and deputy leader of the Hanling Archaeological Team, told reporters that to be precise, these naked figurines should be called "dressed nude pottery figurines". In their early burials, the figurines were armed with wooden arms and wore organic clothing representing their different identities, silk or linen. However, after more than 2,000 years of corrosion of the underground environment, the clothing and wooden arms have decayed, and when excavated, they have become the "naked figurines" of the "broken arm and naked body" we see now. Ma Yongyi said that according to the archaeological work in recent years, most of the dressed nude figurines were unearthed in the tombs of emperors and empresses of the Han Dynasty, which is a high-grade funerary product specially used by members of the royal family.
In the archaeological excavations of the outer pit, archaeologists found the torture figurines for the first time. These torturers have iron ring-shaped torture instruments on their necks, wrists, and ankles, symbolizing the various forms of servitude they were enlisted during the restoration of the mausoleum. Zhu Chenlu, an assistant researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, pointed to a pottery figurine and told reporters: "You see, this female clay figurine wears iron tongs around her neck and has no bun on her head. ”
According to Ma Yongyi, the archaeological team conducted a large-scale detailed exploration of the perimeter of the Jiangcun Tomb based on the results of previous archaeological work, and as a clue, found a rammed earth wall with an east-west length of about 1200 meters and a width of about 860 meters from north to south, enclosing the Jiangcun Tomb and the Tomb of Empress Dou. In addition, there are 115 outer pits surrounding the cemetery, forming a relatively complete mausoleum area in general. According to the results of these archaeological investigations, explorations and excavations, the archaeological team believes that the mausoleum areas left over from the Jiangcun Tomb and its surrounding ruins are similar to the morphological elements of the Western Han Emperor's Mausoleum, such as the Han Gao Ancestral Mausoleum, the Han Jing Emperor Yang Mausoleum, and the Han Wudi Emperor Mao Mausoleum, with similar layout and overall scale, and have an obvious development and evolution trajectory. Combined with historical documents, it is judged to be the tomb of emperor Wen of Han.
Gangcun Tomb K27 Excavated Prisoner Figurine Courtesy of Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute
The tombs of chinese emperors have always been kept secret. However, modern archaeological discoveries have unveiled the mystery of the imperial tombs, expanded the methods and horizons of historical research, and some archaeologists have also formed a unique perspective from tomb exploration. Jiao Nanfeng believes that the clarity of the location of the Baling Tombs has solved the problem of the names of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty. The structural layout of the double mausoleum, the center of the imperial tomb and the outer hidden pit shows obvious differences with the Tomb of the Ancestor of Han Gao and the Tomb of Emperor Hui of Han, which shows the development and evolution of the imperial mausoleum system of the Western Han Dynasty, and lays the foundation for the imperial tomb system in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty.
The Eastern Han Dynasty historian Ban Gu wrote in the "Xidu Fu": "Looking at Duba in the south, looking at the Five Tombs in the north. "The Tombs of Emperor Wen of Han and the Tombs of Emperor Xuan of Han are in the southeast of Xianyang; the Tombs of Emperor Gaozu, the Tombs of Emperor Hui' An, the Tombs of Emperor Jing, the PingLing tombs of Emperor Zhao, and the Mausoleum of Emperor Mao of Emperor Wu are located in the northern plains of Xianyang. Among the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, Baling and Duling are on the south bank of the Wei River, and the remaining nine imperial tombs are lined up along the north bank of the Wei River from east to west, stretching for nearly 100 miles. From August 2015 to the middle of summer 2016, the reporter set off from Xi'an, around Duling, Dengbaling, through the "Jingwei and Wei" Jingwei intersection all the way to the west, along the Wei River through the Xianyang Ancient Road, exploring the historical vicissitudes of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty. Zhao Bingwen, a scholar of the Jin Dynasty, has a poetic cloud: "There is no one by the Weishui Bridge, and the Mozi High Tomb lies in the Qilin." Thousands of ancient gong famous bones, turned into the dust of the Xianyang Plain. "The archaeological excavations of the Han Emperor's Mausoleum have provided detailed archaeological data for the study of the formation and development of the Western Han Emperor's mausoleum system.
After the archaeological discoveries of the Jiangcun Tomb were announced to the public, Xu Weimin, a professor at the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwest University, was overjoyed. He said that the archaeological excavations of the Jiangcun Tombs, which lasted for many years, have enabled archaeologists to basically grasp the scale, shape, layout and connotation of the Western Han Emperor's mausoleums, including the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han. Jiao Nanfeng also believes that the mausoleum system such as the vertical cave of the Jiangcun Tomb, the double cemetery, the center of the imperial tomb, and the distribution of a number of outer hidden pits symbolizing official offices around the imperial tombs is basically consistent with the regulation of the imperial tombs in the Qin and Han dynasties, indicating the establishment of the political concept of the Western Han Empire in which the emperor is exclusive and centralized. In addition, the "rule of inaction" of the Changling and Anling tombs on the plane pattern of the Baling Tombs, and the "Confucianism of The Sole Respect" of the Lower Qiyang Mausoleum, Maoling, Pingling and Duling are the key links in the development and evolution of the Western Han Imperial Mausoleum system, reflecting the development and changes of the political ideology and ideology of the Western Han Dynasty.
For archaeological research, different relics have different roles in different academic research purposes. Liu Qingzhu, a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the Qin and Han Dynasties were an extremely important period in ancient Chinese history, and the imperial tomb was the expression of the "materialization carrier" of the capital. For the imperial tombs, it is mainly expressed through the "extroverted" development of underground palaces, outer pits and ground mausoleum buildings. The funerary products, sacrifice activities and sacrifice activities of the "mausoleum building" and the sacrifice activities in it are the concentrated embodiment of the "mausoleum Ruoduyi" of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
The Western Han Dynasty was the heyday of China's feudal society in the early period. The historical documents of the Western Han Dynasty emperor's tomb system have been confirmed by many archaeological discoveries. According to Jiao Nanfeng, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, the Xianyang Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology, and the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology have successively carried out systematic investigation and exploration of fifteen imperial tombs, including the Tomb of Gao zu Changling, the Mausoleum of Emperor Mao of Wu, and the Wei Mausoleum of Emperor Yuan, and carried out large-scale and sustained excavation and research work on the Jingdi Yang Mausoleum. Existing studies have shown that the Western Han Dynasty Imperial Mausoleum is a microcosm of the political, economic, military and cultural aspects of the entire Western Han Dynasty, and retains precious historical information.
The "Phoenix Mouth" mausoleum site Oolong
Located in the western part of Bailuyuan, the "Phoenix Mouth" is a prominent hill, and the whole mountain shape is very similar to the imperial tomb sealing soil. On December 15, the reporter observed on the White Deer Plain that the "Phoenix Mouth" was connected to the White Deer Plain through an earthen beam, and its north slope was in a regular triangular shape, with a height of 100 meters. Under the "Phoenix Mouth", there are more than 10 stone steles, one of which is a relatively tall stone stele for the Shaanxi Governor Bi Yuanyin carved the book "Hanwen Emperor's Tomb" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
According to the "Chronicle of Chang'an" written by the Yuan Dynasty scholar Luo Tianjun, the Baling tomb was "under the mouth of the northern phoenix of Bailuyuan, forty miles east of the Jingzhao Tonghua Gate". The Xianning County Chronicle compiled during the Qing Jiaqing period also records: "Baling, in the north of Yang Jiayi Pagoda Phoenix Mouth. In addition, the Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan also mentioned in the "Notes on the Water Classics" that the Han Emperor's tomb was on the White Deer Plain, but did not mention the specific location. In the first half of the 20th century, a number of Chinese and foreign scholars successively visited the Phoenix Mouth and determined that the Phoenix Mouth was the Baling. After the founding of New China, after several archaeological surveys, the same conclusion was also reached.
At the beginning of the 21st century, archaeologists have successively used various technical means such as archaeological exploration and geological exploration to conduct large-scale and meticulous exploration of the "Phoenix Mouth" for many times. Surprisingly, in addition to the more than ten Ming and Qing stele stones below it, the "Phoenix Mouth" has not found tomb-like remains, or even found traces of artificial excavation.
On the one hand, according to the tradition of the Western Han Dynasty Emperor's Mausoleum, the mausoleum is generally built on the edge of the Loess Plateau, except for the imperial mausoleum, which is relatively high and tall, and the entire cemetery is relatively flat and the height difference is not large. Cao Long believes that the height difference between the "Phoenix Mouth" and the lowest point in the cemetery is 230 meters, and it is difficult to build facilities such as outer pits and ceremonial buildings during the construction of the mausoleum. On the other hand, the "Phoenix Mouth" was too far away from Empress Dou's mausoleum. The Mausoleum of Emperor Hui of Han is only 260 meters away from the Mausoleum of Empress Zhang; the Tomb of Han Gaozu and the Tomb of Lü Hou are 280 meters apart; and the Tomb of Empress Dou and the "Phoenix Mouth" are actually more than 2,000 meters apart. According to the imperial tomb system of the Han Dynasty, the imperial tomb and the houling tomb should be not far away.
Jiangcun Tomb K27 unearthed a set of seals courtesy of the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute
Based on this speculation, archaeologists have conducted archaeological exploration of the Tomb of Empress Dou, which is about 2,000 meters north of the "Phoenix Mouth", hoping to find new clues. From 2006 to 2009, the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology conducted rescue exploration and trial excavation in the Baling Mausoleum Area, and found the Jiangcun Tomb and its funerary pit. More and more researchers are beginning to speculate that the Jiangcun Tomb is the real Tomb of the Han Dynasty Emperor. "Although everyone is more certain in their minds, archaeologists have a point of evidence to say a point." Enough archaeological evidence is needed before the news is officially released. Ma Yongyi said.
The floor of the Gangchon Tomb has no sealing soil, and the tomb shape is "Ya" shape. It is about 2100 meters north of Phoenix Mouth and 800 meters east of Empress Dou's Mausoleum. The edge of the burial chamber is about 73 meters long and more than 30 meters deep, and 115 outer pits have been found around the burial chamber. The "stone boundary" is about 390 meters long on the side, and there are gate sites on the front and west sides of the four sides. A rammed earth wall with an east-west length of more than 1,200 meters and a width of about 863 meters from north to south encloses the Jiangcun Tomb and the Mausoleum of Empress Dou in a large cemetery, embodying the "Tongmu Different Cave" of the Han Dynasty Emperor's joint burial. These characteristics are very consistent with the "Records of Filial Piety" recorded in the "Records of History and Filial Piety" that "all the tombs are ruled by tiles" and "no tombs are ruled". Among the large number of precious cultural relics unearthed from Baling, seals, seals and other cultural relics with characters confirm the construction concept of "Mausoleum Ruoduyi" and Imperial Tomb "imitating the real Western Han Empire". These discoveries corrected the error in the historical documents since the Yuan Dynasty that recorded the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han in the "Phoenix Mouth" of Bailuyuan.
The true location of the Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han has been confirmed, and it is also related to the theft of the tomb of The Lady of hook yi, the concubine of Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty. In July 2016, the Han Yun Tomb was stolen. The Ministry of Public Security listed this case as a listed supervision case, and directly organized and directed the public security organs in Shaanxi Province to carry out investigation work. The police followed the line, dug out other tomb robbery gangs from a tomb robbery gang, expanded the line and expanded people, lasted more than a year, smashed 8 criminal gangs that excavated ancient tombs, arrested 91 criminal suspects, detected 96 cases of theft, excavation, resale and other cultural relics, seized 10 vehicles involved in the case, and recovered more than 1,100 cultural relics. The source of the recovered cultural relics directly points to the Jiangcun Tomb and its funerary tombs and outer pits.
What impressed the reporter was that at an academic seminar 5 years ago, in response to some people jokingly saying that the tomb robbers had discovered the Jiangcun Tomb, and the tomb robbers were the real discoverers of the Han Wen Emperor's tomb, Jiao Nanfeng refuted: "Discovery is not seen, let alone dug and excavated; discovery is seen, known, and scientifically explained." "The excavation of ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs is a serious criminal act, and the damage to the history and culture of this kind of excavation is often irreparable, and a large amount of historical and cultural information may be destroyed in the process of tomb robbery; archaeologists are the protectors, defenders and researchers of historical culture, and our archaeological research is carried out on the basis of protection, science and planning, due to the shortage of personnel and the huge workload, many important known sites and tombs have not had time to investigate, explore and be destroyed and excavated. Only when the state intensifies the protection of cultural relics and archaeological research, so that the protection of cultural relics, archaeological investigation, and exploration are in the forefront of capital construction and ahead of tomb robbers, can the work of protecting cultural heritage get rid of the current passive situation.
Edit: Hu Zixuan