Treasure, a pearlescent word, as long as it is mentioned, makes people full of fantasy, is a commonly used saying in the West, and is inseparable from pirates and treasure hunting. In China, the magical existence of treasure seems to have another name - tomb funerary products.
More than two thousand years of emperors will change each other, destined to leave a lot of ancient tombs worth peeking into, jewelry, cultural relics and other funerary products have attracted countless people to flock to, so tomb robbery as a kind of industry has been handed down. However, as a dangerous and mysterious and immoral and obscure activity, tomb robbery seems to exist more in literature and film and television works, in fact, in reality, there is no shortage of skilled tomb robber masters.
Splendid funerary culture
The custom of funerals was caused by people believing in ghosts, reincarnation, religion and other beliefs, and the rich magnates built large underground tombs according to feng shui addressing, and buried precious items such as jewelry, gold and silver utensils, swords, porcelain, and books. Qin, Han, Ming and Qing dynasties and other dynasties were popular for funerals, and the filial piety of the rich and the younger generations were more or less cashed out by the funerary products, so many treasures were buried in the ground and did not see the light of day.
In order to obtain wealth, hunt for curiosity, and vent anger, there have been cases of official tomb robbery in ancient history, and the three most famous people are Wu Zixu, Xiang Yu and Cao Cao. Wu Zixu whipped the corpse, Xiang Yu brutally stole the imperial tomb, and Cao Cao set up official positions such as the lieutenant of the Gold School, and stole the tomb for military pay, so almost all the tombs before the Han Dynasty were stolen, and Cao Cao himself confessed to his descendants before his death to be buried from Jane, and there was no accompanying burial.
The funerary culture has left a large number of physical evidence for the study of later generations, and has played an important role in the cultural inheritance of thousands of years. But the funeral is undoubtedly a kind of labor and wealth of the move, and derived from the cruel way of living burial, many princes and generals have found in the tombs of ladies, concubines, maids, servants and other burial methods such as lead, strangulation, burial alive, sealed in coffins, etc., the earliest found wives and concubines in groups of martyrdom is zhu Yuanzhang's tomb.
Fringe industry - folk tomb robbery
In addition to official thieves, there are also many private inheritance and group of tomb robbers, mainly originating in Changsha, Luoyang and other areas where ancient tombs are concentrated.
Tomb robbery is contrary to the traditional morality of our country and is strictly regulated. In peacetime, the government strictly prohibits tomb robbery, and tomb robbery must be avoided by control. In the years of war, the risk of transporting cultural relics and funerary goods increased and the number of buyers decreased, so it was always a marginal industry, which could become rich and noble overnight.
High-level tombs integrate the wisdom of the ancients in our country, the entrance is hidden, the internal organs are heavy, the danger is extremely high, and those who dare to rob the tomb are bold and greedy or desperate people. Grave robbers are hidden, their movements are low-key, and they have special industry guidelines. Many of the tombs found now have traces of theft, the loss of cultural relics is uncountable, and even some of the mausoleums have been stolen, leaving archaeologists with a field of chicken feathers.
When a large number of people carried out tomb robbery activities, most of them used the purpose of repairing mountain manors as an excuse. During the Republic of China period, the warlord Sun Dianying used zipper drills as a cover to blast the Qing Tombs open with explosives, stealing the property in the tombs.
Hunan Tomb Robber King - Ren Quansheng
In addition to the military, during the Republic of China, some skilled tomb robbers also emerged, and the recognized king of tomb robbery in the industry was named Ren Quansheng. Ren Quansheng is a native of Changsha, Hunan Province, working as a coal-burning coolie to survive, his family is not rich, his wife has no money for treatment when she is sick, and in desperation, Ren Quansheng embarked on the road of tomb robbery.
Ren Quansheng has a great research on tomb robbery, paying attention to looking at feng shui, smelling the earth, finding places, and making detailed tomb visit plans. With this set of thoughtful ways and extraordinary talents, Ren Quansheng almost every time he goes out of the mountain, he is famous in the tomb robbery industry.
In 1942, Ren Quansheng found traces of an ancient tomb in the Changsha Bullet Depot and led a team to the tomb to pick up the goods. This is a Warring States tomb with a wealth of funerary items, including weapons, dolls, lacquered containers and fabrics. At that time, the valuable items on the market were hard items such as bronze weapons and porcelain that were easy to preserve, and things such as broken fabrics were not recognized.
Ren Quansheng and his party took out some funerary items from the tomb, hard utensils were mainly sold, and fabrics and some miscellaneous items were sold to antique dealers at low prices. The fabric was then acquired by the Americans and eventually went overseas. One of the artifacts is recognized as a warring states book of great historical and cultural significance, which is housed in a museum in the United States.
The national treasure was leaked out through his own hands, and Ren Quansheng regretted it. Unlike the insatiable tomb robbers, he has his own bottom line and principles, so he washed his hands of the golden basin and disappeared from the industry, leaving only the legend of the tomb robber king who was thriving in the past. It was not until the excavation of Mawangdui in 1972 that Ren Quansheng's name was once again combined with tomb visiting.
Out of the mountains again
The original Mawangdui tomb was discovered in 1951, and at that time it was only identified as a Group of Han tombs and was not valued. Ten years later, the site was assigned to the military district as an underground hospital and air defense facility, and collapsed during the excavation, and archaeologists believe that there may be a large burial chamber underground. In 1972, with the approval of the central government, the archaeological team made a meticulous excavation of the Mawangdui tomb, but the excavation work soon fell into trouble. The previous collapse caused the tomb roof to be damaged, and the inexperienced archaeological team did not dare to act rashly, and the excavation work stagnated.
During this time, the leader of the archaeological team thought of the first brother of the tomb robbery world, the Tufuzi who disappeared for 30 years - Ren Quansheng. At that time, Ren Quansheng was more than 70 years old, and he was an uncompromising old man, but his fame in the Hunan area was still there, and the archaeological team wanted to use his technology to promote the excavation. After Ren Quansheng learned about the needs and difficulties of the archaeological team, he expressed his willingness to help. He became a special member of the archaeological team and joined the excavations.
There are three burial chambers in Mawangdui, the coffin of Tomb No. 3 is damaged, the main tomb of No. 2 is seriously stolen, and the funerary goods are almost looted. The No. 1 tomb is mostly full of books and living utensils, the most complete preservation, and the coffin burial chamber is not broken at all. This put enormous pressure on archaeologists, who had to keep the construction crew as safe and the body as intact as possible.
Ren Quansheng suggested that the archaeologists insert a board into the coffin and turn the body upside down. In this way, the archaeological team successfully opened the coffin, obtained a thousand-year-old female corpse, and collected a large number of gold and silver, utensils, fabrics and other cultural relics from the burial chamber. It has been verified that the mausoleum belongs to the Licang family of the Western Han Dynasty, and the burial items include medical books such as "52 Sick Prescriptions", Traditional Chinese medicine materials, Plain Yarn Zen clothes weighing only 49 grams, exquisite books and other items, and the wet corpse is Li Cang's wife, Lady Xin Chai.
The cultural relics excavated by Mawangdui have unveiled a corner of the Western Han Culture for the world, which is of far-reaching significance and is known as one of the world's top ten mausoleum sites. Ren Quansheng made great contributions to this archaeology, and was absorbed into the archaeological team, from a "tomb robber" in the Republic of China period to a regular archaeological team member who guarded cultural relics.
Tomb robbery can be called a thrilling and dangerous industry. Half of Ren Quansheng's ability to navigate among them is due to his talent, generally due to his cautious and measured personality, not relying on luck, not being greedy, flexible and thoughtful, planning properly, and knowing the times to make him safe for many years, and finally obtaining the official seal certification.