In June 1992, a tomb robbery occurred in Chifeng Arukorqin Banner.
It would have been very normal for several tomb robberies to occur in the place where the Hongshan culture was discovered (there are too many local ancient tombs), but this tomb robbery case is extraordinary, because this tomb robbery has led to the "left treasure" that was listed as the top ten archaeological discoveries of that year, and even the archaeologists involved in the excavations can't help but sigh: Why did the nobles of the Liao State save so much gold and silver?
Archaeologists lament the richness of cultural relics unearthed from the tombs, and we examine them with historical eyes: Behind these countless gold and silver treasures, is there still a secret hidden in the Liao State? If we interpret it with the "law of ivory chopsticks", what conclusions will be drawn?
How much gold and silver is left behind, let's first look at the tip of the iceberg.
Because of the limitation of space, plus the drawing is too difficult, so let's first show only nine pieces of gold and silver utensils, let's not look at their weight, as Liao Dynasty art treasures, each of these things, can be in the first-tier cities to change suites, second- and third-tier cities to change buildings.
According to the numbering order in the picture, the names of these nine treasures are called Capricorn gold earrings, gilded silver plates, Capricorn gold flower silver bowls, gold rings, fancy mouth gold cups, golden flowers to goose pattern silver spit pots, agate gold ball arm ornaments, five-curved flower and bird pattern gold cups, and "long live the table" gold flower and silver brick box.
Here to explain, the so-called spit pot, is now basically gone spittoon. There is more than one such gold and silver spittoon in the tomb, and there are also golden flower mandarin duck patterns.
As we said earlier, these nine treasures are only the tip of the iceberg, and what else is there, we will talk about it later, and now it is time to introduce the owner of this tomb, who is also one of the few good officials of the Liao Kingdom, Zuo Xiang Yelü Yuzhi.
When it comes to Yelü Yuzhi, many readers may not be familiar with it, but when it comes to Qiao (Xiao) Feng in the "Eight Parts of the Heavenly Dragon", everyone is very familiar with it.
Xiao Feng, the "Great King of the Southern Courtyard", sounded quite domineering, and was in charge of half of the soldiers and horses of the Khitan Die's thorn department.
Taizu divided di di Di Yi into the two kings of the north and the south, known as the north and south courtyards.
"Liao Shi · Official I
》
Whether the status is higher or lower than that of Taifu and Zuo Xiang Yelü Yu is not the topic discussed in this article, so let's put it aside for the time being, let's still look at the Yelü Yuzhi in the main history.
The Fifth Chronicle of the Liao Dynasty records:
Yuzhi, small characters Wuli, characters at the bottom of the word Yin. Young and cheerful, long-term hobby, fluent in various languages. At the beginning of Taizu's business, he premeditated military planning. In the first year of Tianxian, Bohai Ping, the crown prince was made the King of Dongdan, and Yuzhi was the right sub-minister of Zhongtai Province. When people's hearts are not at ease, the left is not more than the moon, the feathers are diligent, and the prestige is parallel. Emperor Taizong ascended the throne... Yuzhi town cares for the people of the country, everything is as it is. With merit and shou Taifu, he moved to the left side of Central Taiwan Province.
Please forgive the readers, during the Song and Liaojin dynasties, there was no camera, and no one filmed yelü Yuzhi's TV series, so we had to take the stills of Yelü Hongji to make up a number - they are of the same race, and their appearance should be similar.
According to the Records of the Fifth Chronicle of the Liao Dynasty and the Chronicle of the Hundred Officials of the Liao Dynasty, although Yelü Yuzhi was a cousin of the Liao Taizu Yelü Abaoji, he was not crowned king, and his final title was the founding duke of Dongping County.
Readers all know that the founding duke is not equal to the duke, for example, a county duke can also add the word "founding country", and the real title of Yelü Yu is the county duke, which is still a cut away from the duke.
But even this Zuo Xiang Yelü Yuzhi, who is known as a good official, has an extremely luxurious tomb, and what we are showing is only the tip of the iceberg, and no one knows how many have been stolen.
The tomb of Zuo Xiang Yelü Yuzhi is so luxurious that it is related to the Khitan funeral rites. According to the LiaoShi Vol. 50 Zhi Xijiu Lizhi II, The Khitan nobles not only had to bury a large number of gold and silver treasures, but also burned more when the funeral was held:
"Pray for the witch. Royalty, foreign relatives, ministers, and officials of the capital were sacrificed to the second time. It is burned (burned) with clothes, bows, saddles, drawings, horseshoes, guards, etc. ”
That is to say, in addition to the countless treasures of the funeral, Yelü Yu burned more wealth before and after burial - this is the main topic we want to discuss today: success by thrift and thrift, behind the luxurious tomb of Ye Lu Yu, there is a secret of the demise of the Liao Kingdom.
In Chinese history, a dynasty was rapidly extravagant and corrupt from the very beginning of its establishment, and the Liao state was a typical example. In the year 209 of the Liao State, the State of Song (that is, the Song Dynasty, but in fact the Song Dynasty never completed the great unification, at that time it was actually a replica of the Three Kingdoms of the Later Han Dynasty) Guozuo 319, Jin Guosheng was not in time, and in 119 he was destroyed by the Yuan army.
The Liao state, not the Song state, was once the representative of the Central Plains Dynasty, and now there are big Mao Ermao who call us Khitans, in fact, because of the influence of the Khitans.
Why we are called Khitan instead of Song, just look at the map below:
Jin was once part of the Liao, and when the Song territory was at its largest, it was only about half of the Liao. The Liao violated the historical law of achieving great unification from north to south, because under the influence of Confucian culture, after the establishment of the empire, it quickly fell into competition and luxury and internal strife. The Song Dynasty sent a large number of "old coins" to the Liao State every year, so that more and more Liao nobles did not want to forge ahead - lying down to collect money is always much more comfortable than licking the blood of the knife.
Wealth comes easily, and naturally it does not know how to cherish. We can see this from the luxurious tombs of the Liao Kingdom, yelü Yuzhi, as a relatively reliable high-ranking official among the nobles of the Liao Kingdom, is still so extravagant, and other nobles are even more imaginable.
Readers may say: Isn't it normal for a grand master and zuo xiang to accompany the burial of several gold and silver utensils?
This requires us to look at other treasures in the tomb and calculate an account for the Liao state: like the nobles above this level of Yelü Yuzhi, there are not one thousand but eight hundred, everyone buries things in the ground, how can the Liao state's finances be supported?
Those who like to collect know that what is more valuable than gold and silver utensils is porcelain, the nobles in porcelain are Yuan Qinghua, and the more advanced than Yuan Qinghua is Song porcelain.
The porcelain in the tomb of Yelü Yu is not only amazing in quantity, but also extremely elaborate in craftsmanship, although it has been eroded by muddy water underground for more than a thousand years, it is still as crystal white and exquisite as jade.
In addition to gold and silver vessels and fine porcelain, the tomb of Yelü Yu also contains countless bronzes, ironware, wooden tools, carriage and horse ware, silk fabrics, jade, agate, glass (glass was more valuable than gold and silver in that era), crystals, amber jewelry so many that archaeologists can not find a place to stay.
Other tomb archaeological excavations have found dozens of hundreds of cultural relics, which is an extremely rich harvest, and the cultural relics in the tomb of Yelü Yu are thousands - because the number is too large, it is impossible to count the accurate numbers in the end.
In the era when the three kingdoms of Liao, Song and Jin coexisted (not to compete for hegemony, because Song only sent no disputes), Liao Guo was once a big brother, and it was natural to hang the Song Dynasty, and the rising star Jin was also once his horse boy.
The defeated remnants of the Liao state can also kill Tong Guan and throw away his armor, but with ten as one, he can't beat the anti-water little brother Jin. The reason for this is very simple: the Song Dynasty was Yanwu Xiuwen, everyone shook their heads and shook their heads, the emperor either liked calligraphy and painting or was intoxicated with garden construction; the Liao state lay down to receive tribute silver, which quickly consumed the will to fight, and a large number of gold and silver treasures buried in the ground gradually hollowed out the Liao state treasury and even private collections.
Unlike Song Liao's luxurious enjoyment, Jin Guosheng died of sorrow, and his exuberant combat effectiveness remained for a hundred years, until later, the Jin Emperor (Hailing King) finished his good and good studies, and also engaged in extravagance and lasciviousness, and Jin Guocai fell down and could no longer get up - the transformation of Jin Guo from prosperity to decline seemed to be just a momentary thing, just like the chain reaction caused by a pair of ivory chopsticks in ancient times.
When Emperor Xin of shang yi first began to use ivory chopsticks, people of insight discovered hidden dangers: ivory chopsticks could not be matched with pottery bowls and wooden bowls, and the pottery bowls and wood became golden bowls and jade bowls, so they could no longer use it to hold millet and coarse grains, but should be equipped with bear paws and leopard tails. Holding a golden bowl and eating his brother's leopard tail with ivory chopsticks, he will naturally feel that the palace is not spacious enough and the clothing is not gorgeous enough. The next step was naturally to build a terrace and pour wine into the pond and hang meat for the forest, so the country was destroyed.
The Book of Verses has clouds:
"Shang Jian is not far away, in the life after the summer.
"The king of Shang Yi died because of the ivory chopsticks, which is called by historians
"The Law of Ivory Chopsticks".
Through the luxurious tomb of Yelü Yuzhi and the law of ivory chopsticks, we can also discover the secret of the fall of the Liao kingdom hidden behind the tomb of Yelü Yuzhi: before getting rich, the rich are more luxurious, and the country will die without a day.
Liaoguo thick burial is popular, you bury me, see who buries more treasures, just bury it, bury it, and bury the Liaoguo Sheji.
The wind rises at the end of Qingping and ends between the grass. The extravagant style of the Liao state laid the groundwork for being beaten by his younger brother Jin Hang. Looking at the rise and fall of the Liao kingdom through the tomb of Yelü Yu, this is called the peeping leopard in the tube. I wonder what kind of feelings readers will have when they read this article?