On the third day of the first lunar month in 2000, a loud noise came from outside the village, breaking the festive atmosphere of Dahong Village in Zhongxiang, Hubei Province.
Locals say that there is a tomb of a prince here, so the tomb robbers began to smell the wind again.
According to records, the twenty-fourth son of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, King Ying, and the ninth son of Emperor Mingrenzong Zhu Gaozi were successively enfeoffed in Zhongxiang.
If the rumor is true, then which of these two princes is the burial place of these two princes?
In order to prevent the cultural relics from being stolen again, after obtaining the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the archaeological team quickly carried out rescue excavations of the tombs in Dahong Village.
No one knows where the grave robbers' activities have taken.
The archaeologists were very worried in their hearts, if the tomb had been stolen, then the inside should have been empty, and I am afraid that there would be no evidence to prove the identity of the owner of the tomb.
Two days later, the archaeologists found the tomb door, but they were not happy, because one door disappeared and flew away, leaving only another door crumbling.
At the same time, a towel from modern craftsmanship was also found, and the atmosphere at the construction site suddenly became heavy.
Surprisingly, the archaeologists carefully observed and found that there was no sign of theft on the filled soil and sealed door wall in the tomb passage; and through the gap, the sedimentary surface of the silt in the burial chamber was very gentle, and there were various indications that the tomb robbers had not succeeded.
The mysterious appearance of towels and the accidental disappearance of the tomb door puzzled the archaeologists.
Due to the accumulation of water, many things in the tomb have shifted, lacquered wood and silk linen fabrics have decayed, can not be identified as they were, archaeologists carefully cleaned up little by little, without letting go of any clues.
At this time, the placement of the coffin bed attracted the attention of the archaeologists, one coffin in the center, and the other directly on the west wall, which is very asymmetrical.
Archaeologists speculated that perhaps the tomb was originally set up according to a single tomb, and after the owner of the tomb died, his wife asked for a joint burial, and only then added a coffin bed to the west.
Recalling the previously disappeared tomb door, the archaeologists believe that perhaps the disappeared tomb door has nothing to do with the tomb robbers, and is related to the coffin bed that was added.
Under normal circumstances, the tomb door includes the later tap stone, the tomb door bricks are all sealed, no one at the beginning certainly thought that this tomb will be opened later, under this speculation, perhaps later people forcibly opened this stone door to destroy it.
But the strange thing is that even if the tomb door is forcibly opened, with the ancient people's fear of ghosts and gods, they will certainly not be so perfunctory and leave the door half open.
These bold ideas are not inevitable, but the archaeologists need more direct evidence to prove their guesses.
The cleanup is continuing.
At this time, the appearance of a black lacquered wooden board confirmed their suspicions, and the person who opened the tomb door for the second time should have replaced the stone door with this lacquered wooden door.
After a long time, the lacquered wooden door did not have as good a closedness as the stone door, and it was soaked in water and soon fell.
Regarding the towel, an archaeologist speculated that it may be that the tomb robber chiseled a hole as a cannon hole when carrying out the excavation, and then stuffed the towel into it to block the cannon hole, after the cannon hole pierced the tomb roof, but only blew through the brick coupon failed to blow through the entire tomb, the impact it brought rushed the towel into the tomb, and the towel flowed down the water to the tomb door, which was also the normal operation of the tomb robber.
At this point, the question of the modern towel and the disappearing half-door has been answered.
At this time, the archaeologists found a monument wall built outside the head of the retaining wall, and they were immediately overjoyed! Is the identity of the tomb owner about to surface?
Although buried in the ground for hundreds of years, the handwriting on the tombstone is not blurred, one large and one small, two stele, one is the prince's, the other is the princess's.
Through the inscription, it is determined that this is the joint burial tomb of King Liang Zhuang and the stepfather Wei Shi!
As the clean-up progressed, a vast underground treasure trove began to reveal its true colors: the common jewelry and jade were innumerable; the four major gemstones besides diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and opals, even containing the rare golden varieties of sapphires; and countless gold and silver jades, with 13 burial belts alone.
The ming system stipulates that each prince can only have two leather belts, one belt.
Dingling buried a total of 12 belts, which is already the highest specification, but I did not expect to dwarf it in front of the tomb of King Liang.
If the archaeologists were excited at the beginning, they are now confused.
So many funerary treasures did not conform to the identity of King Liang Zhuang at that time, what was the matter?
In addition, a piece of jade leaf group pendant has also attracted much attention, it is not only exquisite and luxurious, but also counts many ornaments with auspicious meanings into one, symbolizing great auspiciousness and golden branches and jade leaves.
Jade leaf group pei was a symbol of status at that time, after the woman wore it, in order to standardize the posture and speed of walking, only elegant and slow walking, can make a jingling jade collision sound, so the jade leaf group pei is also known as "jade forbidden step", according to the Ming Dynasty etiquette, this is the exclusive of the empress.
The appearance of the jade leaf group pendant and 12 belts shows the distinctiveness of the tomb of the Liang King. So, what is so special about this almost unknown king in history?
According to records, King Liang was enfeoffed to Zhongxiang at the age of 14, and although he was a concubine, he was very favored by his eldest brother Emperor Xuande. In the eighth year of Xuande, King Liang married his concubine Wei Shi, and Emperor Longyan Washiyue rewarded many wedding gifts beyond the specifications.
It seems that most of the rare treasures in the tomb of King Liang come from this eldest brother.
There are 13 imperial court seals and gifts with chronological inscriptions recorded in the tomb of King Liang, 5 yongle year numbers, 6 hong xi year numbers, and 1 xuande year number.
However, only one piece of the orthodox era name is still a self-made product of the Liang King's Palace, indicating that in the Orthodox Dynasty, the Liang King could no longer receive the reward of the imperial court.
The life of this Liang king can also be regarded as ups and downs, living in Zhongxiang for 13 years, the first 7 years favored by the Xuande Emperor, the last 6 years by the orthodox emperor. In the end, because he was childless, he was unsealed and slept here.