In mid-December 2021, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially announced the discovery of the tomb of Liu Heng, emperor of the Han Dynasty, at the tomb of Bailuyuan Jiangcun in Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.
Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty was the fourth son of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, who reigned for 23 years and worked hard to rule and recuperate, creating the first prosperous era in China's feudal history - the rule of Wenjing.
As the birthplace of Emperor Wen of Han, it goes without saying that Baling must have a very high historical research value.
Judging from the results of the preliminary investigation, the land area of Baling, including the specifications, belongs to the typical Western Han Imperial Mausoleum, but it is slightly shabby, which is also in line with the will and testament of Emperor Wen of Han.
"History of Filial Piety": "Do not rule the grave, want to be a province, do not bother the people."
According to the latest news, archaeologists only carry out a simple excavation of the outer pits around the Baling Tombs, and will not rush to open the main burial chamber and coffin of Emperor Wen of Han.
Since Emperor Wen of Han's tomb has reappeared, archaeologists have also grasped its precise location. So why did you stop excavating Baling at such a critical juncture?
Luo Tianhua's "Class Editor Chang'an Zhi": "Under the mouth of the Northern Phoenix of Bailuyuan, forty miles east of jingzhao tonghuamen".
He Zhongmo's "Yong Daji": "In the autumn of the Yuan Dynasty, Bashui rushed open the envy gate outside the Baling Tomb and rushed out more than 500 pieces of stone slabs."
For a long time, archaeologists have mistaken the "Phoenix Mouth" located in the south bailuyuan bank of Maoyaoyuan Village, Xiwang Street, Baqiao District, Xi'an City, as the overlord tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, because of the misunderstanding of "relying on the mountain as a mausoleum" in the literature.
There are still more than 10 stone stele in Fenghuangzui, most of which are sacrificial monuments from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
As a result, many archaeologists firmly believe that Baling is in the mouth of the phoenix, and the archaeological community has believed this until 2016 (before the theft of the Jiangcun Tomb).
Due to the theft of the outer pit of the Jiangcun Tomb, in order to confirm the preservation status of the tomb and the distribution of the surrounding cultural relics, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, archaeologists conducted systematic archaeological investigation and exploration of the Jiangcun Tomb and its nearby Empress Dou Mausoleum, the Southern Tomb of Empress Bo and the "Phoenix Mouth" site that is said to be the Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, and carried out archaeological excavations of the pit outside the cemetery, and accidentally discovered the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
There are four reasons why archaeologists think that Baling is in the Jiangcun Tomb, rather than the mouth of the phoenix:
First, from the perspective of location, it is relatively close to the Tomb of Empress Dou;
Second, it has four burial passages, which are of the imperial level;
Third, there are a large number of outer hidden pits, and the staff has unearthed more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horse ware, iron tools, pottery, etc. from the 8 outer hidden pits, and the copper seals have cultural relics such as "Chefu", "Instrumental House", "Riding Thousand People in China", "Fuyin", "Warehouse Seal", "Zhongsikong Seal" and so on. The official seals and pottery figurines unearthed in the pit are very high-level funerary products;
Fourth, the staff found a larger circle of rammed earth courtyard walls around the tomb of Empress Dou and the tomb of Jiangcun, forming a large cemetery, enclosing the emperor and the empress, in line with the characteristics of the Han Dynasty mausoleum.
Combined with the above points, under the guidance of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Jiangcun Tomb is basically confirmed to be the mausoleum of Liu Heng, the Emperor of han Wen.
The successful excavation of Baling not only rewrites the accounts after the Yuan Dynasty, but also corrects the erroneous judgment of the academic community, and at the same time shows that the historical significance of Baling is great.
However, according to the latest news from the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han will not be excavated and will focus on protection.
Next, the main work of the archaeological department is to continue to explore and investigate the eight outer pits that have been excavated. Because the tomb area has been visited many times by stolen tomb thieves, rescue excavations of individual pits are required. In addition, in order to confirm the owner of the Jiangcun Tomb, the follow-up work has been approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
As soon as this news came out, it triggered a heated discussion among cultural and blog enthusiasts.
Because it was not easy to know the exact location of the tomb, why not continue to excavate, so that you can definitely get more useful information from the mausoleum.
However, "not taking the initiative to excavate imperial tombs" is the basic common sense of the archaeology industry, the reason is that China has suffered great losses when excavating imperial tombs.
Located in the Mingding Mausoleum in Dayu Mountain, Changping District, Beijing, it is the first and only imperial mausoleum authorized by the State Council to be excavated in a planned, organized and active manner.
In the mid-1950s, a group of "public knowledge", including Guo Moruo, Shen Yanbing, and Wu Han, proposed an excavation plan for the Ming Changling Tomb (the joint burial tomb of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di and Empress Xu). Because the scale of Changling is too large and the difficulty is high, the smaller Dingling is selected to "practice hands" first.
From the perspective of scientific archaeology, there are few precedents in the world for such a large-scale opening of imperial tombs. Because of the lack of excavation experience, coupled with the fact that China at that time did not have relevant scientific conditions.
At that time, the plan to excavate the Ming Ding Tomb was opposed by archaeologists including Zheng Zhenduo and Xia Nai, but tragedy still occurred.
It is true that the excavation of the Ming Ding Mausoleum has gained a lot, such as the discovery that the Wanli Emperor did not lie on his back in the coffin, but the burial method of flexing his limbs lying on his side, and his legs were slightly curved like sleep, which was called the "Big Dipper Seven Stars" burial style in the academic circles.
However, there are also many negative consequences brought about by the excavation of dingling. After the underground palace was opened, many precious burial items, such as silk fabrics, appeared mildew and serious damage after contact with the air.
The three golden silk coffins containing the Wanli Emperor and the two empresses were artificially damaged. Even the bones of the emperor and empress, which had been so hard to clean up, were burned in the later "Ten Years of Catastrophe".
Coincidentally, in 1958, several peasants in Qianxian County, Xianyang City, set off cannons to blow up stones and inadvertently blew up the tomb crossing of Wu Zetian's Qianling Tomb. Qianling is the best-preserved of the main tombs of the Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and the only tomb in the Tang Tombs that has not been stolen.
Shaanxi Province immediately set up a "Qianling Excavation Committee" to plan the excavation of Qianling.
When Zhou Enlai, then premier of the State Council, learned of this incident, he immediately issued an instruction: "We cannot finish the good things, and this matter can be left for posterity to complete." "The excavation of Qianling was only stopped.
Until 1997, the State Council issued the "Notice on Strengthening and Improving the Work of Cultural Relics", which for the first time clarified that "due to the lack of scientific and technological conditions and means for the protection of cultural relics, the active excavation of large-scale imperial tombs will not be carried out for the time being".
Because of the lessons of the Ming Ding Mausoleum, a large number of cultural relics are difficult to protect, and it is precisely because of this painful lesson that China has the concept of cultural relics protection without taking the initiative to excavate the imperial tombs.
So, how many imperial tombs have been excavated in the history of Chinese archaeology? Basically, there are only a few. There are two imperial tombs that archaeologists have taken the initiative to excavate, one is the ruins of the Tomb of The Military Officer Village Yin Xu on the north bank of the Huan River in Anyang City, Henan Province, and the other is the Ming Ding Mausoleum.
Excavations such as the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of Haixia, and the tomb of Yang Guang, the Sui Dynasty Emperor, were mainly due to the theft of the mausoleum, or accidentally discovered, and for the purpose of protection, the excavation had to be approved, which is called "rescue archaeological excavation", which should be another matter.
However, the only two active excavations of the imperial tombs, because of various objective factors, led to the loss of cultural relics to some extent.
Archaeologists do find in the Yin Ruins and Dingling Tombs an inadequately documented history. However, the actual situation is that the excavation results only changed some of the errors left over from the literature for many years, and did not subvert or add more history and culture. At the same time, the damage caused by the excavation of the imperial tomb is huge and irreversible!
What's more, many of China's imperial tombs have been excavated by tomb robbers. According to incomplete statistics, 90% of the tombs of ancient emperors and some princes and generals in China have been excavated, and tomb robbery has been very common since the pre-Qin Dynasty.
The tombs of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States recorded in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn" were almost all stolen. The area around the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin was also stolen many times. More than 10 royal tombs in Anyang Yin Ruins have also been stolen, and some tombs have no shortage of robbery caves from various dynasties and generations for thousands of years, and even a mausoleum has as many as hundreds of robbery holes.
Another point, but all the imperial tombs, most of them are built on the mountain, tens of meters deep from the ground, which adds great difficulty to the archaeological excavation work.
For example, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, which everyone is most concerned about, is composed of a tomb about 30 meters deep underground and a high tomb above the ground.
If archaeological excavations are carried out, the surface of the tomb must first be fully uncovered, but this is bound to destroy the majestic landscape above the ground of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum, and the integrity of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum will not exist.
Taking a step back, even if you are not afraid of destroying the surface landscape and insist on digging down into the tomb, it is difficult to solve the problem of how to get on and off the traffic of tourists in the future, which is too deep in the underground palace.
Some people may say: tomb robbers can use the robbery cave to enter the tomb to transport funerary goods and other items to the ground, are archaeologists better than those ground rats?
Archaeology and tomb robbery are two completely different concepts, and tomb robbers only think about how to destroy the tomb and enter the interior of the mausoleum to steal valuable items.
But the archaeological work is to ensure the integrity of the entire mausoleum and leave a rich cultural heritage for future generations.
Again, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, one of the first unesco-approved World Cultural Heritage Sites in China, is also an example. If, during the excavation, the structure and authenticity of the mausoleum are destroyed, who will bear the consequences?
Therefore, in the protection of cultural heritage similar to the tomb of Emperor Hanwen, it is already a general rule in the archaeological community and academia not to take the initiative to excavate the imperial tombs.
Moreover, many imperial tombs in China, including the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, have long been included in the world cultural heritage list, and the cultural heritage belonging to all mankind has long been dug up if you want to.
Even if the protection technology and excavation conditions are available at the same time, it is impossible to actively excavate the relevant imperial tombs. Archaeological excavations do not satisfy people's curiosity, especially the excavation of imperial tombs.