The king hid his face and could not save it, and looked back at the blood and tears and the flow. Huang Ai scattered the wind Xiao Suo, and the cloud stack lingered on the Sword Pavilion. - "Long Hate Song" Bai Juyi
In ancient Chinese history, the relatives of the emperor and the state attached great importance to the power and enjoyment of their lives, and not only that, after death, they hoped that they could still enjoy the glory and wealth of their lives. Therefore, many emperors have begun to prepare very large mausoleums for themselves before they died. Countless sums of money were consumed in the construction of these mausoleums, and what is more, some emperors would set up countless mechanisms in the tombs to prevent future generations from disturbing them.
Chongling was stolen and experts repaired it
In 1938, an unknown group of troops entered the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor. Although the Guangxu Emperor did not have any rights during his lifetime, and his mausoleum was built in a very hasty situation, the luxury of the funerary goods inside was no less than that of any monarch in ancient times, which also led to the Tomb of the Guangxu Emperor often being patronized by tomb robbers. Some people have counted that the Guangxu Emperor's funeral goods totaled 38 boxes. However, the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor was never noticed again after it was patronized by those tomb robbers.
In 1980, archaeologists entered the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor and made rescue excavations. At this point, the true face of the Tomb of the Guangxu Emperor was thoroughly known, which slowly gained the attention of history lovers. Experts walked into the mausoleum only to find that it was a mess inside. Because the tomb was maliciously destroyed, the water inside the mausoleum was very serious, and even the coffins of Guangxu and Empress Longyu were soaked in water, and even the original face of the coffin could not be seen. Not only that, but the experts even saw that both of Guangxu's legs had been exposed from the broken coffin.
What is even more unbearable is that the entire mausoleum emits a strong putrid odor. The staff was only busy in the Guangxu Mausoleum for half a day, but only found the remains of the Guangxu Emperor and his hair braids. Before entering the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor, the staff already knew that it was visited by a group of people, so Ben did not expect to find any valuable cultural relics from it. However, to everyone's surprise, there were still some unexpected gains on this expedition.
Difficult quests Are boiling unexpected discoveries
After exploring the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor again, the experts soon made a surprising discovery: there were two treasures in the clasped hands of the Guangxu Emperor, one was a conjoined jade ring, and the other was a Hetian jade play. After investigation, experts found that the owner of these two treasures was actually the Guangxu Emperor, but the Guangxu Emperor's concubine Zhenfei.
However, why did these two cultural relics eventually return to Guangxu's hands? The real reason is that everyone was moved. It turned out that the Guangxu Emperor was remembering his favorite concubine Zhenfei in this way. The relationship between the Guangxu Emperor and Zhenfei was very deep, and in the eyes of the Guangxu Emperor, Zhenfei could best understand her own thoughts, but this person was persecuted by Cixi and eventually died tragically in the well.
Before his death, the Guangxu Emperor knew that he would be buried with Empress Longyu, but there was no affection between the Guangxu Emperor and Longyu, because in the mind of the Guangxu Emperor, the person he loved was a concubine from beginning to end. This is also why the Guangxu Emperor will hold the things given to Zhenfei tightly in his hands, and through this wordless way, the Guangxu Emperor expressed his desire to live and die with Zhenfei.
Surprisingly, in addition to these two priceless treasures, the experts also found a large bag of jewelry in a corner. In addition, experts also found a golden well under the coffin of the Guangxu Emperor. It is understood that this golden well existed before the completion of the construction of the mausoleum, and the location of this mausoleum was determined through feng shui.
Not only that, but the golden well also has a use, because the ancient people felt that the emperor was the true dragon heavenly son, and the dragon was to return to the sea after death, so people built this golden well and used it as a connection with the sea. Because this statement was so profound, almost no one understood it at that time, and because of this, the tomb robbers ignored the treasures under the coffin of the Guangxu Emperor, and these precious cultural relics were able to survive.
Longing for freedom The short life of a puppet emperor
After learning about the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor, some people can't help but wonder what the Guangxu Emperor experienced during his lifetime. Time went back to the year after the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, and Empress Dowager Cixi took Guangxu from prince's palace to the palace. At that time, Guangxu was only four years old and had no ability to rule the country at all, so Guangxu became a puppet emperor under the control of Cixi. However, as the Guangxu Emperor gradually grew older, the Guangxu Emperor could still only obey the orders of Empress Dowager Cixi, which made the Guangxu Emperor have a strong hatred for Empress Dowager Cixi. Guangxu had been looking forward to one day being able to truly take power, but he was suffering from not having the opportunity to resist.
Until one day, Guangxu noticed the ideologically progressive reformers, and the emergence of the reformers gave him hope. Just when the Guangxu Emperor was eager to fight with the reformists, Empress Dowager Cixi noticed the Guangxu Emperor's thoughts. In 1908, in order to eliminate the troubles forever, the vicious Empress Dowager Cixi poisoned the 38-year-old Guangxu Emperor, ending her short life. A year after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, construction of his mausoleum, Chongling, began. In the process of building the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor, the Qing Dynasty collapsed. In 1913, the construction of the Chongling Tomb was completed, and the Guangxu Emperor was eventually buried with his empress.
After this, the turbulent Period of the Republic of China soon followed. During this time, the people lived an extremely difficult life, in order to survive, many people turned their attention to the mausoleum, so many people began to steal the tomb secretly. The most famous belonged to Sun Dianying, who poured the tombs of Cixi and Qianlong down one by one, and after taking away the belongings in the tombs, he did not even spare the bones.
epilogue:
Looking back at the life of the Guangxu Emperor, it is not difficult for us to find that the Guangxu Emperor was not only not free when he was alive, but also had to be disturbed after he died, which was really regrettable. Tomb robbers ignore the historical value of these tombs, and they do not hesitate to destroy other people's tombs for their own selfish interests, and their behavior is really hateful.
What they did not expect was that through the excavation of ancient tombs, we could learn a lot about the ancients. In the process of exploring cultural relics and monuments, we can also learn about the history of China. However, the emergence of tomb robbers has caused many cultural relics and tombs in China to be destroyed, and the traceability has been greatly reduced, which has also caused many inconveniences for archaeologists to understand Chinese history, making many things forever unsolved mysteries.
Reference: "Long Hate Song"