61 Headless Stone Men
"The chicken has no morning. The morning of the rooster, but the rope of the family. This sentence was originally from the ordinary language of the "Shang Shu Mu Oath", and then evolved into the idiom "Mu Ji Si Chen", which has been circulating for thousands of years, which refers specifically to the female ruling power.
China's history is vast and long, under the suppression of patrilineal society, the only woman who has reached the peak of the feudal dynasty in the past thousand years is Wu Zetian, who has committed himself to two emperors, since his ascension to the throne, there is a lot of discussion in the countryside up and down the government, and even today, this legendary woman is still the talk of the people after tea and dinner.
In addition to focusing on her political career and emotional entanglements, people are also quite interested in her mausoleum, there are 61 headless stone people in front of Wu Zetian's tomb, and countless talented people have not figured out the mystery about them for thousands of years, but they are inadvertently solved by two peasants.
The rise of the queen concubine
"Success is the heroine of the world, and defeat is the palace Chenghuan." Wu Zetian went from an ordinary concubine with no name to the peak of the feudal dynasty, and the twists and turns are unimaginable.
Portrait of Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian, originally known as Wu Cao, because when she succeeded to the throne, she announced that Tang was changed to Zhou at Zetianmen, so Wu Zetian's name was passed down. She was born in 624 AD, a native of Shanxi, and her father, Wu Yan, was the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, and was once named the Duke of Yingguo, and the birth of Empress Wu cannot be described as prominent.
At the age of fourteen, Wu Zetian entered the palace and became a talented person of Tang Taizong and was given the name "Wu Mei". However, during the tang dynasty, Wu Meiniang did not receive much honor and favor from the emperor, and the later Bai Juyi's "Shangyang White-haired Man" once wrote about the desolate scene of Yang Guifei's other talents when she was in the middle of the sky: "The king has not been allowed to meet, and has been looked at by Concubine Yang.... Jealous Ling sneaked into the Yang Palace, and spent his life staying in an empty house. "Just being jealous of the spoiled concubine, the woman's life is ruined."
Although Wu Meiniang and Yang Guifei are in a different era, we can also imagine the great competition among the harem concubines. Fortunately, soon Emperor Taizong of Tang li Shimin drove to hexi, and after his son Emperor Gaozong of Tang ascended the throne, the clarion call for the rise of Wu Meiniang was officially sounded.
In the eyes of men, the legendary life of Wu Meiniang lies in the fact that she killed a blood road in the patriarchal society and won the highest position, while in the eyes of women, the legend of Wu Meiniang may add a legend - the legend of the love road. Wu Meiniang committed herself to two emperors, the two were still father and son, although the Tang Dynasty was open to the people, but this situation was not inevitably criticized, which later became one of the stains on The life of Empress Wu.
Emperor Gaozong of Tang
After Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi ascended the throne, he made Wu Meiniang Zhaoyi, and in 655 AD, in the famous "Deposed King Liwu" incident, Wu Meiniang was successfully crowned empress, and she was finally only one step away from the position of the star in her hand.
For the beloved woman to seek the position of the mother of the world, Li Zhi in the last few years of his life is very comfortable, he thought he could share the white head with Wu Meiniang, who knows but before her, in 683 AD, Tang Gaozong Li Zhi died, seven years later, the nearly ancient Wu Meiniang officially called the emperor, the capital Luoyang, called "Shendu" changed the name of the country to "Zhou".
The Road of the First Empress through the Ages
"Strange Phase Moon Yan" This is the only evaluation of Wu Meiniang's appearance in the history books, saying that she is very good-looking and has the order of being a king. Although Wu Meiniang was 67 years old when she succeeded to the throne, she was properly maintained and very good at dressing, and everyone in the palace around her praised that she could not see the true age of Emperor Wu, which showed that Wu Meiniang's appearance when she was young was not to say that she was in the country but also must be gentle and charming.
Later generations always had an almost harsh evaluation of women's behavior in the dynasty, in fact, in the early days of Wu Meiniang's reign, the politics were clear, the government was virtuous, and the country was well governed. Internally, she attacked the door valves, supported the Shu clan, and also developed the imperial examination, which was a guangdong talent for the Wuzhou Dynasty. Externally, stepping on the Western Regions and Leveling the Turks, it solved the external troubles left over from the Tang Dynasty.
Although Wu Meiniang's path to the emperor was bumpy, it did not lead to major mistakes, and compared with the faint emperors in history, this outstanding female politician used her ingenuity to pave the way for the prosperity of the later Tang Dynasty. In 705, the wuzhou emperor Wu Zetian, who had reigned for 15 years, returned to heaven, and the first and last empress in Chinese history quietly came to an end.
After Wu Zetian's death, a wordless monument was erected in front of her mausoleum, some people said that she was too arrogant and felt that her merits could not be expressed in words, and some people said that Wu Zetian had a broad heart and left her merits and deeds to comment on with future generations.
The mystery of the headless stone statue
Wu Zetian was buried in Qianling, which was a joint tomb with Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Li Zhi. The tombs of the ancient emperors are all deduced by feng shui people to find the place where the dragon qi flourishes, so as to ensure that the emperor after the return of the dragon to heaven is not disturbed in the heavenly palace, and it is also the Jiangshan Sheji that protects the family for thousands of generations. Therefore, for the wonders of the headless stone statue of Wu Zetian's tomb, there have been many speculations involving feudal superstitions in the past.
Chinese has a natural reverence for ghosts and gods, "Poor night half empty front seat, do not ask the heavens to ask the ghosts and gods." Emperor Wu of Han, written by Li Shangyin, summoned jia Yi, a nominee, not to ask about the affairs of the heavenly beings but only about ghosts and gods, and thus we can see the power of the ghosts and gods in the hearts of the ancients. Therefore, Qianling became the best preserved tomb in the Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and no tomb robbers never set foot in it, which made the legend of Qianling's ghosts and gods more confusing.
What exactly do these 61 headless statues represent? Is it related to Wu Zetian? History kept moving forward, but the mystery remained unsolved until 1974, when two farmers stumbled upon it, and the secret of the stone statue was finally revealed.
61 headless stone statues
In 1974, two farmers from Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, went to their fields as usual to cultivate land, and in the 1970s, agricultural mechanization was not widely popularized, and farmers in remote areas still used the traditional agricultural tool, the hoe. When they hoeed the ground, they seemed to have inadvertently dug up something very hard, and at first they thought it was a big stone, so they planned to dig it out, who knew that after pulling some of the dirt off their bodies, the two farmers were surprised that this big stone was actually a stone human head!
Not only that, there are quite exquisite carvings on it, Xianyang as an ancient capital, has always had a very rich cultural relics resources, farmers for cultural relics will have some sense of protection, so they quickly contacted the local archaeological department, experts heard that it is a stone head, non-stop to hear the news, after a rough identification, basically can be determined that it is a Tang Dynasty cultural relics, for insurance, they have carefully searched nearby, and indeed found many similar heads.
At this point, experts can basically determine that the stone human head found in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province in 1974 and the 61 headless stone people in front of Wu Zetian's tomb are matched. Two farmers mistakenly hit and collided to solve this age-old mystery.
Turkic stone statues
Originally, these stone people in front of Wu Zetian's tomb were Turkic, they all wore many thin strips of long braids, and the facial features were also different from the Han people, very foreign atmosphere, in addition, there were many inscriptions on the stone statues that could prove their identity, such as "Mujuhan King Stoller", "Toholuo Prince Holding Karma Da Qian", etc., and even some stone statues were carefully marked with a "gu" character, indicating that the Turkic leader represented by the stone statue had died. In fact, these 61 Turkic stone statues represent 61 Tang Dynasty vassals.
China has had a tradition of burial since ancient times, the ancient burial of cattle and sheep is for "sacrifice", and even the tradition of yin merchants and even the burial of living people, very cruel, to the Qin Shi Huang period, the iron-blooded YingZheng chose the method of terracotta warriors and horses burial. These stone statues in front of The Tomb of Ran Wu Zetian do not represent the martyred Turkic leaders, but symbolize the 61 vassals who went to the Tang Dynasty to participate in the funeral of empress Wu, in order to show supreme respect and awe.
As mentioned above, Wu Zetian's reign pacified the tang dynasty's long-accumulated foreign troubles, and such a commemorative method not only shows the national prestige of the Wu Zetian Great Zhou Dynasty, but also reflects the peaceful and friendly relations between the Han nationality and ethnic minorities. Since it is to show the friendship of the nation, then why is the head of the stone statue missing?
In this regard, there is a lot of discussion in the academic circles, and some scholars have pointed out that natural disasters may have caused the separation of the first body of the stone statue, after all, during the Ming Dynasty, there was a huge earthquake in the local area, and Qianling happened to be in the epicenter. Some scholars have speculated that the first body of these stone statues is not naturally separated, but because of human beings, perhaps in the Tang Dynasty war, there were people who hated Wu Zetian who sneaked into the mausoleum and damaged these stone statues, after all, during the reign of Wu Zetian, there were indeed many enemies.
Headless stone statue
At this point, the mystery that plagued the headlessness of the 61 stone statues in the millennium has been solved by two farmers, but this tomb of the empress still has countless secrets waiting for future generations to explore.
"Who said that women are inferior to men" Since the dissolution of matriarchal society, women have been suppressed by patriarchy, feudal society for thousands of years, women are trapped in the deep boudoir, trapped in that square inch, like a silk flower attached to the father, husband to survive. Only the canary rests in a cage, and the falcon never succumbs to the shackles.
Lv Yan, Hua Mulan, Li Qingzhao, Qiu Jin.... Under the cover of the brilliance of male heroes, these women with great plans, worldly talents, full of books, brave and tenacious, with their own efforts, occupy a place in the long river of history. The phrase "women can hold up half the sky" should be taken to heart by all.
The exploits of a generation of empresses Wu Zetian have been scattered in the wind with the passing years, and people pay so much attention to the 61 headless stone statues, half because of the strangeness of the events, and half because the life of the tomb owner Wu Zetian is too legendary. Perhaps the establishment of the Wordless Monument is her best choice, right and wrong, disdainful of self-disclosure, fifteen years in power, but to be ashamed, she has realized her ideals in life, and the things behind her are left for future generations to comment on.