Those who have seen Jin Yong's "Eight Parts of the Heavenly Dragon" are no strangers to the great hero Xiao Feng inside, who is benevolent and proud and admired. I think one of the great contributions of "Tianlong Babu" is to familiarize everyone with the history of the Liao Kingdom and the Khitan Kingdom. "Yang Jiajun" let a generation understand the Khitan and "Tianlong Babu" let another generation understand the Khitan.
The Khitans were nomadic people, they had no glorious buildings, they were tents everywhere they went, and even after the founding of the country, there were very few buildings. In addition, the history of Xiangguo is relatively short, so the historical research of the Liao Kingdom is very lacking in historical materials and cultural relics. The Liao state was still very influential at that time, and once almost destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the autumn of 1004 (the first year of Emperor Zhenzong of Song's reign), Empress Xiao of the Liao state and Emperor Shengzong of Liao personally led a large army south into the Song dynasty. Zai Xiang Kou was allowed to oversee the battle in Liaozhou. After a fierce battle, the two sides made peace with the Liao in December (January 1005): the Liao and Song dynasties were about a brotherly country, and the Song gave the Liao Dynasty a tribute, known in history as the "Alliance of Liaoyuan". But then the Jin and Song alliances together destroyed the Liao, and the Liao and Khitan were drowned in history. From 916 to 1125, a total of nine emperors were passed on, and the kingdom was 209 years old.
In fact, not only the Liao, but also nomadic regimes such as the Xiongnu and the Western Xia were also submerged in history. It is very difficult to study their history . There are two ways to study history: the first is a written carrier, especially a history book, and the second is an archaeological relic.
In June 1985, a villager in Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, was building a reservoir on the hillside next to the village, and accidentally found a "bluestone slab" underground.
There were two tomb owners, one of whom was Princess Chen Guo, the granddaughter of Emperor Jingzong of Liao (948-982), the granddaughter of the fifth emperor of the Liao dynasty. Although this granddaughter was a princess, she was not old enough to be old, and when she died, she was only 18 years old, just an adult. When archaeologists opened the burial chamber, they found her covered in a gold mask and leaning on a golden flower pillow. Fantasy a thousand years ago, she must be a princess with a flower appearance and a beautiful national color.
The golden mask of the pack horse
The epitaph records that in 1018, the 18-year-old princess and the 36-year-old donkey died successively. According to historical records, the court struggles in the Liao state were fierce, and there were often fires, so did they die of infighting?
However, according to the epitaph, the death of the two had nothing to do with the court battle, and both died of illness. However, the epitaphs were written by others, and may even be written by political opponents, so if the real reasons are not written, then posterity will be deceived.
Silver pillows for princesses and horses
But in the 1980s, antiquities workers did not realize that pathological studies were needed on the remains. So whether the princess and the pony died of illness or died of unnatural death is also a mystery.
But more importantly, the tomb has not been stolen. This may be related to the fact that the Liao tombs do not have obvious ground construction, so it is difficult for future tomb robbers to find their tombs.
The princess's golden mask
However, the reality of their thick burial shows that even if they were killed by him, the person who killed them was very "courteous" to them. The two of them wore gold and silver pillows on their heads, silver wire network burial clothes, their faces covered with gold masks, and their feet in silver boots.
Princess's Silver Boots, Korqin Museum
In particular, the princess lying in the arms of the horse is more graceful and luxurious, she wears a high-winged gilt crown, pearls and amber earrings on both ears, a pearl necklace around her neck, two pairs of gold bracelets on her wrists, and 11 gold rings on her hands, which can be said to be extremely luxurious.
There is an epitaph in this tomb, which reads "Epitaph of the Late Princess Chen Guo", and the seal characters on the cover of this epitaph alone are huge in information. This shows that at that time, the Liao State was already deeply influenced by Han culture, and official places were written in Chinese characters.
Horses and princesses in silver silk dress on display
Moreover, the larger the official position, the more expensive the status, that is, the master, the two are buried together, but the epitaph is only the princess's, and the epitaph does not mention the horse at all.
When the pony and the princess are unearthed
What is more noteworthy is that the owner of the tomb is an uncle and niece, and the princess married her uncle Xiao Shaojie, who was more than ten years older than herself, when she was 16 years older. Because there was a custom of marriage between close relatives in the Liao State, it was possible to maintain the purity of aristocratic blood and to be close to each other. The two lay side by side, accompanied by more than 3,000 various treasures, and slept on the grassland for thousands of years. The discovery of this tomb and the excavated cultural relics filled the gap in the study of Liao history, and experts were very excited and were amazed at finally finding a well-preserved tomb of the Liao nobles.