Speaking of the wordless monument, it seems that the most well-known is the empress Wu Zetian, who has also become the exclusive owner of the wordless monument. In 705, at the age of 82, Wu Zetian fell ill and died, and ordered that "as empress, he and Gaozong Li Zhi should be buried together in Qianling".
Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang were buried together
In addition to the large number of treasures to accompany the burial (after The restoration of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Li Xian, even gave half of the national treasures of the Tang Dynasty to his mother Wu Zetian for burial), the biggest suspense left to posterity is the wordless stele in front of her mausoleum. This stone stele is 7.53 meters high and weighs 98.8 tons, so what is the meaning of the wordless stele?
Two of the most widely circulated accounts are said. The first statement is: Wu Zetian felt that his merits were unprecedented and could not be described in words, so he erected a wordless monument, which was left to posterity to comment on; the second theory was: Wu Zetian believed that it was a great rebellion to discuss the king, and this practice of "discussing the king with subjects" was undesirable, so he erected a wordless monument.
However, in fact, Wu Zetian's Qianling wordless stele is not without words, if you look closely, the stone stele is engraved with symbols, according to experts who study ancient documents: This is Khitan language, but the people in the world who understand Khitan have long ceased to exist, so no one can explain what is expressed on the stone stele?
However, although the Qianling Wordless Monument is world-famous, this is not Wu Zetian's original, there are at least five people in history who have erected wordless monuments, and two of them are earlier than Wu Zetian. Where are their wordless tablets?
The first wordless monument is located in front of the Jade Emperor's Palace on the top of Mount Tai. The stele is 6 meters high, 1.2 meters wide and 60 centimeters thick.
As for the owner of this stele, there are two theories in history. One is Qin Shi Huang: when Qin Shi Huang Taishan sealed Zen, set up this wordless stele, but it is said that this stone stele was originally engraved with words, until the Song Dynasty was not called a wordless stele, and from Qin Shi Huang to the founding of the Song Dynasty, the time spanned nearly 1200 years, the stone stele experienced thousands of years of wind and rain corrosion, the disappearance of words is also reasonable, such as according to this statement, Taishan wordless stele is more than a thousand years earlier than wu Zetian Qianling wordless stele!
The second theory is that the owner of the Taishan Wordless Monument was Liu Che, the Emperor of The Han Dynasty, who ordered a trip to Mount Tai in 110 BC to seal Zen, and arrived at Mount Tai in 109 BC, thus erecting this monument. However, it is said that Emperor Wu of han was so happy that he should show off his Wenzhi martial arts on the stone stele, but there is no word on the stone stele, and there are six words in the "Book of Sealing Zen": "The peak of Mount Tai of the Standing Stone".
Although Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was an emperor, he also had to follow the custom: he was not the founding monarch, so he only had the right to erect a monument and did not have the qualification to engrave and record merit, so he could only erect a wordless monument. In this way, if it is calculated according to the fact that Emperor Wudi of Han was the master of the Taishan Stone Stele, the Taishan Wordless Stele was more than 800 years earlier than Wu Zetian!
The second wordless stele, the protagonist of the "Comeback", is the stone stele of xie an of the Eastern Jin Dynasty! Xie An must be familiar with history, the Eastern Jin Dynasty famous minister, recommended his nephew Xie Xuan in the Battle of Shuishui, with 80,000 Northern Fu soldiers to defeat the 970,000 troops of Former Qin, thus becoming famous in history, and xie Daoyun, the talented daughter of "Wing Chun", was also Xie An's niece!
Xie An Wordless Monument is located in Meigang, Nanjing, is Xie An's tombstone, as for why it is not engraved, there are three theories: First, Xie An's merits are rare and cannot be described in words!
Second, although Xie An had contributed to sheji, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was after all a corner of peace, and Xie An felt that although he had the merit of sheji, because he could not let the Eastern Jin Dynasty recover the Central Plains, he did not dare to describe his merits, and could only leave a wordless monument!
Third, Xie An refused to say who to carve for his tombstone before his death, on October 12, 385 AD, 65-year-old Xie An died of illness, before his death, his family asked him to let people write tombstone inscriptions, citing Tao Yuanming and Wang Xianzhi, two big coffees, but Xie An shook his head and refused, and when asked again, he found that Xie An was breathing, so the family did not dare to make decisions without permission, and could only let the tombstone empty!
The person who erected the third wordless monument was really unexpected, killing Yue Fei's traitorous minister Qin Ju! In this world, in addition to the iron statue of Qin Juniper kneeling in front of Yue Fei's tomb, there is also a wordless stele of Qin Juniper. Qin Juniper was buried in the southwest suburbs of Nanjing after his death, and the wordless stele was his tombstone, which was empty.
Some people said: The people who erected the monument felt that Qin Juniper had done all the bad things before his death, and it was really impossible to say anything, so he could only erect a wordless monument, if this statement is true, this is the greatest retribution for Qin Juniper, indicating that his sins cannot be described in words!
The owner of the fourth wordless monument is The "Father of the Nation" Dr. Sun Yat-sen! The mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen is in Nanjing, that is, the Nanjing Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, and the Jiang Mausoleum of Sun Quan, the founding emperor of Eastern Wu, and the Ming Xiao Mausoleum of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Taizu, are not far away!
The tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing
In 1925, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen died, Mr. Zhang Taiyan was ordered to write an epitaph for him, and when he was preparing to write about his great achievements, Chiang Kai-shek read Zhang Taiyan's "Tribute to Sun Gongwen" and felt that he was very unfavorable to himself, so he strongly opposed Zhang Taiyan's writing of an epitaph for Mr. Sun Yat-sen, so he achieved this wordless stele of The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum!