Before his death, he deceived the heavens and destroyed the Han Dynasty, and after his death, he deceived people to set up a tomb of doubt. —— Yu Yingfu, "Nancun Dropout Cultivation Record , Doubtful Tomb"
In recent years, with the popularity of film and television works on the theme of tomb robbery, the emergence of works such as "The Ancient City of Jingjie" and "Notes on Tomb Robbery" have emerged. Let everyone also form a strong interest in the thousand-year-old tomb. And when watching movies and TV, everyone hears the word": "inverted bucket". Many people who fall into the bucket wear ancestral gold charms before the inverted bucket, which makes people feel very mysterious. Why ming is a fighter, but he calls himself a "lieutenant who touches gold", in fact, these are related to Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period. During the Three Kingdoms period, whose tomb did Cao Cao dig up that could support the army for three years?
Origins of tomb robbery
Whenever the world is in turmoil, the world is not peaceful and can not earn any money, many people will choose to join the army and eat a mouthful of food. As we all know, in addition to military command ability, war actually fights for human and financial resources. Many people who claimed the title of king, in the process of competing for each other's territory, suffered continuous losses, and at this time, military spending was tight. If they want to have the money to feed their soldiers and continue to fight for themselves and make a contribution to the chaotic world, the warlords must do their best to raise military funds.
During the Three Kingdoms period, the masses competed for supremacy, and everyone led their own teams to dominate the world. But years of war have made it impossible to cultivate everywhere, the price of grain is steep, and the burdens of the princes are even heavier. At that time, in order to collect money in Yizhou, Liu Bei introduced a coin called "ZhiBai qian" and exchanged materials from the private sector with this extremely low value currency. But this coin does not contain much copper, and it is impossible to circulate anywhere else. On the other hand, according to the folklore, Cao Cao was a traitor who would do whatever it took to accomplish his goal. At that time, the war was tight, and Cao Cao had to raise military salaries everywhere in order to continue to win the hearts and minds of the people. Later, he set his sights on the ancient tombs of the former dynasty, and even formed a special army to dig the tomb and get rich. The leader is called Fa Qiu Zhonglang, who is mainly responsible for leading people to dig the earth and find the tomb. Lieutenant Tujin is a small soldier in the army, responsible for going deep into the tomb and looking for money. Whose grave did he dig, and who could get so much money that he could feed his army for three full years? The owner of the tomb
According to the records of the "Water Classics Commentary", which describes the process of Cao Cao's tomb robbery: the operation of attracting soldiers into Yan, the tomb of Liang Xiaowang, the broken coffin, and the receipt of tens of thousands of jinbao. So what is the origin of this Liang Xiaowang, who actually has so many funerary items in the tomb?
King Xiao of Liang, whose real name was Liu Wu, was a prince of the Liang state in the Western Han Dynasty. Before becoming king, Liu Wu, as a brother of Emperor Jing of Han, made a great contribution to the pacification of the Seven Kingdoms and received extremely rich rewards, coupled with Empress Dou's favor for Liu Wu, which made him accumulate more and more money. In addition, Liu Wujin met the emperor and entered the palace in the emperor's exclusive carriage. After that, he accompanied the Han Jing Emperor to ride the car rack and went out of the palace to hunt together and enjoy the scenery. Such a person with power and wealth will naturally only become more and more powerful, and at the peak of the government treasury, the money in the treasury is nearly one trillion, and there are more jewels and jade than in the capital. At that time, Liu Wu built a back garden for himself within the boundaries of the Liang Kingdom. According to historical records, this garden alone covers an area of more than three hundred miles, and the gardens in it are exquisitely carved, comparable to a palace.
Such a brilliant person before death, how to go away empty-handed after death, coupled with the traditional idea of thick burial in ancient times, believes that after death with gold and silver jewelry, you can still have these wealth in the next life. Liu Wu looked for a feng shui master in advance to look after the cemetery, and transferred a large amount of gold and silver treasures from his house to the tomb, and the glory and wealth enjoyed for a lifetime, and naturally he also wanted to go to the scenery after death. But King Xiao of Liang certainly could not have imagined that his tomb would one day be stolen and dug in the midst of chaos, just to fill the military pay.
Leave the means behind
In Chen Lin's "Essay on the Thief", the scene of Cao Cao's tomb robbery was described in detail: "And Cao Shuai's generals personally excavated, broke the coffin and the naked body, and plundered the gold treasure." Subsequently, he criticized Cao Cao's behavior as shameless. Cao Cao, who knew that it was wrong to rob the tomb, was also afraid that someone would attack his tomb after his death, and it is said that Cao Cao, who had been treacherous and suspicious all his life, carefully planned 72 tombs for himself. Probably seeing the drawbacks of thick burials and the danger of being stolen and excavated, Cao Cao advocated that there should not be too much gold and silver jewelry buried with him.
It is recorded in the history book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Wei" that Cao Cao once made a will, saying that the cemetery should be selected in a "barren land", not in a place with excellent feng shui, "no seal, no tree", and "no gold and jade treasures" in the mausoleum. The biggest mystery that Cao Cao finally set for us was that everyone could not find his mausoleum. In the end, China organized an expert group to discover Cao Cao's tomb in Gaoling, Anyang in 2009, and after ten years of long excavation, it has now reached the stage of cultural relics release, which is of great significance for China to study the history of the Three Kingdoms.
Reference: "Minamimura Dropout Farming Record : Doubtful Tomb"