Now it is difficult to see the coffin in the city, the coffin has gradually faded out of the public's vision, and now some places have introduced regulations banning the sale of coffins and selling memorial supplies, but coffins are not strangers in our lives.
Especially in the countryside, the urn is still put into the coffin and buried, but these graves are far away from the living place, and when it comes to the sacrifice or the New Year or festival, they will take some sacrificial food to the grave.
However, there is such a family in Zhejiang, when renovating its old house, it actually dug out two big red coffins from more than 800 years ago, which shocked people and lamented that the old man actually slept on this coffin for 30 years, and did not know whether he left a shadow in his heart.
First, the coffin under the old house
In May 2016, a small village in Huangyan, Zhejiang, Yang Laohan's family in front of the unusually lively, living in more than 30 years of old houses, today to start renovation, he found relatives and friends in neighboring villages, together to help himself demolish the old house, and then dig the foundation of the new house.
This house was left by his parents at that time, and it has been built for more than 30 years, and now that his children have married and left here, it is time to renovate the house, the roar of the excavator has torn down the old house, cleaned up these ruins and broken walls, and began to dig the foundation.
But after digging for a while, the excavator master obviously felt that the excavator touched something, not as hard as the stone, not as soft as the soil, the excavator can only stop first, someone jokingly said that yang Laohan's house will not be hiding a treasure under it, dig up the treasure.
Everyone laughed and began to dig with a shovel, the more they dug, the lower everyone's voice became, and finally they stopped talking, because all the people felt what it was, the whole thing was already exposed, this was clearly a coffin, what was going on, was this an ancient tomb?
Under the confusion of everyone, Yang Laohan still called the Cultural Relics Bureau, because someone in their village had dug up the ancient tomb, so for the sake of safety, he still notified the Cultural Relics Bureau, and the Cultural Relics Bureau that received the call here also quickly arrived at the scene.
After the people of the Cultural Relics Bureau understood the situation, they surrounded the scene and let everyone stay away, whether it was an ancient tomb or not, there would be some smell in the tomb for a long time, if it was an ancient tomb, there would be some toxic gases, because the ancients were very fond of sealing the tomb with mercury.
The archaeologists dug carefully, and a large red coffin was soon fully exposed, but unfortunately, this coffin was stolen by the tomb robbers, and there was nothing inside, so the archaeologists decided to expand the excavation area.
Sure enough, next to the coffin, another coffin was dug up, which was a tomb where husband and wife were buried together, but fortunately, this tomb was not destroyed, and in this coffin, a very valuable piece of jade, some clothing and some broken bones were excavated.
This Yang Laohan family house, the news of digging out the coffin is not shy, Yang Laohan is also dumbfounded, this is what happened, so many years he actually slept on the coffin, one mouth can not do two, really want to cry without tears, do not know how to describe their mood.
Watching the two coffins being dug up one by one, everyone also began to wonder who the owners of the two coffins were, and a stone stele revealed the identity of the owners.
Second, the big man in the tomb
Who is this husband and wife tomb, how can it be buried under the house of Yang Laohan's family, archaeologists have made new discoveries not far from the coffin, a stone stele impressively writes the identity of the person in this coffin, his name is Zhao Bopeng, died more than 800 years ago.
Who is Zhao Bopeng, although this person has no fame, but his ancestors are unknown to everyone, that is, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, the founding emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, this Zhao Bopeng is his descendant, the proper royal bloodline.
The stone stele records the sacrifice of his wife Li, the stolen coffin is his wife's, Zhao Bopeng for his wife diligent and thrifty family, gentle and virtuous, wrote an epitaph, when Zhao Bopeng in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, as a county order, the reputation has been very good, but also built a bridge, road for here.
Zhao Bopeng had 6 children in his lifetime, his father was Zhao Ziying, the sixth generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin, who had been serving in Huangyan, Taizhou at that time, and Zhao Bopeng later worked with his father to build the Five Caves Bridge in Huangyan, which can be verified by history.
Now there are still preserved five-hole bridge, this bridge is still in use, and very strong, there are also records in the historical records, after his retirement in old age, on the way home his wife died of illness, he wrote an inscription and put it in his wife's tomb, and buried it after his death.
In this way, when he died, the children buried the two of them together here, after years of precipitation of water and soil, slowly the coffin sank, and when Yang Laohan built a house, the foundation was relatively shallow, so the tombs of Zhao Bopeng and his wife were pressed below, and the tomb robbers of that year only stole the tomb of his wife Li, and did not steal Zhao Bopeng's tomb.
However, just when the archaeologists were doing further confirmation, a young man came here, and he came to the archaeologists with the family tree in his hand, saying that this was the tomb of their ancestors.
Yes, this man's name is Zhao Wenxi, he lives in this village not far away, he is the 30th generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin, after the examination of experts, confirmed Zhao Wenxi's words, but according to the state's regulations on underground excavated cultural relics, everything must be attributed to the state.
The discovery of Zhao Bopeng's tomb has provided archaeologists with very valuable archaeological information, because it is difficult to find in Zhejiang Province, the Song Dynasty is a relatively complete ancient tomb, the tomb of Zhao Bopeng and his wife is not very large, but the things inside, according to the etiquette of the time, are not lacking.
Because the middle of the two tombs is designed with a wall as a barrier, it is spared from being patronized by tomb thieves, if it is not spaced in the design, and there is a solid partition, it will not be preserved now, and the Southern Song Dynasty Jade Bi found in the tomb is very exquisite and beautiful.
The clothes and ornaments unearthed from the tomb also played a good help in the study of the costumes of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the silk satin unearthed here can be called the top product of the Southern Song Dynasty, and later known as the "Crown of Song Costumes", I have to say that Zhao Bopeng's funeral was still adhering to some royal traditions.
3. Summary
The excavation of Zhao Bopeng's tomb, archaeologists show us the exquisite costumes and silk of the Southern Song Dynasty, and also give us the opportunity to appreciate the exquisite Hanfu of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the excavation of the Southern Song Dynasty Jade Bi, let us see that at that time, the art of jade carving was so exquisite and exquisite.
It's just that when we appreciate these beautiful things, we still have a little sympathy for Yang Laohan, after all, I have slept in the coffin for 30 years, no matter how big the characters below are, they still have a little impact on their hearts, but if you think from another angle, there is an ancient big man sitting on his own protective god, and his heart will be at ease.