Around the Qianling Tomb where Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were buried together, there are 17 funerary tombs scattered, of which 3 have been archaeologically excavated and opened to the public, namely the Yongtai Princess Mausoleum, the Yide Prince Mausoleum and the Zhanghuai Prince Tomb, and the Yongtai Princess Tomb is now the location of the Qianling Museum. Princess Li Xianhui of Yongtai (永泰公主李仙蕙), courtesy name 秾辉, was the seventh daughter of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang and the granddaughter of Empress Wu Zetian. Princess Yongtai died in 701, and was later buried with Wu Yanji, the duke of Tuoma, and buried with Qianling. Li Xianhui was initially crowned as the Lord of Yongtai County, and after her father Li Xian's reinstatement as Crown Prince of Donggong, at the age of 15, she married Wu Yanji as a county lord and became the daughter-in-law of Wu Chengsi, the King of Wei. Li Xianhui and Wu Yanji had a good relationship after marriage, and had a close relationship with Shizi Li Chongrun, and the three often drank and chatted together. During this period, when Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were in control of the imperial government, Li Chongrun and Wu Yanji were very dissatisfied with Erzhang's arrogance, and they were quite critical, and later they were discovered by the eyes and ears of the Zhang brothers, and then the Zhang brothers told Wu Zetian about this matter. Wu Zetian summoned Li Chongrun, Wu Yanji, and Li Xianhui into the palace, and ordered them to be killed under their staffs, at this time Li Xianhui, the lord of Yongtai County, had just turned 17 years old.
The New Book of Tang says that the three were killed by Wu Zetian. The Old Book of Tang says that Wu Zetian handed over the three to Li Xian, and Li Xian, terrified, had his sons, daughters, and son-in-law strangled to death and sent a message to his mother to save his family's life. Either way, the three died at the hands of their grandmother because of the Zhang brothers. After Li Xian ascended the throne, the first thing he did was to posthumously appoint Li Chongrun as the Prince of Yide, and Li Xianhui as the Princess of Yongtai, and call their tombs "Ling". When the Tomb of Princess Yongtai was excavated, the epitaph had the words "Pearl Fetus Destroyed the Moon", which shows that Li Xianhui was not killed or hanged by a cane, but died in childbirth. However, the day Li Xianhui died in childbirth was only one day before and after her brother and husband were killed. Perhaps li Xianhui was shocked to learn of her husband's death, and the tire was frightened and premature, and she was frightened and stimulated to die in childbirth.
Epitaph of Princess Yongtai
In 1960, the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Management Commission conducted an archaeological excavation of the tomb of Princess Yongtai, although it was stolen and excavated, but the excavated cultural relics are still very rich, including ceramics, metal tools, stone carvings including more than 1300 cultural relics, but the number of jade is relatively small, after the excavation of 10 pieces of jade remained in the north of the Mouth of the Yongdao Robber Cave. Among them, 7 are accessories for Tang Dynasty jade pendants, and 3 are 1 piece of gu grain jade heng from the late Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty, 1 piece is a fragment of the carved oyster pattern of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and 1 piece is a walking animal swimming fish pendant from the Wei and Jin dynasties. Walking beast swimming fish jade pendant, jade gray white blue, length 11 cm, height 6 cm. The upper part is a skeletonized marching monster, the monster has an open mouth and nose, the eyes are triangular, the chin is under the jaw, the neck is short, there are three olive-shaped bumps on the back, the side of the body is carved with a flowing cloud pattern, the tail is drooping and curled; the four legs are on a long strip in the middle, and there are three holes in the equidistant side of the long strip; the lower is connected to a swimming fish, the fish is short-tailed, with yin carved fish scales and fins on one side, and only a thin yin line on the other side. This piece of jade may have been used for the upper end of the group pendant to play a role in balancing the whole pendant, so some scholars have named it Heng. The image of this monster has always been puzzling, combined with the similar theme of the Han portrait stone in Tengzhou, Shandong, and boldly speculated that this monster may be an otter.
Walking beast swimming fish jade pendant
Tengzhou Museum holds Han portrait stones and rubbings
Partial drawing of the portrait stone
otter
Otter fishing
Otter is a mammal, burrowing at the river's edge, lying out at night, good at swimming and diving, good at fishing in ambushes, and in ancient times, it was also named "water dog", which was named after its appetite for aquatic fish. After recognizing the fish-eating characteristics of otters, the ancients began to domesticate otter fishing, which is another animal that has been domesticated for fishing after cormorants.
BBC filming of Indian fishermen domesticating otters to catch fish
As early as the Southern Dynasty Liang's "Bencao Tujing" recorded that "there are many (otters) in the rivers and lakes, and the Northern Natives also domesticated them as otters", which shows that at least during the Southern Dynasty, there was a technology to domesticate otters. If the beast on the Han portrait stone unearthed in Tengzhou is accurately identified as an otter, it will advance the history of artificially domesticated otters to the Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty Zhang Que's "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks", it is mentioned: "At the end of the Yuan and the end, there were people in Junzhou's Meteor Township County... More than ten otters are raised, fishing is a business, and they are released every other day. By the 13th century, Marco Polo's records had once again cemented the veracity of these accounts. Fishermen along the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in the late Qing Dynasty also domesticated otters to help catch fish until
Scene of fishermen domesticating otters in the Late Qing Dynasty
In the 1960s, the remnants of otter fishing were seen in Yichang, Hubei Province, and in the tail of some local fishing boats, there was always an otter responsible for driving fish into the net at night. Fishermen train them to drive their schools into nets to catch more fish, a tradition in many Asian countries. With the development of the times, otters have become endangered animals, and there is no way to help humans fish.
The subject matter on the Wei and Jin Dynasty animal swimming fish jade pendant excavated from the tomb of Princess Yongtai and the Han Dynasty portrait stone unearthed in Tengzhou are too similar, is this not the scene of "otter fishing"!