In tomb robbery, tomb robbers dig up the ancestral graves of other people's families, although there are occasional cases of digging their own ancestral graves, but they are relatively rare and will not become a temporary trend. During the Republic of China, this rare scene became a scene, and the descendants of the Manchu Qing princes dug ancestral graves and stole tombs to take burial treasures, and many of the tombs of princes were destroyed in this way.
This article, let's talk about this insider.
Pictured: Beijing Qing Dynasty Prince's Cemetery Palace, quite exquisite, only the Imperial Tomb Underground Palace
Pictured: Beijing Qing Wangye Cemetery Palace, the back hall coffin bed, the upper coffin
● Wang Ye's tomb in Beijing
According to the research of Mr. Feng Qili, an expert on the tomb of Wang Ye, in the Qing Dynasty, counting the titles of the posthumous ge retired, more than 240 princes appeared in the Qing Dynasty. After their deaths, almost all of these princes were buried in the suburbs of Beijing, counties and townships.
There are many sayings about the tomb of Wang Ye, which in the past was generally not called "grave", but mostly called round bed. For the sake of auspiciousness, avoid the fierce characters such as "grave", "tomb", "burial", and will use the name of yang house. Or call it "house", such as the "old house" and "new house" on the grave of the Zheng family in the baishiqiao in the western suburb of Beijing; or call it "house", such as the "seventy-two houses" and "one slip of the mountain house" in the area of Jinshan in the north of Yuquan Mountain to the mouth of the mountain village; or call it "palace", such as the "East Palace" and "West Palace" located on the tomb of King Lanqi in front of the Xianren Cave in the Ming Tombs area. Some even call it "Yamen", in the past, on the graves of the Eight Princes of the Former Jianguomen Gate, there were two large tombs in the east and west, which were called east "yamen" and west "yamen".
Pictured: Wang Ye's tomb is also set up in the monument pavilion
Pictured: The details of Wang Ye's tombstone, exquisitely crafted, there are also carved dragons, showing that they are dragon species dragon grandchildren
Pictured: The details of Wang Ye's tombstone are exquisitely worked
These "houses", "houses", "palaces", and "yamen" were once a scene on the outskirts of Beijing. It covers a large area, with buildings on the ground and underground, as well as the burial tombs of a group of wives and concubines and descendants. If it were not for the burial of dead people, it would be like the Great House and the Royal Palace, which is incomparably rich and magnificent. During the Republic of China, the troops stationed on the outskirts of Beijing used these "mansions" and "ya" as barracks.
There is a tomb of Wang Ye in Laishui County, Hebei Province, called "Yiwang Mausoleum", which is the tomb of Yun Xiang, the thirteenth brother of Kangxi. In 1935, Song Zheyuan lived here for more than a year, and only one company of soldiers lived in the Hall of Heng. The Japanese puppet army also used the Yiwang Mausoleum building to fight against the Eighth Route Army, and in 1944, the Eighth Route Army simply demolished the Yiwang Mausoleum in order to better attack the Japanese army. Later, the Tomb of King Yi was stolen and excavated by Wang Zuozhou, the commissioner of the Nine Counties. When the excavation was carried out, it was seen that the treasure roof (the head of the grave) was more than seven feet high, and the bricks were plastered with gray red. The door frame of the underground palace is wind-milled copper infiltration gold, and there is a large hanging coffin in the middle of the stone coupon, and there are four coffins in the four corners.
Pictured: Burial chamber
After the expulsion of the last emperor and the demise of the Manchu Qing court, these "houses", "houses", "palaces", and "yamen" were no longer glorious, but became the target of tomb robbers. What Wang Ye could never have imagined when he was alive was that his grave not only let the tomb robbers stare at it, but also became the object of excavation for Wang Ye's descendants, and was "raised" to take treasure.
● Sell trees and sell land to dig ancestral graves
Qi Ling, originally a folk secondary burial custom in the past, is to dig out the coffin or bones from the old grave and bury it in another place. The reason for this is either that the descendants have emigrated together to move the ancestral grave together in order to feel at ease; or the original burial place is not auspicious, and the original burial place is re-selected, and the reason is to be safe; or the original place is occupied and has to be moved... The descendants of the Manchu princes have "raised their ancestral graves" one after another, but the reasons have nothing to do with this, and the main motivation is to seek wealth.
The descendants of these princes were still human-like and full of power when the Qing Dynasty was not overthrown, and after the Xinhai Revolution, these people became real "grandsons". The princes who opened their mouths and stretched out their clothes were accustomed to life, and after there was no way to make money, and they had no life skills, the descendants of these princes began to sell their ancestral property and family collections.
Photo: The "Tomb of the Seven Kings" cemetery near the Bei'an River in Beijing's Haidian District
Nothing was sold, and some simply went to tow tricycles. For example, empress dowager Cixi's family, the Keqin Junwang family, the last generation of junwang Yansen, could not live a life, had to go to work as a rickshaw puller, was jokingly called "Che Wang", and its cemetery located in the area of Feng Village in Mentougou was also named "CheWang Tomb".
It is not good that a prince like Yan Sen can support himself. But most people, after selling out their ancestral property, they set their sights on the ancestral grave, first selling trees, then selling land, and finally "rising spirits" and digging out the burial goods for money.
In 1913, the descendants of Kewang Tomb, north of the village of Kyonishida, put down the trees on the graveyard and sold most of the cemetery. A year or two later, the cemetery was visited by tomb robbers. Later, the bricks and tiles here were sold out, and in 1924, the "spirit" was revived.
Located in front of the Immortal Cave in the Ming Tombs Area, the "LanQi Wang" cemetery is the cemetery of Prince Zheng's Fuguo Gong Qitong Azizi through Naheng and his descendants, and there are two places: "East Palace" and "West Palace". In 1930, when a drought broke out in Changping and there were locusts, a sixth brother in the royal palace sold the trees on the graveyard, then demolished the wall and sold bricks and tiles, and finally "raised the spirit".
The tomb of Prince Yi of Banbidian in Changping County is the burial place of Yongxuan, the eighth son of Qianlong and the oldest of the princes, who lived for 87 years. In 1925, after selling the trees, bricks and stones on his graveyard, his descendants started to "raise spirits". It is said that when I opened the dungeon, I saw two coffins, and the bodies were well preserved, and there were many burial items.
Photo: Prince Qing alcohol cemetery
Photo: Qingfu Junwang Cemetery
The "Twelve Tombs" outside the Dongzhimen Gate in Beijing are the graves of the twelfth son of the Kangxi Emperor, Yun Qi. In 1929, Pu Zhi, the Duke of Zhenguo, and other descendants demolished all the buildings on the ground of the Ming Tombs, and sold bricks and wood to the "Wotou Liu" in Dongzhimen. Then "rising spirits", after digging up the underground palace, found that three coffins were placed on the stone bed, and after they were lifted up, they were buried in Xiaowangjing Village, where they were naturally left with the burials.
This kind of incident of selling trees and selling land to dig ancestral graves was done by most of the descendants of the prince during the Republic of China. In particular, the phenomenon of selling trees is the most serious. The trees on the cemetery were absolutely unsold in the past, and the trees could protect feng shui, and cutting down destroyed feng shui. However, think about it, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has fallen, and what feng shui is still talking about.
● The family stole the "old house" and raised the urn
There is a tomb of King Zheng in Baishiqiao, a western suburb of Beijing, which is the first tomb of Prince Zheng's mansion in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty. The earliest burial here is the sixth son of Shulhaqi, the third brother of the Qing Taizu Nurhaci, Prince Zhengxian, Zilharang's tomb is commonly known as "Old House", the later Shizi Tomb is "Erwu", and the later Minjun Wang Tomb is "New House".
Pictured: A dark burial chamber
The ancient trees in King Zheng's grave were towering in the sky, and some of the big trees could not be held by four or three people. When the offspring are not living well, they first start selling trees. In 1926, Prince Zhaoxu of Zheng sold the trees here to the wood factory, and his uncle Lothai was reluctant to ask for money, and when he released the trees, each prince symbolically left four trees in the tomb for Loctite, and two large white fruit trees on the "Ancient Famous Trees" catalog were preserved.
After selling the tree, the building materials are demolished and sold. In 1927, Zhaoxu sold the Dragon Tablet and the brick and tile stone pieces to Zhang Xueliang, and when the Northeast Army demolished Wang Ye's tomb, it also arranged a guard post.
In 1931, someone on the grave of King Zheng found that someone had robbed the tomb, and several tombs of Fujin and Shufujin buried near the "old house" of Zilharang were excavated. Some people feel that something is wrong and report to the police, and the police will catch them while digging the "old house". An interrogation found that the original tomb robber was actually the poor and embarrassed Zheng Wangfu's own family.
Pictured: The tomb mound, the hardcover carving of the base seat, showing the dignitaries in front of the tomb owner
The "old house" was not saved later. Before Japan surrendered in 1945, a plainclothes team dug up the "old house". After Japan surrendered, a high-ranking official of the Nationalist army sent people to rob the tomb and stole many of the funerary goods inside. When I looked at the gravesmen repairing the heads of the graves, they found that the "old house" was blown open by explosives, and a hole was drilled from the top, and then drilled into the dungeon.
At the beginning of the founding of the republic, King Zheng's descendants simply left nothing behind and came to "raise the spirit" once. The urn of blue and white porcelain that was raised was later purchased by the cultural relics department at a price.