In 1986, a villager in Lingguang Village, Yanxia Town, Liquan County, Xianyang City, found a robbery cave near Zhaoling, and because tomb robbery was common at that time, archaeologists received reports and had a premonition that things were not good. After exploring the cave, experts found that the stolen tomb turned out to be the tomb of Princess Changle of the Tang Dynasty. After entering the tomb of Princess Changle, the experts found that the cultural relics in the tomb room had been looted by the tomb robbers, and when they saw one of the things done by the tomb robbers, the experts present were furious and angrily rebuked the tomb robbers for being despicable and shameless, simply inferior to the beasts.
Robbery hole
One day in September 1986, a villager in Lingguang Village, Yanxia Township, Liquan County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, went to farm the land and inadvertently discovered an area on the ground that seemed to have been excavated. Since the local area is a "treasure land of feng shui", there is a famous Tomb of Emperor Taizong of Tang nearby, and there have been many nameless ancient tombs since ancient times, this farmer saw the mud that had been dug up in a mess on the ground, and had a premonition that this might be a robbery hole dug by tomb robbers, so he immediately reported the situation to the staff of the town cultural management office.
After receiving the report, the Xianyang Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics attached great importance to it and immediately sent several experts to the scene to check the situation. After the experts went to the scene to investigate, they found that the robbery cave was newly excavated, and because the robbery cave had been buried by the tomb robbers, the experts could not make an accurate judgment on where the robbery cave led. So the Xianyang Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics asked the superiors for instructions and decided to conduct a detailed exploration of the cave, and then an archaeological team entered the scene.
Shameless grave robbers
The archaeological team carried out a second excavation along the hole dug by the tomb robbers, and it was not long before they dug an ancient tomb. This ancient tomb is large-scale, the ancient tomb has a patio, a cave, an alcove, a yongdao, a burial chamber, and the length of the tomb alone reaches 48.18 meters. Although the tomb robbers have already visited here, the tomb robbers have only opened a robbery hole, and the overall structure of the tomb has not been greatly damaged. Various indications show that this ancient tomb is of high specifications and is close to the Zhao Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of Tang, indicating that the identity of the owner of the tomb is not ordinary.
After the archaeologists enter the cemetery, the first thing that catches their eyes is a "ceremonial map", these murals are old, but the color is bright and vivid. The walls are painted with a long-roaring white tiger, galloping horses and armored guards, as if they were here to guard the souls of the dead. Seeing these exquisite murals, the experts exclaimed in their hearts " Not good! Just by looking at these murals, we know that this ancient tomb is a royal mausoleum, and the stolen tomb thieves are the first to climb, and they must be more fierce and less auspicious.
Sure enough, as experts expected, the tomb had six burial chambers, but the six burial chambers were empty, and the tomb robbers moved the tomb to the ground.
What infuriated the experts involved in this archaeological work was that when archaeologists searched for valuable artifacts in this ancient tomb, the artifacts were not found, but a pile of burned charcoal was found in the middle of the tomb. At first, experts thought that the charcoal was wood brought in from outside the tomb by tomb robbers, lit and used for lighting. After carefully studying the pile of incinerators, archaeologists found that the pile of incinerators was not firewood, but the coffin of the owner of the tomb, and it seemed that the mad tomb robber actually burned the coffin of the owner of the tomb in order to illuminate it.
Tomb robbery itself is a disrespectful act to the deceased, the general tomb robber is only stealing the gold and silver treasure in the tomb, will not move the body and coffin of the owner of the stolen tomb, because these things are not valuable, and the size of the coffin is too large to be transported outward. However, this gang of tomb robbers not only looted the treasures in the tomb, but also burned the coffin of the tomb owner, which is still relatively rare in the history of tomb robbery. Therefore, experts saw this scene and were indignant, denouncing the grave robbers as despicable and shameless, simply inferior to animals.
Princess Changle
So, who is the owner of this grand tomb?
Later, experts found the identity information of the owner of the tomb from the murals of the ancient tomb, and it turned out that the owner of the tomb was one of the favorite daughters of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, Princess Changle.
Princess Changle was the eldest daughter of Emperor Taizong of Tang and Empress Changsun, and the fifth daughter of Li Shimin. Princess Changle's name is Li Li, as her name suggests, she is born beautiful, and she has been clever and clever since childhood, which is very pleasing to Tang Taizong Li Shimin. Tang Taizong was very spoiled for Li Li, often taking her with him and playing with her as soon as he had time, and the father-daughter relationship was deep. When Li Li was 7 years old, Li Shimin gave her the title of Princess of Changle County, with three thousand households.
Although Princess Changle was deeply doted on by Li Shimin, she was very sensible and not arrogant, she was humble, educated, and respected and loved by people. When Princess Changle was 13 years old, she was promised to the eldest grandson, Changsun Chong, the son of the eldest grandson. If you talk about it, the eldest grandson Chong is still the cousin of Princess Changle, and this family affair can be regarded as a kiss and a kiss, and both families are very happy.
After marrying into the eldest grandson's family, the eldest grandson Chong was very fond of Princess Changle, and the two small mouths of green plum bamboo horses were very affectionate. However, when Princess Changle was 23 years old, she also suffered from asthma like her mother, and finally failed to survive, and died of gas disease on August 10, 643 AD.
Li Shimin was devastated when he heard the news of Princess Changle's death, and he ordered that an exquisite mausoleum be built across a ditch from his Zhaoling Tomb and buried Princess Changle in a high-standard manner. From the location of the tomb of Princess Changle, you can appreciate the well-intentionedness of a father, Li Shimin wants to let this daughter accompany him after a hundred years, and the father's doting love for his daughter is overflowing.
mural
Although the tomb of Princess Changle was excavated by tomb thieves, the tomb robbers did not steal the murals on the wall of Princess Changle's tomb, and these exquisite murals became the biggest heritage of this mausoleum.
The walls of the tomb passage, patio, cave, alcove, Yongdao and burial chamber of the Tomb of Princess Changle are painted with exquisite murals, the most famous of which is the "Carriage and Horse in the Clouds" painted in the tomb passage: only to see a red carriage speeding in the clouds in the clouds, and in front of the carriage are two muscular horses; the roof of the carriage is decorated with red ribbons, and a pair of dragon heads are carved on the ruts, and a red flag is inserted on each side of the carriage; in the middle of the carriage sits 3 people, one of whom is an old man with a fairy wind dao bone, long hair fluttering, he sits in the middle of the carriage. He looked at ease, as if he were going to drive a carriage out of the wall. This mural is a masterpiece of Tang Dynasty murals and is considered a national treasure.
epilogue
The murals in the tomb of Princess Changle show us the court life of the tang dynasty princesses and the social conditions at that time, and provide experts with rare physical materials for studying the development of Tang Dynasty painting and Tang history. After 5 years of archaeological excavations, this ancient tomb was opened to the public in 1991 and is an important cultural attraction in Shaanxi.
Going back to discuss the tomb robbers who stole the tomb of Princess Changle, they were simply mad, not only stole the precious cultural relics in the mausoleum, but even did not let go of the coffin of Princess Changle and burned it. You know, the coffin is also a precious cultural relic, there will be a lot of historical information left on it, the act of burning it is simply intolerable, the crime is extremely evil, it is no wonder that experts will be angry when they see this scene.
However, in recent years, with the development of science and technology and the continuous strengthening of people's awareness of cultural protection, it has become more and more difficult to excavate ancient tombs. The ancient tomb is not only a tomb left over from history, but also plays a vital role in the study of the history of the past life for future generations, and everyone has the responsibility to protect people's cultural relics, and the acts of robbing tombs and destroying cultural relics will be severely punished by law.