The Theft of the Cixi Tomb and the Art of Taobao
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
In the early years of the Republic of China, a book called "Notes on Ai Yuexuan" circulated among specific groups of people.
The reason why this book is remarkable is that it details the burial items in Cixi's tomb, and the quantity and value are surprisingly large.
Whether this book really exists or not is a matter of debate. It is rumored that the author of this book is Li Chengwu, the nephew of Li Lianying, and the content of the book is based on Li Chengwu's dictation by Li Lianying.
Portrait of Cixi
The bottom of the coffin is covered with a layer of jeweled brocade made of gold wire, which is about seven inches thick.
The mattress is covered with a layer of embroidered filigree mattress, and the mattress is covered with a layer of beads, and the beads are covered with a thin mattress of Buddhist beads, with a green lotus leaf on the head and a tourmaline lotus on the feet.
Put it away, and carry the empress dowager in, the back two feet on the lotus flower, the top of the lotus leaf, wearing a gold silk beaded embroidered dress, the outer cover embroidered beads hanging, and then with the bead string nine practice around the back of the body, and with the eighteen statues of the Buddha placed on the back arm.
The above treasures are private filial pieties to those who are not listed in public accounts.
Cixi Ding Tanglin Stone Five Offerings
After the crowd was placed, Fang General Dra was covered with a back body, and the back of the head was covered with a beaded crown, and next to it were placed 108 golden Buddhas, Trifo, Jade Buddha, etc., and 1 watermelon on the left and right of the hind feet, two melons, peaches, plums, apricots and other treasures, two hundred pieces of size.
There is a jade lotus root on the left side of the back body, there are lotus leaves and lotus flowers, etc., and on the right side of the body is a branch of a coral tree, and its empty space is sprinkled with pearls and stones. After filling, the top mesh beads are covered with one.
Just as she was about to put on the lid, the Grand Princess came, and the bead net was uncovered, and one copy of the eight horses made of jade and one of the eighteen jade arhats were taken out of the box, and placed them next to the right hand of the back, and the lid of the upper child was squared, and at this point, the funeral ceremony was completed...
Gilded Buddha statue of the Qing Palace, now in the Nanjing Museum
The coffin of Cixi was filled with funerary items, which were worth as much as 50 million taels of silver at that time.
In addition, there are many treasures in the dungeon. From the time the mausoleum was built until before his death, things were put into the dungeon every year. This is recorded in detail in the Qing Court Interior Ministry's "After Filial Piety into the Funeral Edition, Rewarding the Relics of Clothes" book.
A week before her death, on October 15, 1908, the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (November 8, 1908), treasures were still placed in the underground palace. These things were placed in the dungeon that day —
There is one golden Buddha, inlaid with 61 large and small beads and 61 eastern beads; small beads are counted on a plate, a total of 208 beads
A statue of the Jade Buddha
A statue of a jade birthday star
A plate of positive beads, 208 beads, coral Buddha head pagoda, green jade Fushou three more back clouds, bergamot double fall horn tethered green jade lotus pendant, coral ancient money eight pieces, positive pearl twenty-two.
A plate of positive beads, counting 208 beads, red Baguio Buddha Head Pagoda, gilded dot cui, inlaid with large beads, back cloud eggplant beads, large falling corner coral commemorative sapphire, small falling corner wearing a bluestone pestle, four small positive beads, gilded treasure cover, six small gold knots.
A plate of positive beads, a coral Buddha head pagoda, a back cloud burning redstone gold, a commemorative three hangings, three sapphire small pendant horns, three small positive beads, three coral playmakers, and a jasper pestle
Carved coral round shou character prayer beads a plate, counting 108 beads. Carved green jade yuanshou character Buddha head pagoda, lotus back cloud, red Baguio melon big fall horn on the white jade eight treasures, coral beans nineteen.
A plate of coral rosary beads, a jasper Buddha head, a pagoda, a back cloud, a red commemorative three hangings, a ruby small pendant three pieces, and a stone plaything three...
Cixi Ding Dongling Longen Gate
All the buried treasures in Cixi's tomb were stolen by Sun Dianying, commander of the 22nd Army of the National Revolutionary Army, in July of the 17th year of the Republic of China (July 1928).
At that time, Sun Dianying, in the name of military exercises, blew up the Yuling Tomb in Qianlong and the Dingdongling Tomb in Cixi in the Qing Dynasty.
It is said that before the tomb robbery, Sun Dianying's men found the "treasure map" recorded in the "Notes of Ai Yuexuan", and it was precisely because of seeing this treasure map that Sun Dianying was desperate to take the risk.
In addition to a small number of stolen treasures given to the officers and soldiers involved in the tomb robbery, more were sold and given away by Sun Dianying.
The National Palace in Taipei hid jade cabbage, and the tomb of Cixi was passed on with burial items, and Sun Dianying stole it
For example, the jewel contained in Cixi's mouth was given to Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong Mei Ling.
After hitting the underground palace, Sun Dianying reached the scene. When taking the orb, Sun Dianying asked the soldiers to drag Cixi's body out of the coffin and lay it flat on the lid of the coffin. At that time, Cixi's body was not decaying at all, and a bold soldier pried open Cixi's mouth, reached into it with his fingers, and cut out the jewel, because of the excessive force, he tore Cixi's mouth.
What is sad is that most of the burial treasures stolen by Sun Dianying from cixi's tomb are now scattered in the folk and overseas, and many of them are still unknown.
Qing Palace Chaozhu
The Cixi Underground Palace was stolen so clean by Sun Dianying that when the Manchu Qing emperor sent people to clean up the aftermath, he hardly found a few valuable burial items.
Sun Dianying was born as a bandit, although he was not a professional gold lieutenant, but he was not a layman, and in the process of tomb robbery, he used many effective local methods.
Nine of the ten Qingling Underground Palaces have seeped water, and the long-term accumulation of water has soaked the paper, cloth, and wooden cultural relics, the coffins are scattered and the wooden boxes are disintegrated, and the gold and silver jewels buried with them are scattered in the muddy water.
How to find gold and silver jewelry in muddy water? The solution is simple and works.
Cixi Mausoleum Underground Palace, with coffins in the middle
After draining the accumulated water in the underground palace, Sun Dianying asked his soldiers to carry the mud bucket by bucket to the ground, and then set up a sieve and wash it through the water to collect the filter treasure.
When robbing the Qianlong Emperor Yu Mausoleum, there were many dead human bones mixed with the mud carried out of the underground palace, so they were filtered down as "impurities" and thrown on the ground in front of the mausoleum.
In this phenomenon, some people also believe that it may be caused by the nearby villagers who came to filter the treasure after Sun Dianying's tomb robbed and left.
This soil method is the folk Taobao secret technique of the past - filtering with a sieve.
Bamboo sieves, which used to be common in rural areas, are now mostly used with metal sieves
Taobao, can be understood as "gold panning", also known as "picking up leaks". Now the online shopping platform "Taobao", named, whether it is inspired by the secret art of tomb robbery is unknown, but it is indeed very image.
In the process of tomb robbery, if you suspect that the treasure has fallen in the soil or mud, you must sift it over and separate the treasure. If the sieve is not moving, it is filtered with water, and after the sediment is washed away, the treasure that falls into the sieve remains at the bottom of the sieve.
If there are conditions and time, directly screen in the tomb, save to carry out, if it is inconvenient, the soil will be carried out of the mausoleum for treatment.
Rural use of sieves scene
Of course, such a Taobao technique is not the invention of Sun Dianying's group of tomb robbers in the Republic of China, which has been ancient and has a very long history.
There are many tomb robbers in the history of Chinese tomb robbery, and Liu Yu, the pseudo-Qi emperor at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, is one of them. Liu Yu was known as the "Son Emperor" who stole many graves in Henan, including the Gongyi Northern Song Dynasty Imperial Mausoleum.
In order to increase his income, Liu Yu studied with Cao Cao at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cao Cao set up "General Fa Qiu Zhonglang" and "Lieutenant Touching Jin" in the army, and Liu Yu set up a full-time tomb robber official in his pseudo-imperial court, "Taosha Official".
This incident was recorded in the Zhengshi and was specifically responsible for Liu Yu's son Liu Lin.
The Northern Song Dynasty imperial tombs scattered in the fields were stolen by Jin and Liu Yu
The Biography of Liu Yu of song records: "In April (the second year of Shaoxing), He, Huai, Shaanxi, and Shandong were all stationed in the Northern Army, and more than 100,000 soldiers from Lin's township were the Thirteenth Army of the Imperial Palace. The sand officials in Henan and Beijing were separated, and the tombs of the two capital tombs were excavated. ”
This means that Liu Lin recruited more than 100,000 troops in his hometown, formed the Imperial Palace army, and set up "Henan Taosha Officials" and "Beijing Taosha Officials", who were specifically responsible for stealing tombs and digging treasures, and stole the ancient tombs and deserted tombs in Kaifeng and Luoyang.
Why is it called "Sand Digging Officer" instead of "Captain Touching Gold"? It is based on the behavior of the tomb robbers, and even a handful of soil in the tomb room is not spared - the sand is sieved, and the silt is washed away. And from this name alone, you can also imagine how crazy Liu Yu was when he robbed the tomb.
At the excavation site of Tomio Maruyama Kofun in Nara City, Japan, the red circle is a sieve for Taobao
Domestic archaeological screening site
This Taobao method has been widely used in modern archaeology, and sifting the mud that may be mixed with cultural relics is one of the basic archaeological operation methods, which is very common in domestic archaeology.
It's the same on the outside.
For example, when archaeologizing the tomb pyramids of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, the cleaning of cultural relics was also done, and archaeologists treated the excavated soil and filtered it with a sieve.
Coincidentally, the Japanese also made this move when excavating the Fuxiong Maruyama Kofun in Nara City, and the sieve became an indispensable tool for the archaeological site, so as not to leave the cultural relics in the mud.
Archaeological site of the Pyramids of Egypt