On June 27, 1981, the front pages of Japan's Asahi Shimbun and other major newspapers all carried the news that a woman named Tao Xiuhua in Hanjiang County, Jiangsu Province, China, had picked up a gold seal while building a road, thus unveiling a great mystery that had plagued Japan for 200 years.
Many Japanese people are a little confused when they see this news, but when they read the content, many people are unwilling, and it turns out that this is really the case! What the hell is going on here?
Things start from February 24 of this year, just after the New Year, a rural village in Hanjiang County, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, decided to repair the road, and villager Tao Xiuhua was also in the construction team. Just as she was working hard with a hammer, a small golden light suddenly flashed in the ground.
▲ Old photos from the 80s
Tao Xiuhua thought that her eyes were glazed over, so she hooked back and forth in the ground with a hammer a few times, but she did not expect to be hooked out by her a small golden object, looking at the color and gloss, it should be a piece of gold.
Tao Xiuhua was overjoyed and hurriedly stepped on the gold with his foot. Looking around, he quickly bent down and picked up the gold and put it in his pocket when he saw no one. An afternoon of labor was spent in this tense and joyful mood.
After finishing work, Tao Xiuhua hurried to the river and washed the gold. After removing the dirt above, Tao Xiuhua saw the original face of the gold. The upper part of the gold is a small turtle, the bottom is a square, and at the bottom of the square, there are several words engraved, which turns out to be a seal! It's just that the words on the seal, Tao Xiuhua doesn't know.
Just as the so-called wealth is not revealed, tao Xiuhua who picked up such a treasure should be quietly hidden. But with a big grin, she couldn't help but show off to the villagers, saying that she had picked up a "golden turtle".
Back at home, Tao Xiuhua took out the "golden turtle" to show off to her husband, although her husband was also an honest farmer, but when he saw the gold, he couldn't help but change his face and said in a deep voice: "This is an antique, it must be handed in!" ”
▲ The gold seal that was picked up
Although Tao Xiuhua's husband is also a peasant who does not know a few characters, he is more knowledgeable than his wife, especially in archaeology, because he has helped the archaeological team to work.
In the territory of Ganquan Town in Hanjiang County, there is a small mountain, because there is sweet spring water flowing on the mountain all year round, so the hill is called Ganquan Mountain. Around Ganquan Mountain, there are more than 20 mounds of varying sizes, which are not ordinary sand dunes but sealed mounds of ancient aristocratic tombs.
To the north of Mount Ganquan, there are two east-west large earth mountains that are called "Twin Mountains" by the locals. In 1975, when the Nanjing Museum came here to carry out rescue excavations, it was named "Ganquan No. 1" and "Ganquan No. 2".
The museum then hired surrounding farmers to carry out excavations, and Tao Xiuhua's husband was one of the construction teams. He learned a lot while helping the archaeological team with the on-site excavations.
The place where his wife Tao Xiuhua picked up the "Golden Turtle", not far from the tomb of "Ganquan No. 2", should be a cultural relic in the tomb. So the couple rushed to the local police station, and then the cultural relics were sent to the Nanjing Museum.
▲Ganquan Mountain Han Tomb
When the experts saw the words on the gold seal, they immediately showed a surprised expression on their faces. The fog that has plagued the Chinese archaeological community for many years is finally about to be solved! What exactly is written on the gold seal? Don't worry, we continue to focus on the two tombs of "Ganquan No. 1" and "Ganquan No. 2".
Most of the tombs around Ganquan Mountain are ancient tombs of the Han Dynasty, including the tombs of some princes and nobles. Naturally, there are many good things in it, but unfortunately, these tombs have been visited countless times by tomb robbers in the past 2000 years.
When archaeologists excavated "Ganquan No. 2", they found that the tomb was full of robbery holes, which were also filled with rubble and miscellaneous soil, as well as some broken porcelain pieces of pottery. Even so, under the meticulous excavations of archaeologists, some precious artifacts were found.
For example, the wrong silver bronze ox lamp, the gilded Boshan furnace, the new onyx seal of the tiger and so on. In addition, archaeologists also found a copper goose foot lamp, and a line of small characters was engraved on the bottom of the copper lamp plate:
"Shanyang Di Copper Goose Foot Long Stirrup Construction Wu Twenty-Eight Years Made Ratio Twelve."
▲Excavated cultural relics
"Jianwu" is the era name of Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, during his reign, the Eastern Han Dynasty experienced economic recovery, which was called "Guangwu Zhongxing" by historians, from which it can be inferred that the dynasty to which the tomb belonged was the Eastern Han Dynasty, so who was the owner of the tomb?
According to the size of the tomb and the preciousness of the excavated cultural relics, it is likely that the owner of the tomb is Liu Jing, the ninth son of the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, who was crowned the King of Shanyang in the 17th year of Jianwu.
But whether it is Liu Jing's tomb examination or not, archaeologists dare not determine, after all, archaeology is an extremely serious matter. To draw conclusions without evidence is irresponsible to history.
So is the golden turtle seal that Tao Xiuhua found engraved with Liu Jing's name? After the experts identified the seal, they found that the seal weighed more than 100 grams, all made of high-purity gold, and the seal was engraved with 4 words: Guangling Wang Seal.
According to the expert judgment, the "Seal of the King of Guangling" is the seal of Liu Jing, the King of Shanyang, is it a little unclear? The seal is obviously the King of Guangling, why did he become the King of Shanyang again?
▲Guangling Wang Seal
Here we must talk about Liu Jing, his father is Liu Xiu, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, his mother is Empress Yin Lihua, and his half-brother is liu Zhuang, the second emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, the Han Ming Emperor in the history books.
From this, it can be seen that Liu Jing's origin is extremely prominent, but his reputation is very general. He is called "the stupidest son of Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor", because Liu Jing's favorite thing to do is rebellion.
In the 15th year of Jianwu, Liu Jing was crowned king of Shanyang. But he was not satisfied, and as his brother became the Emperor of Hanming, Liu Jing's heart began to become "twisted" and began to find ways to rebel.
Liu Jing first pretended to be "Da Hongxu" and wrote a letter to Liu Jiang, the king of the Eastern Sea, to encourage him to raise an army, but was refused and denounced. After the matter was revealed, Emperor Hanming did not punish his brother for what he had done, but helped him conceal his guilt.
But the brother's kindness did not make Liu Jing change his mind. Subsequently, he colluded with the astrological warlocks and took advantage of the Xiqiang rebellion to rebel again. Unfortunately, the matter was revealed again, but his brother Emperor Hanming still did not intend to kill him.
▲ Emperor Ming of Han
However, he was so persecuted by his ministers that Emperor Ming of Han had no choice but to revoke Liu Jing's title of "King of Shanyang" and send him to Guangling (present-day Yangzhou, Jiangsu). Since then, the King of Shanyang has become the King of Guangling.
Although his official position was cut, Liu Jing's rebellion still did not stop. He colluded with some jianghu warlocks and cursed his brother and cursed the court, and the matter was once again revealed.
Faced with the anger of the civil and military officials, Liu Jing could only choose to die to apologize. For such a younger brother who was obsessed with rebellion, Emperor Hanming tolerated him from beginning to end, and after Liu Jing committed suicide, Emperor Hanming not only ordered a thick burial, but also made Liu Jing's son the Marquis of Guangling.
Since then, the identity of the owner of Tomb Ganquan No. 2 has finally been confirmed, but why did this matter cause a sensation in Japan? Even caused major Japanese media to compete for coverage?
The reason for the incident began on February 23, 1784, when a farmer named Shiga On shiga Island, on the eastern outskirts of Fukuoka in Japan, also found a seal made of gold while working in the fields.
The size of the seal was similar to the turtle gold seal that Tao Xiuhua had picked up, but on this seal was a snake, and the seal was engraved with 5 words: Han Wei (Tongwu) Slave King.
▲ Seal of the King of Han Dynasty
When this "snake-shaped seal" was discovered in Japan that year, it immediately caused a sensation. Honest Japanese scholars generally believe that this is the seal given to Japan by Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, in that year.
This matter is also recorded in the Chinese Book of the Later Han Dynasty:
"In the second year of the Jianwu Dynasty, the Uighur kingdom paid tribute to the pilgrimage, and Guangwu gave it a seal."
The meaning is obvious, during the Han Dynasty, the Uighur Kingdom has begun to pay tribute to the Huaxia Dynasty. In other words, they are our vassal states. For such a history, the sons and daughters of China feel that there is nothing, but Japan is unwilling, are they willing to bow to this history? Of course not!
So some people jumped out and shouted: The "snake-shaped gold seal" picked up by the Japanese peasant guards is an imitation and is fake! Suddenly, the "upright faction" and the "die-hard faction" fought to the red face, and neither of them would accept defeat. It wasn't until 1981, when a Jiangsu girl picked up the turtle's golden seal, that the 200-year-old controversy came to an end.
After the "Guangling Royal Seal" was exhibited at the Nanjing Museum, the Japanese side quickly sent an inspection team. Through measurement, it was found that the length, width and height of the golden seal of the "King of Han Weinu" in Japan were almost exactly the same as those of the "Seal of the King of Guangling". In addition, on the buttons of the two gold seals, there is also an exact same pattern.
▲ Two gold seals
When it comes to this point, what else is there to say? Obviously, this is the seal given by the Emperor of the Great Han when Japan paid tribute to the Great Han Dynasty. Even so, some die-hard Japanese experts disagree, and their final "supporting point" is that the two seals are of different shapes: one with a snake on it and a turtle on top.
How does this explain? According to archaeological findings, when the Han Dynasty divided the surrounding countries, most of them gave golden seals. Different vassal countries, the style of the gold seal is also different.
For example, in 1957, the Han Dynasty "Golden Seal of the King of Dian" found in Yunnan was a snake, but the golden seal given by the Han Dynasty to the northern vassal states was a sheep, and the golden seal given to the northwest vassal state was a camel. The princes surnamed Liu within the Han Dynasty uniformly gave turtle-shaped seals.
The meaning is obvious, the former Uighur state is a vassal state of the Great Han Dynasty, and it is an unquestionable history to pay tribute to the Great Han Dynasty every year. But even so, there are still Japanese people who are reluctant to admit it, and we just scoff at it.
History is a mirror, and the mirror reflects the truest self. If even the self in the mirror is denied and chooses to open his eyes and say nonsense, such a person really dare not agree.