In 1968, two complete sets of "golden jade clothes" were excavated from the tombs of Liu Sheng and Dou Xuan, the king of Zhongshan Jing in the Western Han Dynasty, and according to experts, these two sets of golden jade clothes have a history of more than 2,000 years. Moreover, these two sets of golden jade clothes are the earliest and most complete two sets unearthed in the archaeological history of the mainland so far.
At present, there are about 18 Western Han Tombs that have unearthed jade clothes on the mainland, but there are essential differences between jade clothes and golden jade clothes, and there are only eight golden jade tombs excavated so far. The earliest and most representative excavation is the tomb of Mancheng No. 1 in Hebei, that is, the tomb of Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing. The set of golden jade robes found in Liu Sheng's tomb was adorned with more than 1,000 grams of gold wire, during which about 2,500 pieces of jade of different sizes ran through the jade clothes.
Based solely on the information on the earliest excavated golden jade clothing, we do not know the provenance of the golden jade clothing, and who designed it. However, the earliest excavated golden jade clothes were in the Western Han Dynasty, and after the golden jade clothes in the tomb of Liu Sheng, the King of Jing of Zhongshan, were unearthed, in the following time, the golden jade clothes in the tombs of the han dynasty royal nobles were successively unearthed, and the production process of these complete sets of golden jade clothes has been quite mature. It can be seen that the Han Dynasty was the mature period of the golden jade clothing production process.
The value is not cheap, symbolizing too high gold wisp jade clothes have been popular for nearly four hundred years, from the Eastern Zhou "embellished jade clothes" to the Three Kingdoms period Wei Emperor Cao Pi's order to strictly prohibit. Because the value of the golden jade robe is not cheap, and at the same time it also symbolizes the identity of the emperor and the nobility, so whether in the earliest Eastern Zhou Dynasty or in the Han Dynasty before it was banned, there were very few people who could match the specifications of the golden jade cloth, but the group of imperial nobles would place a set of fitted golden jade clothes before the prohibition of the golden jade clothes, basically in the tomb.
According to common sense, the imperial aristocracy is already a noble status and a noble status, and it is also very common sense to use such a high-level burial product with a golden jade robe in the tomb. So why did The Wei Emperor Cao Pi during the Three Kingdoms period order a ban on the use of golden jade robes?
If you want to explore the reasons for this, then we may wish to know two characteristics of the golden jade dress: one is that the status of the user group is more noble, and the other is that the production cost of the golden jade coat is more noble. According to experts, the cost of making a medium-sized golden jade coat is about the same as the sum of the family property of a hundred medium-sized households in the Han Dynasty.
The reason why those emperors and nobles wanted to choose the golden jade robe as a funerary product, in a large sense, showed the desire of the prince general at that time to keep the bones of the corpse not bad, but over hundreds of years, the golden jade coat not only could not permanently keep the body not bad, but also because the value of the golden jade clothes was even more powerful, it was easy to incur the doom of the stolen tomb and destroyed the body. It was precisely because of the above reasons that the Wei Emperor Cao Pi issued a decree strictly prohibiting the use of golden jade clothes. Looking at Cao Pi's decision now, I personally feel that it is still very necessary.
Tomb robbers: only smoke gold wire, do not steal jade clothes To the earliest discovery of the Tomb of Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing, as an example, Liu Sheng's tomb unearthed a total of two pieces of golden jade clothes, one is Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing, and the other is Liu Sheng's wife Dou Xuan. There are about 2498 pieces of golden jade on Liu Sheng's body, and the weight of gold wire is about 1100 grams; Dou Sheng's golden jade clothes share 2160 pieces of jade, and the weight of gold wire is about 700 grams. Liu Sheng's rank status is higher than that of his wife, and liu Sheng's physique is wider than his wife's, so the gold wire and jade pieces on Liu Sheng's body are also greater than the gold wires and jade pieces on his wife Dou Xuan's body.
So when the tomb robbers stare at these tombs with golden jade clothes and are lucky enough to enter these tombs, why do they only remove the gold wire from their clothes when they are faced with golden jade clothes, instead of choosing to take away the whole set, or only take away the jade pieces on the clothes? The number of jade pieces is very large, and the value of ancient jade is not cheap, no less than the value of gold wire on clothes.
In 1994, a golden jade garment unearthed in the Chu King's Mausoleum in Xuzhou Lion Mountain, the jade pieces used in this dress are the best in jade, all made of Xinjiang Hetian white jade and green jade, which give people a warm and crystalline feeling when visiting. And this set of golden jade clothes looks very meticulous and exquisite, and the fit is seamless. It is simply one of the rare artistic treasures of the world, if the tomb robbers have encountered this golden jade coat, since the tomb robbers are for money, why only draw gold wire?
01 Jade symbolizes limitations, circulation became an obstacle before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, because the number of jade is very small, so in a large sense jade was monopolized by the royal and nobles, the jade at that time was basically unable to circulate in the market, some of the jade that existed in the era at that time would only be used as artifacts or sacrificial tools, ordinary civilians basically did not have the opportunity to see jade, let alone own jade.
If the tomb robbers took apart the whole set of gold and jade clothes and sold them, then the gold wire would soon be sold backwards, because gold and silver were the carriers of currency circulation. And even if the jade is sold or resold at a very low price by the tomb robbers, basically few people dare to collect or buy it. The jade on the market is basically impossible to circulate, and the tomb robbers or a small number of people who dare to buy jade can only use jade as a collection.
02 The jade pieces on the golden jade coat are not easy to be reused because of the slowness of smelting technology, until the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the ancient Chinese smelting technology has made great progress, and jade, which is a natural material, is difficult to use through secondary processing. Once polished and processed, it is indeed difficult to be reused, coupled with the high specifications of jade and the limited circulation, so even if the tomb robber takes the jade piece for sale or secondary processing and utilization, this is basically no merchant shop to take over.
There is another reason, in addition to the material problem of the jade itself, there is also that at that time, the relevant production process of jade was extremely strictly controlled by the government officials, and the folk basically did not have the superb craftsmanship of making jade. Just as the so-called "no diamonds, don't take porcelain work", it is also this truth, the tomb robbers also know this, hard work and risk their lives, after stealing home can not be used for their own use, was found to be still life-threatening. Instead of being afraid, it is better not to take it in the first place.
Liang Lang said that when the tomb robbers saw the golden jade clothes, their eyes must be glowing, but the tomb robbers did not choose to take away the jade pieces on the golden jade clothes, not because they were not greedy for money, nor because they did not know the gold and jade, but because jade, in the society at that time, the circulation value was not at all, and the means of circulation were also very limited.
Don't tomb robbers rob tombs for money? Even if a whole set of golden jade clothes is taken away, it seems to be a valuable treasure, but put it in the outside world, do you want these tomb robbers to collect these jade pieces?