Torrential rain rushed out of the tomb of Zhou Tianzi in the "Golden Village", and the national treasure was scattered into the death of Chinese archaeology

"Lü's Spring and Autumn" has clouds: "Zhou Ding has a stealing song, which is very long, and it is composed up and down, so as to see the defeat of the pole." ”

In the first exhibition hall of the Luoyang Museum, there is such a piece of copper with a stolen pattern. Compared with a large number of bronzes with intricate shapes and rich ornamentation, it may not look "bright enough", with only a few lines on the surface and cracks above the legs.

"The decline of the Eastern Zhou royal family and the lack of a rich treasury led to the fact that the walls were too thin, and only then did cracks appear." Whenever the reason is explained, the narrator can hardly hide his sighs between words.

However, the huge instrument still silently shows a bit of the hehewei instrument that belongs to the king.

This piece of copper ding, also known as the "Golden Village Dading", has an extraordinary origin. It is one of the only three remaining cultural relics in China so far that have been confirmed to have been excavated from the Tomb of Jincun in Luoyang.

When it comes to Kanemura, you may not be familiar with it. Located in Pingle Town, Mengjin District, Luoyang City, Henan Province, it looks like an ordinary village in the Central Plains at first glance. Because it is not far from the White Horse Temple, there are occasional tourists passing by, and they may take a quick glance.

But for the Chinese archaeological community, the word "golden village" means a memory full of sadness and sorrow.

"A group of Eastern Zhou royal tombs buried deep underground for a thousand years, in a period of turbulent years of war and chaos, unfortunately encountered a group of ambitious foreign cultural relics thieves, which triggered an unprecedented 'cultural relics catastrophe.'" A few days ago, Zhao Xiaojun, the leader of the archaeological survey and survey of the Eastern Zhou King's Mausoleum in Jincun and the president of the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, sighed, "Enough to make every Chinese sleepless at night and sigh with a strangled wrist..."

There is "gold" in Jincun, and the torrential rain rushes out of the Tomb of Tianzi in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty

To explain the origin of Jincun's name, elderly villagers usually speak of two "unofficial versions."

Some people say that there was a time a long time ago when anyone in the village who ploughed the land or demolished the house to build a house could dig out gold yuan treasures, gold pots, golden wine glasses and other objects from time to time. "There's 'gold' in the village!" As soon as this saying was passed on ten or ten hundred times, the name of "Golden Village" gradually spread.

Some people also say that this village is "the village on the Golden Ruan Temple", north of the YaoShan Mountain, south of the Luo River, flat terrain, fertile wilderness, historically has been the boundary of the deer. Legend has it that there is a "dragon vein" under the village, and whenever the weather is thunderstorm, there will be a burst of rumbling under the ground, like gold and stone hitting each other, sonorous, "This is the 'dragon vein' beating!" ”

There is also a strange phenomenon of "stringing wells" in the village. From the geographical and geomorphological point of view, the groundwater level in Jincun is not low, and it should be easy to drill a well. However, for a long time, only 3 old wells in the village could stabilize the water supply. If you dig a few new wells, some of them will obviously have enough water on the first day, but the next day they will have no water left; while some of them will be filled overnight, or even overflow the wellhead. The villagers were puzzled.

It was not until 1928 that the long-hidden "secret" under the Golden Village was washed away by a torrential rain.

At the turn of summer and autumn, Jincun suffered heavy rain for several consecutive days. Xu could not resist the rain, and the farmland at the east end of the village suddenly sank, "banging" and collapsing into a huge crater.

"This is the 'sinkhole' descended by God!" The villagers were horrified at first, convinced that this was a vision of doom and calamity.

There are also bold people who can't help but be curious, so they team up to go into the cave to explore. It didn't matter, the sight in front of them stunned everyone: there was something in the mud that looked like a chime.

As we all know, "the northern mountains are less idle, full of old tombs of Luoyang people." Locals soon realized that the "sinkhole" that had been washed out by the torrential rain was actually the entrance to an ancient tomb. Estimated from the size of the cave entrance, the tomb body will certainly not be small.

Some villagers immediately invited knowledgeable people to "palm their eyes", carefully examined it and judged that it should be the "Tomb of the Son of Heaven", and asserted: "This tomb, I am afraid that it has been connected into a piece!" ”

For a long time, the "dragon vein" and "string well" that have made the people of Jincun feel extremely mysterious have also been scientifically and reasonably explained.

Due to the concentration of ancient tombs in the Jincun area, which affects the distribution of groundwater, and the tomb passages are large in scale, crisscrossed and crisscrossed, forming interconnected waterways, so there will be a phenomenon of well water from time to time. On thunderstorm days, when the water is turbulent, it will impact a large number of bronzes such as chimes in the tomb, so that they collide with each other, and the instruments play together, and at the same time resonate with the thunder, majestic and long, sounding like a dragon.

But compared with these, what attracts the attention of the people of Jincun more is obviously the three words "Tomb of the Son of Heaven" in the mouth of the connoisseur.

"Son of Heaven? Isn't that the Emperor! Hey, there must be a lot of valuable stuff in this tomb! "For a time, the villagers rushed to tell each other: Go and see, the emperor is buried under our village, and the bronzes are buried all over the place, and any one can be exchanged for a donkey!"

I don't know who started the head, the people began to shovel you, I shovel, scrambling to "dig treasures" in the "sinkhole", coaxing tombs Chinese. Soon, the originally flat crop field was dug beyond recognition.

Perhaps it reflects the villagers' fear of future doom when they first saw the "sinkhole", and they must not have thought that the big pit that the rainstorm accidentally rushed out was like a "Pandora's Box", opening an indescribable nightmare in the history of mainland archaeology.

It was excavated tragically, and the national treasure was scattered into the tragedy of Chinese archaeology

Wei Zhao's note in the Chinese Zhou Yu: "Di (Zhai) Spring, the city of Chengzhou, where the Zhou tomb is located." It is also recorded in the Notes on the Water Classics: "Zhai Quan is in the northeast of Luoyang, the cemetery of Zhou. ”

In 770 BC, king Ping of Zhou moved east and built the capital Luoyang, known in history as "Eastern Zhou", and his 25th generation of kings were buried near Luoyang, divided into three mausoleum areas: Zhoushan, Wangcheng and Jincun.

The "Tomb of the Son of Heaven" washed out by the torrential rain in 1928 is the Tomb of the Eastern Zhou King!

But the treasure is now in a chaotic world, doomed to a lot of fate.

At the time of the surprise appearance of the Jincun Tomb, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the wind and rain were turbulent and the situation was turbulent, the country had been poor and weak for a long time, the people's livelihood was withering, and there was no intention or ability to effectively supervise, protect, excavate and even academically research the tomb and its excavated cultural relics.

What's more, in the surrounding areas of Luoyang at that time, illegal tomb robbery and smuggling and reselling of cultural relics were once rampant, even to the extent of publicity. In the eyes of the people, it is just a "small business" to make a living.

Through the hands of cultural relics dealers, a batch of exquisite cultural relics from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began to flow from Jincun to antique markets across the country, "Luoyang Jincun has the Tomb of Tianzi!" "The news spread more and more widely.

At this time, tomb robbers, antique dealers, and cultural relics brokers in the eight townships of the ten miles flocked to the village like vultures smelling rotten flesh, trying to seize the opportunity, for fear of gaining a little benefit.

The Western powers and their agents, who have been scavenging and stealing a large number of cultural relics and works of art in China since the end of the 19th century, are even more covetous of the cultural relics of Jincun.

They either come forward directly, or direct indirectly, or coerce and induce local villagers, or collude with more professional tomb robbery gangs, in short, find ways to appropriate cultural relics for themselves, and then bypass export supervision and circulate them all abroad.

Among them, the "best" is the Canadians who are carrying light.

In 1910, Huai Luguang came to Kaifeng, Henan province as a "missionary", and in addition to preaching, he also built churches, opened schools, opened hospitals, and occasionally carried out some social relief work.

But this foreign face, who looks thick and reliable and helpful in ordinary days, has a big hobby in private, but he collects various Chinese cultural relics. So that from 1925 onwards, Huai Luguang had a new identity - the royal Ontario Museum of Canada's cultural relics acquisition agent in China.

It was through his hands that a considerable part of the cultural relics of the Golden Village were eventually transported to Canada, and it is difficult to find them.

From 1928 to 1932, the originally peaceful Golden Village was excavated by a protracted frenzy.

In addition to the large tomb that was first washed out by the torrential rain, 7 tombs of Tianzi of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and 3 carriage and horse pits were discovered one after another and looted. Thousands of precious cultural relics such as gold and silver, bronze and jade were shipped out of the village and almost all were lost overseas.

This is the largest scale of stolen excavations, the highest level of cultural relics and the largest number of cultural relics on the mainland in modern times.

According to incomplete statistics, at present, dozens of cities in more than ten countries such as Canada, Japan, and the United States have found suspected Golden Village cultural relics.

"The cultural relics unearthed from the Tomb of the Eastern Zhou Kings in Jincun represent the highest level of aesthetics and craftsmanship in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the number of them, the beauty of the ornaments, and the uniqueness of the shape are unique, which not only have high ornamental value, but also carry rich archaeological information." Yan Hui, director of the Hanwei Research Office of the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said.

The excavated cultural relics and relics are important empirical materials for studying the political, economic, cultural, social outlook and even scientific and technological level of the corresponding historical period.

Due to the loss of a large number of cultural relics in Jincun and the serious destruction of 8 Eastern Zhou royal tombs by stolen excavators, for a long time, the mainland archaeology community has been missing in many fields such as capital city research and mausoleum system research in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and it is still difficult to improve systematically.

"It can be said that the losses are no less heavy than the loss of cultural relics in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes." Zhao Xiaojun said, "This is not only an archaeological pain, but also a cultural tragedy." ”

The two words "Golden Village" have thus become an "unbearable weight" in the hearts of countless Chinese archaeologists.

Ironically, upon his return to Canada in 1934, Huai became Director of the Far East at the Royal Ontario Museum and Chair of the Department of Chinese Studies at the University of Toronto.

To this day, there are still people who are sad about the "blind" rainstorm: "Even if it is 20 years later, we can protect the cultural relics of the Golden Village Tomb!" ”

Looking forward to returning, several times looking for no evidence

How amazing are the relics of the Golden Village?

At present, we can only get a glimpse of its unique style from the information photos included in the two books "Examination of the Ancient Tombs of Luoyang Ancient City" written by the Canadian Huai Luguang and the "Luoyang Jincun Ancient Tomb Juying" compiled by the Japanese Meiyuan Suji.

According to the statistics of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, since the Opium War in 1840, more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas due to wars, looting, improper trade and other reasons, of which more than 1 million are national first- and second-class cultural relics.

UNESCO's statistics are equally striking: more than 1.6 million Chinese cultural relics in more than 200 museums in more than 40 countries, while the number of Chinese cultural relics in private collections is even greater, about 10 times the number of collections.

What happened to Jincun is just the most painful epitome of the many incidents of illegal loss of cultural relics in modern times on the mainland.

"Where are the cultural relics of the Golden Village hiding now?" After discovering the suspected Jincun cultural relics, how to confirm their identity? This is the first key issue that needs to be clarified. Xu Jian, deputy dean of the School of Cultural Heritage and Information Management of Shanghai University, told reporters that at that time, Luoyang Jincun was famous for its excavations, so that some artifacts and even imitations that were not from Jincun would also be labeled "Golden Village" by cultural relics dealers in the hope of selling for a higher price. "In other words, judging only from the style, the current 'Golden Village Collection' of overseas museums is a miscellaneous piece that requires repeated deliberation and multiple arguments to identify the true treasures of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty."

The "first meeting" between Xu Jian and Jin Cun dates back more than 20 years.

Once, Xu Jian, who was still a graduate student, saw the Warring States Jade Dancer ornament collected by the Freer Museum in the United States, and "marveled at the exquisiteness of this jade artifact from the Golden Village, which represents a cult artistic achievement." ”

In the spring of 2008, Xu Jian, who was conducting a survey of Chinese cultural relics in Paris, France, had the opportunity to observe some of the relevant collections, archives and auction catalogues of Jincun at close range, and thus began his systematic collation and research on the relics of Jincun collected overseas.

"Start with a comprehensive collection of artifacts suspected to be relics of Jincun, and then think and confirm what exactly is 'Jincun'." Xu Jian said.

In the process of "looking for Jincun", the most impressive experience for Xu Jian occurred in early 2018.

"During a brief visit to the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, thanks to the special care of the museum, I was given the rare privilege of being able to enter and exit the warehouse alone and freely, and for a week to observe and record the exquisite Golden Village artifacts up close." Xu Jian recalled that nearly a hundred years apart, spanning tens of millions of miles, "while looking at Huai Luguang's "Examination of the Ancient Tombs of luoyang", while pressing the Tusuo 'thing', it seems that you can feel the breathing and heartbeat of people who looked at the same item more than two thousand years ago." ”

Over the past few years, Xu Jian and the team of the China Overseas Cultural Relics Research Center at Shanghai University have visited a number of museums in the United States, Canada, France, Japan and other places, and also locked a number of suspected Jincun cultural relics, "but suffering from the lack of relevant field archaeological materials in China, the identification of Jincun cultural relics lacks archaeological standards and insufficient basis." Xu Jian said.

In the darkness, the opportunity has arrived. Xu Jian and his team, who were distressed by the lack of "Golden Village Standards", encountered the Luoyang Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology team, which has been paying attention to the Tomb of the Eastern Zhou King of Jincun and its excavated cultural relics for many years. The two hit it off and began to carry out more in-depth and comprehensive cooperation around Jincun.

"Through the return visit study of Jincun, we found the cultural relics of Jincun that had not yet been recognized, and at the same time excluded the cultural relics of Jincun." Xu Jian introduced, "On the basis of screening, we also establish files on Jincun artifacts piece by piece through three-dimensional scanning and other technical means, and plan to build the world's first comprehensive database of Jincun artifacts." ”

"These detailed image data materials will be used for public display and restoration research in Luoyang Golden Village in the future, in a sense, to achieve the 'digital return' of cultural relics in Jincun." Zhao Xiaojun said.

"This is also the right to recover the discourse power of Jincun research in the international archaeological community and realize the 'academic return' of Luoyang Jincun." Xu Jian said.

Thick accumulation of thin hair, Jincun archaeology launch looks forward to more surprises

The story begins with an archaeological survey that has been hidden for half a century.

In the early 1930s, the Jincun Tomb was completely hollowed out, and the roaring excavators roared away, leaving a field of chicken feathers.

As time passed, the sensational Tomb of Tianzi in Jincun was also covered with re-grown crops and disappeared without a trace.

In 1962, when the Luoyang HanWeicheng team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (renamed to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1977) carried out archaeological excavations in Yu, they drilled a large tomb 19 meters long, 14 meters wide and 12 meters deep, with a tomb path of 60 meters long, surrounded by large and small tombs, car and horse pits, etc.

In addition to being shocked, archaeologists also boldly speculated: "Will this be the legendary Tomb of the Eastern Zhou Tianzi in Jincun?" ”

According to the literature, the capital of Eastern Zhou was actually "one capital and two cities", divided into "Wangcheng" and "Chengzhou City". During the Spring and Autumn Period, the capital was the Royal City, and at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Rebellion of the Prince Dynasty" for the throne broke out, and King Jing of Zhou "went out of Diquan" to avoid the chaos, and built a new capital near Diquan to become Zhoucheng.

More importantly, the Eastern Zhou Chengzhou City was inherited by the later Eastern Han, Cao Wei, Western Jin, Northern Wei and other dynasties, that is, the ancient city of Luoyang of the Han Wei.

Even if only judging from the location relationship, the place where the tomb is located may be the Eastern Zhou King's Mausoleum area recorded in the literature.

In order to get more information, the archaeologists decided to conduct a drill survey of the entire surrounding area.

"In fact, a detailed drilling map was already formed at that time, but considering the protection of tombs and cultural relics and the prevention of further theft, that map became a 'secret' that we all could not say." To this day, drilling data has not been published. Liu Tao, an associate researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the captain of the Luoyang Hanweicheng team, said.

Xu is the memory of the loss of cultural relics is too painful, facing the Golden Village, a group of archaeologists just look at it from a distance, silently guarding, and can't bear to disturb.

"However, due to the lack of field archaeological work, we do lack sufficient understanding of the Tombs of the Eastern Zhou Kings in Jincun, which objectively seriously restricts the advancement of relevant archaeological research and cultural relics protection." Yan Hui said.

Decades passed, and in 2007, in order to understand the overall appearance of the cultural relics of the Eastern Zhou Wangling District of Jincun, the Luoyang Cultural Relics Drilling Management Office launched a small-scale archaeological survey and exploration.

"However, due to various reasons, the time is still not ripe for in-depth and comprehensive fieldwork and excavation work around the Jincun Tomb, so we have not been able to carry out our work." Zhao Xiaojun said.

After years of brewing and careful preparation, in late January 2022, the Luoyang Jincun Eastern Zhou Wang Mausoleum Project was launched again.

After more than 90 years, archaeologists can finally clarify the basic situation of cultural relics in the Eastern Zhou Wangling District of Luoyang Jincun through scientific and sophisticated archaeological means, so as to re-understand the lost Jincun.

It is understood that the archaeological survey and survey work of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty Tombs in Luoyang Jincun was carried out by the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Luoyang Hanweicheng Team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai University, the Luoyang Hanwei Ancient City Ruins Management Office, the Luoyang Cultural Relics Exploration Center and other units, and the preliminary plan was divided into three stages of archaeological investigation and exploration, archaeological test excavation, archaeological research and the formulation of protection plans, which took a total of 5 years to complete.

"In principle, fine exploration combined with modern geophysical exploration technology is used to replace archaeological excavations, focusing on a comprehensive understanding of the Jincun King's Tombs, Mausoleums, Affiliated Tombs, Chema Pits, etc., but does not involve the excavation of the Eastern Zhou Tombs." Yan Hui said.

In this way, breakthroughs are expected to be made in the study of major issues such as the transformation and inheritance of ancient mausoleums in the mainland, the structural layout of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the nature of the capital.

"The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was an important period of social system transformation in the history of the mainland, and it was also a key period for the transformation of the ancient mausoleum system on the mainland." Zhao Xiaojun said that so far, although a number of Tombs of Eastern Zhou Princes have been found in China, the highest-ranking Eastern Zhou Tianzi Tomb has not been fully discovered, "This work will help to make up for the above missing links." ”

At the same time, Xu Jian and his team's long-awaited "Golden Village Standard" will also have empirical materials for field archaeology to follow.

"By carrying out the archaeology of Jincun, it is possible to determine the yardstick of the cultural relics excavated in Jincun, which is also a practical measure to understand the protection status of Cultural Relics in Jincun and avoid the re-theft of related remains." Zhao Xiaojun said.

History has become the past, but looking back at the Golden Village, the past is not like smoke. Whenever I remember it, the echo is still loud.

Regarding the future, archaeologists will not stop at field work, and there are more "missions" they want to complete: the establishment of the jincun archaeological digital platform and information database, the protection and display of the jincun eastern Zhou king mausoleum site, the development and utilization, etc., and the relevant work has been put on the agenda.

Near the Spring Festival, the snow flakes fell all over the golden village.

Standing on the mound, the calm wheat field covered with snow was in front of him, "How many surprises will Jincun bring?" The field knows the answer. Zhao Xiaojun said, his eyes bright.

(Xinhua Daily Telegraph)