The opening of the Wan Li Ding Mausoleum in the Ming Tombs was purely bad luck, and the Dingling Tombs unearthed a huge amount of cultural relics, accompanied by huge irreparable losses, and the painful lessons prevented scholars from excavating the Ming Tombs.
At that time, a group of scholars suggested that the excavation of the Ming Tombs should be applied for for the prosperity of cultural undertakings, and the excavated cultural relics would help to study the history and culture of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time, a museum could be established so that people could receive cultural education and understand the history of the Ming Dynasty.
Although archaeologist Xia Nai strongly opposed it because of the lack of archaeological professionals and protective measures, the application for the excavation of the Ming Tombs was approved.
Why are archaeologists opposed?
In fact, the power of the archaeological community at that time was really shabby!
In 1950, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Institute of Archaeology and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
Pei Wenzhong and Jia Lanpo, professionals at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, are mainly engaged in archaeological research limited to the Paleolithic Age.
The Institute of Archaeology established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences is a state-level archaeological research institution, with four mentors, namely Liang Siyong, Xia Nai, Guo Baojun, Su Bingqi; and the technicians include Xu Zhiming, Zhao Quan, Wei Shanchen, Bai Wanyu, Zhong Shaolin and other eight people.
That is to say, there were only fourteen professionals in the archaeological field on the mainland at that time.
From its establishment to the excavation of Dingling in 1956, only six years have passed, and the new archaeological force cultivated is limited, and the archaeological experience is obviously unable to cope with the darling of Dingling.
This eventually led to the excavation of Dingling from "protection" to "destruction", which is equivalent to a failed archaeology, and the loss of cultural relics has taught scholars a painful lesson.
Changling is fortunate and Dingling is innocent
Guo Moruo, an expert in Ming history who was one of the initiators of the excavations of the Ming Tombs, preferred the Changling Tomb of the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di.
There is only one purpose, and that is the Yongle Canon!
There are two sets of yongle canons, one set is the original, and the other is the Jiajing manuscript, which is originally like the smile of the Mona Lisa, covered with a mysterious veil.
The manuscripts were also lost a lot in the war, and the fragments were included in the Siku Quanshu, so the Yongle Canon is an irresistible temptation for any Ming historian.
If you find the Yongle Canon in Changling, it will be the greatest luck of the Ming Dynasty, and it will also be the glory of future generations, restoring the original face of Daming, which is the dream of everyone who studies or likes Ming history.
Fortunately, scholars did not participate in and intervene in archaeological excavations!
01, Changling is fortunate
Archaeologists have never excavated the Ming Tombs, so it is impossible to determine the shape of the Ming Dynasty imperial tombs, and the role of little information in the history books is limited.
Only by clearly understanding the shape of the imperial tomb and successfully exploring the tunnel leading to the underground palace can we ensure the integrity of the mausoleum and enter the Xuan Palace.
Archaeology is protection, not destruction, so if you can't find the cemetery, you can't excavate, this is the most basic principle of archaeology, any forced excavation caused by the loss of cultural relics will be a cultural disaster, the consequences can not afford!
Due to the large area of Changling and the fact that the tomb passage is very secretive, the excavation work for several months has no clue and progress, archaeologists have to stop the work of Changling, seek other smaller mausoleums to "practice their hands", figure out the shape of the imperial tomb, and then excavate the Changling.
02, Dingling is innocent
Dingling is the mausoleum of Emperor Mingshenzong Wanli Zhu Yijun and xiaoduan and xiaojing, two empresses, Wanli Emperor once created the myth of not going to the dynasty for thirty years, but after his death, he did not get peace!
The Excavation Project of Dingling can be described as a series of twists and turns.
When the excavation of Changling was blocked, the working group mobilized excavators to go to various imperial tomb treasure cities to look for clues.
Boseong, the way the imperial tomb was sealed after completion, built a brick city on the underground palace, set up battlements and female walls, and the treasure city protected the underground palace like an egg shell.
Archaeological team leader Zhao Qichang found that there was a collapse above the wall more than three meters above the ground to form a circular hole.
Take a ladder to check, this cave entrance is like the upper end of a ticket, the light can identify the traces of bricks, the news rushed to xia nai according to years of experience to determine that this is the entrance to the underground Xuangong tunnel, so the archaeological team decided to excavate the Dingling.
The first ditch
The first ditch was dug by hand, archaeology is different from digging the ground, and there must be no negligence, and the archaeological team has also specially corrected the excavation methods and methods of 38 hired migrant workers.
Very boring digging, in addition to soil or soil!
Sun Xianbao accidentally found a stone strip with words, and after experts argued that it was a "tunnel door", the working group finally had momentum!
During the period, heavy rain fell every day, thunder and lightning raged in the middle of the night, and the sitting beasts of the MingLou of the cemetery were chopped, and some superstitious migrant workers were frightened, saying that the emperor was angry and blamed the sitting beasts for not guarding the mausoleum, and even some of them even prostrated their heads.
The working group comforted for a long time, explained the scientific common sense to dispel their concerns, and the construction was able to continue.
The second ditch
The excavation work was not smooth, no new clues appeared, the migrant workers did not know what to dig, and the archaeologists had no bottom in their hearts.
It was not until September that the migrant worker Luan Shihai found a stone stele in the second ditch that there was a breakthrough, and the small stone stele was engraved with "This stone is sixteen feet deep and three feet and five feet in front of the Kongo Wall." With this indication, the direction of the scope is clear, so the small stone stele is called "the key to open the gate of Dingling Tomb." ”
The third ditch
The working group excavated a third ditch to find the tomb wall leading to the underground palace in the center of the Baoding, the "Kongo Wall". Soon two stone walls running east-west and 8 meters apart from north to south were dug, with a total length of 40 meters, and at the end of this "stone tunnel" was the "Diamond Wall".
A faint door appeared on the wall of the Diamond, the original seal was integrated with the color of the wall, but after backfilling, the pressure on the sealing side made the sealing brick tilt inward to expose the shape of the seal.
There was also a middle-aged woman at the Sijian construction site who fainted and foamed at the mouth, which the migrant workers thought was a collision with evil; there were rumors that the families of the migrant workers were crazy, and many people did not dare to dig up.
In the end, Wu Han thought that he could not abandon his previous achievements, found the brick tunnel of Dingling, and insisted that he would be able to find the entrance to the underground palace, and it was this decision that made the working group persist to the front of the King Kong Wall.
Demolition of walls to explore the way
The bricks on the King Kong wall are not strong, as the leader of the archaeological team, Zhao Qichangshun climbed up the ladder and easily removed the first brick, when a black smoke gushed out, which frightened people not lightly, fortunately it was only the decay that had accumulated for many years.
Then a chicken was lowered from the open gap with a rope to test whether there was poisonous gas, which was the suggestion of the migrant worker Wang Qiqi, and after determining that it was safe, an archaeologist was put down with a rope to explore the way.
When the expert sent back a safe message, the crowd climbed over the Kongo Wall and came to a white jade gate, the real gate of the underground palace.
Crutches keys
The closed gate does not welcome this group of uninvited guests.
Archaeologists shined a flashlight through the crack in the door of the gate and found that there was a stone strip behind the door that killed the gate, which was determined to be the legendary "tap stone".
It is difficult for archaeologists to enter the underground palace without destroying the palace gate, so they have to go to the books to find historical materials to find information, and in the face of treasure, only real archaeologists will think of protecting a door.
Finally, a clue was found from Chongzhen's burial in the tomb of Tian Guifei, and the craftsman had used the crutches key to open the base door and bury Chongzhen, so the key to opening the door was on the crutches key.
Zhao Qichang, the captain in charge of the excavation, groped out the finished product, bent the steel bar into a half mouth shape, wrapped around the strip of stone, vigorously pushed forward, the strip of stone returned to the original, and the gate was no longer blocked.
With a gentle push from the crowd, the jade door opened widely, and the sleeping Dingling ushered in the first guests!
The sorrow and joy of the Treasure of Dingling
More than 3,000 cultural relics have been unearthed from Dingling, which is very gratifying, but there are several people who deeply regret it, they are archaeologists Zheng Zhenduo, Xia Nai, Zhao Qichang and others.
The palace door is opened, the environment of the closed burial chamber is destroyed, and the change in air humidity causes irreversible damage!
Archaeologists watched some silk fabrics fade, from colorful to dark and dark, and the original gentle texture became stiff and even rotten, including the dragon robe of the Jiajing Emperor, so today we are very sad to see a "beggar's robe"!
What is worse is that there are no more protective measures for these cultural relics that have deteriorated, and they can only be disposed of hastily, and they are replaced by a special storage warehouse, a small bungalow without any warmth and humidity, which has been shelved for sixty years.
This really became one of the most painful nightmares in the archaeological community, and the omniscient scholars, who knew nothing about the protection of cultural relics, disregarded the protection conditions at that time to excavate, and finally made the archaeological community bear a notoriety.
For this reason, Zhao Qichang, who was in favor of digging the Dingling Tomb, hated it very much, "Now I don't approve of digging any imperial tomb!" ”
Dingling has many things that make the archaeological community very sad.
1. Professionals are not professional
The brocade is technically handled and protected, which is very unprofessional.
It has been suggested that silk wool can be mounted like an ancient painting, and preservatives are added to the paste for long-term preservation, which is the protective instructions made by the conditions at that time.
Mr. Shen Congwen came, he used a magnifying glass to observe the mounting, found that some of the finished framing products revealed the reverse side of the fabric, and some staff members used "studying the structure of the fabric to see the reverse" as a justification.
Shen Congwen said, "To study the structure of fabrics, we must look at the reverse, but also look at the front"; "The whole reverse side, I think it is a mistake in mounting." ”
It is unprofessional to treat the Ming Dynasty brocade heritage that contains the essence of Chinese textile technology, and it is necessary to know that before the excavation of Dingling, the Ming Dynasty silk fabrics preserved by the people are simply rare, which is the point where the archaeological strength is weak to the point that even professionals lack common sense.
2. The coffin is missing
The three coffins of the Wanli Emperor and others could not be put into the warehouse because of their excessive size, and after replacing the bones with small coffins, the coffins were carried to The Treasure City and thrown down into the ravine.
When Xia Nai, who was so angry at the news, arrived, the coffin had already been picked up.
Some people say that it was chopped into firewood for cooking, and the value of the imperial coffin is only to cook a few meals, which is sad and lamentable.
3. The body was destroyed
In the special era, the bones of the Wanli Emperor were pulled out, and the people were very happy to smash them with stones, and then they set a fire and burned them clean.
With the current scientific and technological technology, it is possible to detect some components of Wanli's bones, which is helpful for finding out the cause of death and the so-called "alchemy" ingredients at that time.
Later, the archaeologists led by Xia Nai were forced to leave their posts, and Dingling lost the last group of knowledgeable guardians, and could only be silent in the wind and rain, and the excavated cultural relics were eclipsed.
Lesson of Dingling: The imperial tomb can no longer be excavated
When the Dingling Tomb was excavated, archaeologists were in the midst of a short period of grief, and various places were eagerly preparing to develop the emperor's tomb, and the Han Tombs, Tang Tombs, and Qing Tombs all became targets.
In 1960, the tomb of qianling underground palace was discovered, and the Shaanxi region prepared to excavate qianling.
Guo Moruo, who heard the news, was very excited about the excavation of Qianling, and submitted the "Qianling Excavation Plan" in the name of the Ministry of Culture, claiming that if Wu Zetian's "Hanging Arch Collection" and Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" were discovered, it would be a major event that broke the world!
In view of the lessons learned from Dingling, Zheng Zhenduo, Xia Nai and other professional archaeologists strongly opposed the reopening of the imperial tomb, and finally stopped various plans to follow the excavation of the Dingling Tomb, and Guo Moruo's dream of excavating qianling "to wait until the day of the restart of the palace and turn over the case and continue to write a new chapter" also came to naught.
Speaking from the heart, the original intention of excavating dingling is good, and the political, military, economic and cultural characteristics of the Ming Dynasty Wanli period can be understood from the excavated cultural relics, and the social panorama of the time can be restored. The meaning of archaeological existence is to protect cultural relics, through the efforts of archaeological professionals, the cultural relics are displayed in front of people without damage, so that people can understand both history and cultural influence. But there must be a premise, that is, to ensure that the cultural relics are not damaged, and any loss is a cultural inheritance disaster.
Scholars were right to excavate Dingling, but despite the protection conditions at that time and without listening to the opinions of archaeologists, they eventually caused huge losses to the cultural relics of Dingling, proving that this was a failed archaeology.
Dingling has given the world a painful lesson, and also formed a consensus among the archaeological community with conscience: if the underground cultural relics can not move, this is the best protection.
Yes, let the cultural relics accompany their owners to sleep underground, they are all there; see and do not see, they are all there, as long as they are there, they are the eternal wealth of our Chinese sons and daughters, and we know that they are the witness of history and the inheritance of culture.
When a flower blooms, it is not beautiful to pick in your hand, right?