In March 2014, an original colorful tomb brick was unearthed at a construction site near the Golden Elephant Temple on Line 7 of the Chengdu Metro. With the deepening of archaeological excavations, a magnificent group of ancient tombs of the Ming Dynasty was displayed in front of people.
After pre-archaeological investigations, there are 13 ancient tombs here, arranged in two rows, east and west, all made of large strips of stone. The shape of the tombs is generally the same, but there are some differences.
Some have three chambers in front, middle and back, some have only two burial chambers before and after, there are single tombs, and there are also double burial tombs.
Several of the luxurious tombs are decorated with complex decorations, the red and white dragon totems on the sealed door stones in the tomb room, surrounded by auspicious clouds, the two sides of the figure eight wall, and the painted figure patterns, flowing red sleeves, blue hair is full of driving feeling.
According to previous archaeological experience, this should be a group of Ming Dynasty eunuch tombs.
In the eleventh year of Ming Hongwu, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang made his eleventh son Zhu Chun the King of Shu, and in the twenty-third year of Hongwu Zhu Chun came to Chengdu to take the domain.
He was followed by a group of people with special status but who played an important role, and they were eunuch eunuchs!
In Chengdu more than five hundred years ago, eunuchs once had enviable power and wealth. They were not only able to influence the will of the king of the domain, but also played an important role in the political economy of the whole sichuan.
At the beginning of the excavation, everyone found that the tombs here were stolen and damaged very badly. Tomb robbers are rampant, using modern tools such as grinding wheels and expansion screws to open closed doors and excavate tombs.
Although excavated, cultural relics were unearthed in the tombs. Tombs 12 and 13 unearthed a number of Ming Dynasty porcelain figurines.
Interestingly, the two tombs are two-chamber tombs. Why were the two eunuchs buried together?
What kind of story do they have between them?
Fortunately, a well-preserved epitaph has been unearthed in the burial chamber. From the text, we can interpret the lives of the two of them:
In the fourteenth year of Chenghua, the 8-year-old Wei Yu left his barren home and entered the Shu King's Palace, following Sima Gong and Fengcheng Si Ruan. In order not to forget the nurturing grace of the two, he was given the surname "Double".
Since then, there has been no more Wei Yu in the world, only a small eunuch in the palace, "Double Jade".
And "Double Jade" entered the house as a child, and was also raised by the two dukes, and there is also a 6-year-old child
Called
"Nguyen Anh". In this way, the two have become partners who talk about everything since they were young. After their deaths, the two chambers were buried together.
As an adult, Shuangyu started as a personal attendant of King Hui of Shu, and was favored by his cleverness and cleverness, and stepped into the palace step by step
Power center
。
In the epitaph, it is also written that in the ten years of Ming Jiajing, the double jade eunuch supervised the repair of the merits of The Dragon Claw Yan in Chengdu, and his status has gradually risen to become a "canon", and his position is similar to today's deputy department-level cadres.
Soon, it was time to clean up and excavate the last Tomb 8. Due to its own serious collapse, the tomb was uncovered from above in the form of a "great unveiling". When cleaning up near the offering table in the front room, a pair of bronze lampstands and two pairs of porcelain jars were found from the silt.
The most exquisite artifact unearthed from the entire tomb is a pair of gilt gold and silver lords. They are decorated with bat and fairy deer ornamentation, and they are exquisitely crafted and chic. In addition, there are many Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain bowls and porcelain pots.
This is the last tomb here, and by opening the door of the back chamber, you can see the last secret buried here. In the small burial chamber, the humid environment has caused the coffin to decay and deteriorate, and the owner of the tomb has only mutilated bones.
The clean-up was so difficult that the cramped burial chamber could only accommodate one person squatting in to clean up the silt mixed with bones and burial items. The "land purchase coupon" placed at the innermost part of the tomb has several lines of text, which reads "Ming Dynasty Lanchi Shi Gong died in early May of the 31st year of Jiajing".
This is one
"Shi Yue" of the Ming Dynasty.
Tomb No. 8 has a delicate jade belt tied around his waist and amber beads hanging from his body. After laboratory repair, they revealed their original appearance.
Due to the tight construction time of the subway, after the demonstration of cultural relics experts, the Chengdu Municipal Government agreed to implement the relocation protection of this Ming tomb group.
Relocation
The location is near the Ming Shu King's Mausoleum.
Let these tomb owners return to the Shu King, perhaps their best destination...