"Confucius" is generally people's honorific title for people who are older and have university questions, the most famous in ancient times is Confucius, Zhu Fuzi, and in the Republic of China period, there is a group of people also called Confucius, but in front of it there is a "soil", that is, Tufuzi, this name can have nothing to do with learning, but with a pejorative meaning to refer to a specific group of people, that is, tomb robbers.
Speaking of tomb robbery, its history can not be traced, in short, China's thousands of years of tomb history, is also a history of tomb robbery; from the historical records, there were tomb robbers in the Western Han Dynasty, as for the ancestors of the tomb robbery industry, one said that it was the pre-Qin Wu Zixu, one said Han Wei Cao Cao, of course, there are also Wen Tao. Digging up ancestral graves and stealing treasures is both unethical and illegal, but it exists in different ages, but it is only a matter of quantity.
Throughout history, the heyday of tomb robbery mostly appeared in the chaotic era of continuous fire and people's livelihood, and the modern Republic of China is a typical heyday of tomb robbery, for the following reasons: First, warlords are in cacophony, frequent disasters, social disorder, and inability to crack down on tomb robbery. Second, in the chaotic world, some poor people were forced to make a living and desperately engaged in tomb robbery; third, the invasion of foreign forces and the emergence of international buyers made the one-stop tomb robbery industry chain of "production, supply and marketing" in the Republic of China period take shape.
In the old days of Changsha City, Hunan Province, most of the people in the city cooked rice for heating to burn homemade briquettes, at that time there was no honeycomb coal, in order to make coal ash molded and increase the burn resistance, in the briquettes need to add a large number of sticky loess, thus giving birth to a group of people who sell loess for a living; they were born poor, dragging an old scooter every day, digging loess in the hills outside the city, and then selling it door to door, earning a meager income, they were bitter and happy, laughing at themselves as "soil masters".
The upper product of the loess is "glutinous rice mud", pure and sticky, however, the amount is small and buried deep underground, a long time, the soil masters know that the backfill soil of many ancient tombs is "glutinous rice mud", it was originally dug out from the depths and then backfilled, the soil layer was loosened, very suitable as an additive for making briquettes, as long as the surface soil is thrown away, it does not take much effort to dig up, so the soil masters have gone to the cemetery to dig up yellow soil.
Changsha has a long history, there are many ancient tombs in the suburbs, especially the Chu tombs and Han tombs; initially, some people accidentally dug up some burial items, sold a few grains of rice, cut a piece of meat, and improved the life of the next family, and there are also some ancient artifacts that can be sold at a good price; among them, the bold ones are profitable, simply under the guise of "Tufuzi", specifically to excavate ancient tombs as a profession, and slowly, the name of Tufuzi has become synonymous with tomb robbers in Changsha, and Tufuzi is a tomb robber.
Tufuzi
One side of the water and soil to raise one person, the same is true of the tomb robbers, originally the farmer's soil master, digging loess career for many years, gradually became a soil expert, they can easily judge where there is an ancient tomb according to the soil layer, soil conditions, from the sealing soil and the backfill soil of the tomb color, rammed layer, water moisture and other aspects, you can roughly know the age and grade of the tomb, thus becoming a tomb robber master.
Some Tufuzi summarized the technique of tomb robbery as the four key points of "looking, asking, smelling, and cutting". "Looking" is to look at the terrain and terrain, experienced Tufuzi, more good at the art of feng shui public opinion, every time you go to a place, you must first examine its topography, according to The understanding of Tufuzi, the real feng shui treasure land must have a large tomb; "ask" is to inquire from many parties, step on the point, Tufuzi in various identities such as Mr. Feng Shui or Xiangshi, around to listen to the exact location of the tomb; "smell" is to smell the smell, take some dirt in the burial area, distinguish whether the tomb has been stolen from the slight differences in the smell of the soil, and judge its general age in combination with the color of the soil; "cut" Just like the pulse of Chinese medicine, set the direction of the hole, enter the coffin at the shortest distance, and take out the cultural relics in the tomb.
In the long-term actual battle, Tufuzi adapted to local conditions and combined with needs, and also invented a tomb robber weapon suitable for local use - short-handled hoe.
Changsha hilly mountains, the soil is mixed and hard, paddy fields are everywhere, coupled with the tomb is mostly on the hillside, buried not deep, shallow cultivated soil layer or disturbed soil is the tomb soil, the famous Luoyang shovel in this environment is not easy to make, the soil master on the basis of agricultural iron hoe, to carry out some improvement and innovation, shorten the hoe handle, shrink the hoe, so that the use is very flexible, convenient, sharp. The handle is short, you can see the soil turned over at close range, and it is also convenient to carry and hide; the hoe is smaller, which is labor-saving and efficient to use; also, the cost and difficulty of the short-handled hoe are much lower than the Luoyang shovel, and the specifications are not too exquisite.
Short-handled hoe
Like the peasant hoeing, when using a short-handled hoe, bending over, aiming at the hoe, digging down, pulling flat, and lifting the handle, the soil quality changes under the hoe are clear at a glance, and the dead soil and living soil are known at a glance. In addition to learning the basic ability to see the soil, the use of short-handled hoes is more important to "listen to the work", when excavating, the tomb sealing soil is compact and the sound is dumb; the old soil is dense and crisp.
In addition to the short-handled hoe, Tufuzi also invented the bamboo skewer, a tool for finding treasures, which is easy to reach and simple and practical. If you encounter a coffin or a tomb where the remains have long been decayed, use a sign to poke in the dirt continuously, even a small seal can be poked to find out. Bamboo skewers are hard and do not damage cultural relics, because of this advantage, later archaeologists also borrowed from the practice of Tufuzi, and also used bamboo skewers when looking for funerary products in scattered soil and muddy water.
The most famous of the Changsha Tufuzi is Ren Quansheng, who was called "a brother who robbed the tomb" by the people of the time.
Ren Quansheng, the family is poor, there is no culture, one year, his wife and children are seriously ill, need timely treatment, but he traveled to relatives, did not borrow so much money, a moment into a desperate situation; by chance, he met a tomb robber connoisseur of the fellow, out of sympathy, the fellow led Ren Quansheng, who was in urgent need of money, into the ranks of the tufuzi.
Unexpectedly, Ren Quansheng was born to be a talent who did this work, he was tall and tall, with long arms and thick legs, quick action, excellent endurance, and more importantly, he had a calm personality, was not impatient, was good at observing and learning, and had a very high level of understanding; under the tutelage of his fellow villagers, within a few years, Ren Quansheng stood out in the thrilling and dangerous tomb robbery world, and the method of "looking, hearing, asking and cutting" was used in his hands perfectly; Ren Quansheng's most cattle trick was to "please" cultural relics, that is, to take the cultural relics out of the coffin intact.
Ren Quansheng, who had the ability in hand, gathered his accomplices to attack everywhere and frequently stolen and dug up ancient tombs; there were many tomb robbers in Changsha in the same period, such as Xie Shaochu, Qi Zhongzhong, Li Guangyuan, Hu Dexing, and others, who sometimes went it alone and sometimes joined forces, almost stealing the ancient tombs around Changsha over and over again.
The most favored tomb robbers are the Han Tomb and the Chu Tomb, which are old, have more funerary products, are easy to sell, and the selling price is good, so that the antique market has the saying that "Changsha goods" are superior. However, in the process of selling cultural relics, the Tufuzi only made a small amount of money, and the real profits were made by the antique dealers in Changsha and the foreign forces behind them.
For Ren Quansheng, although the success rate of tomb robbery is high, he has not seen him start a fortune, and most of the stolen cultural relics have been sold cheaply; but he has a principle of selling goods, that is, only selling to Chinese, as if this can give himself a comfort, but most of the cultural relics are eventually lost abroad, which makes people feel sad.
Here are two wonderful tomb robbery experiences that changed the trajectory of Ren's life.
First, the bullet library steals treasure
One day in September 1942, Changsha, which had experienced two Japanese attacks and plunders, was in a depression. Ren Quansheng came to the bullet depot in the southeast suburbs of Changsha with his luggage Guangyuan, Lacquer Allegiance, and Hu Dexing, and on an ancient tomb with a good point, they chiseled through the sealing soil and coffin layer more than 8 meters deep, and the pungent swamp smell gas spewed out, Ren Quansheng was secretly happy to see this, he lit it with fireworks, the flame was several feet high, blue and red. This time, the fire hole has been dug, and it seems that there will be a harvest.
Regarding the magic and danger of the Huodongzi tomb, the famous archaeologist Shang Chengzuo made a more detailed discussion in the "Changsha Antiquities And Observations and Continuations": "Those who are intact and have not entered the air in chumu tomb, if they encounter open fire, their breath will burn, and the "Record of Smelling and Seeing" has contained its details, readers have many doubts, and Ke Jun also remembers this matter, which is the true words of Tufuzi. When Yu went to Changsha again, he heard that in February of the 28th year, the tomb of Ami ling wooden rafter outside the South Gate was burned and injured, but it was transferred by Tufuzi Zhisuke to get to know Su San, that is, the person who was burned by the tomb fire. Su San was rude and foolish, had little experience in tomb robbery, pioneered work, and the cunning made every order. Si tomb excavation erxi (tomb robbery is at night) first signs, the group of workers excited, midnight and arrived at its rafters, Su San mouthed paper smoke, force lifted the cover, a bang, its qi and fireworks touched and burned, Su San tended to avoid, single clothes were burned, the face was blackened, the trumpet was mourned, the servant land did not rise, the face and chest were almost incomplete, the group workers were horrified, rushed to Xiangya Medical College for treatment, the moon began to heal, the wounds were visible, then the wood fire said, the faith and signs. ”
At the same time, the book once said that the modern tomb robbery gang's mode of action of excavating Chu tombs is often "stealing in the bonfire at night after getting deep into the tomb", "every late night, the cave holes are entered, and the coffin is seen, that is, the axe is added, the wood is folded through the sinus, and the inner mound is turned into the search, and the antiquities are exhausted." Chu tomb field ground to the corridor, deep obliquely down, up to three or four zhang, must be seven or eight hours to complete the excavation, otherwise known to other ethnic groups, the source of joining, the amount of stolen money reduced, this can not but be one of the causes of speed. ”
Stills from "Ghost Fire"
As a master, Ren Quansheng certainly would not be as reckless as Su San, he sat on the side, unhurriedly rolled up a dry cigarette, spitting out smoke, waiting for the flames to burn out, while vigilantly observing the surroundings.
As the flames burned out, several people in the province dug the holes with their hands and feet, and pulled out many objects from the tomb, including the common copper pottery and wood, and some silk textiles, with some vague words and animal patterns on them.
Although Ren Quansheng is a master of tomb robbery, but the value of cultural relics is half-understood, in his eyes, only copperware, lacquerware and other valuables, he sold these items to the antique dealers nicknamed "Tang Tailor", these "rotten silk fabrics" can be regarded as giving them to him, selling personal feelings.
2. Mawangdui robbery tombs
In Mawangdui on the outskirts of Changsha, there are large ancient tombs under those two mountain bags, and the Tufuzi of all walks of life have long coveted him.
One day in 1946, he and a partner took advantage of the dark wind of the moon to come to Mawangdui and were digging under the mound, when suddenly the sky suddenly changed, a blast of thunder split down on the soil bag, several large trees around him were split on the spot, and the surrounding weeds were also scorched a large piece. If the two of them hadn't been crouching in the robbery hole that had just been dug a few feet deep, they would have been struck by lightning, and Xie Shaochu, who was half dead, thought that God was punishing them, and did not dare to dig anymore, so he quickly filled in the robbery hole.
Schematic diagram of the robbery cave
Knowing Xie Shaochu's encounter, Ren Quansheng, who was proud of his superb level, did not forget to joke about how his courage was getting smaller and smaller, he wanted to personally go out on the horse; one night, Ren Quansheng and his accomplices dug in about ten meters along a corner of the lower half of the sealed soil, and still did not see the same thing appear, digging and digging, and their hearts began to mutter, did they encounter a suspicious grave? If it weren't for the tomb of doubt, how could the coffin not be dug? Despite this, they were still unwilling, the two dug until the sky was fast, still did not see the coffin appear, they concluded that this must be a tomb set by the ancients, so they took the initiative to give up, and also threw a "pull back" shoe in the robbery hole.
Mawangdui No. 1 Tomb was spared, which Cheng wanted to create and make people, and after more than twenty years, Ren Quansheng would intersect with this tomb again.
In the following days, a major event occurred, which completely made people dumbfounded, that is, in the bullet warehouse robber tomb mentioned earlier, the thing that he called "rotten silk fabric" was sent out by people, and later it was obtained by the collector Cai Jixiang, which was the "Chu Shu Book", which is the earliest and only complete book in the mainland so far, and its archaeological and cultural value is incalculable, and it is lost overseas and difficult to recover. For specific details, you can read the first two articles of the editor " The loss of more than 10 million overseas cultural relics, but the loss of Chu Shu book is the most heart-wrenching, too shameless", the content is detailed, wonderful, and well received.
A rare national treasure that was tricked into going overseas: The Chu Painting
Although he has no culture, he still has a patriotic heart, and he feels that the national treasure he dug up was tricked into going to the United States in this way, and the tragic experience of Cai Jixiang, Ren Quansheng feels that he has made a big mistake; coupled with his own years of robbing tombs, his conscience is also tormented from time to time, ren Quansheng feels that he cannot go on like that.
Not long after the liberation of the whole country, the state began to crack down tomb robbers, and those who had repented of it completely washed their hands of the gold basin and did not touch this underground matter anymore; he also took the initiative to confess to the government, explained what he had done before, and sought leniency; in view of the fact that they were poor people, who were forced to engage in tomb robbery in a special era because of their livelihood, and took the initiative to stop and admit their mistakes, the government did not pursue it any further, but encouraged him to continue to work well and make contributions to the country and the people.
There are not a few Tufuzi in the situation of Ren Quansheng, and of course, a number of Tufuzi and cultural relics dealers who have repeatedly taught and committed extremely evil crimes have been suppressed.
In January 1951, the Ministry of Culture of central and southern districts sent a letter to the Hunan Provincial Government entitled "Strictly Prohibiting the Excavation of Ancient Tombs in Changsha": "Checking the outskirts of Changsha, many ancient tombs have been found over the years, most of which are the sites of the Warring States to the Han Dynasty, and the remains are extremely rich and precious. As a result, traders and outsiders flocked to them and colluded with landlords to engage in large-scale excavations. The results are not only beautifully made, but also well preserved... Our Central People's Government has issued three orders and five appeals to protect cultural relics and monuments in various places, and attaches far more importance to cultural heritage than previous generations. Therefore, in the future, the ancient tombs and ruins in Changsha can no longer be destroyed, and the remains can no longer be lost. Where your government's duties lie, the decrees of the Central People's Government have been strictly enforced. Except for the tombs and the surrounding areas, any excavation is absolutely prohibited for the time being, pending future clean-up, and the traffic procuratorate is instructed to pay closer attention to the transportation of antiquities, investigate those who have unearthed antiquities in the hands of traders and private collectors, so as to collect them. ”
In October of that year, the state sent a team led by archaeologists to Changsha to investigate the existence and destruction of the ancient tombs, and at the same time carry out rescue excavations.
During the 130-day excavation work, the team excavated 145 Chu tombs and Han tombs. The workload is huge, in the process of this rescue tomb excavation, Tufuzi Xie Shaochu, Ren Quansheng and other people joined in to help, they are familiar with the situation, skilled, can work, are respected as "soil experts", this investigation also includes the Mawangdui tomb, at that time also set up two Han tomb signs.
In 1952, the Hunan Provincial Cultural Management Commission formed the "Changsha Suburban Ancient Tomb Cleaning Task Force"; in 1953, the "Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Cleanup Task Force" was established. In view of the weakness of the regular archaeological force and the shortage of personnel at that time, the task force recruited the 20 who performed well and had a correct attitude into the team as Tufuzi and became regular workers, named archeological technicians, including Xie Shaochu, Ren Quansheng, Li Guangyuan, Hu Dexing, Qi Xiaozhong and others. They have been dealing with ancient tombs for many years, and they are well-informed, highly skilled, and have rich practical combat experience, which is much better than the archaeologists on paper.
New China gave them a new life, and even assigned them jobs, these native masters, no, are now archaeologists, and everyone in the team calls them masters. These people worked particularly hard and hard, in the past it was stealing and selling cultural relics, now it is excavating archaeology and protecting cultural relics, the same group of people, different social environments, doing things that are very different, their "soil" method is to destroy countless tombs, after actual combat training, the newly liberated Changsha archaeological excavation work has brought great convenience, improved efficiency, but also to ensure that ancient tombs are no longer stolen and excavated, it should be said that this is a good move.
At the Changdeyi archaeological site, Hu Dexing once pointed to a low-lying flat and said that there was a warring state tomb here, and a senior student who graduated from the Archaeology Department of Peking University did not believe it, and bet with it, and the result was a few hoes, and it was indeed a small tomb; there are many examples of teachers like this looking for ancient tombs.
In 1972, the military hospital where Mawangdui was stationed dug an air raid shelter, and the result was that the tomb was destroyed, so the state spent two years to officially excavate the 3 Han tombs in Mawangdui, which was an archaeological discovery that shocked the world, and the harvest of national treasure-level cultural relics was innumerable, the most famous of which was the Xin Chai wet corpse, T-shaped painting, and plain gauze shirt that everyone knew. The specific content can be seen in the last issue of the small editor's article "Restore the archaeological excavation of Mawangdui that shocked the world 50 years ago, and see how the rare national treasures were obtained", which is detailed and comprehensive, welcome to read.
In this archaeological excavation of Mawangdui, Ren Quansheng made a great contribution; at that time, he was in the Cultural Revolution, the archaeological work was stagnant, and there was a shortage of professionals, he was more than 70 years old at that time, but after receiving the invitation from the Hunan Provincial Museum, he did not say a word to participate in the whole process of this excavation, from helping to confirm the location of the tomb entrance, to the extraction of cultural relics, and the later protection of cultural relics.
Treasure hunting site
At that time, the 4 side compartments of the tic-tac-toe coffin in the tomb were piled with cultural relics, the alley was too deep, the reach could not be reached, people could not go down, others were inexperienced, and when they were helpless, it was Ren Quansheng, who was tall and long-armed, regardless of the elderly Ren Quansheng, who was wearing a bath towel around his waist, let people pull, lie on the cover board, the probe reached in, and took out the burial items inside one by one.
One of the most impressive was that he "invited" out the lacquer filled with lotus flakes, although in the end the lotus flakes were all turned into soup, but a treasure-like photo was retained, allowing the world to see the lotus flakes for more than 2,000 years.
Lotus flakes from 2,000 years ago
Also, Xin Chai's body was stuck in the coffin, how to make it out without destruction, it was difficult for many experts, in the face of the earliest and most complete wet corpse found in history, no one dared to move lightly, and finally Ren Quansheng personally took matters into it, inserted it obliquely with a five-splint, raised the inner coffin sideways, and moved the female corpse out intact, which is a classic.
In the subsequent excavation of Tomb No. 3, a large number of books and bamboo janes were found, which were buried in the ground for thousands of years, and if they were not carefully operated, they were likely to turn into fly ash and destroy cultural relics in the archaeological process, which was difficult to bear. After Ren Quansheng saw it, he took the initiative to apply for the tomb to take cultural relics, which solved the problem that archaeologists could not solve. These books include 28 ancient books that have been lost for two thousand years, such as "Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions", "Five Star Accounts", "Comet Diagram", and "Fang Zhongshu", amounting to more than 120,000 words, and their value cannot be described too much, providing the most original information for the study of all aspects of history.
Later, Ren Quansheng, Li Guangyuan and five or six other tufuzi were praised by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and local leaders, and they also received rewards from the responsible persons of the provincial military region: one bottle of good wine and one good cigarette per person.
In 1973, Ren Quansheng suggested to the leaders that the ancient tomb of the bullet depot he had excavated in the 1940s might still have "goods". So, under the leadership of Ren Quansheng, the archaeologists found the ancient tomb next to the newly built high-rise building of the bullet depot. The excavation work went smoothly, and the staff found a brown rectangular painted painting on the partition under the wooden rafter cover, which is the famous "Figure of the Royal Dragon of The Characters".
National Treasure: Character Dragon Chart
In the picture, a man stands on his side, in a dangerous crown robe, holding a long sword in his hand, standing on a dragon boat. A crane stands on the tail of the dragon, there is a carp in the water, and there is a canopy at the top of the painting, which looks like a vivid and vivid spirit. It is called the "Pre-Qin Painting Double Bi" together with the "Figure Dragon and Phoenix Painting".
Its excavation has become a major event in the history of mainland painting, and it is the earliest surviving painting in China. It is a miracle that this precious artifact can be preserved after a thousand years, and it has been excavated and air flows in.
In many official documents, the techniques and skills of Ren Quansheng and other teachers are all mentioned in one stroke, not detailed, and only a small part is known to the outside world, which may be to prevent it from being learned by people with unhealthy mental skills.
In 1975, Ren Quansheng, who was seriously ill, passed away without regret, and the complete excavation of precious cultural relics such as the corpse of xin chai and the royal dragon painting of the character allowed Ren Quansheng to make up for his merits and leave him wonderful in the history of tomb robbery. Nowadays, the old tufuzi have grown old and returned to the underground world they are familiar with, their skills and controversies, their former tomb robberies, have also passed away with the wind, and this story of "the prodigal son turning back to gold and not changing" has also become a dusty past, and only occasionally mentioned.