There is a proverb in the Chinese archaeological community: "Underground cultural relics look at Shaanxi, and aboveground cultural relics look at Shanxi." Shanxi is known as the "Museum of Ancient Chinese Architecture", and by the end of 2013, there were 452 national key cultural relics protection units and 3 world cultural heritage sites in Shanxi Province, ranking the forefront of the country. But this does not mean that there are no cultural relics under the ground in Shanxi. After all, there have been many emperors in this land, so there are many kinds of underground cultural relics. Today, I will introduce you to the Taishan golden coffin excavated from Longquan Temple in Shanxi.
Longquan Temple
Longquan Temple discovered the underground palace
On May 8, 2008, Shanxi Longquan Temple accidentally excavated an underground palace while digging a fire reservoir. The monks of the monastery immediately called the police and informed the local archaeological department. The archaeological department arrived at the site and found that it was the base site of a stupa. With the passage of time, the tower has disappeared, leaving only the rectangular base of the tower. And the underground palace discovered by the monks is in this tower base.
The Underground Palace
Unearthed gold coffin silver rafters
When the archaeologists opened the hexagonal dungeon, they found that there was a stone letter with a large volume inside. In the stone letter, there was a miniature coffin. The outermost layer was the wooden rafters, which had been scattered and fragmented. So the archaeologists were greeted by gilded bronze rafters. The bronze rafters are small, about 21 cm long, 10.5 cm wide, and 13 cm high, with gilded copper Sumire seats at the bottom. Around the seat of Meru are embedded with ornaments such as Buddha's feet, green dragons, white tigers, suzaku, and xuanwu.
Copper rafters
According to Chinese religious beliefs, the green dragon, white tiger, suzaku, and xuanwu are Taoist motifs, while the Meru seat and the Buddha's foot are Buddhist motifs. The products of The Fusion of Buddhism and Taoism are very rare, and this is also the first time that this Buddha's foot appears on the golden coffin and silver rafters, so it is extremely precious. On the bronze rafter wall, there are also inlaid with dragon and tiger and other patterns. Obviously, among the copper rafters, there is something more valuable. Sure enough, after opening the copper rafters, archaeologists found more exquisite silver rafters.
Silver rafters
The silver rafters are about 13 cm long, 6 cm wide, and 7 cm high, and the level of craftsmanship and the dragon and tiger motifs inlaid on the outside are the same as those of the copper rafters. The difference is that the silver rafters have added red onyx, turquoise, quartz stone and other gemstones, and there are two smiling little people at the door. Wooden rafters, copper rafters, and silver rafters have all been seen, will it be a golden coffin inside? The archaeologists, in an uncontrollable sense of excitement, carefully opened the silver rafters.
Didn't disappoint them, and sure enough, it was a miniature gold coffin. The golden coffin is about 8 cm long, 4.5 cm wide and about 3 cm high, and unlike several complex rafters on the outside, the surface of the golden coffin is extremely simple and has no superfluous decoration. And on top of the golden coffin, there is also a bow tied with ribbons. What was inside such a small golden coffin? Many of the people present were curious. When some archaeologists couldn't help but want to open the golden coffin again, they were stopped by experts at the scene.
Golden coffin
Why can't I open a golden coffin?
Why can't you open the golden coffin? The expert pointed to the ribbon on it and asked, "What do you see here?" It turned out that the golden coffins unearthed elsewhere on the mainland were either not wrapped in silk. Either there was a silk wrap, but it had rotted. A ribbon like this intact, wrapped around a golden coffin, was the first time I had seen it. Through other cultural relics unearthed, this ribbon is from the Tang Dynasty. The ribbon spanning thousands of years has reached the brink of about to be weathered. If it is not handled well, this cultural relic will be destroyed.
After learning of this, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said that once the Tang Dynasty bow was opened, it could not be restored. Therefore, it is required to open the golden coffin without opening the bow. However, the technical conditions at that time were not yet mature, and it could only be shelved. Later, the Taiyuan cultural relics protection department invited domestic and Internationally renowned cultural relics protection experts from Germany, Japan, Italy and other countries to solve this ribbon problem together. After 12 years of hard work, the golden coffin was finally opened without opening the bow.
Relic
The specific method is: the use of chemical and other scientific and technological means to increase the elasticity of the ribbon. While maintaining the original color and bow form, the ribbon wrapped around the golden coffin is taken off from the smaller end of the golden coffin. After solving the problem of butterflies, the golden coffin was finally opened, and inside it contained 23 Buddhist relics. After 12 years, the archaeological team has finally unveiled the mystery of the golden coffin.