The thrilling tomb robbery experience in the TV series is desirable, but in reality, tomb robbery is a kind of abandonment behavior, and even extended to a kind of curse word.
In what period did the most tomb robberies occur?
Undoubtedly, in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, when the country and society were in chaos, ordinary people may still have a reverence for tombs, but foreigners will not care about these and wantonly rob tombs in this part of China.
There is still a complete Chinese tomb in the Ontario Museum, so who is the owner of the tomb, and how did his tomb cross the ocean to Canada?
It turned out to be the tomb of Zu Dashou, a famous general in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and although Zu Dashou finally surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he also fought for the corrupt court of the Ming Dynasty, although he finally failed.
As a Chinese general hundreds of years ago, why did his tomb appear in Canada? Was it artificially relocated, or was it dug up by the stolen graves?
I. The Mysterious Deal: Why Did the Museum Director Become a Buyer of Cultural Relics Dealers?
One day in 1918, Crofts, a British fur trader who had been doing business in China for a long time, suddenly received a large order, an order worth twenty thousand Canadian dollars.
So what exactly is the content of the order, is it to buy twenty thousand Canadian dollars of leather goods?
It turned out that Crofts was obviously a leather merchant on the surface, but behind his back was a cultural relics dealer, often selling Chinese cultural relics.
At this time, Chinese society was in the midst of warlord chaos, and no one was punished for Crofts's theft of cultural relics in this environment, so Crofts was able to do a good job of selling his cultural relics.
His reputation is known even abroad, otherwise William, the deputy director of the Ontario Museum, would have become a buyer for Crofts.
However, this time William's request for this buyer was not simple, he wanted to purchase a complete set of tombs of high-ranking Ming and Qing dynasty officials, and also to transport them back to Canada in its entirety.
In fact, the first time Croft heard that the museum's deputy director would come to buy cultural relics from him, a dealer, Crofts was shocked to hear about it.
Calming down, Crofts wondered if William was pitting him, why an official agency was working with a dealer who said it was to transport the tomb back to Canada, and if it didn't sound bad, it was a tomb robbery.
Crofts, who had been reselling antiquities for a long time, knew that the law criminalized the resale of antiquities and tomb robbery completely differently, and the latter was much more serious than the former.
If you are caught while transporting the tomb back to Canada, you will face a huge fine and, more importantly, a lifetime of imprisonment.
Crofts had to think carefully about this, and while Crofts was considering it, William himself came to Crofts's residence and assured Crofts that the tomb he had bought must be legal and that he could testify against Crofts in the future.
After receiving William's assurance, Crofts immediately began to make the choice of tomb, in fact, Crofts was more concerned about getting paid 20,000 Canadian dollars, which is why Crofts was so motivated.
Second, zu Dashou descendants personally gave the tomb to the cultural relics dealers at the cost of 500 oceans?
Although Crofts is engaged in the business of reselling cultural relics, he himself does not know where the tombs of high-ranking Ming and Qing officials exist.
The Qing Dynasty Imperial Tomb Crofts knew it, but because the size of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Tomb was too large, transportation became a big problem, and even if it could be transported, the 20,000 Canadian dollars given by William was far from enough.
Why find a suitable tomb for theft, Crofts came to Tianjin to find a so-called guide to study how to find a suitable tomb.
After discussing with the guide, Crofts set his sights on Zu Dashou's tomb, for which Crofts went to Zu Dashou's tomb to conduct field surveys and also took many photos.
Upon his return, Crofts washed out a large number of photographs and attached a detailed introduction to Zu Dashou and mailed it to William.
After all, William was the buyer, and although he did not emphasize which tomb he wanted, Crofts had to obtain the buyer's consent in advance, otherwise Crofts would not take the risk for no reason.
Two months later, William's reply was sent to Crofts, in which William expressed his great satisfaction with zu Dashou's tomb and instructed Crofts to transport the tomb back to Canada in its entirety, not to spare a single brick.
After learning Crofts' true purpose, the guide was startled and quickly told Crovtz that being caught robbing a tomb in China was also a capital offense.
This made Crofts calm down, and it was not worth it to lose his life for 20,000 yuan.
But the reward of 20,000 yuan was too tempting for Crofts, so Crofts came up with a solution that he thought was very clever?
So what exactly did Crofts think of?
It turned out that Crofts found a family surnamed Zu in the neighborhood, bribed them at a cost of 500 oceans, and instructed them to impersonate Zu Dashou's descendants to dismantle Zu Dashou's tomb in the name of repairing Zu Dashou's tomb.
But it was impossible to dismantle the tomb without any movement, and Crofts alarmed the officials of Qinghe County at that time.
Crofts, who had been doing business in China for many years, knew the virtues of this group of officials and spent 1,000 oceans to buy them off.
Without being disturbed, Crofts quickly dismantled the 150-ton tomb and shipped it to Canada by ship in hundreds of boxes.
Zu Da shou's tomb, which was transported to Canada, was soon restored and placed on display at the Ontario Museum.
Third, the owner of the tomb is a mystery: is it Zu Dashou or his son Zu Zerun, or someone else?
The tomb that was transported back by Crofts has been on display at the Ontario Museum for a long time, and it has always been believed that it must be the tomb of Zu Dashou.
However, the latest evidence shows that the so-called tomb is not necessarily the tomb of the famous general Zu Dashou, but is likely to be the tomb of his son Zu Zerun.
Because according to historical records, Zu Zerun surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with his father, and was also awarded the high-ranking official Houlu by the Qing Dynasty, but when people mention the Zu family, they will only think of Zu Dashou, and his son Zu Zerun is often ignored.
In history, although Zu Zerun died in Hunan, he was buried in Yongtai Village near Beijing, which is consistent with the location of the tomb robbery.
So where is the real Zu Dashou tomb?
According to the inscription, Zu Dashou's tomb was buried on the right bank of the Ningyuan West River in Liaoning, but this inscription was not erected when Zu Dashou died, but was later donated by the Shunzhi Emperor, so as to conclude that Zu Dashou's tomb is on the right bank of the Ningyuan West River in Liaoning Seems a bit hasty.
Until recently, some people thought that the tomb exhibited at the Ontario Museum in Canada may be the tomb of Zu Da shou Yoshiko Zu Kefa, but we can't know whose tomb it is.
But the most important thing is that we do not forget this humiliating history and do not let the tragedy play out again.