In order to get rich overnight, some people break free from the shackles of the law and go to the tomb. But Skynet is restored, and the grave robbers will eventually pay a terrible price for their mistakes.
Such an incident occurred at the site of Tianma-Qucun at the junction of Quwo and Yicheng counties in Shanxi, and although this group of tomb robbers was eventually brought to justice, some of the cultural relics that passed through their hands are still lost.
In addition, this also implicates the cultural relics in the ancient tomb of Marquis Su of Jin, and with the efforts of archaeologists, a set of 16 chimes in the tomb of Marquis Su of Jin has not fallen into the hands of others, of which 14 are hidden in the Shanghai Museum, and the remaining 2 are hidden in the Shanxi Museum.
Bells
The war historical materials recorded in the inscriptions on this set of bells are not previously found and recorded, which is extremely important for the study of the history of the Western Zhou And Jin States, and in 2002, Su Zhong, the Marquis of Jin, was listed by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as "China's First Forbidden To Go Abroad (Border) to Exhibit Cultural Relics".
So, why does such an important set of chimes be separated between the two places? What have they experienced at the hands of grave robbers? How are they discovered and treasured in museums and museums?
Two small pieces of chimes unearthed at the site
"Bang !!!"
A huge explosion sounded, and Mr. Zou Heng, an archaeologist who lived near the site of Tianma-Qucun, was shocked and could not help but sigh:
"Nowadays, tomb robbers are really rampant, but it is a pity that the cultural relics in the ancient tomb are really sad!"
Tianma-Qucun Ruins
Originally, in order to find the legendary Tang Dynasty, the founding fief of the Jin Dynasty, Professor Zou Heng of the Department of Archaeology of Peking University took his students from place to place, and according to his rich experience, determined that Tianma-Qucun was most likely the place he was looking for.
In order to test their ideas, Zou Heng and his students stayed near here, but from time to time they would hear the sound of explosions, which were the movements of daring tomb robbers.
Archaeologists
In order to get rich overnight, they did not hesitate to destroy the ruins, only for the cultural relics in the tomb, as more and more people "got rich overnight", some people in this village also began to disregard the constraints of the law, and began to rob the tomb.
On April 3, 1992, when the weather was still a little cold, Zou Heng and his students were inspecting the neighborhood when they suddenly heard someone say:
"Have you heard?" Last night, there were a group of tomb robbers who blew up an ancient tomb in Beizhao Village, and the movement was big, and I heard that I got a lot of good things. ”
Hearing this, Zou Heng could no longer sit still, those cultural relics may be money for ordinary people, as long as they can be exchanged for money, it does not matter where they go, but for archaeologists, those are important documents for examining history, in their hearts, cultural relics are even more important than fate.
He immediately called his archaeologists to inspect the stolen tomb, and did not forget to inform the Quwo police to investigate the matter.
Coming to the vicinity of the stolen ancient tomb and looking at this ruined land, Zou Heng was heartbroken, and the charcoal that only appeared in the tomb was scattered everywhere, and the archaeologists sighed endlessly.
Zou Heng
It was thought that the addition of the police would make the tomb robbers restrain somewhat, but the tomb robbers did not seem to be afraid of the police, and they relied on countless illegal funds obtained from the tomb robbers.
The next day, April 4, Zou Heng once again set foot on this land where the tomb robbers had ruined, but did not want to see a new tomb robbery cave, and he was so angry that he could not bear it, and when he returned to Beijing on April 5 to make a report, he explained the tomb robbery to the State Council Office.
Subsequently, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Zou Heng and others rescued the tomb on April 18, and when they entered the tomb, they recognized at a glance that this was a tomb that only the princes or the wives of the princes would have, but the cultural relics inside had long been lost.
At that time, they knew very little about the tomb, and they could not tell which prince and minister belonged to the tomb.
The rescue work is in full swing, and seeing that the busy season for farming is coming, many farmers who help archaeologists are rushing home to collect wheat, and the rescue work has to be delayed.
Robbery hole
It was this pause that gave tomb robbers an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that they once again took guns and ammunition and stole another large tomb nearby on August 31, and when the archaeologists found it, some of the bronzes inside were not accidentally transported away.
Because of the lessons of the past, the police are always paying attention to the tomb robbers, they were quickly caught by the police, it turned out to be an ordinary peasant family, his overnight wealth aroused the suspicion of the police.
Police quickly arrested 16 members of the gang, 10 of whom were sentenced to death and 6 to life imprisonment, in what became known as the "8.31" grave robbery.
In October 1992, archaeologists finally continued their rescue work, and when they opened it, they found the owner of the tomb, Hou Su of Jin, in the remaining cultural relics.
Under the careful investigation of archaeologists, two small bronze chimes were accidentally found in the corner, with inscriptions on them
"Years without boundaries, children and grandchildren", "YongbaoZi Zhong".
Marquis Su Zhong of Jin and inscriptions
Zhang Chongning was a staff member in the Qucun-Tianma site, when the archaeological team excavated 5 tombs in the site, namely No. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 13, Zhang Chongning was responsible for cleaning Tomb No. 9, and the Tomb of Jinhou Su was Tomb No. 8, and these cultural relics were excavated from Tomb No. 8.
After hearing that the tomb of Marquis Su of Jin was excavated with an inscription, Zhang Chongning wanted to take a look, and with the help of the secretary of the county party committee, he went to the public security bureau and saw the newly excavated cultural relics in the office of the prison.
According to archaeologists, this is the smallest of the two chimes in the set, because they are too small to be noticed by the tomb robbers, but the chimes in front of them are missing.
14 missing chimes
Just when archaeologists lamented the stolen chimes in front of them, they did not know that somewhere in Hong Kong, these treasures lay there quietly, unattended, until they met Ma Chengyuan.
Ma Chengyuan was also a lover of cultural relics, graduating from the history department of Daxia University (now East China Normal University) after joining the Communist Party. After the liberation war, he returned to Shanghai, and when he was idle, he took his friends to visit the antique market.
In 1952, the Shanghai Museum opened, and under the introduction of Ma Chengyuan's old leader Chen Xiangping, he successfully became a museum worker.
This kind of work made Ma Chengyuan overjoyed, thanked Chen Xiangping many times, and even said to others at every turn:
"Chen Xiangping changed my life, and I really appreciate him."
Shanghai Museum
When Ma Chengyuan first arrived in Shangbo, he was very fond of the knowledge learned from cultural relics, compared to archaeologists and professional workers, his capital was really not enough to see, and Ma Chengyuan, who did not accept defeat, was determined to study bronzes, and a few years later, Ma Chengyuan became an expert in distinguishing bronzes.
In 1985, Ma Chengyuan assumed the position of director of the Shanghai Museum.
By around 1990, tomb robbers became more and more rampant, they not only stole antiquities, but also smuggled these cultural relics abroad, due to the special geographical location of Hong Kong, it naturally became a feng shui treasure for many tomb robbers to smuggle cultural relics.
In search of relics that have been lost abroad, Ma Chengyuan often travels back and forth to Hong Kong, Shanghai, just to bring home the treasures that have been lost.
One afternoon in July 1990, when the sun was scorching, Ma Chengyuan, as usual, came to an antique street in Hong Kong with his friend Fan Jirong, where there were a variety of things, some true and some false, but Ma Chengyuan could roughly distinguish between true and false at a glance.
After looking at it for a long time, he had not bought a single one, and he and his friend were walking forward, when suddenly he stopped, and an inconspicuous one in an antique shop caught his eye.
He couldn't wait to go into the store, took the ding in his hand and carefully examined it, only to see that there was an inscription on it, engraved with the word "Jinhou", but this ding was like a Western Zhou thing, if it was genuine, then this was the earliest bronze with an inscription in the Jin Kingdom.
He was serious and careful, did not dare to be sloppy, Fan Jirong looked at his meticulous appearance, he knew that he was going to buy this gadget, so he negotiated with the boss, and finally bought it for 60,000 Hong Kong dollars.
Antique Street
After coming out, Fan Jirong asked, "What, is this thing worth a lot?" ”
Ma Chengyuan said with great joy:
"Don't look at this thing is not big, but his value can be more than 60,000, that is, the boss does not understand, otherwise, it may not be affordable to sell the house."
Fan Jirong sighed after listening to it.
Later, Ma Chengyuan visited the Hong Kong antique market several times, and within a few years, he found bronzes, jade, ceramics, etc., hundreds of precious cultural relics, and since the discovery of inscriptions on western Zhou bronzes, he has paid special attention to these cultural relics.
He probably also understood in his heart that these cultural relics were brought out by tomb robbers, and he only found some of them, and he didn't know how many had flowed into other countries, and when he thought of it, Ma Chengyuan was heartbroken.
One day in 1992, a phone call from Hong Kong reached the office of the director of the Shanghai Museum, and Ma Chengyuan calmly picked it up, but the news from there made the old man uneasy.
It turned out that the caller was Professor Zhang Guangyu of the University of Chinese hong Kong, who told Ma Chengyuan:
"I found a set of chimes, 14 pieces, with inscriptions engraved on them, and I don't know if they are true or not, do you want to come and see them?"
As soon as he heard the antiques with inscriptions, Ma Chengyuan instantly came to the spirit, and he told Zhang Guangyu not to move, let the store not show it to others, and wait for him to see it.
So Ma Chengyuan rushed to Hong Kong overnight.
When he arrived at the antique shop, Ma Chengyuan first carefully inspected the chimes, and he could conclude that they were genuine, but there were suddenly so many inscriptions on the chimes that he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy in his heart, and after some struggle, he was sure that he wanted to buy these chimes and bring them back to Shanghai.
In December, large and small boxes, a total of twelve or three, were transported back to Shanghai from Hong Kong in such a big way, ma Chengyuan carefully studied the inscription on it, always felt incomplete, but still placed in the Shanghai Museum.
A complete set of chimes
Within a few days of this set of chimes being placed, many archaeologists were skeptical about the chimes that Director Ma bought at a high price this time, and even more directly said that Ma Chengyuan spent the state's money to buy "fakes."
Because according to the research at that time, the practice of engraving inscriptions on bronzes only appeared after the Warring States, but the shape and font structure of this batch of utensils and the narrative grammar were all in the style of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which made many people suspect that this batch of artifacts was a forgery.
In this regard, Ma Chengyuan remained silent and did not respond.
Until such news reached Zhang Chongning's ears, he suspected that the chimes bought by the director of the Ma Museum were stolen from the tomb of Marquis Su of Jin by tomb robbers, and he also heard that there were bronzes of "Jinhou" in the Shanghai Museum.
Immediately, he told Zou Heng and others his thoughts, Zou Heng and others could not wait to know the result, if it is true, it is very good, for the study of history, these bronzes will certainly be able to help a lot.
In March of the following year, Mr. Zou Heng offered to go to the Shanghai Museum to find out, so the Archaeological Institute bought them a ticket, and Zou Heng, Zhang Chongning and Gao Chongwen embarked on a journey to Shanghai together.
Zhang Chongning (left) and Mr. Zou Heng (center)
Ma Chengyuan knew that Zou Heng and others were coming, and it was difficult to sleep with excitement, he was always waiting for this day, if this incomplete set of chimes was paired with the two pieces in Shanxi, then the rumors he suffered during this time would not be self-defeating, if not a set, zou Heng and others could also distinguish between true and false.
On the day that Zou Heng and the others arrived, Ma Chengyuan received them very warmly, personally took them together to see the bronzes he had rescued from Hong Kong, and when he saw the fourteen chimes, everyone did not dare to breathe, waiting for the final verdict.
Fortunately, the results did not disappoint, which and the two pieces in Shanxi are a complete set! Zou Heng said excitedly:
"These fourteen pieces were indeed stolen from the tomb of Marquis Su of Jin, and The Curator of The Hard Horse brought them back from Hong Kong!" Don't let the artifacts continue to wander. ”
After hearing this, Director Ma bowed deeply to Zou Heng with a serious face, and when he stood up, there were tears in his eyes, and he shook Zou Heng's hand and said:
"When I bought these cultural relics in Hong Kong at that time, I was hesitant to buy them, worried that they would flow abroad or bite my teeth to buy them."
"But after buying it back, there is no research proof, many people say that I bought a fake, my heart is also very worried, afraid of spending the wrong money to buy back a batch of worthless cultural relics, the pressure is still quite large, fortunately you came to prove it for me."
At this time, Ma Chengyuan's face was hung with unconcealed joy.
The inscriptions on this set of chimes are missing from historical materials, which have made great contributions to the study of the history of the Western Zhou and Jin Dynasties, and the inscriptions are all engraved, and the Bronzes of the Western Zhou Dynasty are the first to be seen.
Su Zhong, Marquis of Jin (Shanghai Collection)
This set of chimes that almost flowed into other countries was finally rescued, compared to other cultural relics, the experience of this set of chimes is tortuous, but it is good to have a good result.
I don't know when we will be able to take back all the cultural relics that should belong to us, and we also hope that the tomb robbers will know the law and abide by the law and reform themselves.
Sometimes theft sells not only a historical product, but also a priceless historical document.
We should guard those antiquities that have experienced countless vicissitudes in the long river of history, they will not speak, but they have witnessed our history, and I believe that sooner or later, those historical pictures can be displayed in front of us.