Yuan Wei (袁炜), courtesy name Maozhong (懋中), was a native of Cixi, Zhejiang, and was an important official during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.
Because of his good writing of Qingzi and his favor with the Jiajing Emperor, he was promoted very quickly, and he achieved gongbao and shangshu in only six years. In the 1960s, his tomb was accidentally excavated, causing a sensation.
Four hundred years later, the tomb came to light again
In 1968, members of a rural commune in Yuanma Village, Zhejiang Province, organized members to move stones on Sanfeng Mountain to prepare to build a pigsty, and in the process of moving the stones, they inadvertently found a huge ancient tomb.
The exposed part of the tomb has exquisite stone carvings, which can be used as pig pens.
At that time, there was no concept of cultural relics protection, and the members of the commune did not pay much attention, but only put the explosive packages in and blew up most of the structure of these stone carvings and ancient tombs to obtain more rubble.
With the removal of the rubble, the whole picture of the tomb gradually became clear, and the burial chamber had been completely destroyed, containing a fine nanmu coffin and a large amount of gold and silver treasures.
Or because of the lack of knowledge of cultural relics at that time, people rushed up to grab these treasures, and the explosives had already destroyed the external structure of the tomb, and the structure inside the tomb was almost destroyed in the chaos.
The burial goods were even snatched up by everyone, and even the Nanmu coffin board was made into a squat board in the public toilet, and two large stones were later excavated in the ancient tomb, with words engraved on them, and they were carried to be used as a bridge deck.
In the 1970s, the state gradually attached importance to the protection of cultural relics, and Yuan Ma Village responded to the call of the state and reported the excavation of the ancient tomb to the superiors.
The relevant departments mobilized villagers to hand over cultural relics, but it has been a decade since the tomb was excavated, and it is very difficult to collect cultural relics scattered around.
In the end, a total of two pieces of silver hairpins, two pieces of jade hairpins, four pieces of silver ingots, sixteen pieces of jade belt pieces, etc., and the actual burial items were far more than these, some of the burial goods have been pawned by the villagers, and some villagers are reluctant to hand them in.
The two stones that were carried to the bridge deck were also proved to be "epitaphs" under the verification of archaeologists, and the epitaph is a very important burial item in the tomb, which can directly prove the identity of the owner of the tomb.
Through the interpretation of the epitaph, experts found that this tomb is the tomb of Yuan Wei, a heavy minister of the Ming Dynasty, and through the epitaph, people can see the true face of this important minister more than four hundred years later.
Yuan Weiqi
Yuan Wei was a scholar of Jiajing's seventeenth year, and he was an extremely popular courtier, including Guanglu Dafu, Zhu Guo, Shaofu and Crown Prince Taifu, Hubu Shangshu, and Jianjidian University Scholar.
Yuan Wei was one of the few people in the Ming Dynasty who could be called a "prodigy".
It is said that before he was born, his parents dreamed of a black dragon descending on his home on the same day, so they celebrated with each other: "If you give birth, when you are very, you will be a great master", and sure enough, as his parents wished, Yuan Wei was smart and clever since he was a child, and he could be a pair at the age of five.
Yuan Wei was uninhibited in temperament and was impeached by Yushi Baoxiao, but Ming Shizong did not punish him, and after ren shizong read it, he won favor by writing "green words" for Ming Shizong, gave him platinum clothes, and met Rilong.
Qingzi, also known as "Qingci", is a rune for Taoist priests to play the heavenly court or recruit divine generals, written on Qingteng paper with a Zhu pen, so it is called, and the Jiajing Emperor often sent out pieces of paper in the middle of the night and ordered the cabinet ministers to write Qingzi.
Xu is because since he was a child, he is extremely good at pairs, Yuan Wei's green words are written very well, often with a stroke of the pen and the most holy will, whenever there are rare treasures of tribute from the government and the public, it is also Yuan Wei's praise that is the most beautifully written, and the government and the opposition are praised.
"Luoshui Xuangui Chu Xianrui, Yin number nine, Yang number nine, nine nine eighty-one number, number Tong Hu Dao, Dao HeYuan Shi Tianzun, Yi Cheng has a sense; Qishan Danfeng two Chengxiang, male ming six, female song six, six six thirty-six sounds, sound in the sky. Born Jiajing Emperor, long life without boundaries. This long couplet is Yuan Wei's work, which was popular at the time.
Yuan Wei was self-possessed and highly valued by the emperor, so he could not avoid some hesitation, and he was always picky and selective about the works of others, and the slightest dissatisfaction was greatly denigrated.
However, Yuan Wei had always been a man of unique insight, and in the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562), he served as the chief examiner of the examination.
The first three shen shixing, Wang Xijue, and Yu Youding of this section all rose to the cabinet zaifu and became famous ministers of the Wanli Dynasty.
Evaluation of Yuan Wei
The evaluation of Yuan Wei was mixed, and it could even be said to be polarized, and the epitaph recorded that "Shang ducha Gong Qing was loyal and straight, and the young master Xu Gong proposed a vote."
During his lifetime, he was deeply trusted by the emperor, and most people thought that he was just and honest, loyal and upright, and in the eyes of his hometown and some famous courtiers, he was a generation of clean officials.
However, under the pen of the literati of the same era, Yuan Wei was extremely good at writing green words and slapping horses, so he was an evil person who flattered, embezzled and derelict his duties, and connived at the family slaves to harm his neighbors.
Perhaps what kind of person the real Yuan Wei is, we can no longer distinguish clearly, but in terms of the grandeur of the tomb excavation, a large number of rich burial items and high-grade tomb specifications, we can infer that he is not such a clean official, but probably not a mediocre minister.
Through the excavation of these cultural relics, especially the records of epitaphs, archaeologists and historians have gained a deeper understanding of the system of the first assistant of the Cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, which has a great role in the study of the history and culture of the Ming Dynasty.
brief summary
Archaeological discoveries can "supplement the history of history", through the excavation of Yuan Wei's tomb, people know a more three-dimensional and real Yuan Wei in history.
Unlike the Qing officials who had always been recognized by the public, they were somewhat good at flattery, but the Jiajing Emperor loved him very much.
Nowadays, the country attaches great importance to scientific archaeological excavations, and the physical materials found in archaeology and historical documents corroborate each other, which can further prove the authenticity of history and make up for some deficiencies in historical materials, which is an important means of restoring five thousand years of Chinese civilization.
The loss of a large amount of property in Yuan Wei's tomb is also very sad, and today, when the awareness of cultural relics protection is gradually deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, we sincerely hope that such a tragedy will not be staged again.