introduction
When I first heard the words "sarcophagus" and "dragon whiskers", I thought that the "Nine Dragons Carrying Coffin" appeared in the jianghu in the work "Notes on tomb robbery" by the third uncle of the Southern Sect. But this is the 21st new century, pay attention to science and evidence, how can we guess and infer it out of thin air?
According to the old man in Guangyuan Village, Shangsi County, the dragon whisker is a spell cast by ancient masters, using Lu Ban's ink bucket line to firmly wrap the head of the deceased, in order to prevent the deceased from harming the people because of resentment. And this kind of Luban ink bucket line is commonly known as "dragon whiskers", not the beard of the real dragon in the legend.
When archaeologists come to the sarcophagus, why do they say that the legendary mysterious dragon whiskers have been found? The heavy fog caused by the 5-ton sarcophagus will be solved by this article for everyone.
Mysterious sarcophagus, dragon whiskers born?
In October 2008, two mysterious sarcophagi were found in Guangyuan Village, Shangsi County, Guangxi Province. The reason why it is mysterious is because this coffin is not the coffin that is usually seen, and the outside of the sarcophagus is all wrapped in stone, which is extremely hard and strong. What was inside is unknown until the coffin was opened.
According to data measured at the site, the larger one has a length of 2.5 meters, a width of 1.1 meters and a height of 1.4 meters, while the other coffin has a length of 2.4 meters, a width of 1.1 meters and a height of 1.3 meters. Overall, the size of the two sarcophagi unearthed is not much different, but the weight of the two sarcophaguss together is five tons.
In the process of analyzing the data of the sarcophagus, both the local people and the experts of archaeological relics are full of curiosity and interest in these two mysterious sarcophagus.
In order to uncover the true face of the sarcophagus, more than a dozen well-known archaeologists and authoritative figures in the medical field gathered at the scene. After all the work was ready, the on-site staff performed an "opening ceremony" on the sarcophagus, and when the sarcophagus was opened, it was not a corpse that came into view, but an inner rafter made of camphor wood. Inside the inner rafter there is also an inner coffin.
The structure of the entire sarcophagus presents a "stone-wood-wood" structure, and this special coffin structure also made the experts and scholars present curious. Because such coffin structures are not only rare in Guangxi, but also rarely seen throughout China. At the same time, during the process of transport and placement, the coffin also leaked out some tan liquid.
In addition, archaeologists found that the pattern of the Big Dipper seven stars appeared at the bottom of the coffin after opening the coffin. This shows that the wooden coffin in the sarcophagus is a seven-star coffin.
According to the research of contemporary archaeologists, the Seven Star Coffin originated in Taoism during the Song and Tang Dynasties, and in some humid areas, the wooden coffin was wrapped with a sarcophagus outside, which could effectively reduce the invasion of moisture.
According to folk Taoism, after death, people can be divided into several categories.
One of the categories can divide the deceased into resentment and die, when the death is full of resentment, so it can not be buried in an ordinary way, so the Taoist people use the seven-star coffin to bury the body, want to use the power of the seven stars in the sky to suppress the resentment of the deceased, the outermost in the use of triad soil layers wrapped, so as not to leak resentment.
Therefore, when archaeologists opened the sarcophagus and found the seven-star coffin, they could not help but show a surprised expression on their faces. The news of the Seven Star Coffin soon spread throughout Guangyuan Village, attracting men, women and children in the village to come and watch, including some elderly people who thought feudal superstition.
As archaeologists excavated further, a white object as thin as a web, like a spider's web, was found beneath the position of the coffin's head.
Just when the experts were questioning and thinking, the old people in the village were not good, and it was a "dragon whisker", the dragon whisker was an ominous sign, the seven-star coffin was an ominous representative, and the reproduction of the dragon whiskers could be described as a great inauspiciousness. So the old man in the village hurriedly persuaded the archaeologists to rebury the coffin in its original position.
For this kind of folk feudal saying, rigorous and scientific archaeologists naturally will not believe it. According to contemporary scientific instruments, this so-called "dragon's whisker" is actually a fungus, made up of mold and yeast.
Experts speculate that it may be that when the seven-star coffin was buried, a bump was generated, and there may be blood in the chest cavity of the deceased's body, so under the action of the vibration, the accumulated blood was spit out, resulting in yeast and mold, and finally formed today's "dragon whiskers".
Judging from the material and form of the coffin, the year of the excavated sarcophagus should be during the Ming Dynasty, which has been more than 400 years ago. From this point of view, the items in the mysterious sarcophagus do not have the dragon whiskers of a real dragon.
Open the coffin to explore and find the body
The entire tomb is made of triad materials. The triad soil is made of lime, glutinous rice pulp, coarse sand and other three substances mixed, the whole production process requires a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. Therefore, it can be inferred that the identity of the owner of the tomb must not have been an ordinary person in the past.
After opening the coffin, it was found that inside lay the body of a woman wearing a golden textile, although her body was rotten, but her hair was still preserved, and the female corpse even had a hairpin behind her head.
In addition, ancient coins and folding fans have been found inside the coffin. From the analysis of the characteristics of this corpse, her age should not be small, because her hair has turned white. But medical experts at the scene tested the bones by X-raying the bones, and the woman was supposed to be beautiful when she was young.
In addition, after opening this sarcophagus, archaeologists then performed an opening ceremony on another sarcophagus. After opening, experts found that the structure of this coffin is no different from the first coffin, both are "earth-wood-wood" structures, the outermost periphery is triad, and the two layers inside are wooden structures.
Buried inside the coffin was a male corpse, which also had a wooden plank of the Big Dipper and was dressed in yellow and gold silk on the back. All indications are that the identity of the owners of the two sarcophagi is not ordinary and is inextricably linked.
With the opening of the two sarcophagi completed, all the experts present showed great interest. Who exactly are the people they desperately want to carry only the sarcophagus, and what is their origin?
The fog is thick and suspected to be Emperor Jianwen
According to historical records, the burial method of the "Big Dipper Seven Stars" was adopted by the Ming Dynasty Imperial Mausoleum, and this tomb form with the Pattern of the Big Dipper Seven Stars behind it was first discovered in Guangxi. Under the feudal hierarchy of the Ming Dynasty, who in Guangxi dared to brave the world and adopt this form of tomb? Could it be that he was the emperor at that time.
January 20, 2010. The experts brought the golden silk yellow textile clothes in the coffin to the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory of Peking University for scientific testing, and through scientific identification concluded that the age of the clothes should be from 1430 to 1440 AD, which corresponds to the Ming Dynasty on the mainland.
Therefore, the experts on the spot decided to take the method of "bold hypothesis and careful verification" to investigate, and put forward the speculation that the owner of the two sarcophagi was probably the mausoleum of The Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao. The reasons for the guess are as follows:
First of all, the two currencies of Kaiyuan Tongbao (female) and Qianyuan Tongbao (male) were found in the two coffins, and the two sets of words "Qiankun" and "Kaiyuan" also had the identity and status of emperors and empresses in the ancient historical data.
Wang Chushan, director of the Shangsi County Cultural Relics Management Institute, in addition to doing some research on cultural relics, also has a certain achievement in feng shui culture.
In Wang Chushan's view, the form of two three-in-one sarcophagus tombs is to sit north and face south along the meridian. At the same time, there are mountains around the tomb.
According to the article "The Location of the Mausoleum is Related to the Celestial Signs" written by Wang Xiuling, a researcher of the Ming Tombs, this is in line with the sayings of Zuo Qinglong, Right White Tiger, Former Suzaku, and Later Xuanwu, and has the same similarities with the imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty.
Second, Wang Chushan and others learned through folk visits and investigations that there was an alias called "Guan huang tun" in the place where the two coffins were unearthed, and these three words seemed to imply the identity of the owner of the tomb. GuanHuangtun is pronounced coffin huangtun and can be understood literally as "the emperor's village".
Guangxi in ancient times has the imprint of the ancient Luoyue national culture, influenced by the hold, Guangxi's place names mostly with "that", "Lu", "Po" and other words, so the name of Guanhuangtun is particularly surprising, stand out from the crowd.
There is a local legend in Guangyuan Village: In the past, a fallen emperor came to this place to take refuge and lived for a long time, but he did not know when the emperor left here.
Therefore, the locals named the place where the emperor lived as "Guanhuangtun". In addition, there are words such as "Quhuangtun" and "Guanhuangjing". It is worth noting that Guanhuangjing is an old well, and in the 1990s, local villagers have been drinking the well water from this well.
Friends who have studied the history of the Ming Dynasty know that the "Battle of Jingnan", the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao wanted to implement the policy of "cutting the domain", but this action aroused the vigilance of Zhu Di, the King of Yan, and rebelled. As a result, Emperor Jianwen was overthrown and deposed after four years on the throne, and Emperor Jianwen himself was gone forever, and no one knew his final whereabouts. This has also become a major unsolved case in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
According to the relevant records of the book "Xu Xia's Travels", the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao later came to the Foshou Temple in Hengxian County, but fifteen years later, Zhu Yunjiao had a bad premonition and quietly fled.
Therefore, Wang Chushan and others inferred from this hypothesis that Zhu Yunjiao probably came to Shangsi to take refuge, and eventually died of depression in this nameless village.
Of course, these are not final conclusions, but are bold speculations and judgments made by archaeologists based on their own life experience and experience.
Tracing back to the source remains to be examined
In addition to the experts in the archaeological community who expressed their own views and insights, Huang Shaoming, a professor of human anatomy at Guangxi Medical University, also briefly elaborated on his research results.
Huang Shaoming said: "Through medical testing, it can be judged that the height of the woman before she was born was about 151.6 centimeters, and the age of the skeleton was between 50 and 60 years old; and the female corpse also suffered from periodontal disease before she died; and even gave birth to children." ”
However, according to the Ming history, Emperor Jianwen's Empress Yuanbei was burned to death during the Battle of Jingnan, so it is possible that the woman was another wife that Emperor Jianwen married after he was exiled.
Judging from the speeches of the three experts, according to the existing evidence, it is still impossible to determine the mausoleum of Emperor Jianwen, but in the process of exploring the identity of the owner of the triad sarcophagus tomb, the research results obtained have undoubtedly enriched the information of the Ming history of the mainland, which is worth affirming.
Experts through preliminary judgment, the discovery of the triad sarcophagus and the two sarcophagus discovered in 2008 have many similarities, whether it is the material, size or form of the tomb are almost the same, the same is the middle of the Ming Dynasty sarcophagus, more than 400 years ago.
In 2022, the site where two sarcophagi weighing up to 5 tons was unearthed has changed a lot and has now become a wood chip processing plant. But local people will also come to this land from time to time to see if there are other fish that have slipped through the net.
epilogue
Throughout the text, it was originally thought that the legendary dragon whiskers were found in the two three-in-one sarcophagus unearthed, but I did not expect that this was just a misunderstanding.
From the entire archaeological process, it can be concluded that archaeology pays attention to factual basis, has scientific and rigorous nature, and cannot be conclusive before there is absolute evidence!
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