In August 1980, the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team excavated and processed the tombs of Zhu Yiyi, a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, and his concubines Li Yinggu and His stepfather Sun.
After opening the coffin of Concubine Li Yinggu, it can be found that her body has long been decayed in the passage of time, emitting a pungent smell.
At the same time, experts found a small cloth bag on Li Yinggu's chest, which looked slightly shabby compared with Li Yinggu's noble status.
After the archaeologists carefully opened the cloth bag, they saw that there were some paper money ashes and a road guide.
The so-called road guide is equivalent to the deceased's pass to the underworld, and on Li Yinggu's road guide, it is also clearly recorded li Yinggu's name, date of birth and other information, which is very detailed.
But is such a road guide from hundreds of years ago useful now? Today, I will take you to understand.
01 Lee's Tomb, surprised by the road guide
In 1980, the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force first cleaned up Zhu Yizhuo's coffin, and after processing it, in mid-August, it began to process the coffins of Li and Sun.
According to archaeologists, Li's bones have completely decayed, and we have no way of knowing what Li looks like.
However, we can see that Li's head and limbs are wrapped in white cloth strips, like a mummy, and the way of burial is different from ordinary people.
Not only that, in addition to the white cloth package, there were seven robes, and there was a cover at the top, and directly above the chest of Li's corpse, there was a small cloth bag.
This cloth bag is particularly ordinary among Li's many funerary items, and as Zhu Yi's concubine, Li was undoubtedly favored during his lifetime.
In Li's funerary products, there are various precious jewelry such as jade pendants and phoenix crowns, which can be called everything and extravagant to the extreme, so, in this contrast, it seems that the small cloth bag on Li's chest is even more out of place.
What is this little cloth bag? It has also caught the attention of archaeologists. Not only that, the small cloth bag has experienced hundreds of years of time baptism, and the preservation is still complete.
When the archaeologists carefully opened the cloth bag, they found that there was a road guide and some paper money ashes in it.
The road guide is cotton paper, and under the protection of the cloth bag, there is not even any yellowing trace on the road guide.
The road guide is enclosed in a burr-edged envelope, and the outer envelope is almost rotten, but it can still be seen that on the envelope is written a "seal" and covered with a red seal.
The road guide is 0.69 meters high and 0.55 meters wide, and the font is wood-carved and printed, which records Li's name, date of birth, place of birth and other detailed information.
In addition, there are three Taoist runes on the road guide, located in the lower right gap of the road guide, and the upper left corner is engraved with the image of Taishang Laojun.
All kinds of information show that Lee's road guide was just a superstitious practice at that time, so many people thought that this road guide had no value.
But archaeologists don't think so, saying it's more valuable than the various gold and silver jewelry excavated, and some of the information on it is physical evidence of Ming funerary customs.
02 The origin of the road guide
The road guide first appeared in the Ming Dynasty, and has been preserved in the subsequent years, and the development of the Republic of China period was the most prevalent.
In layman's terms, the road guide is equivalent to a letter of introduction to Hades after death, which is marked with various information such as name, date of birth and so on.
As early as the beginning of the rise of the road guide, it was indeed in the form of a letter of introduction. During the Ming Dynasty, people needed a road guide from the local government before going to other places.
Because in the whole road, it is necessary to pass through multiple levels, and the outsiders who pass by also need to take the road to the guards to check.
When the government issues the road guide, it often writes this information, and the personnel of the checkpoint will stamp a seal on it after checking that there is no problem.
Therefore, the person who went out of the far door walked all the way down, and there were often several seals on the road, representing the place where he passed along the way.
Later, with the continuous evolution, this also became the guide after death. After the death of a person, his family members go to the homes of the more prominent local people.
Ask him to write a road guide to the deceased old man, in their view, human death is the same as going out, it is to go to the unfamiliar place of life, and the way must also go through various levels.
As a result, people at that time believed that the deceased needed a letter to introduce themselves, and the road guide was not like paper money, which needed to be burned at the time of burial.
In the Republic of China period, the road guide became more popular, and many children of the deceased elderly in the folk will do their best to find someone to write a different road guide for the deceased elderly.
Because of this, in the Republic of China period, a large number of people who lived by writing road guides were also born, but after the passage of time, people's dependence on road guides gradually weakened, until finally the road guide completely disappeared from funeral customs.
Through Li's road guide, we can also know that Li Shi should have been a devout Taoist before his death, which proves that in the Ming Dynasty, the Taoist practice of believing in funerals has become a social trend.
Although compared with Li Yinggu's luxurious funerary products, the road guide is just a shabby thin paper, but the various information contained in it is yet to be examined and worth excavating.
I have to say that the collation of the tomb of Yuan Fei Li Yinggu this time is also very fruitful, not only that, but during the investigation of the tombs of Zhu Yilu and Li Yinggu, there was also a small episode.
03 See the rich, rampant grave robbers
In fact, long before the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team excavated Zhu Yilu's tomb, the tomb had been destroyed by tomb robbers, not only that, the tomb robbers joined the archaeological team and tried to take this opportunity to obtain some treasures.
The tomb robbers themselves are not interested in the tomb, but the rich funerary products in the ancient tomb make them particularly red-eyed, and the ancient tomb has attracted the attention of many tomb robbers.
Usually, tomb robbers take advantage of the high black wind of the moon to enter the tomb and steal all kinds of precious funerary items, jewelry and utensils in the ancient tomb.
However, there are more daring tomb robbers, who even steal identities, openly follow the archaeological team into the ancient tomb, and take the opportunity to take away all kinds of cultural relics that should have been handed over to the state.
The man was Zhu Yingfeng, an employee of a nearby fertilizer factory, and he had no education at all as a farmer.
He was even more ignorant of cultural relics, but given that Zhu Yingfeng lived near the ancient tomb of Zhu Yimin, there were also many ancient tombs of the major princes of the Ming Dynasty.
Nearby residents naturally heard the news, including Zhu Yingfeng. At first, people didn't pay much attention to ancient tombs.
There are also walls and various ground buildings distributed around the zhu yimin cemetery, but by 1979, due to the rapid rise of antiquities in the Chinese market, it also stimulated the rise of tomb robbers.
In this case, people like Zhu Yingfeng, who have no understanding of cultural relics, are also interested in getting rich and joining the tomb robbery.
In December 1979, Zhu Yingfeng discovered the ancient tomb of Zhu Yimin located nearby by chance, and since then, his heart has been stirring, and he can't stop the idea of robbing the tomb.
So, soon after, Zhu Yingfeng gathered several people with similar smells and invited them to join him on the road of making a fortune effortlessly.
After making a good plan, Zhu Yingfeng and his party came to the location of Zhu Yifeng's ancient tomb, but Zhu Yingfeng was not a professional tomb robber, who knew the technique of tomb robbery.
Therefore, they directly blew open the tomb door with explosives, and they did not care whose tomb it was, in their eyes there were only a variety of funerary products.
After Zhu Yingfeng and his party blew open the tomb door, they dug harder, and their excavation did not have any technology to speak of, or even disorderly.
After Zhu Yingfeng felt that they had dug almost completely, they used explosives to blow up again, and this time, with the sound of a stone crashing to the ground, Zhu Yingfeng and his party finally succeeded in entering the tomb.
First of all, they were greeted by a variety of exquisite murals, but this was useless to Zhu Yingfeng, because even if the murals were worth anything, they could not be taken away.
Although Zhu Yingfeng and the others were illiterate, they also knew that some of the gold and silver jewelry they could take away must be hidden in the coffin, so they went straight to the coffin.
Zhu Yingfeng and his party, who had been washed away by money, could not care less about being afraid at this time, and directly split a large coffin of Nanmu placed in the middle of the tomb with an axe.
However, when they opened the coffin, the various gold and silver jewelry expected by Zhu Yingfeng and others did not appear, and inside this huge coffin, only a dragon robe was placed.
Seeing the situation, Zhu Yingfeng was also momentarily overwhelmed, and this unexpected result made them dare not continue to dig.
After they went out of the tomb, several people discussed it and went directly to the local cultural relics bureau to turn themselves in and explain the situation.
04 The excavation of ancient tombs is of great significance
Subsequently, the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team that received the news came to zhu Yingfeng's ancient tomb at the first time, and after understanding and excavation, archaeologists identified it as the joint burial tomb of Zhu Yilu, a descendant of Ming Taizu, and his yuan concubine and stepfather.
The number of cultural relics excavated from the tomb is also very large, including 2 crowns, 604 jade beads, in addition, there are various jade, daily necessities and so on.
The ancient tomb is divided into three burial chambers, each burial chamber placed a coffin, in order to make the coffin more long-lasting preservation, the ancients in the construction of the coffin, in the soil added glutinous rice, so that the soil coffin is even stronger than cement poured.
Zhu Yifeng's coffin lid has been damaged by tomb robbers, but thankfully, Zhu Yingfeng and others have not manipulated the interior.
After opening the lid of the coffin, archaeologists saw the remains of Zhu Yilu, and under the body, there were seven copper coins placed, which were placed in the form of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper.
This also means that Zhu Yilu, like many other royal nobles, also believes in the principle of becoming an immortal after death.
At the same time, after Zhu Yingfeng heard that the archaeological team had carried out excavation and sorting work on the ancient tomb, he still did not die and mixed into the archaeological team to do help.
Just when cleaning up the various cultural relics and jewels found in the ancient tomb, Zhu Yingfeng saw that the time had come, so he conveniently hid some jewelry in his pants and prepared to take it out for sale.
However, Zhu Yingfeng's behavior did not escape the eyes of archaeologists after all, and after realizing that things were not right, archaeologists promptly recovered the jewelry cultural relics that Zhu Yingfeng brought out.
However, in that era, the relevant laws were not yet perfect, and Zhu Yingfeng also escaped the disaster by chance and did not receive any punishment.
But who knows, after that, Zhu Yingfeng did not change his mistakes, but instead started the business of reselling cultural relics, which is the so-called self-destruction of many acts of injustice.
Finally, when Zhu Yingfeng and others stole the ancient tomb again, he was arrested by the relevant departments, received due punishment belatedly, and spent his life in prison.
The work of ancient tomb survey and excavation is an extremely large project, and it is precisely because of these cultural relics excavated in the ancient tomb that we as descendants have learned more about history.
These are the cultural treasures of the Chinese nation, even if it is just a road guide, it will be paid special attention to by archaeologists, not to mention the various more precious objects taken away by the tomb robbers.
Just as the so-called gentleman loves money and has a way, we should not only pay attention to the small interests of individuals, but also focus on the overall situation, put our vision on the long term, and even more cannot infringe on the rights and interests of the country and even the nation for the sake of small profits.
As sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, we must participate in the protection of ancient tombs and resist the theft of ancient tombs.
Resources
CNKI 《Tomb of Zhu Yilu and His Wife, King Ming yixuan of Mingnan, Jiangxi Province》
Chinese Archaeology 《Jiangxi Mingyi Xuanwang Attention Gold and Silver Jewelry Excavated from the Silver Tomb》
![A cultural relic was unearthed from the tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty, 1,000 years ahead of Europe and the United States, subverting the cognition of all mankind[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)