In the past few hundred years, I don't know how many people have beaten the idea of the tomb of King Liangzhuang.
This is the mausoleum of Zhu Zhan'an (7 July 1411 – 3 February 1441), the ninth son of Emperor Akihito, located in Dahong Village, Changtan Town, Zhongxiang, Hubei Province. Zhu Zhan'an was born on June 17, 1411, the ninth year of Yongle (1411), and was crowned king of Liang on October 11, 1424, when he was only thirteen years old, nineteen years old (1429) in Guang'an Luzhou (present-day Zhongxiang, Hubei), and on the twelfth day of the first month of the sixth year of orthodoxy (1441), he "died with illness", and lived only thirty years, and on August 26 of the same year, he "buried the plains of Neiyuping Mountain".
From the beginning of 2000 to the beginning of 2001, the tomb of King Liangzhuang was stolen three times, and there was a robbery hole that even endangered the top of the back chamber, but fortunately it was attempted. From April 12 to May 2, 2001, the Hubei Provincial Archaeological Institute and others jointly excavated the tomb of Liangzhuang Wang. In just twenty days, the best preserved tomb of the Ming Dynasty prince with the largest number of excavated cultural relics was revealed.
The tomb of King Liangzhuang unearthed 5300 funerary items, including more than 1400 gold, silver and jade alone, and the total amount of gold used reached more than 32 catties. However, this lot of gold has left a big mystery: the tombs of the Ming Dynasty kings that have been excavated today are not small, why is it that the Liang Zhuang King, who has no reputation and died in his prime, has actually become the mausoleum with the most treasures since the excavation of the Ming Ding Mausoleum? Why did his mausoleum become the most important tomb of the king of the clan, and actually had so many gold and jade jewels to bury with him?
(1) Gold Ingots: Where did they come from and what happened to them?
Just from the gold excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, we can see the uniqueness of this king of the domain. Most of the important cultural relics excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang are displayed in the exhibition hall of the "Tomb of King Liangzhuang" of the Hubei Provincial Museum, and among the burial gold vessels, the most "eye-catching" and sincere gold objects are two gold ingots. The two pieces weighed a total of 3811.3 grams, each weighing about four pounds.
The inscription of the King of Liangzhuang Gold Ingot is quite interesting. The gold ingot inscription on the left reads: "With the driving silver as a bureau to sell the rong, to pick up the color of gold fifty-two times to make the first Ji Ding and other craftsmen Huang Min Di Yongle Pick up the year of the month and day." The inscription is relatively comprehensive and rich, including the production organization, the color weight, the names of the management officials and craftsmen, the production age, etc., we can analyze it slightly:
First of all, this gold ingot is made by the "Silver Game". The "Silver Bureau" was one of the eight bureaus of the twenty-four yamen (twelve supervisors, four divisions, and eight bureaus) established during the Hongwu period, which was responsible for managing the silversmiths, master craftsmen, gold leaf smiths and other gold and silversmiths selected from various places to serve the royal family. In the nineteenth year of Yongle, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di officially moved the capital city originally located in Nanjing to Beijing, and in the fourteenth year of Yongle, Zhu Di may have been engaged in official business in both Beijing and Nanjing, so there was a "silver game" that accompanied the Yongle Emperor to and from Nanjing and Beijing.
Secondly, the color of this gold ingot is "colored gold", which is the content of gold in gold products. In 1972, in the Ming Dynasty JinWang Cemetery on the outskirts of Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, there was an inscription "Luzhou Hongwu Twenty-three Years Harvest Autumn Grain Red Gold Fifty-Two-Five Dollar Weight" gold ingots, the form and weight are consistent with the Liangzhuang King's tomb gold ingots, but this is the Luzhou farmers to pay autumn grain folding gold, the gold content can reach 95%. The two gold ingots excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang are not gold ingots used in market circulation, and the measured gold content of the "Seventeen Years of Yongle" gold ingots is 83.24%.
Third, "pin melting" is to heat and melt the gold raw materials into a gold liquid, and use the mold opening to cast into gold ingots. The level of production of royal craftsmen is relatively high, so the surface of gold ingots is relatively smooth.
The gold ingot on the right, the inscription is relatively simple, inscribed "Yongle SeventeenTh year of April, Day, The West and other places bought 80% color gold one ingot Wu pick up two weights." The Minghui Canon records: "Since Hongwu and Yongle, the establishment of the Imperial Palace promised to do general affairs... The Prime Minister came to pay tribute to Siyi. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty interacted with overseas regions such as southeast Asia and South Asia, which is the "Western Ocean and other places" in the inscription. Some researchers also believe that Zheng He's fifth voyage to the West was from May of the fifteenth year of Yongle (1417) to July of the seventeenth year of Yongle (1419), and the raw material of this gold ingot was probably purchased from overseas when Zheng He went to the West for the fifth time.
These two gold ingots, which look ordinary, actually contain two questions: First, why do these two precious gold ingots appear in the tomb of King Liang Zhuang? To be sure, this must have been given by the palace. Some researchers speculate according to the "Ming Huidian Prince Wedding Volume" that when the ming dynasty prince was betrothed, the imperial court would reward the gift of "golden fifty-two", which were cast in the "Year of Yongle Shihuan" and "Seventeen Years of Yongle" respectively, and Zhu Zhan'an was five years old and eight years old, and had not yet been crowned king. These two gold ingots may have been gifts that the emperor took out of the inner treasury when his son was betrothed. King Zhuang of Liang married his concubine and his step-concubine twice, and thus received two gold ingots. This is also a reasonable statement.
The second question is difficult to answer, if it is the Ming Dynasty prince's gift of betrothed, why is there so little in existence, only King Liang Zhuang buried it in the tomb, so that this is the only physical object that remains at present?
(2) From the Golden Pot to the Golden Dagger: The Temple Sacrifice Vessel for Canonization and Reward
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, in order to curb the practice of thick burial, the imperial court stipulated thin burial, and the burial system of the prince followed the funeral standard of Chang Yuchun in the second year of Hongwu (1369). Its "Ninety Things of Ming Instruments" include military weapons, daily utensils, musical figurines, etc., and the daily utensils are all tin utensils. However, this customization took its form after Hongwu, and by the time of King Zhuang of Liangzhuang, the so-called "thin burial" was completely unworkable.
Ming, tin sacrificial ceremonial vessels, excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, photographed in hubei provincial museum
The tomb of King Liangzhuang unearthed 51 pieces (sets) of tin sacrificial vessels, but this is only a small fraction of his huge burial items. Hundreds of precious gold and jade objects are also buried in the tomb, and many gold utensils are used for daily use before death, including containers with pots and pots as a combination, and some utensils with spoons, daggers and spoons as a combination.
The golden pot, the golden bowl, the golden jue, the golden basin and the golden gong cover can be called the most important "five major pieces" in the tomb of King Liangzhuang. Of these five pieces, only about one of the golden covers was made by King Liang Zhuang himself, and the others were given to the palace.
Two golden apricot leaf jugs have been excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, and the surviving Ming Dynasty golden pots are very rare, which is the first time that a burial golden pot has been found in the tomb of a Ming Dynasty prince. The two pieces of golden apricot leaves are similar in shape, elegant and atmospheric, and are first pounded in different parts, then synthesized by gold welding, and finally polished in the whole instrument. The first inscription is "Silver Works Bureau Hong Xi in the first month of the first year of the first year into the creation of Wu Color Gold Two Lid Mouth Climbing Rope Full External Welding One Point", the pot weighs 868.4 grams, and the second inscription is "Heavy Two Picks and Two Wu Qian", the actual weight is 915.5 grams.
Ming, Jinjue, Jinjue, Jinluo, Liangzhuang Wang Tomb excavated, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
Among the gold utility vessels excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, the gold basin in the picture below is the largest one, weighing 1695 grams, with a caliber of 41 centimeters and a bottom diameter of 28 centimeters. Pure gold is relatively soft, easy to deform, to create such a large, thin gold basin, the gold content will not be very high, usually only 60% to 70%, to avoid too many pits or scratches.
The tombs of Ming, Jin Peng, and LiangZhuang were excavated and photographed at the Hubei Provincial Museum
The tomb of King Liangzhuang also unearthed some small pieces of gold utensils, such as gold spoons, gold daggers and gold colanders. The golden colander is shaped like a hollowed-out apricot leaf, which is convenient for plucking the tea leaves in the tea soup, and can also be used to catch drinks and soups. In the thirty-fifth episode of the "Golden Bottle plum words", it is said that "the chess boy Yunnan agate carved lacquer square plate took two cups of tea, silver inlaid bamboo silk tea, golden apricot leaf teaspoon, wood tree green grass bubble tea to eat", about the shape is similar to this teaspoon.
Ming, Gold, Gold Funnel, Golden Dagger, Liangzhuang Wang Tomb excavated, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
Among the self-made gold vessels in the tomb of King Liangzhuang, the most conspicuous is the gold chung cover, which weighs 183 grams and has a caliber of 16.3 cm, which is used with blue and white dragon pattern porcelain and gilded gold trays, and there is an inscription of "Four Hundred and Twenty-Nine Coins made of gold chung covers in the second year of the Chengfeng Si Orthodoxy". The Chengfeng Division was an internal institution of the Liang Dynasty Palace, so this golden cover was probably not a royal palace reward. From the perspective of craftsmanship, this gold cover is far more elaborate than those plain goldware made by the Silver Bureau, full of raised Erlong play beads and cloud patterns, more elaborate and gorgeous.
Ming, Jin Zhonggai, Liangzhuang Wang Tomb excavated, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
So the question arises: Why is the gold ware made by the Silver Bureau not as exquisite as that made by the Liang Dynasty Itself?
First of all, I would like to remind everyone that most of the gold vessels made and rewarded to the King of Liang by the Silver Bureau have inscriptions related to the "First Year of Hong Xi". In addition to the golden apricot leaf pot indicating that the production time is "HongXi Yuan Year", the back of the golden dagger has a 20-character inscription of "Silver Work Bureau Hong Xi First Year First Year Creation into Wu Color Gold Two Wu Qian", two pairs of gold seals were unearthed, one pair of gold inscriptions is "Silver Bureau Hong Xi First Year First Year Creation into Five Color Gold One Two Two Money Wu Fen", and the other pair is "Silver Bureau Yongle Yi Shi Yi Yi Nian Zhen Yue Transformation into Color Gold One Two Wu Qian Qi Wu Li". In addition, the princess's golden hook phoenix pattern is engraved on the inside of the golden hook with the inscription "Silver Bureau Hong Xi made into Wu Se Jin Wu Qian within the first month of the first year".
Ming, golden hook phoenix pattern pei, tomb of King Liangzhuang excavated, Hubei Provincial Museum collection
The silver bureau deliberately produced so many gold artifacts in the first year of Hong Xi (1425), which is probably related to Zhu Zhan'an's canonization as the King of Liang on October 11, 1424, the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424). At the end of the year of the canonization, a pair of gold pots was made in the same month, and the following year, important gold utensils such as golden pots, golden pots, golden daggers, and golden hook phoenix patterns were completed, and rewarded to Zhu Zhanya, who was 14 years old. These gold objects were actually made by canonization and rewarded by canonization.
Some people believe that these golden pots, golden pots, etc. are common daily utensils in the Ming Dynasty court and aristocratic class. The "Records of Tianshui Icebergs", which records the copying of Yan Song's family property, contains eleven golden apricot leaf pots, two golden flying fish apricot leaf pots, and two golden unicorn apricot leaf pots, and the "apricot leaves" are the shape of this golden pot. This kind of pot appears in the "Zhu Zhanji Xingle Tu", "Four Seasons Appreciation Map" and "Ming Xianzong Lantern Xingle Tu" that depict the appearance of court life in the Ming Dynasty, which shows its popularity in the Ming Dynasty Imperial Palace. Perhaps because of their commonality, researchers often "can't help but" use them as daily utensils for Liang Zhuang Wang.
Ming, part of Zhu Zhanji's Xingle Tu, collection of the Palace Museum
Ming, part of Ming Xianzong's Lantern Journey, national museum of China
Ming, "Four Seasons Appreciation Map", partial
The golden basin seems to be just an ordinary court vessel. Seeing the golden basin of the tomb of King Liangzhuang reminds people of the Dingling Tomb, which once unearthed a large number of royal gold artifacts. Dingling is the mausoleum of Zhu Yijun (year name Wanli), the thirteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and has unearthed gold utensils such as wine notes, knights, pots, cups, spoons, and spoons. Dingling is the imperial tomb, and the tomb of King Liangzhuang is the royal tomb, although the two have similar shapes and systems of many daily gold tools, and the production process is similar (mainly made of hammers), but the differences are also very large. First of all, the number and weight of gold artifacts excavated in Dingling far exceed the tomb of King Liangzhuang, and the Dingling tomb is buried with nine gold pots, of which the largest caliber is 52.4 centimeters, and the heaviest is marked with eighty-two according to its own inscription (measured weight 2986 grams). The tomb of King Liangzhuang has a golden basin, and the weight is only about half. Secondly, the Dingling gold ware is far more delicate than the Liangzhuang King's gold vessel, the Dingling gold basin has eight pieces with inscriptions, two are decorated with complex and fine ornaments such as cloud dragon patterns, and the gold basin of the Liangzhuang King is plain and has no inscription. Third, the use of Dingling gold ware is more extensive. In the Dingling golden basin, there is a piece weighing seventy-nine two four dollars (measured weight 2941 grams) marked as a basin, the rest of the sides vary in size, the small caliber is only 22 centimeters, may have other uses. And Liang Zhuang Wang's golden basin should only be a basin.
In summary, it seems that there is nothing special about these golden pots and pots. However, if you think about it carefully, for the emperor, this may be used as a daily instrument, but for the king of the clan, it may not be feasible. A large amount of gold was awarded only when the King of Liang was crowned, and its purpose should not be to provide the prince with his daily use. Otherwise, with the superb gold craftsmanship of the time, it would not all be set as simple and simple plain noodles. Second, although it is often used as a wine vessel, it is actually no more convenient to drink wine than ordinary cups. In ancient times, knights were often used as sacrificial vessels. In the First Year of the Ming Dynasty, hongwu was enjoyed in the Taimiao Temple, which had eight pieces of gold lords and sixteen pieces of porcelain knights, which were changed to seventeen pieces of gold knights during the Hongzhi period, and two pieces of the sacrifice. Considering also that the Ming Hui Jiao records that the royal sacrificial vessels of the Hongwu period were first "made of silver and coated with gold." The jug, the cup, and the cup are all eight", and then "he who also commands the vessel to paint silver with gold, it is easy to use gold", and changed to a jug, cup, and cup made of pure gold. From this point of view, the role of these golden pots, golden lords, and golden cups in the tomb of King Liang Zhuang is about to come out.
It may be speculated that the golden pot, the golden lord, the golden cup, the golden basin, and even the plain gold vessels with silver inscriptions such as the golden dagger and the golden pot were given to the King of Liang as a sacrificial vessel of the temple, and were part of the ceremonial system, and should not be regarded as ordinary daily eating utensils.
(3) Gold jewelry: the king's wearing
In addition to the above-mentioned "large pieces", the tomb of King Liangzhuang also unearthed a large number of exquisitely made gold jewelry. Most of its hairpins, arm bracelets, earrings, pendants and the like belonged to the princess, and the belt and hat were almost all the things of the Liang King.
Twenty-five pieces of golden hairpins were unearthed from the tomb of King Zhuang of Liang, and only two belonged to King Liang. The two pieces of gold hairpin belong to two extremes: one is an extremely gorgeous golden flower hairpin, with a total length of 13.4 cm, the head of the hairpin is 10 cm wide, 3 cm thick, weighs 60 grams, and is worn in the middle of the bun. The head of the hairpin is made into a peony flower, which is composed of four layers of flowers and leaves, each layer of eight petals, with leaf veins on the leaf surface and whiskers between the layers.
Ming, Golden Flower Hairpin, Liangzhuang King Tomb excavated, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
The other is an extremely simple round-headed golden hairpin, with a total length of 8.4 cm, a weight of only 3.7 grams, and a small shape, but the gold content is the highest among all the gold objects in the tomb of King Liangzhuang, reaching 97%.
The most striking feature in the tomb of King Liangzhuang is the large number of gold and jade belts. Among them, more than 300 pieces of belt ornaments have been excavated, and more than ten belts have been restored after being sorted out, which can be called the largest tomb of the Ming Dynasty king, and the total number of belts even exceeds the Dingling Tomb. These belts are complex in craftsmanship and richly decorated, such as the 646.4-gram gold filigree gemstone belt, which consists of 24 gold filigree jewel belts and two gold belt buckles and a detached gold latch, with a total of 84 red, green, blue and transparent gemstones. Another gold-set gemstone belt consists of 20 gold-set gemstone belts, two gold buckles and 1 detached gold latch, all with 98 stones such as forward cat's eye, turquoise, beryl, emerald and so on.
Ming, gold filigree inlaid with gem belt, excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
Ming, gold filigree inlaid with gem belt, excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
Ming, gold-encrusted gem belt, excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, photographed at the Hubei Provincial Museum
In addition, the tomb of King Liangzhuang unearthed six large pieces of gold inlaid jade and gemstone caps. The princes and nobles of the Yuan Dynasty often wore hats (large hats with large rims), and the top would be decorated with gold-encrusted pearls and jade gemstones. The Ming Dynasty inherited the Hat, but due to the restoration of the Han costume system, the Hat and the Han Costume were not well integrated, so it could only be used as a hat when Yanju lived, and in the "Ming Xianzong Lantern Xingle Map", it was the Hat worn by Emperor Xianzong.
Ming, part of Ming Xianzong's Lantern Journey, national museum of China
The hat also has a courtesy requirement. According to the MingHui Dian and the Ming Shi Youfu Zhi, jade represents the highest status level, with one or two hats and hat beads for official ranks, jade for hat beads, gold for the top of three to five hats, and jade for hat beads. In the Ming Dynasty, Yan Song's official residence was a pin, and the top of the hat could be used in gold and jade, and the "Records of The Iceberg of Tianshui" recorded that the top of the hat obtained when copying Yan Song's family property had a gold beaded (jade) treasure (stone) cap, a gold beaded hat top, a gold jade hat top, etc., weighing a total of seventy-seven two hundred and seventy-one dollars and seven points. King Liangzhuang is the king of the domain, and the top of the hat is also the highest rank, so the top of the hat is jade, and the base is pure gold inlaid with gemstones and white jade.
Ming, gold-encrusted gemstone hat top, tomb of King Liangzhuang excavated, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
The belt and hat excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang are not only exquisitely crafted, but also inlaid with a large number of gemstones. At that time, the gemstones produced in the Central Plains were roughly turquoise, agate and the like, and the gemstones on the belt and crown of King Liangzhuang included colorless sapphires, pale yellow sapphires and many other types, such as the gold-set gemstones in the picture above, and the colorless sapphires set on the top weighed about 200 carats, and there was a hole in the center of the gemstones, which was fixed to the base with gold wire. After identification, the gemstones used in the tomb of King Liangzhuang are all from the West, and it is likely that zheng He brought back jewels from the West. Where did these gold ornaments come from, were they purchased by King Liang Zhuang himself, or were they given by the imperial palace? I'm afraid it's probably the latter.
Ming, gold-encrusted gemstone white jade skeleton cloud dragon crown top, tomb of King Liangzhuang excavated, photographed in Hubei Provincial Museum
(4) Conclusion
At present, no Ming Dynasty king has been found to have reached the height of King Liang Zhuang on the burial items. Unfortunately, about 500 meters northeast of the tomb of King Liangzhuang, the tomb of Niangniang (possibly the tomb of The Concubine or Lady of Liangzhuang) was stolen, otherwise it can be compared with the tomb of King Liangzhuang.
It can be seen from the gold ingots, gold utensils and gold jewelry of the tomb of King Liang zhuang that they have some common characteristics: First, almost all of these exquisite gold objects with large gold consumption belong to the king of Liang, the golden hairpins of the princess and other ornaments, and the use of gold is not much. Secondly, most of them are rewarded by the palace, matching the status of the King of Liang, and mainly reflecting not wealth, but rich political connotations, which are difficult to circulate in the market.
Ming, Crown, And Liangzhuang King Tombs were unearthed and photographed at the Hubei Provincial Museum
Therefore, we can try to answer the question: why King Liang zhuang was not outstanding among the Ming dynasty kings, but was buried with a large number of exquisite gold and jade. Compared with the tomb of King Lu Huang (1370-1390), known as the "First Tomb of the Prince of the Early Ming Dynasty", the tomb of King Lu Huang only unearthed more than 1,000 cultural relics, and there were only two jade belts buried with it, which was far inferior to that of King Zhuang of Liang. King Chu Zhao, who died seventeen years earlier than King Liangzhuang, was even more "cold", in addition to the gold-inlaid wooden belt, most of the burials were bronze, pewter, and iron, which were representatives of the ming instrumentation of the burial utensils. However, King Lu Huang and King Chu Zhao did not have the problem of King Liang Zhuang: King Liang Zhuang had only two daughters, and no one could attack his prince and was "childless".
Why did the tomb of King Liangzhuang unearth so much gold, silver and jade, is it because King Liangzhuang was originally rich in wealth, or was it the extra grace of the emperor at that time? Perhaps there are some of these factors, but the main reason is that according to the ceremonial system at that time, the golden pots, golden knights and even belts given to King Liang Zhuang in the past few decades were no longer used by anyone in King Liang Zhuang's family according to their rank. Since it cannot be passed on to his descendants, let these treasures "go with him".