Chinese history for five thousand years, pregnant with the splendid Chinese civilization, but with the erosion of time, a lot of history has been deeply buried, want to understand the secret of the passage through time, can rely on the only treasure underground, that is, a series of ancient tombs, they are like a picture scroll, depicting the ancient chinese folk culture.
A few decades ago, an ancient tomb was unearthed in Inner Mongolia, but the owner of the tomb wore a gold mask on his face and a man next to him.
Ancient tombs unearthed
In June 1985, in the middle of the summer, the townspeople of Qinglongshan Town in Inner Mongolia were waving hoes under the scorching sun, and they were answering the call to build a reservoir, and they were taking soil at this time. Suddenly, the sound of metal colliding alarmed the nearby workers, thinking that they had dug up the stone, but a little insightful people looked at it, which is a stone, it is clearly a tomb brick, there is a large tomb under this.
This discovery immediately alarmed the archaeologists of the local museum, who immediately rushed to the construction site with their equipment, and after careful excavation, it was finally determined that the ancient tomb belonged to the Liao Dynasty.
Judging from the specifications of the cemetery, the status of the tomb owner at that time was also extremely high. What surprised them most was that the cemetery had never been stolen, that is, it had preserved all the burial items from the burial to the present, so that the research value of the tomb also increased.
After a long period of excavation, archaeologists finally unearthed a total of 3227 pieces of burials, many of which are made of precious materials such as gold, silver, jade, agate, etc., and there are also porcelain, such as white porcelain, celadon porcelain, etc., especially the porcelain plates, the patterns on them are extremely exquisite and beautiful, and the burial items are almost well preserved, without excessive damage.
But experts say the most important and valuable of these excavated artifacts is the golden mask on the face of the corpse.
At that time, after the coffin was opened, it was found that there were two corpses inside, a man and a woman, and the corpse's face was wearing this golden mask. And both of them are wearing silver silk mesh coats, gold crowns on their heads, gold masks to cover their faces, and silver boots on their feet. But women seem to have a higher status than men, so all kinds of gold and silver jewelry must be much more for men.
After a detailed investigation, according to the excavated "Epitaph of Princess Chen Guo", it was found that the owner of the cemetery was the granddaughter of Liao Jingzong, princess Yelü of Chen Guo, and the man lying next to her was her husband and her uncle, xiao Shaojue, who was chen guo at that time.
After experiencing a period of rampant tomb robbers, it is rare to excavate such a complete ancient tomb, the excavation of the tomb of Princess Chen Guo is really a great gift to Chinese archaeologists, not to mention the lofty status of the owner of the cemetery, just those excavated cultural relics, it is enough for archaeologists to study for a while, more fully understand the Liao Dynasty customs, social system and other valuable information, the value of this ancient tomb, is immeasurable.
Golden Mask
As the mystery continues to be solved, more and more information is learned. Princess Chen Guo was the empress of Liaojingzong, that is, the granddaughter of Empress Xiao, and when she was 16 years old, she married her uncle Xiao Shaoji, which may not be acceptable to many people now, but in the beginning, in order not to let the royal bloodline pass out, it was very common for close relatives to marry.
At that time, the royal family was generally the Yelü clan, and the later clan was the Xiao clan, and in order to hold the power in their hands forever, these two families had been popular in the marriage of the two families, so that the latter two families were relatives, and the marriage of close relatives could not be avoided, and at that time, there was no such thing as a close relative who could not marry.
According to historical records, the wedding of Princess Chen Guo and Xiao Shaoju was held in the northern steppe, and the scene was grand and attracted the attention of the country, and many relatives of the emperor and the state, high-ranking officials and dignitaries came to congratulate and sing and dance.
However, this marriage lasted only two years, two years later, this couple actually died of illness, Princess Chen Guo was only 18 years old, and her husband Xiao Shaoji was only 36 years old.
As for the golden masks on their faces, it starts with the funeral customs of the Khitans.
Khitan is a nomadic people, often living along the river, fishing and hunting for them is a common thing, food, clothing, shelter and travel will be affected by the natural environment, over time on the nature of the fear of psychology, so the birth of a funeral custom called "tree burial", that is, after death, the body is hung on the tree to dry, fully accept the baptism of the god of nature, and then buried in the ground.
Before burial, the body should be disposed of, wearing a silver wire mesh coat, wearing a metal mask, etc., on the one hand, to ensure the integrity of the body, on the other hand, to make the body more majestic and solemn, and the gold mask worn by Princess Chen Guo is the highest level metal mask.
This metal mask is also exquisite, the thickness of the mask is only half a millimeter, according to the shape of the deceased's face with a metal piece, this craft is called "hammering". Later, because the Khitan tribe attacked the Central Plains, after the founding of the Country, the funerary culture of the Central Plains was integrated, and many funerary products were added to the tombs, that is, various gold and silver jewelry, porcelain jade bottles, etc. This led to the lavish tomb seen today.
The tomb was excavated in 1986 and has now been handed over to the Inner Mongolia Museum for exhibition.
The excavation of an ancient tomb not only represents the reappearance of a piece of cultural relics, its value is reflected in the body of these cultural relics, each notch, each pattern can represent the degree of development of the craft manufacturing at that time, and the meaning behind each cultural relic is worthy of deep study by archaeologists.
The excavation of more than 3,000 cultural relics can unearth a microcosm of an era, which is the course of China's development and the witness of history.
Not to mention earlier, just from the Liao Dynasty to the modern era, it has gone through a thousand years of time, the evolution of the millennium is huge, some of which will be preserved, but some things will be scattered with the wind, if you want to know the information that has disappeared, you can only find some clues from the bits and pieces of cultural relics.
In fact, every cultural relic has a soul, they are buried in the ground for thousands of years, behind them have their own stories, from the other end of the long river of time, with the imprint of that era, what is displayed in front of us is the epitome of ancient people, may not be as intuitive as the "Qingming River Map", but careful taste, there will be a different feeling.
The excavation of each ancient tomb is a witness to the heritage of the Chinese nation, as the only ancient civilization that has existed, these cultural relics are as if they are fragments of time, and together they are a complete history of China's development, which is a historical accumulation that no country can match, and is the pride of the Chinese. Five thousand years of great power, the majesty of Wolong Tengxiao, Chinese history is a huge wealth in the world.