The ghost bride should have been a folk ghost story, but in 2003, the Shandong archaeological team excavated an ancient tomb in the Eastern Jin Dynasty at the former residence of Wang Xizhi, the "book saint" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In the eight-meter-long tomb, three children are buried, who are under two years old, less than one year old, and less than six years old... If the three were buried at the same time, doesn't that prove that they died at the same time?
What is even more puzzling is that the nephew was moved to the uncle's burial chamber, which belongs to the uncle and nephew burial tomb, which is obviously not in line with aristocratic etiquette.
Even if the uncle and nephew died at the same time, and the five-year-old girl who was buried with him died at the same time?
The content of this issue of the article is that the ancient tomb is suspicious, the royal ghost bride, the former residence of the literati and inkers, but there is a dark history hidden...
First, expand the "Shusheng" memorial hall and discover strange ancient tombs
Time pushed back to 2003, Shandong Linyi to expand the Wang Xizhi Memorial Hall.
Take the washbasin pond, which is a place frequented by tourists, and after renovation and expansion, the scenery will be more moving.
Surprisingly, just after excavating the foundation of the memorial, the excavator hit a hard object in the soil.
Immediately after the ground broke a large hole, the excavator master quickly walked over to check it out, and it was clear that it was a thick green brick, and below it was a well-preserved ancient tomb.
I took a flashlight, lit a picture of the tomb, and vaguely saw the burial goods, so I reported it to the cultural relics department in Linyi.
Archaeologists heard the news and heard that the tomb had been excavated from the former residence of Wang Xizhi, so they were very excited.
After the news came out, many people focused on the connection between the "ancient tomb and Wang Xizhi", after all, the name of "Shusheng" is well known in Chinese.
The archaeological team shoveled out the tomb, from the structural point of view is a brick chamber tomb, from east to west the length of about eight meters, from south to north width of about four meters three, about three meters high, obviously the tomb of the ancient large family.
There are two burial chambers on the left and right, the top is high and arched, and each brick is well preserved, which shows that it has not been invaded by tomb robbers.
When experts cleaned up the altar of the ancient tomb, they excavated a "celadon four-series jar" according to the characteristics of the vessel type, judging that it was Jin Dynasty porcelain, so it was also inferred that the tomb was an ancient tomb of the Jin Dynasty, which happened to be the age in which Wang Xi lived.
As soon as this news came out, the ancient tomb had just begun to be excavated, and it had already alarmed many departments.
In May of the same year, the archaeological team officially began to clean up the east burial chamber, but surprisingly, the floor in the burial chamber was not flat, but bulged like a turtle's back.
This precisely reflects the wisdom of the ancients to repair the tomb, if the tomb floor is flat, the coffin may be submerged and soaked, if it is built into a turtle's back like a bulge, the coffin can be protected.
It can also be seen from this that in the era of the construction of the ancient tomb, the groundwater level in Linyi may be higher.
But the elaborate design, but still failed to block the groundwater, when the expert opened the east burial chamber, the coffin was not in the center of the tomb, but floated to the tomb door, after the groundwater fell, it also stopped there.
Experts thought that the owner of the tomb had a connection with Wang Xizhi, but in front of him was a small patent-leather coffin, which most likely buried a child.
The decay of the small coffin is very serious, only a thin layer of patent skin is left, and after opening the coffin, it confirms the experts' speculation that it is indeed the bones of a child, probably about two years old.
This is a great disappointment, I thought it was at least a husband and wife burial tomb, I thought it might be related to Wang Xizhi, but in fact it was a tomb of a child.
In the burial chamber, the experts cleaned out exquisite gold and silverware, including gold bracelets, gold rings, silver bells...
The most valuable piece of gold is the gold pendant worn by the ancient official hat, and it can be concluded that this ancient tomb where the boy was buried has nothing to do with Wang Xizhi, because only the princes and nobles are eligible to use the golden dragon.
Wang Xizhi's family was not eligible to use Jin Heng at that time, so experts believe that this must be the burial place of the emperor's relatives.
As the archaeological work continued, experts dug up even more astonishing discoveries, and there was a small wooden box in the middle of the burial chamber, which was opened to see that there were fine bones, and if you did not look closely, you thought it was the bones of pets.
According to expert identification, the bones in the wooden box came from a baby under the age of one year. That is to say, the East Burial Chamber is buried with two children.
The experts also cleaned out gold bracelets and silver bells at the waist and wrists of the baby's bones, exactly the same size as the gold objects in the small coffin.
What makes people wonder is that in such a high-standard tomb, there are two small children buried, which big family does the owner of the tomb come from?
After the archaeological team cleaned up the East Burial Chamber, they opened the West Burial Chamber, which was full of funerary items, from which it could be guessed that the identity of the owner of the tomb buried in the West Burial Chamber was not simple.
Experts cleaned out pieces of porcelain, pottery, bronze... Each piece is exquisitely crafted, and even if the bronze has been eroded by time, it can still see the exquisite workmanship.
Take the copper smoker, for example, with two peacocks on it, and the dancing people standing next to it, look lifelike.
Then there is the "Copper Smoker of the Divine Sparrow", which is made of smokers in the shape of a sacred bird, holding a fish in its mouth and a chick lying on its chest.
The coffin in the west burial chamber is a large coffin about two meters and three meters long, and the same child is buried inside, about one meter and two meters tall, and the skeleton is also well preserved.
This is the third child's skeleton unearthed in the ancient tomb of the Jin Dynasty, carrying two pairs of gold bracelets and wearing a necklace made of forty-three gold beads on the chest.
This ancient tomb mystery one after another, since it is the location of Wang Xizhi's former residence, why is there a tomb of a noble boy from the same period buried? And who is the identity of the owner of the tomb?
Judging from the number of funerary items, the funerary items of the West Burial Chamber are placed all over the ground, according to common sense, the West Burial Chamber should be the owner of the tomb, in fact, the expert guessed wrong, the West Burial Chamber is actually a poor person buried... But that's a story for another day.
Second, experts decrypt the mystery, the ghost bride of the Eastern Jin Dynasty
The most valuable clue in the tomb is the artifact with writing.
The high-grade ancient tomb of the Linyi Jin Dynasty unearthed a piece of exquisite lacquerware, since ancient times, lacquerware has been said to be "a thousand knives and a pound of lacquer on a hundred miles", and only nobles can use such utensils with financial resources.
The expert wrote at the bottom of the bowl of lacquerware: Dakang Seven Years Li Ping Shanglao.
There is also a lacquerware pot with the inscription on the bottom: Dakang Seven Years Li Ping Shanglao.
Precious utensils in ancient times were generally written with the name of the craftsman, called the name of the craftsman. And Li Ping is the craftsman who makes lacquerware, and Shanglao means the superior grade of lacquerware.
In the eyes of archaeologists, the most important thing is the word "Dakang", which should actually be written as Taikang, which is the era name of Sima Yan, the "Emperor Wu of Jin".
It is concluded that the age of the tomb is around 289 AD, which belongs to the late Western Jin Dynasty or the early Eastern Jin Dynasty.
At this time, looking at the history of the Jin Dynasty, everyone who has seen the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" knows that the Sima family replaced Cao Wei, and the foundation of the two generations of the Cao family made a wedding dress for the Sima family.
The Sima family destroyed Western Shu and Eastern Wu, and the foundations of Liu Bei and Sun Quan also became the songs of yesterday, and I don't know how Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and the Sun family father and son would feel after they met in the underworld...
After the Western Jin Dynasty unified Jiangshan, the emperor divided 27 imperial princes, and the one who was assigned to Linyi in Shandong was Sima Lun (Sima Yi's ninth son).
The Sima Lun family has been living in Linyi ever since, and although there are other large families in the area, only Sima Lun's descendants are eligible to use The Golden Dragon.
Since Jin Heng could only be used by Wang Ye, it could be accurately judged that the tomb was the tomb of the Sima family.
Experts speculate that the reason why the tomb of the Sima family appears in the former residence of Wang Xizhi may be because Wang Xizhi's fame is too big and there are too many memorials by posterity, so the area of the former residence has been repeatedly expanded to cover the cemetery of the Sima family.
It is also guessed from this that Wang Xizhi's family and the Sima family are both large families by the washing pond.
Through the above reasoning of the experts, it is also explained why the tombs of the Langya royal family are in the scope of Wang Xizhi's former residence.
In order to prove the above reasoning, it is necessary to go through the construction history of Wang Xizhi's former residence, and experts have opened relevant historical materials and found that Wang Xizhi's former residence has indeed been expanded.
At this time, looking at the three children buried in the ancient tomb, archaeologists invited Mr. Kong, a paleontological expert in the province, to Linyi to conduct bone identification in order to further determine the identity of the owner of the tomb.
Mr. Kong rushed to the Linyi Wash Yantai Ancient Tomb, and after his judgment, the owner of the tomb in the west tomb was under the age of seven; while the two children in the east tomb, the one whose coffin floated to the tomb door, was about two years old, and the one in the wooden box was less than one year old.
Because of its age and the child's young age, it is impossible to judge the gender of the child in the tomb.
What is even more shocking is that the three children died at the same time, and the reason for this identification is that the sealed wall of the tomb has not been moved since it was built.
Since the closed door wall is a whole, no trace of secondary construction has been found, so the experts have concluded that the three children were buried at the same time.
This kind of peculiar tomb, let alone in Shandong, even in the whole of China, is rare and rare.
Judging from normal logic, the possibility of three children "dying due to illness" at the same time is less likely, but why are the three children in the tomb buried at the same time?
Experts from the funerary products, to find a key clue, in the west burial chamber, found three rusty "canes" can be really cleaned out, a closer look is three steel combat knives, belonging to the standard weapons used on the battlefield.
In addition, in the head of the owner of the tomb in the west burial chamber, the experts also cleared out a piece of "copper crossbow machine" that is also used on the real battlefield.
From the above two weapons, it is inferred that the children buried in the west burial chamber are most likely male in gender, and from the burial items on the ground, their status is also higher.
At this time, I thought that it should have been a husband and wife burial tomb, but the east burial chamber buried two younger children...
However, if the west burial chamber is male, but it does not meet the burial rules of "male left female right", that is to say, the two children in the east burial chamber should be male.
Leaving aside gender, archaeologists thought of a terrifying custom in ancient times--marriage.
The reason why I thought of it was a secret marriage was because experts judged that it was a husband and wife burial tomb with obvious ancient characteristics according to the pattern of the two burial chambers of the ancient tomb.
According to the laws of the Jin Dynasty, girls could not marry until they were sixteen years old, and the three children in the tomb, all of whom were old enough, were not yet sixteen years old.
Experts therefore believe that there was a custom of secret marriage in the Shandong region of the Jin Dynasty, to put it bluntly, that is, the child died of illness or injury before he reached adulthood, so the parents found a heterosexual marriage for the dead child.
Not only are children married, but the parents of dead boys and girls are also married to "kinship", a horrible-sounding custom called kinship.
Therefore, experts believe that the children in the ancient tombs of the Jin Dynasty in the Washing Yanchi are most likely princes (actually princes) who died early in the Sima family, because of their noble status, so their parents only matched the children with a thick burial.
From the above analysis, it seems that the truth has come out, the East Burial Chamber is two girls with a secret marriage; the West Burial Chamber is buried with a little prince because of the many burial items and the appearance of weapons.
But in fact, on the contrary, the two children in the east burial chamber are the little prince, and the five- or six-year-old child in the west burial chamber is the little princess who deserves to marry.
Because the archaeological team excavated the gold fence and the golden hairpin in the west burial chamber, and inserted them into the remaining hair.
The ancient tomb is sitting north and facing south, according to the rules of male left and female right, girls should indeed be buried in the west burial chamber, which is not wrong.
So the poor girl in the West Burial Chamber should technically be called the Little Princess... When she was buried, the burial chamber was full of treasures, with war knives around her, bows and crossbows on her head, and the precious gold objects on her body were generous gifts from the royal family.
Although it is said that the West Tomb cleared out weapons, according to the historical record "Book of Jin", at that time, it was customary to learn martial arts, and women also had to strengthen their bodies and carry weapons, so the girls in the West Tomb With Yin Marriage had weapons, which was also in line with the characteristics of that era.
The reason why the experts once misjudged is because the number of cultural relics in the West Tomb Is large, and the pieces are ingenious, and it is natural to think that the West Tomb is the "tomb owner".
Poor little princess, who was in the period of changing her teeth in her childhood, was put into an ancient tomb to be buried with two princes who died prematurely, although she said that she wore gold and silver, but she was ruthlessly taken away from her life.
The most direct evidence in the burial chamber is the gold pendant excavated from the east burial chamber, and only adult males in the east burial chamber are eligible to wear this object.
At this time, a bigger mystery appeared, the two little princes in the East Burial Chamber, accompanied by a few funerary items, who were they?
If you want to unravel the truth, you can only go through the mountain-like historical materials to see if you can find a record of only a few words from the book.
Third, the truth is revealed, and the uncle and nephew are buried together
Through hard work, the expert found a record from the history books.
It says that Sima Rui, the founding emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, set the capital at Nanjing in 317 AD, so he made his eighteen-year-old son the King of Langya.
But what makes people feel helpless is that the nineteenth birthday of the King of Langya has not yet passed, and he died of illness...
Since the king of Langya died, his son who was less than one year old, sima Rui's grandson Sima Anguo, inherited the title of king of Langya, that is, the skeleton contained in a small wooden box, which at first glance thought to be a pet.
According to the regulations of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time, since the king of Langya, who was less than one year old in Linyi, died, he should be buried in the fiefdom of Langya (Linyi), so he was sent to Linyi.
Judging from the above experience, the king of Linyi Langya was buried in Linyi after his death, which is completely in line with normal logic.
Note: Sent to Linyi, it is only buried in an ordinary tomb, not the ancient tomb of The Washed Stone Pond.
The problem was that not long after the death of Sima Anguo, the king of Langya, his two-year-old uncle Sima Huan fell seriously ill.
Sima Rui, as the emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, his favorite child was his younger son Sima Huan, and since the younger son was seriously ill, in the case of little medicinal use, from the perspective of feudal superstition, he wanted to "rush to chong xi".
Therefore, Sima Rui also made his younger son Sima Huan the new King of Langya, and the fief was also in today's Linyi.
Tragically, on the same day that Sima Rui crowned his younger son Sima Huan as king, Sima Huan, the king of Langya, died of illness, and was less than two years old when he died.
That is to say, in the ancient tomb of the washing pond, the coffin floated to the wooden door by the groundwater was buried by Sima Huan, the king of Langya.
Archaeologists judged that the owners of the east burial chamber were Sima Anguo and Sima Huan, who were actually uncles and nephews, based on the two coffins in the ancient tomb and combined with the records in the historical materials.
Both children were kings of Langya, both young and short-lived, and the time of their deaths was only a few months.
Through the above historical materials, the mystery of the identity of the owner of the tomb has been solved, but what makes people feel puzzling is that which uncle and nephew are buried in the same burial chamber?
(Little Princess's skull)
So a new mystery appeared, even ordinary people knew that this was not in line with etiquette, but after the child died, but the uncle and nephew were buried together.
Then there is the wife of the little princess of the Western Tomb who accompanies the burial goods on the ground, whose wife is it?
Experts began to look through the historical materials again, looking for the Sima family of the Jin Dynasty, and the records related to Sima Huan, since the emperor loved this young son the most, it was very likely that the marriage was rationed to Sima Huan.
After opening the "Book of Jin", the experts did find the truth of the mystery, according to the historical records, after Sima Huan's illness and death, Sima Rui was very painful, so he overhauled the cemetery and specially matched Sima Huan with a yin marriage.
The minister of the DPRK objected to this, believing that the construction of the cemetery would cost the people and money, and it would cost the total income of the Lang kingdom for a year.
What is even more difficult to accept is that after Sima Anguo's death, he was originally buried in an ordinary tomb, and after Sima Huan's cemetery was repaired, he actually moved the grave to Sima Huan's cemetery
The minister objected, arguing that the burial of uncle and nephew together was not in line with normal etiquette.
After the experts saw this record, this revealed the whole truth, the little princess wearing gold and silver in the West Tomb Was the wife of Sima Huan, the King of Langya. And the coffin floated to the door of the tomb was Sima Huan, the king of Langya.
History is vast, the Jin Dynasty is turbulent, and such a peculiar tomb of the husband and wife of the King of Langya also reflects the tip of the iceberg of the chaotic world...