Emperor Yuan Hui was driven out of the capital by the Ming general Xu Da, and the Jade Seal of the Kingdom was also taken away by him. After countless ups and downs, the great seal of the imperial palace, finally tired of the ruthless palm of the feudal dictator and quietly hid in the vast desert.
In 221 BC, the majestic King of Qin finally completed the great cause of unification and ascended to the throne of the First Emperor. In order to facilitate the transmission of various orders and instructions, he felt that there should be a large seal for the emperor's exclusive use, so he ordered Prime Minister Li Si to personally write the seal and hand it over to Sun Shou, the first jade carving master at that time, to carefully engrave. After the jade seal was carved, Qin Shi Huang loved it very much and named it "National Seal".
It was also stipulated that this "seal" character would no longer be respected and used in the future, and would only be owned by the emperor. Since then, this lifeless stone has become more immortal and is regarded as a proof of the right vein of imperial power.
In the 1,500 years after the Qin Dynasty, countless heroes and heroes and various characters who loved to dream of emperors, in order to obtain this "national seal", did not hesitate to fight each other, bloody killing, and performed thrilling stories one after another. This jade seal was naturally also shrouded in a mysterious magical color, full of difficult mysteries.
So, what is going on with this Fang Yuxi?
The detailed process of Qin Shi Huang's engraving of the jade seal is not clearly recorded in the historical records before the Han Dynasty. The name of the jade seal was first found in the "Hanshu Yuanhou Biography",
Hou Han Shu
At that time, it was called the "Han Chuan National Seal". In this regard, the historian Ban Gu explained:
"Ancestor Han Gao entered Xianyang to dominate the supremacy, and the Prince of Qin descended to the soft road and presented the seal of the First Emperor. and Gaozu's name, that is, the throne of the Son of Heaven, because of the imperial obedience to his seal, passed down from generation to generation, known as the Han Chuan State Seal. ”
However, what exactly does the national seal offered by the child look like, Ban Gu did not explain. The first to describe its shape was the Tang Dynasty scholar Xu Lingyan, who said in the "Records of the Seal of the King": "The jade seal, the seal of the country, Qin Shi Huang took Lantian jade and carved it, and his book made by Li Si, the palindrome is called 'ordered by heaven, both life and yongchang', the seal is hidden as Panlong Wen, the text is "by the order of heaven, the emperor Shouchang", square four inches, button five dragon disks." ”
It is not difficult to imagine that this national seal should be a treasure among treasures, and whoever wants to become the "true son" respected by the whole world should hold this seal. Only in this way can his throne be considered legitimate, otherwise he is just a self-appointed loner. However, the feudal emperor could not monopolize the family, and the jade seal of the kingdom also appeared from time to time in the long river of history. Here, let's follow the running footprints of the Jade Seal of the Kingdom and see how it is delivered.
According to materials such as "Jade Seal Spectrum" and "The Beginning and End of the Qin Seal", since Qin Shi Huang had this jade seal, he regarded it as his own life root and had to stay with him. In the third year of his reign as emperor, he toured south to Dongting Xiangshan, and suddenly the wind and waves were raging, and the dragon boat was about to fall, and at this time, Yingzheng also knew that his life mattered, and immediately held the seal to worship the gods, and had to throw it into the lake.
Later, an unknown fisherman fished out the treasure. Eight years later, when an envoy of Qin Shi Huang passed by Pingshu Dao, Ningqin (present-day Huayin County, Shaanxi, on the south bank of the Wei River in the northwest), someone presented a jade seal and said, "For my widow Gaochi Jun." Qin Shi Huang was overjoyed when he heard this, and then unexpectedly got the lost big seal.
In October 206 BC, Liu Bang led an army to conquer the Qin capital, and the Qin prince knelt beside the Xianyang Soft Road with a rope tied around his neck, offering the imperial seal talisman festival that had only been passed down for fifteen years. Liu Bang saw the great joy, he officially declared himself empress in Luoyang, expressed "obedience, inheritance from generation to generation", and officially changed the name to "Han Chuan State Seal", and placed it in the deep palace to be carefully guarded, so that it remained stable for more than 200 years.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang came to power, and the little emperor Liu Ying was only two years old, and he did not know the value of the jade seal of the country, so he had to keep it for the custody of Wang Mang's aunt Han Xiaoyuan. Wang Mang wanted to become emperor and sent his younger brother Wang Shun to ask for the jade seal of the country, and the empress dowager angrily scolded: Your father and son clan is "rich and rich,...... When taking advantage of convenience, seize the national seal, and do not care about the meaning, so that the dog and pig do not eat the rest! Saying that, he threw the jade seal at Wang Shun, and was immediately broken a corner. Wang Mang did not care, and picked it up with gold, although gold and jade are expensive, but this most valuable treasure still left a suffocating defect.
Perhaps it was a small coincidence, this broken jade seal of the kingdom had only been held in Wang Mang's hands for fifteen years.
In 23 AD, Wang Mang was killed by the merchant Du Wu, and the jade seal of the kingdom was obtained by the general of the Praetorian Guard. The official guests took the seal to Wan (present-day Nanyang, Henan) and presented it to Liu Xuan, the king of Huaiyang, who had proclaimed himself emperor. Two years later, the Chimei army killed Liu Xuan and supported Liu Penzi, and the Chuanguo Seal immediately fell into the hands of Liu Penzi, and he only sneaked around for a while, and soon defeated Yiyang (present-day western Yiyang County, Henan), and no longer dared to take the Chuanguo Seal for himself, so he had to obediently give it to Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor.
Since then, it has passed through eleven emperors in Luoyang Palace and lived a stable life of more than 170 years. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Ten Constant Servants were in chaos, and the Han Shao Emperor Liu Wei was robbed by Zhang Rang and others of Xiaopingjin (on the Yellow River in the northeast of present-day Mengjin County, Henan), and forgot to take this treasure with him in a hurry, and after Shangshu Luzhi recovered the Han Shao Emperor, the jade seal of the kingdom did not know where to go.
Soon, Dong Zhuo arbitrarily decided the imperial government, and Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and other eighteen princes raised troops to beg Zhuo. Sun Jian of Yuzhou was the first to attack Luoyang, and when he was renovating the Hanling Tomb and Qingqing Sect Temple, he found that there was a drowned palace maid in the "Zhengong Well" in the south of the city, with a gold-locked brocade box hanging around her neck, and when he opened it, he saw that it was the jade seal of the kingdom that Fang had been looking for for a long time.
Sun Jian had a different intention, thinking that he could face the south and call him lonely, so he handed over his wife Wu to be carefully guarded. Unexpectedly, Sun Jian did not have the opportunity to enjoy it, and he soon died in battle in Da Nang.
Yuan Shu took advantage of Wu's return to Li to detain her and take away the jade seal, and who knew that Yuan Shu died soon after in Shouchun (present-day Shou County, Anhui). His wife escorted the coffin back to Ruyang, and Runan's Taishou Xu Miao imitated Yuan Shu's practice and lost no time in obtaining the jade seal of the kingdom, and then went to Xuchang with great difficulty and presented it to Emperor Xian of Han. At this time, Cao Cao was holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes, and the jade seal of the kingdom actually fell into Cao Cao's hands.
After the Cao clan established Wei, in order to indicate that his small dynasty was the divine mandate of heaven, he added seven subordinate characters "Great Wei received the jade seal of the Han Dynasty" on the shoulder of this side of the jade seal.
Only more than forty years later, Sima Yan, the emperor of Jin Wu, became the master of the national seal.
In June of the fifth year of Emperor Huai of Jin (311 AD), the generals Wang Mi and Liu Shu of Former Zhao Liu Cong led troops into Luoyang and captured the jade seal of the kingdom to Pingyang (present-day southwest of Linfen, Shanxi). Eighteen years later, Later Zhao Shile destroyed Former Zhao, and he followed Cao Pi's practice and engraved four large characters "Heavenly Mandate Shi Clan" on the other side of the jade seal.
Who knew that God did not bless him, and the great general Ran Min killed Later Zhao's Shijian and secretly took the Chuanguo Seal for himself. Two years later, Murong Gao, the former king of the Yan state, destroyed Ran Min again, claiming that Ran's wife had handed over the jade seal of the kingdom, and specially changed the name of the year to "Yuan Seal". In fact, Murong Gao did not even see the shadow of the jade seal of the kingdom.
It turned out that when he attacked Ran Min's Lao Chao Yecheng (present-day Ye Town, southwest of Linzhang County, Hebei), he had begged the Eastern Jin army for assistance, and Dai Shi, the Taishou of Puyang (present-day Puyang County, Henan), threatened him to hand over the jade seal of the kingdom, and immediately sent more than 100 elite iron horses to Jiankang (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu), and after offering it to Emperor Mu of Jin, the jade seal of the kingdom spent more than 70 years in the hands of the six emperors of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In July 420, the Eastern Jin Dynasty collapsed, and the jade seal of the kingdom changed hands several times, which was obtained by Xiao Liang of the Southern Dynasty. In the second year of the Taiqing Dynasty (584 AD), Hou Jing rebelled and took away the jade seal of the kingdom from Xiao Yan, the emperor of Liangwu.
Soon after, the Liang governor Wang Sengbian defeated Hou Jing, and the jade seal accidentally fell into the hands of Hou Jing's "confidential man" Zhao Sixian. Zhao Bu hurriedly sacrificed it to Guo Yuanjian, who made a long journey to sacrifice it to Gaoyang, Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi. When it reached Emperor Youdi of Qi, he was unable to take care of this treasure, so it was obtained by Northern Zhou. Only four years later, it was held in the hands of Yang Jian, the emperor of Sui.
In another thirty-seven years, the world was in chaos, the rebels swarmed, and Li Yuan's father and son rose up to level the crowd. Until Emperor Taizong of Tang ascended the throne, he still did not see this jade seal of the kingdom, and he couldn't help but think about it. In the fourth year of Zhenguan (630 AD), the jade seal of the Turkic kingdom returned to the Tang Dynasty, and the Li dynasty put it under careful care, and was successively used by twenty-three emperors (including Wu Zhou), and settled in Chang'an for more than 270 years.
In April 907, Zhu Quanzhong usurped the authority of the Tang Dynasty, and naturally he would not forget to take away the jade seal of the country, but it was only a dozen years before he was restored to the hands of the emperor. In the third year of the Qing Dynasty (936 AD), Shi Jingtang led the Khitan soldiers to Luoyang, and the late Tang emperor Li Congke saw that the rivers and mountains were not safe, and in panic climbed the Xuanwu Tower and set himself on fire. "Emperor Child" Shi Jingtang and others searched for the jade seal, and since then, the world's supreme treasure has once again lost its end.
Without the jade seal of the country, although it is a great regret, the emperor's throne will not be empty. Many "true destiny sons" in the Five Dynasties period, as well as Zhao Kuangyin and others of the Song Dynasty, still served as their emperors. However, I always hope that one day the jade seal will reappear, and I have offered a heavy reward for this treasure.
In the third year of Song Zhezong's Shaoxing (1096 AD), Duan Yi, a farmer in Xianyang, obtained a jade seal of "carrying five plates of buttons" when plowing land,
It looks "green as blue, warm and lustrous", and after repeated identification by thirteen people including Cai Jing, Zeng Zhao, Li Gonglin, etc., it was confirmed that this seal was a "true Qin state seal" that "could not be made after the Han Dynasty". However, why this object was lost in Luoyang and reappeared in Xianyang, Cai Jing and others can not say clearly. Fortunately, Song Zhezong did not ask, and just took it and used it. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and this jade seal of the kingdom only took thirty years, and the two emperors of Hui and Qin became prisoners of the golden people, and the jade seal was also plundered at the same time, and I didn't know where to lose it in a panic.
Jin destroyed Yuanxing, and Jiangshan changed hands again, but he still did not see the shadow of the jade seal of the country.
One day in May in the 31st year of the Yuan Dynasty (1294 AD), Cheng Cui in the imperial history was wandering on the street in civilian clothes, and suddenly saw a merchant holding a jade seal for sale, Cui Or took it and couldn't help but straighten his eyes, this turned out to be a jade seal that had been missing for many years! He immediately bought it quietly. In order to prevent counterfeiting, he went home to carefully examine the ancient seal map, size, style and seal, and sure enough, it was the same as Qin. The jade seal of the country is exactly the same.
Cui Or couldn't contain the excitement in his heart, and immediately solemnly wrote a congratulatory table to the emperor, and presented the jade seal to Emperor Yuancheng Tie Mu'er, who had just been on the throne for a month.
Inside and outside the imperial court, it was agreed that this was a great auspicious situation, and it was lively for more than three months. This seal was further favored by ten emperors of the Yuan Dynasty, and by July of the 28th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1368 AD), Emperor Yuan Hui was expelled from the capital by the Ming general Xu Da, and the jade seal of the kingdom was also taken away by him.
After countless ups and downs, the great seal of the imperial palace, finally tired of the ruthless palm of the feudal dictator and quietly hid in the vast desert.
The Jade Seal of the Kingdom could not be found, but the conversation about it has not stopped, and people are still waiting for its reappearance. Of course, this is not the need to dream of becoming an emperor, but to understand it more fully and in more detail.
Historians want to solve this age-old mystery; Geologists want to scrutinize its material; Calligraphy seal carvers wanted to borrow its skills; Archaeologists wait to identify its authenticity; And those antique dealers want to use it to expand their pockets............· It is a pity that this jade seal of the country is like a fan who has caught up in the hide, and refuses to come out after thousands of calls. Here, we have reason to ask: Is there a jade seal in history? Can it be recreated?
In the investigation of expert Wang Tingqia, the answer is no.