The news about the auction of the beast head in the Old Summer Palace has worried the majority of patriots for a long time, and the value of these bronze statues has far exceeded the value of its creation itself, and has become an important stage symbol of China's modern humiliation process. Whether it returns or not, China's backwardness and beatings in modern times are destined to be recorded in history and will never be forgotten. Of course, the story I want to tell today is not about these bronze statues that humiliate the Chinese people, but a stone that is enough to make the Chinese people raise their eyebrows: in the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian actually used a "foreign envoy" to guard the mausoleum!
Located on the top of Liangshan Mountain in Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province, about 80 kilometers away from Xi'an, Qianling Mausoleum is the joint tomb of Li Zhi, the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and his successor, Wu Zetian, the only empress in Chinese history. On the east and west sides outside the Suzaku Gate of the Qianling Cemetery, there are 61 stone statues, the technique of the original carving is adopted, the residual height of the stone statue is between 1.5 meters and 1.77 meters, the size is about the same as the real person, people are accustomed to call it "Fan Statue", "Binwang Statue". The use of "foreign envoys" to guard the mausoleum, which is unprecedented in Chinese and foreign history, because guarding the mausoleum is the duty of the vassals, and the envoys are a symbol of a country, and what is even more strange is that most of these stone statues have lost their heads. People can't help but ask, why did Qianling use "foreign envoys" to guard the tomb, and why did they only have a body and no head?
Zhao Kai of the Song Dynasty said in the "Notes" written for You Shixiong's "Qianling Map": "The burial of Qianling, the people who came to help from Zhufan are so many. Empress Wu did not know that Taizong's legacy was prestigious, but she wanted to exaggerate the afterlife, so she recorded sixty-one of his chiefs, each with its own shape, engraved with Wanyan, so that future generations can know it." Based on this, later generations mostly believe that these ministers are the people who came to pay tribute to Tang Gaozong. Reminiscent of the reign of Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the Tang Dynasty was powerful and the border minority regimes surrendered one after another, and the leaders of the border ethnic minorities came to attend the funeral held for Gaozong. In order to show the emperor's prestige, Wu Zetian ordered the people to carve stone statues according to the costumes and appearances of these leaders who participated in the funeral, which seems to make sense.
However, the researchers found that it is not so simple. Most of these stone figures are dressed in left-hand samurai robes with round necks and tight sleeves. 衽, that is, the placket. Historically, most of the people in the Central Plains of the mainland wore the right side, and the clothing of the ethnic minorities had the front to the left, which was called the left side. The right and left sides also became an important marker to distinguish between the Han and Hu people. Researchers found from the costumes worn by the stone statues that among these stone statues were not only nomads, but also ethnic minorities in the Western Regions and around the Tang Dynasty.
And these stone figures are all holding the wat board in both hands. The so-called wat board is a long and narrow board held by the ancient ministers of the mainland when they went to court, which is generally made of ivory, and records the things that the court wants to say. In addition, more than 20 stone statues have been found with "jade bags". The so-called jade bag is the bag with the official seal carried by officials above the fifth grade in the Tang Dynasty, as well as the governor and the assassin Shi. All this reminds us that these stone statues were officials in important positions in the Tang Dynasty, not envoys.
Researchers have also found that many of the Qianling stone statues have the word "so" written on the back, indicating that they died before the stone statues were carved. For example, the Ashina Mi Shi stone statue on the west side has the word "so" in front of its name. According to records, Ashina Mitsu was the leader of the Western Turks and was once named a hussar general. After Tang Gaozong succeeded to the throne, Ashina Mi became the highest local military and political governor of the Tang Dynasty, and died in 662 AD. Tang Gaozong died of illness in 683 A.D. and was buried in Qianling the following year. Then, it is impossible for Ashina Misu, who died more than 20 years before Tang Gaozong's death, to attend Tang Gaozong's funeral. And there are more than ten stone statues like Ashina Mi Shot that engrave the word "therefore" in front of the name, which shows that the Qianling stone statue group is not the person who came to participate in the memorial when Tang Gaozong or Wu Zetian was buried.
Since the stone statue was not erected by Wu Zetian after Gaozong's death, when was it carved? According to historical records, when the stone statues were first erected, their country names, official positions, and names were engraved on their backs. However, only a few statues can now be identified by name, and the others are obscure.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Shaanxi Shi Shi Xiong once "visited the old home in Fengtian County to copy and carve four steles", found a sample of the name of the person on the back of the stone statue, carved four stone tablets, and stood in front of the east and west stone statues. It is a pity that only three of these four steles remained in the Yuan Dynasty and were damaged. Li Haowen, a native of the Yuan Dynasty, only recorded the official titles and names of thirty-nine people in the "Chang'an Zhitu". In the Qing Dynasty, Ye Yibao's "Golden Stone Record Supplement" recorded thirty-eight people. Up to now, there are only six people with titles on the statues of Fanchen, and only 36 people can be examined for their official titles, and some of them have recorded their life deeds in the history books of the Tang Dynasty.
The Persian king Belus in the stone statue of Qianling, his father Yihehou, was the king of Persia, and in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan (639), he sent envoys to Chang'an to offer live snakes. Ichihou was expelled by the Great Eclipse, and was killed by the Great Cannibal on the way to Tocharo. After his son Belus succeeded to the throne, he was invaded by the Great Food and complained to the Tang Dynasty. Because the two countries were too far apart to send troops, in order to show solidarity with Persia, the city of Jiling was used as the Persian governor's palace, and Belus was named the Persian governor, but it was still destroyed by the great food. Belus fled to Chang'an and was named the general of Zuo Xiaowei. In the second year of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (677), Belus asked the Tang court to build a Persian temple in the city of Chang'an, and finally died in Chang'an.
Murong Nuo is a native of Tuyuhun, and Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, named him the king of the source of the Tuyuhun River, and crowned the Khan of Wudi and Baledou - Taizong also has a stone statue of him in front of the Zhaoling, and the name of the country and the title are the same as those of Qianling. In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, Murong Nuo made a special pilgrimage to Chang'an and asked for marriage. In the following year, Taizong "took the princess's wife as the daughter of the clan, and ordered the right general Wuwei to escort the princess." After Tang Gaozong succeeded to the throne, he still crowned Tuguhun Qinghai King. Because he won the favor of Taizong and Gaozong, and had a close relationship with the Tang Dynasty, two generations of emperors carved stone statues for him in front of the mausoleum to commemorate.
Yu Chi Hui was the king of Khotan. Khotan is now Xinjiang and Khotan. During the Zhenguan period, the envoys of Khotan once offered jade belts and other tributes to the Tang Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, the Turkic Ashina Sheer pacified Qiuzi, and the king of Khotan, Fu Jiaxin, was very frightened, and gave 300 camels to Sheer's horse as a token of consolation. Sheer sent an envoy Xue Wanbei to persuade him to return to the Tang Dynasty, so Fu Gexin, accompanied by Xue, personally went to Chang'an for the pilgrimage, and was named the general of the right Xiaowei by Tang Gaozong, rewarded him with jade belts, brocade robes and other things, and left him to live in Chang'an for a few months before returning. In the third year of Tianzhu (692), the king of Khotan, Fu Gexiong, died, and Wu Zetian appointed his son Yu Chi Xuan as the king of Khotan. Although Khotanese is not a Han Chinese, it has been a vassal state of China since the Han Dynasty, so a standing stone statue of its king was carved in front of the Qianling Tomb.
Most of these deeds recorded in the history books of the Tang Dynasty occurred during the reign of Wu Zetian to Tang Zhongzong, and it can be seen that these stone statues were also carved during this period and were erected after Wu Zetian was buried in the Qianling Tomb.
In fact, during the reign of Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the Tang Dynasty was unprecedentedly powerful, and its ruling power exceeded the desert in the north, crossed the green mountains in the west, and reached the two river basins in Central Asia. The surrounding ethnic minorities had frequent contacts with the Tang Dynasty, and many ethnic minority leaders were appointed as magistrates of the Tang Dynasty, and at the same time served as the general of the Twelve Guards. According to this situation, in the first year of Shenlong (705), when Tang Zhongzong buried Wu Zetian, he carved more than 60 chieftains who had served in the imperial court and placed them in the Qianling Tomb, so as to reflect the ruling power of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian and the vassal relationship of various ethnic groups to the Tang Dynasty.
There are a total of 61 statues in Qianling, 29 in the east and 32 in the west. However, such an asymmetrical placement does not conform to the architectural pattern of ancient China, so some scholars suspect that there are not only 61 statues.
Sure enough, in the eastern mausoleum park of Qianling, researchers found two unfinished rough stones. The rough stone is 2.45 meters high and 0.86 meters wide. Based on this size, it is speculated to be the size of a stone man's blank. Later, another semi-finished product was found on this side, and the human form and body had been carved in its entirety. Nearby villagers found an unfinished stone statue not far from here. If you add the stone man blank and these two semi-finished stone statues, the statues of Fanchen in Qianling are exactly 64.
The statue of Qianling Fanchen was greatly damaged in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, accompanied by servants, and most of them had no head. By the beginning of the century, all the stone heads had been lost. The reason why the stone statue is headless remains a mystery to this day.
There are many sayings among the people. One theory is that the stone men became demons and went to the homes of nearby peasants to say that these stone men became sperm at night, spoiled all the grain, and were broken by the people, which is obviously not true.
One theory says that in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, there was a Khan of the Tupu tribe in the north named Ashina Yuanqing, Wendao Wuluo, wise and brave, deeply loved by the tribal peoples, somehow, someone carved his stone statue to stand in the Qianling, his son Ashina Shiming learned, extremely dissatisfied, so he pretended to be a lama to come to the Qianling, and when he saw that it was so, he suddenly got angry from his heart, raised the stone to smash the stone statue, but was found by the tomb guard, beaten and driven out of the cemetery, he therefore held a grudge, and wanted to borrow a knife to kill people. One day, in the dark, the farmland near the stone statue trampled on the crops, but spread rumors that the stone statue was responsible for it, and only by smashing off his head could he avoid the disaster. The common people believed it and rushed to the Qianling Tomb one after another, smashing the stone statue head. Ashina Shiming took the opportunity to pick up his father's stone statue head, wrapped it in a burden and carried it home, and since then the statue of Renbin on the Qianling Tomb has become a headless stone statue.
Another theory is that when the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China, they saw a group portrait of foreign envoys in front of Tang Qianling, and felt humiliated by the face of foreigners, so they cut off the head of the stone man. However, according to the research of historians, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army did not visit Qianling at that time.
Legends are legends after all, but it is not difficult to see that the loss and damage of these stone statues are all related to the intentional or unintentional destruction of people. According to the analysis of relevant data, there are natural reasons for the destruction of the statue of Fan Chen, as well as man-made factors.
In the 34th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, that is, on January 23, 1555, a strong earthquake occurred in Huaxian County, Shaanxi, with a magnitude of 8 to 11. More than 800,000 people died in the earthquake because it occurred in the middle of the night while people were still asleep. Huaxian County is only more than 100 kilometers away from Qianling, which belongs to the epicenter area, and Qianling has suffered a devastating blow. This is the famous Guanzhong earthquake in history. Experts deduce that the Guanzhong earthquake was one of the main reasons for the fracture of the head of the statue of Fanchen. Because not only the statue of Fanchen, but also the destroyed part of many stone statues and stone horses in Qianling also happens to be heads. Expert analysis: In addition to the fragility of the neck of the stone statue, another important reason is the material of the stone statue. Because the stone used for carving at that time had some stone blemishes, that is, some light-colored lines that could be seen from the stone. When the stone is damaged, it is most likely to crack from these places.
Researchers theorize that some of the 61 statues were destroyed by the earthquake. The rest of the stone statues were probably destroyed in the repeated wars of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties five or six hundred years ago.
Although the heads of these 61 statues are nowhere to be found, the tight-fitting narrow-sleeved clothes, wide belts, short leather boots, feet side by side, hands arched forward, lifelike images still show us the scene of the courtiers standing in the court, leaving us with infinite reverie of the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty.
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