In the Three Gorges, Kuimen is a famous scenery, and its majestic posture is actually printed on the back of the renminbi, attracting countless tourists who come to visit. Passing by boat, people are always attracted by a mysterious cave with obvious artificial traces. This cave, known locally as the "Golden Cave", is said to contain treasures from ancient times, and legend has it that those who step into this cave will be able to possess treasures of great value.
These legends have made many people itch and want to find out. However, the "Golden Cave" is not trivial, with a steep 100-meter cliff and a bottomless valley of more than 260 meters, which is a precipitous Jedi, and for many years, no one has been able to successfully set foot in it, leaving behind a legend that makes people reverie.
In the 21st century, under the gaze of CCTV, a brave professional expedition team put life and death aside, and finally let the mystery of the mysterious cave slowly uncover in front of the world......
The legend of the "Golden Cave" is as many as a cow's hair and strange. But there are three stories among them, which are particularly deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, which are: the treasures of the "White Emperor" Gongsun Shu, the secret treasures of the Ba people, and the collection of Zhuge Liang's books.
The most talked-about thing has to count the legend told by the grandson of the "White Emperor". The story takes place not far from Kuimen, the famous White Emperor City, which is the imperial capital of Gongsun Shu.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang usurped the throne, and the world was in turmoil. Gongsun Shu was ordered to guard the Shu land, when he built a city on the mountain, he found that a well often emitted white gas, like a white dragon dancing, he regarded it as a good omen, called it "White Dragon Xianrui", thought that he was destined to become the Son of Heaven, so he called himself "White Emperor", and established himself as the king in the White Emperor City.
At that time, the land of Shu, the soil was fertile, the products were abundant, Gongsun Shu had been operating here for many years, the soldiers were strong, and he even compared himself with Liu Bang, the king of the Han Dynasty who had occupied the land of Shu, and was ambitious to dominate the world.
However, in the blink of an eye, a few years later, that Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu emerged from Hebei and swept across the north and south of the river. Poor Gongsun Shu was unfortunately defeated in the flames of war, and ended up in a different place, and his family was also wiped out. But those Han troops who invaded the city rummaged through the cabinets in the treasury, but found very few treasures.
The world has speculated that perhaps Gongsun Shu has already quietly transferred those gold and silver treasures to other places. Legend has it that the location of the treasure is the Golden Cave not far from the White Emperor City, where the terrain is dangerous and difficult for ordinary people to reach.
The story of the Ba people is as old as a stone by the river, and it is difficult to carve traces on it through the wind and rain of the years. Everyone knows that the name Ba people is in the long history, which is equivalent to mystery and wildness. Although they had already dealt with our Chinese civilization as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, with the Qin people's iron horses stepping into Sichuan and Shu at that time, these ancient Ba people were like dust blown away by the wind, disappearing without a trace, leaving behind a history as thin as a translucent piece of paper.
Qin and Chu are competing for each other, and the living space of the Ba people is becoming more and more cramped. In the end, the Qin general Sima Coo's army went south, and with a military order, the last territory of Bashu was included in the territory of Qin.
And the story about the end of Pakistan, there is such a version: a prince of Pakistan, with boxes of gold and silver, led a loyal entourage to escape into the deep "golden cave". But the good times didn't last long, and the sharp gaze of the Qin army quickly locked on their hiding place, sealing the entrance of the cave tightly, cutting off all ways of survival.
Shrouded in the shadow of death, they desperately carved a passage, but the moment the light poured into the cave, the Pakistani people saw in despair that there was a bottomless cliff outside the cave. No one survived, and they could only wait for death in this desperate situation.
And time flies, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Bei, who occupied Shu and became emperor, entrusted the orphan to Zhuge Liang in the White Emperor City because of the tragic defeat in the Battle of Yiling. According to legend, in order to block Lu Xun's pursuers, Zhuge Liang laid a mysterious eight-array diagram at Kuimen near the White Emperor City.
Around Kuimen, the legends of the Eight Arrays abound, and this "Golden Cave" is naturally speculated to be a secret position of the Eight Arrays, and there is even a saying that the military books left by Zhuge Liang are hidden in the cave.
The legend of the Golden Cave
There are countless stories about the Golden Cave, the most famous of which is an expedition by General Feng Yuxiang during the Anti-Japanese War.
In 1939, General Feng Yuxiang, who was tasked with inspecting the situation of the Anti-Japanese War, returned from the front line, passed by the Three Gorges, heard the legend of the "Golden Cave", and couldn't help but feel curious.
At that time, the situation of the Anti-Japanese War was dangerous, and the money bags were also tight, if you can make an unexpected amount of money, it will be of great help to the brothers on the front line. General Feng Yuxiang thought about it, it was worth a try, so he immediately sent his guards to explore the way.
They had ropes tied around their waists, intending to reach the cave from the top of the cliff. But the cliff was so steep that the guards were limited to what they were doing, and they didn't dare to take this risk, so they could only turn back in disgrace.
Twenty years later, on an ordinary day, Yang Wenping, an ordinary farmer in Yongle Town, Fengjie County, was digging medicinal herbs in the mountains and forests, and accidentally kicked open the legendary "Golden Hole". His ears were filled with all kinds of legends about this cave, but he didn't believe it at all.
But seeing the swallows flying around, I made a mistake in my heart: Is it true that there is a house for swallows hidden here? The bird's nest is a sought-after item, and it can be worth a few dollars. So, he dragged the rope and stepped on the clouds, and stepped into the deep hole.
As soon as he stepped into the cave, Yang Wenping was stunned: in front of him was a mess, the dilapidated coffins were crooked, and the white bones were scattered, like waste forgotten by the years. On the ground, bronze utensils are in twos and threes, reflecting a dim light, as if telling an ancient story.
Yang Wenping's heart beat faster, he picked up a few bronzes in a panic, and hurriedly escaped from this cave full of gloomy atmosphere, and the silence in the cave seemed to still echo in his ears.
Among the bronze gadgets in Yang Wenping's hand, there was a sword with exquisite textures, which was immediately hit by the connoisseur. This sword, that is the first "Bashi Willow Leaf Sword" to appear in Sanxingdui, the stock in the world is pitiful. The experts were curious, and they found Yang Wenping in a hurry, wanting to inquire about the ins and outs of this sword.
Because of the "Willow Leaf Sword" in Yang Wenping's hand, the mystery of the Golden Cave finally revealed the tip of the iceberg, which attracted the attention of the national cultural relics department. Unfortunately, the technology was limited, and they were not able to explore the cave at that time.
In 1994, at the invitation of a foreign expedition, China formed an expedition with a group of British and French people, but somehow it failed to get into the hole.
It was not until 1996 that the trilateral joint expedition of China, Britain and Ireland really stepped into the "golden hole". But at that time, the equipment was poor, and there were not many Chinese team members, so the investigation of the cave naturally stopped.
In 2017, it was an era of rapid change in equipment technology. Under the promotion of CCTV, our country's expedition team joined hands with local folk experts in Sichuan to embark on the journey of exploring the "Golden Cave" of Kuimen again.
This time, the expedition team's bags were not only filled with cutting-edge equipment, but also CCTV reporters and drone formations, who stood side by side to record the details of the expedition.
The truth will always be revealed one day
In the place of Kuimen, the river wind was so fierce that it seemed to blow people to the edge of the sky. In the process of descending, the expedition team will hang in the air if it is not careful, and it will not be able to find the north, which is very dangerous.
In order to ensure the safety of the big guys, the expedition team used drones to reconnoiter the entrance of the cave, carefully planned, and selected the most secure route into the cave. In this way, the team members can lean against the rocks as much as possible, reduce the risk during the descent, and complete the task steadily.
In the wave of the drone's wings, our explorers followed the rope and landed on the earth like heavenly soldiers, and landed steadily on the resting place that had been selected long ago. With their chests against the cold rocks, they danced with professional climbing equipment, hooked every crevice of the rocks, and moved sideways towards the legendary "Golden Cave" inch by inch.
After six hours of exhaustion, the first explorer finally set his feet on the threshold of the "Golden Cave", and the mysterious mesa seemed to cheer for his arrival.
The first thing that catches your eye when you step into the cave is the legendary stone platform, which is made of artificial piles, as if telling the story of the years. On the stone platform, scattered coffin fragments seem to silently confirm the vicissitudes of the past.
Fellow folklorists speculate that this stone platform was the place where the coffins of the Ba people were parked in ancient times, and they may have rested and immersed themselves in mourning before sending the coffins of their loved ones into the depths of the cave.
Through the cramped passage, a spacious stone room shows in front of you, full of white bones, the walls on both sides are flat, the traces of artificial excavation are clearly visible, and the "Bashu totem" symbol on the wall is mysterious and simple.
The secret of the Golden Cave of Kuimen was slowly revealed. Whether it is the bronze artifacts found by Yang Wenping that year, the "Ba Shi Willow Leaf Sword", or the totems on these stone walls, or even the unique custom of hanging coffins, all show the deep relationship between the Golden Cave and the Ba people.
Talking about the Ba people and the hanging coffin
Hanging coffins, the burial custom of the ancient ethnic minorities in the south, are mostly spread among the nobles because of their difficult technology and huge cost.
The mainland's research on hanging coffins has been carried out since ancient times. As far back as the Liang Chen period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, King Gu Ye recorded in the "Taiping Yulan" that "the house of the earth immortals, thousands of coffins hanging on the cliff", which was the initial written description of this mysterious culture.
In 1946, in the mountains and rivers of Sichuan, Chinese scholars officially proposed the title "hanging coffin" for the first time, and China's research on the mysterious cliff burial rites of the ancients was also unveiled.
In 1989, a group of scholars who studied the "Chinese hanging coffin", hand-cranked antique winch, with primitive tools, reproduced the hanging coffin that had disappeared for thousands of years in Guixi Xianshui Rock. This move is undoubtedly a huge leap forward in solving the mystery of the hanging coffin, giving us a preliminary glimpse into how the ancients carried heavy coffins up the cliff. However, in many places with steep terrain, it is difficult to use large equipment, and how the ancients did it is still an unsolved mystery.
Although the research on hanging coffin culture is deepening, our understanding of its origin and the connection between various ethnic groups is still limited.
The Ba people regard the hanging coffin as the final destination of the princes and nobles, but in the vast south, many ethnic groups and many eras have their own coffin burial traditions. If a hanging coffin tomb of the pre-Qin Ba people can be confirmed, it will undoubtedly be an epoch-making discovery for the study of the hanging coffin culture and even the history of the Ba people.
At the conclusion, although the secret of the "Golden Cave" in Kuimen has been revealed, and there are no gold or silver treasures in it, its cultural mystery still fascinates countless history fans. On the 190-kilometer cliff of the Three Gorges, explorers have discovered more than a dozen hanging coffin sites, confirming that the Golden Cave was once the sacred coffin burial place of the ancient Ba people.