From 1958, when several farmers accidentally discovered the entrance to the Qianling Tomb, the tomb of Wu Zetian, which had been sleeping for 1,200 years, attracted the attention and attention of all walks of life. However, although the Shaanxi provincial government proposed plans to rescue the Qianling tombs in 1960, 1986, 1994 and 2000, they were rejected by the relevant state departments.
In fact, the excavation of Wu Zetian's tomb is not only the long-cherished wish of the Shaanxi Provincial Government, but also the wish of Guo Moruo, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. However, Wu Zetian's tomb has been excavated seventeen times in the past thousand years, and even if it is used with cannons, it has no success, what is the mystery of this imperial tomb?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > farmer accidentally found the qianling underground palace tomb crossing</h1>
In the winter of 1958, the year was in the period of the "Great Leap Forward", and every peasant had a high fighting spirit, active and serious work, and hard work. Villagers near Qianling in Shaanxi Province actively joined the road restoration work in the section from Xi'an to Lanzhou, and because of the need to consume a lot of stone, the villagers came to Liangshan, where Qianling was located, to set fire cannons to collect stones.
After some site selection, the slope of a kilometer north of the wordless monument became the main place for soil extraction, and dozens of square stones could be blown up every day. At two o'clock in the afternoon of November 27, the peasant Heshe Society, in accordance with the usual practice, lit another shot, but the place he chose was just four meters outside the entrance of the Qianling Underground Palace Tomb, and after a loud noise, several stone strips exploded in the air.
After the smoke cleared, Heshe and several villagers rushed forward, only to see that these stone strips were not ordinary things, there were words on them, although they could not understand what was written, but these stone strips were very exquisite, they should be carved by hand.
He Sheshe was shocked when he saw this, and he muttered, "Did you blow up your aunt's tomb?" Originally, the villagers who had lived near Qianling for generations referred to Wu Zetian as their aunts. As the only female emperor in history, the villagers have always been full of reverence for the mausoleum of their aunts, and now that the Qianling tomb has been blown up, this matter is not trivial, and He Sheshe and one of the villagers immediately ran to the seat of the county government of Qianxian County, Shaanxi.
The two people who received the Heshe Society were cadres surnamed Yang from the government office, who was greatly surprised after hearing this, and he could not believe that this was true, but when he saw the peasants' words, he naturally did not dare to be sloppy, and immediately reported the news to the secretary of the county party committee and the county chief.
However, after hearing this, these two leaders did not believe it; it turned out that in the early years of the Republic of China, the Kuomintang general Sun Lianzhong, in order to dig up Qianling, led a regiment of regular troops, and failed to blow up Qianling with explosives and cannons.
Despite some doubts, the two leaders still asked the cadres surnamed Yang to go over to see the situation, fifteen miles from the government office to the Qianling Tomb crossing, because the traffic was not too convenient, it was already dusk when they arrived at the destination.
Cadres surnamed Yang inspected the scene and found that the situation was indeed as the villagers said, and immediately asked the villagers to cover the place where the explosion was blown up, and ordered: No stones should be blown up near here, and nothing that happened this afternoon should be said, and the parents should not be told, and the children should not be sued.
The cadre surnamed Yang rushed back overnight and reported the specific situation to the secretary of the county party committee and the county chief, and the two leaders were shocked to hear it, and immediately asked him to put down the work at hand and rush to the provincial capital to report the matter to the cultural relics department.
After the provincial cultural relics department learned the news, on December 4, it immediately sent experts Yang Zhengxing and others to the destination to survey and see how the situation was.
After Receiving the order, Yang Zhengxing hired nine migrant workers to clean up the rubble nearby, and then dug up the ground, and soon dug up the Qianling Underground Palace Tomb Crossing, which was the first time in 1,254 years that the Qianling Tomb Road was exposed to the world.
A husband and wife emperor unique in history
The great charm of Qianling lies in fact that it is the world's unique tomb of two emperors of two dynasties and a husband and wife emperor, and it is also a model of the tang dynasty's burial system of "building a tomb according to the mountain", Qianling is located in Liangshan, the north of Qianxian County, about eighty kilometers northwest of Xi'an, chiseled stone for the underground palace, its scale is grand, magnificent, and it is also a typical representative of the heyday of the feudal dynasty.
Judging from the literature and archaeological confirmation, of the 18 Tombs of the Tang Emperors in the Hanzhong region, seventeen of which were stolen, the Qianling Tombs are the only Tombs of the Tang Emperors that have not been stolen.
Buried in the Qianling tombs were Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Emperor Wu Zetian. Li Zhi was the ninth son of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, born to Empress Wende, because the crown prince Li Chengqian plotted to abolish it, and Li Tai, the king of Wei, was also disqualified from inheriting the throne for his sins, and at the age of sixteen Li Zhi became the crown prince with the help of his eldest son Wujie, and Li Shimin died in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, and Li Zhi succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-two.
At the beginning of his reign, Li Zhi was determined to become the Zhongxing Emperor, and with the assistance of elder ministers such as Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, he conscientiously implemented Li Shimin's Zhenguan Testament, and implemented the equalization system throughout the country, vigorously developed the examination system, and ordered the people to reclaim wasteland, and his population ushered in rapid growth and social and political clarity.
However, Li Zhi was middle-aged, because he was "dizzy and heavy-headed, and could not see", and could not handle the government affairs with peace of mind, which gave Wu Zetian, who had long had political ambitions, the opportunity to enter politics, and Wu Hou immediately monopolized power and specialized in government affairs.
In the first month of 666, Li Zhi and Wu Hou climbed Mount Tai together to worship Confucius, and at this time, the situation of "two saints" and respect appeared in the politics of the Tang Dynasty. Shangguan Yi, the prime minister, was imprisoned and executed for complaining about the harem's interference in the government. At this time, Li Zhi was also worried about the fall of imperial power, afraid that Li Shijiangshan would be buried in his hands, and wanted to cede the throne to the crown prince Li Hong, but it was not long before Li Hong died violently.
Li Zhi had no choice but to make his second son Li Xian crown prince and put him in charge of the country, but Empress Wu deposed him for the crime of disobedience. In desperation, Li Zhi had no choice but to make Li Xian, the prince of England, and in 682, Li Xian gave birth to a son, Li Chongrun, who was made the emperor's grandson by Li Zhi to protect the Tang Dynasty.
In December 683, Li Zhi died in Luoyang, leaving a last wish before his death, hoping that the bones would be buried in his hometown of Guanzhong. In May of the first year of civilization, Wu Zetian ordered Emperor Ruizong to escort Emperor Gaozong's coffin to Xi'an and bury him in Qianling.
Wu Zetian's ancestors were from Wenshui, Shanxi, and his father was originally a merchant, and later followed Li Yuan to raise soldiers, and the Tang Dynasty official to the Ministry of Works Shangshu, and his mother Yang Shi was the daughter of Yang Da, the Sui chancellor. It is reported that Wu Zetian appeared to be different from his appearance at an early age, and one day Yuan Tiangang, an astrologer, came to the Wu family as a guest, and after he saw Yang's face, he said: "Lady Bone Law is very good, and she will give birth to a noble son." ”
At this time, the nursing mother came out with Wu Zetian in her arms, yuan Tiangang looked at it for a while, and then proposed to let him walk around, and after a while, he was surprised and said: "This person has dragon eyes and phoenix neck, and the appearance of Fuxi will be extremely noble." Because Wu Zetian was wearing boy clothes at that time, Yuan Tiangang did not know it, so he had to say: "Unfortunately, It is Lang Jun, if it is a woman, it should be the lord of the world." ”
In 637, the 14-year-old Wu Zetian was incorporated into the harem by Li Shimin, named a talented person, and given the title of "Wu Mei". At this time, the martial artist attracted Li Shimin with his unique feminine posture, but she knew that There were many beautiful ladies in Li Shimin's harem, and it was difficult to please him, so she seduced the crown prince with her beauty.
At the end of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong was critically ill, and Li Zhi served him, and relations with the Wucai people quickly warmed up. After Li Shimin's death, according to the system at that time, the concubines of the former emperor who did not have children were sent to the Ganye Temple to cut their hair and become nuns to pray for the blessing of the former emperor.
In 652, Li Zhi came to Ganye Temple to burn incense, met Wu Meiniang, and the old love recurred, and then recruited her into the harem and was enthroned as Zhaoyi. Because of her strong and stoic personality, she will stop at nothing to be favored. She and Li Zhi's first child was a girl, at this time Empress Gaozong did not have children, and she was very fond of the girls born to Mei Niang, and often came to Mei Niang's bedchamber to tease her.
However, in order to become empress, Wu Zetian strangled his own daughter to death and framed Empress Wang. When Emperor Gaozong heard this, he was furious and deposed Empress Wang, and in 655, Wu Zetian became empress as he wished, and began to participate in the government.
Wu Zetian was talented and had a shrewd means of governing the country, which was recognized and relied upon by Li Zhi. After Emperor Gaozong fell ill, Empress Wu took sole power and eliminated the elders such as Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang, thus arbitrarily ruling the government.
After Emperor Zhongzong became emperor, Wu Zetian took the throne as empress dowager, abolished Emperor Zhongzong the following year, made Li Dan emperor, and ordered him not to interfere in political affairs. In 690 AD, Wu Zetian asked the monks to fabricate the Great Cloud Sutra for him, claiming that she was born of Maitreya Buddha and should serve as the lord of the world, and let his confidants collude with several ministers to "persuade him to advance", so it was logical to ascend the throne and call himself the Emperor of the Great Zhou, at this time she was sixty-seven years old.
Wu Zetian was proficient in literature and history, good at power and scheming, and said that the empress dowager actively promoted the imperial examination system, and created systems such as "palace examination", "self-promotion", and "martial arts", absorbing a large number of talents, appointing cool officials, cracking down on the door valve clan, reusing the cold disciples, and maintaining his rule.
During his fourteen years in power, the economy, politics, and culture of the Tang Dynasty ushered in a vigorous development, and the relations between the Tang Dynasty and the surrounding ethnic minorities improved. However, in his later years, he allowed his nephew Wu Sansi to control the government. In the first year of Shenlong, Wu Zetian was seriously ill, and the chancellor Zhang Kamzhi and others took the opportunity to launch a coup d'état and supported the restoration of Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian, wu Zetian died in November, and in August of the following year, he and Li Zhi were buried together in Qianling Xuangong.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > magical Qianling</h1>
There is a saying about the location of Qianling, and soon after Li Zhi ascended the throne, he sent his uncle Changsun Wuji and Taishi Ling, who was in charge of the astronomical calendar, to make Li Chunfeng choose a mausoleum for himself. One day, the two came to Liangshan, both identified it as a treasure of feng shui, and returned to Beijing to report to Emperor Li Zhi.
Yuan Tiangang immediately objected after hearing this, he had been to Liangshan when he chose the site for Gaozu, knew the advantages and disadvantages of this feng shui, and said to Gaozong: "Liangshan seems to be a treasure land of feng shui, although it is surrounded by water on both the east and west sides, it can lock the dragon qi, but it is cut off from the dragon vein of Emperor Taizong, and I am afraid that the Jiangshan will be in danger after three generations." In addition, the north peak of Liangshan Mountain is high, the front two peaks resemble female breast, and the entire mountain shape is like a young woman lying flat, choosing to use this as a mausoleum, afraid that it will be controlled by women. ”
After listening to Yuan Tiangang's suggestion, Emperor Gaozong hesitated, but after Wu Zetian listened, he blew the pillow wind in front of Li Zhi at night, thus making Li Zhi firmly choose to sleep in Liangshan. When Yuan Tiangang heard this, he shouted, "Tang Dynasty, Bi wu Zhaoyi!" ”
After the address was chosen, how to name it caused controversy again, and some ministers proposed that the tomb of Emperor Taizong be Zhaoling, and the mausoleum of His Majesty should be designated as Chengling to undertake the favor of Emperor Taizong. However, the eldest son Wuji believed that Liangshan was located in the northwest of Chang'an, and belonged to the dry position in the Bagua, and the dry was yang and heaven.
And Chang'an is the imperial capital of the present world, and Liangshan has become the imperial capital of His Majesty's Heaven, so it is better to call it Qianling. Li Zhi was very happy after hearing this, and immediately decided to designate it as Qianling.
According to historical records, the construction of Qianling used 200,000 soldiers and migrant workers to use the main peak of Liangshan as a mausoleum, and built an underground Xuangong on the mountainside, after more than three hundred days of construction, the main project was completed in 684 AD, and the project continued after Emperor Gaozong buried it.
Twenty-two years later, Wu Zetian died, and a fierce debate was sparked in the imperial court about the burial of Wu Zetian, and Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian's intention was obvious, so that his mother was buried in Qianling, but the ministers had many objections, believing that burying in Qianling would inevitably alarm the coffin of the former emperor and disturb its tranquility.
However, the generous and benevolent Emperor Zhongzong, in order to show his filial piety and fulfill his mother's last wishes, ordered the craftsmen to open the Qianling Tomb, open the tomb door, and bury Wu Zetian in it, after which Qianling became the only mausoleum in ancient times where two emperors were buried, and after that, Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong ordered seventeen people to accompany qianling, for which the construction of the Qianling lasted for fifty-seven years.
Before Emperor Gaozong and Li Zhi, all the emperors' tombs would not have a stele, nor an epitaph, but the "Gold Stele" in front of Emperor Gaozong's tomb had more than 5,600 words, written by Wu Zetian and written by Li Xian, because there were gold shavings in the trough, so it was called the Gold Stele, but because of human destruction, now there are only more than 1,600 words left in the Gold Stele.
Wu Zetian also erected a wordless stele in front of the tomb, because there are nine dragon figures on it, also known as the "Nine Dragon Stele", as to why the "wordless stele" was erected, it may be that Wu Zetian expressed the meaning of "merit left to future generations" evaluation.
In addition to the tombstone, the Qianling 61 Fanchen statue has also been talked about, and its stone statue is no different from the life-size. As for why they appear here, it is said that when Emperor Gaozong li was buried, envoys and officials of the feudal state attended the funeral, and Wu Zetian erected his statue in front of the Qianling Tomb to highlight the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
These vassals are very respectful and seem to be waiting for the emperor, but miraculously, these stone statues do not have heads. As early as 1974, when nearby villagers were farming, they dug up a large stone, cleared the mud and found that it was a stone figure, and immediately reported the news to the government.
After the experts came to the scene, they immediately conducted investigation and research, and found that the heads of other people coincided with the statues of the 61 vassals, that is, these stone statues should be on top of the statues of the vassals, why were they buried in the ground?
Archaeologists believe that it may be that there are more impurities in the stone material of these stone statues, and the head is easy to detach after suffering from wind and rain, earthquakes, etc. During the Jiajing period, a large earthquake of magnitude 8-11 broke out in Huaxian County, Shaanxi, and Qianling was also in the epicenter, resulting in the destruction of the stone part of the statue.
Qianling Cemetery was built in imitation of the pattern of Chang'an City, which is the Imperial City, Miyagi Castle, and Waiguo City, with a length of 4.9 kilometers from north to south. The inner city of the cemetery is square, with a length of 1450 meters from north to south, a length of 1582 meters from the east wall, and a length of 1438 meters from the west wall, with an area of 2.3 million square meters.
However, after the "Anshi Rebellion", the ground building part of Qianling was seriously damaged, and in 798 AD, the imperial court repaired Qianling and built 378 houses, but after 1,300 years of ups and downs, the magnificent buildings on the ground have long disappeared.
According to expert analysis, the collection in the Qianling Underground Palace should be 700 cubic meters, and its weight should be 500 tons. After all, at that time, it was in the prosperous period of economic development in the Tang Dynasty, and the economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries began to be frequent, and Chang'an at this time also became the most prosperous metropolis in the world, and the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty was also presented in front of people's eyes.
Western glassware, coins, silk, gold and silver utensils, etc. have been excavated in Famen Temple, which is enough to show that the Tang Dynasty and foreign exchanges at that time were close and frequent, showing the grand situation of "all countries coming to the dynasty", it is reported that the GDP of the Tang Dynasty accounted for 58% of the world at that time.
When Tang Gaozong was buried, he put one-third of the country's financial revenue into it, and twenty-two years later, when Wu Zetian was buried, Li Xian ordered that one-third of the gold and silver jewelry be buried in it.
So how many cultural relics are there in the Qianling Underground Palace? A senior cultural relics worker said that it is conservatively estimated that five hundred tons of cultural relics may be placed in the Qianling Tombs, not including the exquisite strips of stone.
According to the local exploration of Qianling, experts speculate that the Qianling tomb chamber is composed of a tomb passage, a patio, a cave, a corridor, and a left and right palace, with Tang Gaozong on the left and Wu Zetian on the right, and there are four Tibetan pavilions on both sides of the front and back passages, which contain a large number of Tang Dynasty treasures.
At the same time, there are also rumors that Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is placed in Li Shimin's Zhaoling Tomb, after all, Li Shimin's will and testament indicate that the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" should be placed under his head, but Wen Tao did not find the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" after digging up the Zhaoling Tomb, and many people speculated that the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" may have been buried in the Qianling Tomb. When Li was seriously ill, he said that he would put his favorite calligraphy and paintings in the tomb, and perhaps the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" was placed in Li Zhi's tomb. However, villagers near Qianling have had rumors since ancient times that the Orchid Pavilion Preface is a martyrdom of Wu Zetian.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > Qianling was stolen seventeen times</h1>
In February 1960, Shaanxi set up the Qianling Excavation Committee, and on April 3, the excavation of the underground palace tombs, experts found that these tombs are well preserved, and no traces of theft and disturbance were found near Lingshan, which is enough to prove that Qianling is the only Tomb of the Tang Emperor that was not stolen.
However, due to the large number of Chinese in Qianling, many tomb robbers in history have come to visit, and there have been seventeen tomb robberies with names and surnames alone, and there are three times when there is the largest movement and the most worthy of mention.
The first is the 400,000-strong army led by Huang Chao
Huang Chao was the commander of the peasant rebel army in the late Tang Dynasty, originally a large salt merchant, who loved writing since childhood and was very proficient in literature and history. At that time, Huang Chao held high the banner of the rebel army to rebel against the imperial court, and was very particular about tactics and mobile combat, which caught the Tang army off guard and gradually retreated.
However, the disadvantage of mobile operations was that there was no large rear of its own, and the supply of materials was insufficient, so in order to get money, after Huang Chao attacked Chang'an, he started the idea of Qianling. Four hundred thousand rebels came to Qianling under his echo, dug a ravine forty meters deep, and the mountain was half dug, and still did not find the entrance to the underground palace.
In today's aerial photographs, you can still see the "Huangchaogou", but soon the Tang army counterattacked back, and Huangchao was no longer able to worry about the Qianling matter, so he had to give up and lead the army to meet the battle.
The first is Wen Tao during the Five Dynasties period
Wen Tao was a descendant of the Later Liang State of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and served as the envoy of Yaozhou Jiedushi for seven years, which is today's commander of the Shaanxi Military Region. Because of the convenience of his position, Wen Tao committed crazy crimes, poisoning the Tombs of the Tang Emperors in the Guanzhong area one by one, and 17 of the 18 imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty were stolen and dug up by Wen Tao.com.
It is rumored that when Wen Tao was born, there was a bandit star landing on Zhaoling, which shows that he was born as a disaster star of the Tang Emperor's mausoleum. The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms themselves were very chaotic, and the Jiedushi was equivalent to the Tu Emperor and was not controlled by others.
When the other 17 Tombs of the Tang Emperor were stolen and dug, Wen Tao looked at Qianling again, but it was rumored that when he sent 50,000 people to dig Qianling, every time he chose a good day and auspicious day, when he arrived near Qianling, lightning and thunder, wild storms and rain, but after descending the mountain, the weather would turn sunny, three times in a row, Wen Tao was instigated, and had to give up digging Qianling.
So can the modern army dig up Qianling? During the Republic of China period, the Shaanxi warlord Sun Lianzhong was troubled by the military salary, and he was anxious to replenish the military salary, and he set his sights on qianling in his jurisdiction. However, tomb robbery was forbidden during the Republic of China, so he found an excuse for military exercises and sent a regiment of troops to be stationed under Liangshan Mountain, and also blockaded the surrounding areas, hoping to use explosives to blow up Qianling and steal the treasures inside.
However, I did not think that after half a month of explosion, there was still no progress, and Sun Lianzhong had to give up the excavation of Qianling. However, there are rumors that after Sun Lianzhong blew up the 3rd layer, a tornado soon blew up in the sky, and the soldiers who blew open the tomb door were swept into the sky and died. Sun Lianzhong was greatly surprised after hearing this, and quickly prostrated his head and confessed his mistake.
So, after so many times of excavation in history, has Qianling been excavated in the end? Experts believe that there should be no, the tomb passage of Qianling itself is very hidden, and the tomb road is also the main passage to the underground palace, if it were not for the farmers who happened to explode in 1958, it may be difficult to find the qianling tomb crossing.
However, there are also many tomb robbers who will infiltrate the dungeon in other ways to steal treasures. Among the archaeological findings, some of the mausoleums were not considered stolen by 99% of the excavations, which were very complete, but in the end they found that they had been looted. Those who are proficient in tomb robbers generally do not take the tomb road, otherwise there is a lot of movement and there are organs.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > to dig or not to mine? </h1>
However, in 1960, when the Shaanxi government planned to excavate the Qianling Tomb, Zhou Enlai immediately instructed him after learning about it: Good things cannot be done, and this matter can be completed by future generations.
Subsequently, Shaanxi's plan to dig Qianling leaked, and it caused a chain reaction, Henan wanted to dig the Song Tombs, Anhui wanted to dig the Ming Tombs, Inner Mongolia wanted to dig Jinling, and the whole country wanted to dig ancestral graves. The State Council immediately issued an instruction: the imperial tombs of the whole country should not be excavated first, and concentrated on the project areas to cooperate with the cleaning of cultural relics.
In desperation, the Shaanxi provincial government had no choice but to order the Qianling Tomb Road to be backfilled, and a year later, if Guo Moruo heard about the Qianling incident, he learned to be rich in five cars, knowing that there were many secrets hidden in the Qianling Tomb, and perhaps Wu Zetian's "Hanging Arch Collection" and "Golden Wheel Collection" would be seen again, and the portrait of Wu Hou and the handwriting of Shangguan Wan'er might be in qianling.
However, his request was rejected by Zhou Enlai, who again requested the excavation of Qianling ten years later, with the support of Wang Zhiqiu, director of the Cultural Relics Bureau, and Xia Nai, the founder of new Chinese archaeology. When Premier Zhou learned of this, he personally talked to Guo Moruo and expressed instructions to suspend excavation.
Since then, the Shaanxi government has repeatedly applied for the excavation of Qianling, but it has been rejected by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, after all, China's existing technology is not perfect, and the excavation needs to be postponed.