After Tang Zhaoling's second horse was stolen, who stole the other four horses?
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
Tang Taizong Li Shimin's "Six Horses of Zhaoling" in the "Six Horses of Zhaoling" in the "Six Horses of zhaoling", after being stolen from the mausoleum area, was exiled to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA. This raises a question, how come the remaining four originals are not in front of the Zhaoling Tombs now, but are placed in the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an?
It's a long story.
We have to start with the international cultural relics market at that time.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China, after Chinese bronzes became the sought-after goods of the time, it became a popular collection of international collectors and cultural institutions such as the Penn Museum, and Chinese stone carvings were favored again. International antique dealers have started the idea of Chinese stone carvings, some directly to China, and after seeing it, they let Chinese to steal and sell to them.
As a fine product of ancient Chinese stone carvings, Zhaoling Liujun is naturally more coveted by treasure thieves.
The earliest idea of zhaoling liujun was an antique dealer in Paris, France, involving 4 foreign merchants:
Mark, an antique dealer in Paris, France,
Gruchamps, French antique dealer,
Goranz, a salesman sent by Grushane to China,
Adolf Walsh, German antique dealer.
In 1918, Carl Bisbo, then deputy director of the Oriental Department of the Penn Museum, published an article in the museum journal introducing the Six Juns of Zhaoling, before which Bi shibo had twice visited China to purchase Chinese cultural relics in the name of "exploration".
The article has this to say:
"In the autumn of 1917, when I was visiting Xi'an on behalf of the Penn Museum, I heard that a Shaanxi overseer realized the importance of Shi Jun and returned to Beijing with the best preserved two horses a few years ago."
The exhibition site of zhaoling erjun in the Penn Museum
At that time, the two stone sculptures of Salu Zi and Fist Mao Were smuggled to the United States by Lu Qinzhai and exhibited free of charge in the Chinese Hall of the Penn Museum. Bi Shibo wrote an article about the Six Juns of Zhaoling, which is the reason for this.
The Penn Museum Journal is an international publication, and Marlon, who was far away in Paris, saw the article and wrote to the Penn Museum on June 29, 1921, calling Bsperberg's statement "incorrect."
Mark's letter states:
The great antiquities dealer Lu Qinzhai in the collection of Paris, France "Red Chamber"
In 1912, Grushan, who was in Beijing, wanted to get these stones before Adolf Wash and Marcel Bin's reconnaissance officer, Dalmeda. He sent an assistant named Goranz to take care of the matter and instructed him to transport Shi Jun out of the area as quickly and in the most appropriate way. In May 1913, Shi Jun was transported out of Zhaoling. On the way, the convoy was stopped by local farmers, and the precious Stone Jun was pushed off the cliff. The rubble of the stone was confiscated and handed over to the Xi'an Museum in 1917, bearing witness to a photograph of a remnant horse in front of the museum. They were later sold to Mr. Lu and Marcelbin, from whom you purchased them. I am particularly suitable to disclose this to your museum, because I had hoped to purchase Shi Jun through the intermediary Lu Shang, and my large initial investment was wiped out by the confiscation of Shi Jun. I think you will be interested in learning about this detail in order to restore the history of the famous Shi Jun. ”
Chinese cultural relics scattered overseas
This is the information found by Zhou Xiusmith, a Chinese researcher at the Penn Museum, when he investigated Erjun's entry into the Museum.
What Mark said, not to mention that the Americans had not heard of it, even Chinese was surprised that the first person to start the idea of stealing the Six Juns of Zhaoling was the French.
Mark's investment failed, he lost all his money, and his mood should be very bad, which revealed the inside story of the treasure theft, and he was quite unwilling.
Judging from Mark's statement, the Germans also wanted to get the Zhaoling Liujun.
Mark also explained the details of the theft of the Zhaoling Tombs, and when the Zhaoling Stone Carvings were taken, the locals found out, were stopped, and the stone sculptures were pushed off the cliff, resulting in fragments. When Shaanxi officials found out, they confiscated the stone carvings.
Severely damaged stone carvings
But Mark's claims are not necessarily all true, nor do they seem to be clear.
Judging from the four horses collected in the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an, some of them were artificially sawn open, the places where they were broken were very neat, and the location of the breaks was also deliberate - for the convenience of the stone carvings, not accidental fragments.
After more than 1,300 years of wind and rain, the Zhaoling Liujun was badly damaged when it was stolen, and the white-hoofed black stone sculpture placed in the West Pavilion at that time had fallen, and the other five horses were also broken. Song Liankui, an insider at that time, said in his "Su Lu Magazine", "Shi Jun's old and broken bones, after this round-trip transportation, the shape is broken." ”
In fact, the Zhaoling Liujun was not smuggled at one time.
The stone sculpture splits into three fast
Mark said, "In May 1913, Shi Jun was transported out of Zhaoling", which could only be Salu Zi and Fist Mao.
In this way, the statement in Su Di Magazine that "Zhang Yunshan took the second and moved the old governor's office in Chang'an" is incorrect. Zhang Yunshan's hand of The Purple Purple and Fist Hair was not that he deliberately stole them, but was stopped by the peasants and "confiscated" the gains.
Who is right? Now I really can't figure it out.
After the Erjun was stolen, the treasure thieves did not spare the remaining four Jun, and in the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918), the Four Juns disappeared in front of the Zhaoling Tomb!
The tomb of Emperor Taizong of Tang was dug in this mountain
There are different versions of the cause of the theft of the Four Juns, but they all involve a key figure, Chen Shufan's father.
Like Zhang Yunshan and Lu Jianzhang, Chen Shufan was also an important figure in the military and political circles of Shaanxi in the early years of the Republic of China.
Chen Shufan was a powerful general of the warlords of the Duan Qirui clan. After Yuan Shikai's death, Chen Shufan was highly valued by Duan Qirui and was appointed as the general of the General Fu Han Wu, and was immediately appointed as the overseer of Shaanxi and the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi Protectorate Army. In July of the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917), Qirui pacified Zhang Xun's restoration and re-established the cabinet, and Chen Shufan concurrently served as the governor of Shaanxi Province--combining the military and political power of Shaanxi, and the power of the Chen family in Shaanxi scared people to death!
Chen Shufan
If you want to steal the stone sculptures of Zhaoling, without the care of the Chen family, I am afraid that you will not be able to take away even a stone.
At the turn of the autumn and summer of the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918), the explorer Bi Shibo from the Penn Museum came to Shaanxi through connections and contacted Chen Shufan.
This is the saying in the book "Five Thousand Years of Shaanxi". At that time, the treasure thieves arranged by Bi Shibo colluded with Chen Shufan's father, and with the assistance of the silk merchant Chen Peiyue, they found someone to steal Shivachi, Qingxiao, Bai hoof wu, and special service.
In order to facilitate transportation, when the four horses were packed into pieces and transported to Caotan Town on the Wei River, they were found and stopped, and while sending people to look at it and not let them go, they sent people to Xi'an to report to the provincial council.
Old photo of the Republic of China, by the Wei River
At this time, Chen Shufan's opponent, the Jingguo Army stationed in WeiheBei, heard about it, and just made a big fuss about it, smearing and attacking Chen Shufan, claiming that he had "betrayed national treasures" and "betrayed ancestral cultural relics."
In fact, Chen Shufan didn't know about this, it was his grandfather who did it. Chen did not dare to tell the old master, so he had to take out his anger out of his father's side, beat Ma Ben up, and let the intercepted four horses be transported to the Xi'an Library for proper preservation.
The theft of the remaining four juns was also mentioned in Song Liankui's book "Su Lu Magazine". The "Shi Jun Zaizhi" article states, "Guangyu Zhi Zhao Ling Shi Jun in the former. However, he was coveted by a certain foreign merchant several times, and he even took the remaining four stones of the north of the mausoleum and left. ”
The foreign merchants here should refer to the American Bisbo.
Old photos of the Wei River
In another version, the mastermind of stealing the remaining four juns was Zhao Fuling, an antique dealer in the Beijing Glass Factory (some books call this "Yellow Crane Fang"), who used Yuan Kewen's relationship with Lu Jianzhang to get Salu Zi and Fist Mao Tou to Beijing, and then started the idea of Si Jun.
At this time, Shaanxi was no longer the ruler of Lu Jianzhang, but the world of Chen Shufan. Zhao Fuling was shrewd and well versed in the way of interpersonal relations, and he could not make friends with Chen Shufan, so he "went through the back door" and made a fuss about Chen Shufan.
Old photograph of the Zhaoling Republic of China
Having money can make ghosts push and grind, and after Chen Shufan's old master accepted bribes, Zhao Fuling arranged for someone to steal the four juns. But unexpectedly, after the Liquan people found out during the transportation process, when the ship arrived at Tongguan, the Liquan people rushed to intercept the boat.
The buyer behind Zhao Fuling is still Lu Qinzhai .
In this way, all the six horses of Zhaoling left Zhaoling, and now the six horses of Zhaoling that tourists see in Jiugao Mountain are all replicas.
A replica of the Zhaoling Liujun stone carving in the mausoleum area