The Qing Dynasty Tombs were built by the Shunzhi Emperor himself.
At the same time, the Qing Dynasty Tombs are also the most magnificent, the most complete system and the most reasonable layout of an imperial complex in China. Located in Zunhua, Hebei Province, the mausoleum consists of 5 imperial tombs, 4 houling tombs, 5 concubine gardens, and 1 princess mausoleum, and buries emperors such as Shunzhi (Xiaoling), Kangxi (Jingling), Qianlong (Yuling), Xianfeng (Dingling), Tongzhi (Huiling) and concubines such as Ci'an and Cixi (Dingdongling).
It can be said that what is buried in this mausoleum is a well-known figure in the history of the Qing Dynasty and even China.
In addition, this Qing Tomb is magnificent and spectacular, and because it was built at the peak of the Qing Dynasty's rule, it cost a lot of money. Moreover, during the modern Period of China, Cixi's construction of the Qing Tombs lasted for fourteen years, consuming 2.27 million taels of silver. It can be seen that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the construction of the Qing Tombs.
What's more, the luxurious degree of the mausoleum itself has aroused the "curiosity" of many people at home and abroad about its internal treasures. For a long time, many people have a voyeuristic view of the countless treasures in the Qing Dynasty Tombs. Until July 2, 1928, Sun Dianying, then commander of the 12th Army of the Kuomintang Sixth Army, secretly excavated the tombs of Cixi and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty under the pretext of conducting military exercises.
Later, he stole a large amount of gold and silver treasure from it. Soon after Sun Dianying's troops were raided, various scattered soldiers and bandits also ran to the Qing Tombs and continued to loot the treasures in it. In this way, the tombs of Cixi and Qianlong were looted. Suddenly, there was an uproar throughout the country, and many media news reported on this "bandit act" and severely condemned it.
It is said that Qianlongye's Yuling was built in the eighth year of Qianlong, and it took nine years of construction to be completed, costing a total of more than 2 million taels, and the luxury of its mausoleum can be seen. However, we have no way to verify how much jewelry Sun Dianying stole in the first place.
However, according to the dictation of the eunuch Li Lianying at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the records in the "Notes on Ai Yuexuan" recorded by his nephew, Cixi had a lot of funerary items when she was buried, and most of them were rare treasures:
"Cixi's corpse has lotus leaves on its head and lotus flowers on its feet, which means "step by step to give birth to lotus". The clothes were decorated with 420 large beads, 1,000 medium beads, 4,500 small beads, and 1,135 large and small gemstones. The price of the gold silk brocade quilt is 84,000 taels, 100 8-point beads, 304 3-point beads, 500 1 cent beads, 1,200 6-cent beads, 10,500 rice beads, 40,500 large red sapphire blocks, 67 small pieces, 203 pieces of purple and green 5-point weights, tourmaline, and white jade..."
However, because many of the treasures recorded in the note are not recorded in the archives of the Qing Palace, many people have questioned the authenticity of the contents of this note. However, some experts believe that although there is no such record in the official materials of the Qing Palace, in the 1940s, there were many articles mentioning the note. In addition, not only are these treasures not recorded in the Qing Palace archives, but there is also no relevant record of Cixi's burial.
Therefore, these notes have become a very important reference material in the study of such events.
According to the "Notes of Ai Yuexuan" and the field visit to the mausoleum of Empress Dowager Cixi, people have a certain understanding of the architectural structure and interior decoration of the cemetery.
Located in the Tanglin Tombs of Bodhidharma Yuding, the construction materials are exquisite, the workmanship is meticulous, and the appearance decoration is very luxurious. The mausoleum has three main halls, which are mainly composed of wooden frames, all of which are precious yellow pears. In addition, around the main hall and the platform, there are stone railings carved with dragons and phoenixes and seawater cliffs. In addition, in front of the temple, there is also a Dan Majesty Stone, which uses a very high-quality relief and transparent carving technique, whether it is Dan Feng or Jiaolong, it is carved vividly and vividly.
However, for the Yuling Underground Palace in Qianlong, since there is no record like the "Notes on Ai Yuexuan", people do not know much about the burial treasures in the mausoleum. However, through the analysis of the personal preferences of the Qianlong Emperor during his lifetime, Qianlong's prosperous life was not a waste of time, and his mausoleum was certainly magnificent and luxurious. However, the question of the whereabouts of these stolen treasures has always been a mystery. At that time, Xu Yuanquan was a key figure in the qing Dongling treasure theft case, and he was the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Sixth Army at that time, and was the direct leader of Sun Dianying.
It is said that after Sun Dianying left the Qing Tombs, he once handed over two boxes of jewelry to Xu Yuanquan, nominally obtained by bandits. However, regarding these two boxes of jewelry, because the Tanglin robbery case was full of storms in the city, Xu Yuanquan did not dare to hide it privately. It is said that the Peiping Garrison Command deposited these jewels in the mainland bank. Later, with the failure of the High Military Law Commission to try the case, the cultural relics were also missing.
Of course, some people believe that Xu Yuanquan secretly hid these treasures.
In 1931, Xu Yuanquan spent 100,000 oceans to build an apartment covering an area of 4,230 square meters in Cangbu Town. The building not only adopts a combination of Chinese and Western design styles, but also the exterior and interior design are very palatial. In addition, a secret passage was built under the mansion, which is said to be used to hide the treasure, and many "insiders" expressed their views to the outside world.
Lin Gengfan was the adopted son of Xu Yuanquan's sister, according to the old man's recollection: "When I was a child, I used to go to Xu Mansion to play, and at that time, I was deeply impressed by the luxurious decoration inside Xu Mansion ..."
Also, he claimed to have been to the inner tunnels of the mansion and had seen a large number of valuable treasures. He said: "Xu Yuanquan himself is very fond of riding horses, especially for that kind of tall horse. In addition, Xu Yuanquan's wife also has a phoenix crown, which is golden and dazzling. Moreover, the gate of Xu Mansion was previously facing north, and later, because Xu Yuanquan felt that facing north was unlucky, he changed the gate to the current northwest direction. ”
Therefore, the elderly Lin Gengfan believes that the underground treasure of Xu Mansion should be the treasure of the Qing Tomb.
However, there is also a theory that Sun Dianying presented the treasure as a gift to the dignitaries of the Kuomintang regime at that time.
At that time, after the Qing Dongling treasure theft case, public opinion was under great pressure, and all sectors of society demanded that the government at that time be able to quickly catch the tomb robbers and give them severe punishment. Therefore, when Sun Dianying saw that things were not good, he bribed Chiang Kai-shek, Song Meiling, Song Ziwen, Kong Xiangxi, He Yingqin, and other dignitaries through Dai Kasa in order to protect himself.
Many years later, according to Wen Qiang, the chief of staff around Sun Dianying, Sun Dianying had inadvertently told himself many times: "The number of jewels buried in Qianlong's tomb is very large, and the most precious is a string of chao beads worn by Qianlong's neck, on which there are a total of one hundred and eight beads, which are said to represent the eighteen arhats." "All in all, after the Qing Dongling treasure theft case, these stolen treasures were either used to pay bribes, or were sold, or destroyed, secretly hidden, or secretly sold overseas, and no one can give a clear answer to the specific destination.
Moreover, these treasures are like evaporation in the human world, and since then there has been no news, which inevitably makes future generations feel sentimental and helpless.
Resources:
[Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Volume XI, Gaozong Benji II, Draft history of the Qing Dynasty, Biography of the Later Concubines, World Heritage List]