Emperor Taizong of Tang was buried in The Nine Mountains of Zhaoling, and more than 200 ministers of culture and military affairs and relatives of the emperor were buried in the Southern Plains of jiulai. Among Li Shimin's many sons, the most courageous was the eighth son, Li Zhen the Prince of Yue, who was also buried with Zhaoling.
Through field visits, I basically walked through all the Zhaoling funeral tombs, and for the first time I did not see any evidence about Li Zhen's tomb, and in April 2021, I came to Yanxia Town, the road is still potholed, and the roadside is still a cultural protection monument erected in 2013.
On September 16, 1972, archaeologists from Shaanxi Province, together with the Zhaoling Cultural Management Office of Liquan County, conducted archaeological excavations on the tomb of Li Zhen, the eighth son of Li Shimin of Tang Taizong, and many exquisite Tang Dynasty cultural relics were produced in the tomb.
Li Zhen's tomb stood here for more than 1,300 years, as the son of Tang Taizong, from an early age wise and resourceful, the mother was Yan Defei, one of the more accomplished and capable of Taizong's many sons, although not concubine, but in the Gaozong period, it was heavily used by Li Zhi, after Gaozong's death, the real power was in the hands of Wu Zetian, and many Li royal families were tragically killed, even his son Li Hong, grandson Li Chongrun, etc. were tragically poisoned.
As the son of Wu Zetian, Li Xian was constantly degraded and trembling, and Li Zhen, as a representative figure in the Li clique, Li Xian named him crown prince Shaobao. In the first year of the Shengsi Dynasty, Wu Zetian deposed Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian, Li Dan the Prince of Yu ascended the throne, and the Wu family added officials to the throne, at this time Li Zhen and his son Li Chong the Prince of Langya joined forces with Li Yuanjia the King of Han, Li Lingkui the King of Lu, Li Yuanlu the King of Huo, and their sons to rebel, overthrow Wu Zetian's rule, and retake Li's Jiangshan.
Li Yuanjia, the king of Lu, Li Yuanji, the king of Huo, and so on were all the sons of Gaozu Li Yuan, in fact, they were the core figures of the Li royal family group at that time, but the military power in their hands was limited, and the rebellion was a very costly thing, either they were discredited, or they were promoted to the rank of knight, as the royal family did not worry about eating and wearing, they could completely ignore it according to the reason, after all, the power had the final say, but the brothers around them were tragically poisoned, and they may be the next. Li Zhen was the son of Li Shimin, and he and Li Shen, the King of Ji, were known as "Ji and Yue" and had a high prestige at the time.
Li Chong, the king of Langya, was the eldest son of Li Zhen, and he was full of vigor, outstanding learning, courage and strategy, and Li Chong borrowed the edict of Li Dan of Ruizong, saying that Li Dan had been put under house arrest by Wu Zetian and wanted to destroy the Li clan and establish the Wu dynasty. And Li Zhen rebelled in advance, only his father Li Zhen responded, there were five thousand soldiers at that time, and for a time the wind and water rose.
At that time, the Tang Dynasty state was prosperous and the troops were strong, and Wu Zetian appointed Qiu Shenxun as the grand commander of the Qingping Province March, who was a famous cool official at that time, and he was the son of Qiu Xinggong, the general qiu Xinggong of the Right Wu Marquis, who was the prototype of the character in the Zhaoling Liujun stone carving. Unfortunately, Because Li Chong was outnumbered and lacked troops, only seven days of defeat and annihilation, Li Zhen and Li Chong's father and son were the leaders of the rebellion, Li Chong was killed, and Li Zhen committed suicide by taking poison.
Wu Zetian hated the rebels to the bone, and they were also the royal family of the Li clan, which had a great influence at that time. The emperor removed them from the family tree and gave them the surname 虺, which is a legendary poisonous snake, and the surname 虺 is a serious disparagement and ridicule of them, which is not enough, and hangs them in front of the gate tower of the Dongdu Palace for public display.
In the first year of Shenlong, Li Xian was restored to the throne, and he did not forget the tragic situation in which Li Zhen's father and son did their best to rebel for the Li Tang Dynasty and died in Sheji, but Li Xian and Li Dan also reigned for a short time, and li Longji took the throne in the second year of Li Dan's death in the fourth year of His new year, and only then did he really overturn the case for Li Zhen and Li Chong.
In 716, the fifth year of the tang dynasty, Li Longji, emperor Xuanzong of Tang, issued an edict to rebury Li Zhen and Li Chong, with the title of Honor, to accompany the burial of Zhaoling, and to be buried with Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, which may be the best destination.
Until the archaeological excavation of Li Zhen's tomb in 1972, according to the 1977 archaeological briefing, when Li Zhen's tomb had been seriously damaged and razed to the ground before liberation, some old people recalled that the tomb had only seen about one meter high rammed mound.
Today's Shaanxi Province Liquan County Yanxia Town Xinglong Village East Apple Orchard is the location of Li Zhen's tomb, it is now difficult to find the specific location of Li Zhen's tomb, after the archaeological excavations that year has been backfilled, unearthed a very exquisite cultural relics, paste gold civil official figurines, paste gold military officer figurines, three color plates, Tang Sancai double ear projection screen, Tianwang figurine town tomb beast and a large number of national first-class cultural relics, and many times went abroad for exhibition.
In addition, a more important cultural relics have been unearthed, that is, the "Epitaph of the Late Prince of the Tang Dynasty Shaobao Yuzhou Assassin Shi Yue Wang". The zhi lid is 12 cm high, the bottom side is 88 cm long, the zhi stone is 16.5 cm thick, the side length is 89.5 cm, and the four sides are decorated with peony patterns.
After thousands of years of man-made destruction and wind and rain erosion, Li Zhen's Shinto monument has been broken into two pieces, and the text has been scattered and moved into the Zhaoling Museum.
The tomb of Li Chong, the King of Langya, is adjacent to the tomb of his father Li Zhen, whose tomb has also undergone archaeological excavations, and the epitaph has also been excavated and displayed in the Zhaoling Museum.
The base of Li Zhen's Shinto monument is about 120 centimeters long, about 80 centimeters wide, and about 60 centimeters thick, and the villagers dug it out and put it on the ground when digging the ground, which is a thousand-year-old cultural relics that stood in front of Li Zhen's tomb at the same time as the Shinto monument, but no one paid attention to its existence.
At present, on the side of Yanxi Road leading to Yuanjia Village, there is a monument to the Zhaoling No. 71 Funerary Tomb Protection Area erected by the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government in March 2013, which belongs to the national key cultural relics protection unit. The tombs of Li Zhen and Li Chong are about 150 meters west of it, but according to the satellite map of the Zhaoling Funerary Tomb, it can be seen that the Seventy-first Funerary Tomb should be the Tomb of the Lost Shanguang, but the Tomb of the Lost Shanguang is in the southwest direction of Xinglong Village, at least about 500 meters from here, I feel that the distance is a little far, and it may be that the staff neglected to set up the monument in the wrong position.
The tomb numbers of Li Zhen and Li Chong should be No. 75 and No. 76, but no Tomb Wen Bao stele of Zhaoling Funeral Tomb has been found around. It is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish whose tomb it is, because only the stele is not seen.