On June 1, 157 BC, Emperor Wen of Han, who was only forty-seven years old, died at Weiyang Palace, and before his death he left a testament saying: "The tombs are all made of tiles, and must not be decorated with gold, silver, copper and tin, and do not rule the graves, and do not want to be a province, and do not bother the people... The birth of all things under the heavens is not death. Why should the truth of the heavens and the earth of the dead, the nature of things, be too sad? Nowadays, the world loves life and hates death, and they use a large amount of their belongings for funerals, so that their families are ruined. Their descendants have been mourning for a long time and have hurt their own bodies, which I strongly disapprove of...
After I am buried, I want everything to be simple, not to display weapons, not to mobilize men and women to cry for me... I will announce to the world so that the people of the world will understand my heart. The Baling Mountains and Rivers have not changed for this reason. Attributed to The Lady below at least make. (Chronicle of Filial Piety)
In that era of living by death and advocating thick burials, Emperor Wen of Han was worried about the people of the world, and the concept of "not treating the grave" and advocating frugality in tombs was particularly valuable.
But he probably didn't expect that because of this decision he inadvertently made, he would leave a puzzle for future generations:
"Almost everyone knows that the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han is in Xi'an, but where is the Tomb of The Baling in Xi'an?"
I. The discovery of Baling corrected the misunderstanding of the Yuan Dynasty scholar Luo Tianjun that Emperor Wen's tomb was under the mouth of the phoenix, and it provided detailed information for the archaeological community to understand the formation, development and evolution of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum system;
In the history books, there are only sporadic fragments of words about the location of Baling, perhaps for the sake of sacrifice, for the people at that time, the location of Baling is just common sense, but with the demise of the Han Dynasty, the memory of Emperor Wen of Han by posterity has gradually faded.
So much so that in the Tang and Song dynasties, posterity could only infer the general location of Baling through the sporadic records of the Book of Han: "Announce the world, so that the knowledge is lost." The Baling Mountains and Rivers have not changed for this reason. ”
Fortunately, the Eastern Han Scholar Ying Shao gave a hint: "Because the mountain is hidden, there is no return of the grave, and the upper and lower rivers are not suppressed, and the name of the water is thought to be the tomb name." ”
Ying Shao's words made later generations of scholars who searched for the location of Baling shift their eyes to the White Deer Plain in Xi'an City, and Li Daoyuan mentioned when he wrote the "Notes on the Water Classic" that the Baling was on the White Deer Plain.
When Song Minqiu of the Song Dynasty wrote the "Chang'an Zhi", he also mentioned that emperor Wen's tomb was in the east ten miles of the county [Yuan case Taiping Huanyu Ji Yunling north to the county twenty-five miles] On the White Deer Plain.
But it is still the old question at the beginning, the location of the White Deer Plain is still too big, where the target is, everyone still has no clue.
This question was answered for the first time by the Yuan Dynasty scholar Luo Tianjun.
The Yuan Dynasty scholar Luo Tianjun recorded in his compilation of the Chronicle of Chang'an: "Emperor Wen's tomb is under the mouth of the northern phoenix of Bailuyuan, forty miles east of jingzhao tonghuamen."
Although the information found in the "Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han" released by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage today has overturned Luo Tianhua's speculation, it is undeniable that in the past seven hundred years, his ideas have influenced the thinking of generations of people, such as the Ming Dynasty, and many people have sacrificed Emperor Wen of Han under the mouth of the phoenix.
It can be said that the confirmation of the correct location of the Tomb is not only a conclusive conclusion that has existed in the archaeological community for more than ten years, but also fills the last vacant fragment for historians to study the formation and evolution of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum system.
2. The discovery of the official site of Baling is conducive to the better protection of cultural relics by the state;
The location of this Baling was officially confirmed, and there is still a rather tortuous story behind it.
In 2002, on the auction catalogue of the American Sosby Auction House, there were black pottery figurines from the Western Han Dynasty stolen from the Jiangcun Tomb in Xi'an, and these burial items made the Jiangcun Tomb, which was originally difficult to see the shape of the tomb, enter the field of archaeologists.
But at that time, archaeologists did not know that this was the famous Tomb of emperor Wen of Han.
"Phoenix Mouth" ruins, Jiangcun Tomb, Empress Dou Mausoleum, Empress Bo Mausoleum and other ruins are distributed together on the Bailuyuan in Baqiao District, covering an area of 2200 hectares, under the premise that the Han Dynasty Emperor's Mausoleum exists in the "Phoenix Mouth" site, jiangcun tomb can be said to be the most inconspicuous existence at the beginning.
Gangchon Tomb side length of 72-73 meters, an area of 5256 square meters, more than 30 meters deep, from the height, it looks like a "Ya" word, this specification and design, in ancient times, is basically the configuration of the emperor.
It is precisely because of this discovery that archaeologists have speculated about the identity of the owner of the Jiangcun Tomb.
In the days that followed, archaeologists excavated some valuable pottery, gold and silver jewelry, copper and iron and official seals in the mausoleum.
These formed funerary products further confirm the noble identity of the tomb owner, after all, if they are ordinary princes and nobles, they will not be buried in such a special position (next to the tomb of Empress Dou), nor will they appear in the funerary products of the army pottery figurines and official seals.
Such a surprising discovery can be said to be quite a gratifying result for an imperial tomb that has been excavated many times in history.
According to the "Book of Jin, Emperor Ji No. 5, Emperor Xiaohuai, Emperor Xiaoxuan": "In May, Liu Congkou merged with the prefecture. In June, the tombs of Han Ba, Du Erling and Empress Bo were pirated, and the back of the taihou was born, and the gold and jade color were invincible. ”
Obviously, after more than two thousand years, Baling has experienced too many twists and turns, after all, for tomb robbers, even if Emperor Wen of Han is frugal, he is still an emperor after all, and his funerary products are worth a lot today, and naturally they are coveted by tomb robbers.
Therefore, the state should come forward to protect the cultural relics of Baling in order to maximize the cultural value of Baling cultural relics.
Third, the cultural relics unearthed in Baling prove the diversity of Chinese culture, which can help historians more intuitively confirm history and understand the historical truth that has been covered up by time;
Emperor Wen of Han was one of the founders of the "Rule of Wenjing", and he was in an era when China was in a period of great change, and although he was elected to the throne in the form of a coup d'état, the meritorious nobles obviously underestimated the ability of Emperor Wen of Han, and emperor Wen of Han, who was weak and easy to control in their eyes, easily took the initiative from them and became the actual controller of the empire.
Many people are easily misled by the word "Wen" of Emperor Wen of Han, thinking that he is the kind of prince who keeps the success, but in fact, Emperor Wen of Han is a very enterprising person, and he actively carries out preparations for war under the premise of recuperating and recuperating and valuing peace: on the one hand, he organizes the border people to conduct military training to improve the combat effectiveness of the border army, on the other hand, he encourages the people to breed horses and narrow the gap between himself and the nomadic cavalry...
It can be said that the great achievements of Emperor Jingdi of Han and Emperor Wu of Han later had a lot to do with what Emperor Wen of Han did.
It is conceivable that the historical relics left by such an excellent king must have very important historical and cultural value. Through the information preserved by those pictures, pottery, bronze and iron tools, we can understand the lifestyle and cultural customs of the Han Dynasty people at that time, and their existence provides us with valuable information for studying history.
Text/Brain Hole Fun History
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