In 1974, Madian Middle School in Huai'an City invited the carpenter Wu Shun to come to the school to repair the doors and windows, but he did not expect that Master Wu saw that the face of the wood had changed, and even waved his hand and said, This work cannot be done...
In the autumn of that year, Guo Jingfeng of Erbao Village in Madian Township, Huai'an, planned to make a pair of dung buckets but could not find wood. Why? At that time, the countryside was still in the period of the people's commune, and all the materials were coordinated and marketed, and there was no private trade, so there was a shortage of many materials, and the production team did not even have wood to make agricultural tools, and everyone could only think of their own ways.
Guo Jingfeng had heard from the elders that there had been many high-ranking officials and nobles in Madian Township, and recently someone had used iron brazes to find "soil materials" (coffins), all of which were high-grade nan and fir wood, and made a lot of agricultural tools.
So he asked a few friends to dig "soil" in the wheat field. Sure enough, the elders said it correctly, Guo Jingfeng did not take much effort to braze to a tomb, he and his friends quickly picked up the shovel and dug down hard.
When it was dug to a depth of more than a meter, the tomb grew larger and larger, and gradually three coffins appeared in front of the eyes. The middle one is slightly larger, and the coffins on either side are slightly smaller, and none of them are rotten.
Opening the coffin lid, there were only bones inside, and there were no funerary items, probably the deceased was not a rich man. So they threw the bones into the tomb, carried out three coffins, and pulled the two large stone tablets buried in the ground home together.
Unexpectedly, the news that Guo Jingfeng dug up the "soil material" did not go away, and before the bucket of dung could be made, the production team came to confiscate the coffin and confiscate it. The two stone tablets were useless and were thrown next to Guo Jingfeng's pigsty.
This winter, Madian Middle School decided to repair the tattered doors and windows and find the carpenter Wu Shunlai. However, after Master Wu saw the wood, he shook his head and waved his hands again, and repeatedly refused.
It turned out that Master Wu was an expert, and when he looked at the wood, he knew that it was a coffin board, and this thing could be moved at will! But the teachers are also difficult, the school really has no money, the weather is getting colder, the classroom is ventilated, the children are frozen and can't sit still, the school and the Erbao Village Brigade discussed, the coffin board will be bought at a low price and will be used, and the paint will be repaired and painted.
Master Wu saw that the teachers were embarrassed, so he took over the work. The next day, several of his apprentices saw that there were concave and convex mortises on the coffin board, so they restored the coffin and found that there was a "Wu" character on the head of the coffin.
One of the disciples said, "Master, this is the coffin of your wu family ancestor!" Master Wu squatted down and wiped the head of the coffin, revealing a row of words: "Jingfu Jishan Shooting Yang Wu Gong Coffin."
Since the school let the doors and windows be used, Master Wu didn't think much about directing the apprentices to do it, but the more he did it, the less taste he felt in his heart, if it was really his ancestor, this was a big rebellion!
After thinking about it, Master Wu took home a boxy coffin board engraved with the words "Jingfu Jishan" and hid it...
On this day, a Chinese teacher named He Jie told the students the text of "Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essences", and said: "The author Wu Cheng'en is a Huai'an person, listening to his ancestors, his family has a field in Erbao Village, and he was buried here after his death, but his grave has not been found so far, and now, there are three provinces that also call Wu Cheng'en their people." ”
Teacher He instructed the students to tell the teacher anything they found with the word "Wu" in the future. As soon as the words stopped, a student rushed to say, "Teacher, there is a stone stele with the word "Wu" on the side of my pigsty!" "Huh?" The whole class widened their eyes.
After school, He Jie immediately followed the students to the pigsty of his house, and sure enough, two stone tablets stood in front of him, one of which was engraved with "Tomb of Ming Wu Ju Weng", and the other was full of inscriptions, and the payment was "Lone Boy Cheng'en".
Teacher He's eyes lit up, Wu Cheng'en's father's number was "Ju Weng", according to his knowledge, he felt that this stone stele may be Wu Cheng'en's sacrifice to his father. Therefore, Teacher He quickly reported to the school, and the school contacted the people of the county cultural center to check and finally confirmed that the stone stele was the epitaph written by Wu Cheng'en for his father.
In 1981, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Wu Cheng'en's death, the Huaixian archaeological team found Guo Jingfeng, a tomb robber at that time, and under the leadership of other places, found the tomb excavated that year, and found the three bones, which were identified as a man and two women.
Guo Jingfeng also explained the three coffins, and the archaeologists followed the clues to find the school, and then found the carpenter Wu Shunlai.
Master Wu described in detail the words on the coffin board made of doors and windows, but unfortunately archaeologists searched through the doors and windows of the school and did not find those words.
Master Wu took out the coffin board collected in his home again, and the archaeologist was excited when he saw the words "Jingfu Jishan".
"Jingfu" refers to the famous Jingwang Mansion in Huai'an in the Ming Dynasty, and "Jishan" refers to the Zhengbapin official in the Jingwang Mansion, who is responsible for teaching etiquette and theory to the children in the palace. Archaeologists have determined that the ancient tomb is a Ming Dynasty tomb, and only Wu Cheng'en in Huai'an has done "Jingfu Jishan" in the Ming Dynasty, and Wu Cheng'en is also known as "Sheyang Mountain Man".
Therefore, archaeologists believe that the owner of the engraved coffin is Wu Cheng'en, and the three bones in the ancient tomb are Wu Cheng'en and his two wives.
It turned out that this area nearby was the family tomb of the Wu family, because Wu Cheng'en was in a bleak situation in his later years, making a living by selling poetry, and could not make ends meet, so there was no funerary product when he died.
Later, the Huai'an government organized people to rebuild Wu Cheng'en's tomb, so there is now Wu Cheng'en Cemetery.
At that time, people's awareness of the protection of cultural relics was weak, fortunately, the coffin board inscribed with words kept by Master Wu Xiulai helped a lot, and archaeologists searched in many ways, and finally confirmed that Wu Cheng'en was from Huai'an.
After ups and downs, the resting place of a generation of literary masters has finally seen the light of day.