In the 1950s and 1960s, under the leadership of Guo Moruo, then director of the Institute of Chinese History, and historian Wu Han, super mausoleums such as the Dingling Tomb of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty were excavated successively, and many national treasure-level cultural relics were unearthed, which made China have an archaeological fever. In October 1959, members of the 13th Production Team of wuwei county people's commune discovered the ancient tomb from under a local sealed soil called Leitai while digging tunnels, and in November of that year, the Gansu Provincial Museum organized an archaeological team to work with the Wuwei County Cultural Center to excavate the ancient tomb.
Archaeology found that this burial chamber has a large space, which is lined with neat copper people, copper carts, copper horses, etc., and the production captain asked the members to find marijuana bags containing grain and take out the valuable burial goods, and later, these burial items were all handed over. Among these cultural relics, there is the prototype of the Chinese tourism symbol cultural relics "Copper Running Horse", that is, the rare cultural relics "Ma Ta Fei Yan" that the state prohibits from going abroad.
The bronze galloping horse is 34.5 cm high, 41 cm long, 10.1 cm wide, weighs about 7.15 kg, the galloping horse has its head held high, its tail is soaring, its head is slightly left, its right hind foot is a flying bird, the bird has two eyes like an eagle, and it looks back with its wings outstretched, and the archaeological report says it is "a rare ancient art treasure". Although rare, it was not known until 1971. This September of that year. The famous archaeologist Guo Moruo accompanied foreign guests to visit the Gansu Provincial Museum, and was very surprised to see this "heavenly horse" copper galloping horse, comparing him with the golden jade robe unearthed from the Han tomb in Mancheng, Hebei Province, leaving behind the verse "The four seas praise the copper galloping horse, and everyone argues about the golden robe".
At that time, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage was planning the "National Excavated Cultural Relics Exhibition", Guo Moruo suggested that this copper galloping horse be transferred to the exhibition, and personally named this copper galloping horse "Ma Ta Fei Yan", since then, the copper galloping horse has a poetic name. Although Guo Moruo's verses were well done, Premier Zhou was worried about the archaeological excavation of ancient tombs that had arisen in the country, and zeng told Guo Moruo that although the golden robes and copper galloping horses were good, they could not allow the local government to dig the imperial tombs at will.
However, Guo Moruo did not understand, and once again shenxin excavated the Qianling Tomb of Wu Zetian and the Mausoleum of The First Emperor of Qin, and Guo Moruo also coveted Wang Xizhi's manuscript "Lanting Collection" in the Qianling Tomb, so as an old friend, he asked Premier Zhou for permission to excavate the Qianling Tomb, but Premier Zhou coldly said a sentence: "The Imperial Tomb will not be opened within ten years", which obviously poured a basin of cold water on Guo Moruo at that time. In 1973. The premier announced that since then, the country has strictly prohibited the active excavation of ancient tombs, and this sentence of Premier Zhou has become the basic policy of archaeology for imperial tombs in China.