On February 12, 2006, Han Qinglong, then head of the cultural relics inspection brigade of the Xi'an Municipal Public Security Bureau, suddenly received a reporting call, in which the other party said: "Found the traces of a tomb robber wanted by the police."
Han Qinglong immediately led the police to the designated location to carry out the arrest, but when they arrived at a residential building on the northern outskirts of Xi'an, the suspect had already run away ahead of time.
The name of the suspect arrested by the police is Yang Bin, who is the leader of a number of tomb robbery cases. Although Yang Bin was not able to be caught this time, many cultural relics were found in the room where he lived, as well as tools for restoring cultural relics and tools for tomb robbery.
Yang Bin
The police searched Yang Bin's room carefully, trying not to miss any corner. When Mr. Han opened the two suitcases in the corner, they were filled with explosives used by tomb robbers, such as detonators and fuses, as well as a shotgun.
Prior to this, according to the information in the hands of the police, although Yang Bin was a habitual offender who had robbed tombs many times, he stole some small tombs with no excavation value.
Han Qinglong thought to himself, just some small tombs, there is no need for detonators and other explosives, he vaguely felt that things are not so simple.
After careful interrogation, the police also found a mobile hard disk from a red suitcase. Han Qinglong immediately opened the computer to view, and to his surprise, there were more than 120 folders and more than 5200 photos in this mobile hard disk.
In these documents, there are photos taken by Yang Bin's accomplices when they robbed the tomb, as well as photos of stolen cultural relics, etc., one of which attracted the attention of the police.
Stone rafters in the tomb of Concubine Wu Huifei
It can be clearly seen from the photos that the tomb robbers photographed what appears to be a stone house, which looks colorful and beautifully decorated. The top floor is a pale blue bucket arch eaves with stone pillars carved with flowers on the stone walls below the eaves, and a gate decorated with two rows of stone nails on the left.
Looking at these patterns, Han Qinglong recognized at a glance that this stone house should be a stone rafter. The layer enclosed outside the coffin is called a stone rafter, which can delay the decay of the wooden coffin.
However, not all burial chambers have stone rafters, and in general, only those of the royal family and nobles will have stone rafters in the burial chambers, which is also a status symbol.
Meanwhile, another photograph shows that grave robbers transported the cut and packed stone rafters out. But to further understand where the stone rafters went, and what the value of the stone rafters is, you must know the answer after catching Yang Bin.
In July 2006, yang bin was caught by Xi'an police at his girlfriend's home in Shenzhen while trying to flee from Shenzhen.
When the police interrogated Yang Bin, the main criminal of the tomb robbery, he confessed to all his criminal acts, but when he mentioned the problem of the stone rafter in the photo, he did not say anything.
Judging by Yang Bin's attitude, Han Qinglong has made a rough judgment on the value of the stone rafter, and he believes that it is at least a cultural relic above the provincial level. Because, if you want to determine the size of Yang Bin's crime, you must know the value of the cultural relics he stole.
In order to further understand the situation, Han Qinglong decided to take the photos of the stone rafters to the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Center and ask them to identify the value of the stone rafters.
What Han Qinglong did not expect was that his request was rejected by the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Center. Because the value of the stone rafters is related to the life and death of the suspect, the cultural relics appraisers cannot make a judgment based on only a few photos.
In order to be able to persuade the appraisal center to determine the level of cultural relics for this stone rafter, Han Qinglong went to the door again and again to explain the situation. He told the staff: "Only after the value and price of the stone rafters have been determined can the size of the crime be determined for the suspect and whether a separate case should be filed to recover the cultural relics." ”
Under The repeated insistence of Han Qinglong, the experts of the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Center finally came up with a compromise method, that is, "Do not do judicial appraisal for the time being, first estimate the value of the stone rafters through photos, and then see if you can find more clues." ”
When the identification experts saw the first photograph of the stone rafters, they immediately associated with a stone rafter excavated in the tomb of the "Let the Emperor" in 2000.
"Emperor Jean" was also Known as Li Xian, who was the eldest son of Emperor Ruizong of Tang and the eldest brother of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji. According to the ancient rule of making the eldest son the crown prince, Li Xian was supposed to be the heir to the throne, but he took the initiative to give it to his younger brother Li Longji, who had made a great contribution to the suppression of the "Wei Rebellion".
Tang Xuanzong Li Longji
Therefore, Li Longji has always been grateful to Li Xian, and even when Li Xian died, he could not help but cry bitterly and posthumously named Li Xian "Emperor Jean".
By comparing the photos of the stone rafters excavated from Li Xian's tomb with the photos of the stolen stone rafters, the identification experts found that the styles of the two stone rafters were somewhat similar. Therefore, they speculated that the two stone rafters should belong to the same historical period, that is, around the time of Tang Xuanzong.
In addition, the identification experts also found that the stone rafters stolen by the stolen tomb thieves were much more exquisite than the stone rafters excavated from Li Xian's tomb, and this detail became an important clue to the big case.
In ancient Chinese society, not only the population had a strict hierarchical division, but also the mausoleum. The higher the status of the owner of the tomb before his death, the more precious the burial items and coffins after death, and the more exquisite the patterns on the coffins will be.
Therefore, the experts judged that the owner of the stolen stone rafter should have a higher status than the "Emperor" Li Xian before his death, so he would have a more exquisite stone rafter.
Everyone thought to themselves, the status of "Let the Emperor" Li Xian is already very honorable, who else will have a higher status than him?
In order to figure this out, Han Qinglong decided to start the investigation from the origin of this nameless tomb.
After some investigation, the nameless mausoleum, located in the village of Pangliu outside Xi'an, was stolen and excavated in 2005. When the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute received the news, archaeologist Liu Duyun immediately went to the location of the stolen tomb to investigate the situation and took a protective photo of the scene.
According to Liu Duyun's introduction, the length and width of this tomb are 66 meters, the height is 7 meters, but the depth from the ground is about 12 meters, this burial chamber can be called the largest Tang Dynasty single-chamber tomb at that time.
Mural in the tomb of Concubine Wu
Since the mausoleum had been excavated, Liu Duyun did not find any information about the owner of the tomb in the burial chamber. But one thing is certain, this ancient tomb represents the highest level of royal burial specifications in the Tang Dynasty.
At this time, the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute sent an archaeological survey report to the police. The report shows that many of the places inside the tomb coincide with the photos taken by the tomb robbers.
Seeing this result, Han Qinglong could finally breathe a sigh of relief, and it was certain that the stone rafter in the photo was taken from this tomb.
Next, the appraisal experts began to conduct a judicial appraisal of the value of the stone rafters, but first to judge the identity and status of the owner of the tomb.
Due to the lack of sufficient evidence, the identification experts had no way to make an accurate determination of the identity of the owner of the tomb, and could only make a rough inference through the exquisite murals inside the tomb and on the stone rafters.
Because the murals of the Tang Dynasty are the pinnacle of ancient Chinese mural art, the murals in the tomb and on the stone rafters are very exquisite, not created by folk second-rate painters. Therefore, the appraisal experts unanimously concluded: "This stone rafter should belong to the national first-class cultural relics."
Since the value of this stone rafter is so high, it also means that the owner of the tomb must not be an ordinary person.
During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the life of the royal nobles was very luxurious, and in order to stop this unhealthy trend, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji once advocated frugality. In the General Code of Passage coffin system, it is recorded:
"In the Tang Dynasty system, the Yi dynasties were not allowed to use stones as coffins and stone chambers, and their coffins were not allowed to carve painted paintings, and shihu mullions were railed."
It can be seen from the pattern on the stone rafter photograph that this tomb violated the order issued by Tang Xuanzong, which is more enough to show that the owner of the tomb has a special life.
Yang
Identification experts have tried to find some clues from the murals, and in general, the murals in the tombs of the ancients depict most of the activities of the tomb owner during his lifetime.
The tomb excavated by the tomb robbers and on the stone rafters are painted with "Lady Outing" and the Palace Palace and so on. This also shows that the owner of the tomb should be a royal woman, and her status is even higher than that of Li Xian, the "Emperor of Jean".
The experts went through a large number of historical materials and did not find any records about this royal tomb during the Tang Xuanzong period.
The path of finding clues through historical sources has been interrupted, so the identification experts have a bold guess in their minds. This person is the Tang Xuanzong period, high status, is a royal woman, the tomb has not been recorded in the history books, is it one of the four beautiful women in ancient China Yang Guifei?
Yang Guifei was one of Tang Xuanzong's favorite concubines, and after the "Anshi Rebellion" broke out, Tang Xuanzong fled with Yang Guifei to Shuzhong. While passing through Ma Songyi, the accompanying Janissaries suddenly mutinied, accusing the "Anshi Rebellion" of being caused by Yang Guifei and demanding that Yang Guifei be killed.
Chastity
For thousands of years, there have been many opinions about the final outcome of Yang Guifei, if this tomb is really Yang Guifei's, but it is not certain whether it is Yang Guifei's real tomb.
After the emergency repair and excavation of archaeologists, the object that can prove the identity of the owner of the tomb was finally found in the nameless tomb. It was a fragment of cultural relics, and although the text on it was blurred, the word "Zhenshun" could still be faintly seen. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, in addition to Yang Guifei, the most favored concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was Concubine Wu Huifei, who was the niece of Wu Zetian and was posthumously honored by the emperor as Empress Zhenshun.
As the experts continued their research, Han Qinglong also hoped to get information about the whereabouts of the stone rafter from Yang Bin's mouth, but there was no result.
It was not until 2007, when other members of Yang Bin's tomb robbery gang were caught by the police, that there was a big breakthrough in the case.
Concubine Wu Huishi
Faced with the identification of the tomb robbers, Yang Bin could no longer argue, and finally admitted to transporting the stone rafters out and transporting them to Guangzhou in batches, where they were sold to an overseas buyer for $1 million.
On October 30, 2007, the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court sentenced Yang Bin, the leader of the tomb robbery, to a suspended death sentence for stealing ancient tombs and illegally possessing firearms and explosives.
Although the leader of the tomb robbery, Yang Bin, was eventually punished by law, it has been determined that the stone rafter is from the tomb of Wu Huifei, and in view of the huge value of this stone rafter, the police have also begun to embark on the road to find this national treasure-level cultural relic.
It was not until 2009 that experts and police finally contacted the American buyer of the stone rafter, but he was unwilling to return it. After interpol and multi-party relations, the sarcophagus finally returned to the embrace of the motherland in 2010 and is now in the collection of the Shaanxi History Museum.