Since the Shang Zhou Dynasty, the wind of thick burial has prevailed, and the mausoleums of the royal palace magnates are large in scale and have many burial items, which has a great attraction for tomb robbers. Driven by monetary interests, the trend of tomb robbery has been long-lasting, and even produced tomb robbers who specialize in tomb robbery for a living.
These tomb robbers are often skilled, and by observing the color of the ground, they can know whether there is a tomb in the ground, and whether there are gold, silver and jade in the tomb.
Once they find the location of the tomb, these tomb robbers will loot the gold and silver jewelry in the tomb, but there is only one thing, they will not take it, that is, jade.
Why don't tomb robbers steal jade?
In the course of the development of Chinese culture, jade culture is the most unique and important culture in the history of Chinese civilization, which runs through every stage of Chinese history and deeply affects everyone's concepts, especially the concept of tomb robbers.
In the Neolithic Age, due to the limitations of mining tools and technology, the amount of jade was extremely rare, and it was generally used in religious activities such as sacrifices, and over time, jade was endowed with mysterious powers beyond reality and was regarded as a "sacred object".
After entering slavery, jade became a medium of witch gods, and its mysterious function of worshipping ghosts and gods was strengthened, at the same time, rulers began to grade jade, making jade a ceremonial instrument for "dividing people and being noble".
Jade and royal power are more closely combined, and rulers do not only see jade as a mysterious artifact, but use the mystery of jade to strengthen the supremacy of royal power.
Jade became a symbol of royal power, jade was limited to the use of emperors and nobles, and it was also from this period that jade began to appear in the tombs of princes and nobles as burials, but because of its noble social status, no tomb robber dared to steal jade.
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, jade became a bridge between transcendent life and death, communication between gods and immortals and the real world, people at that time believed that jade was the essence of mountain stone, wearing jade on the body could ward off evil spirits, swallowing jade could lead to longevity, and they even thought that wearing clothes made of jade could make the corpse immortal.
Therefore, in the tombs of the Qin and Han Dynasties, many exquisitely made jade clothes appeared. Jade clothes are special burial clothes that can only be worn after the death of emperors and prominent nobles of the Han Dynasty, according to the provisions of the "Book of Etiquette of the Later Han Dynasty", the emperor's tomb should use golden jade clothes, the princes, the first seals of the princes, nobles, and princesses should use silver jade clothes, and the great nobles and princesses should use copper jade clothes.
These jade garments are made of fine jade, sewn together with gold, silver or copper wire, exquisitely made and valuable, but at this time the jade has been given a rich mythological color, and is closely related to human life and death, and the theft of jade tomb thieves considers to be a very unlucky behavior.
After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with the continuous development of the economy, jade is no longer the exclusive item of the princes and nobles, a large number of jade products began to pour into the people, although the social status of jade is not as good as before, but the tradition of tomb robbers not stealing jade has been handed down, becoming an unwritten rule in the tomb robbery industry.
A world-class treasure that was abandoned
In the summer of 1968, during the construction of Lingshan Mountain in Mancheng County, Baoding, Hebei Province, a large-scale tomb was accidentally discovered. After more than two months of archaeological excavations, the identity of the owner of the tomb was finally determined - Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan jing in the Western Han Dynasty.
Among Liu Sheng's funerary items, there is one piece that can be regarded as a unique treasure, that is, the golden jade robe worn by Liu Sheng.
Liu Sheng's golden jade robe is well-made, with a total length of nearly two meters, and is made of 2498 pieces of Xiuyan jade pieces from Liaoning and about 1100 grams of gold wire.
When Liu Sheng's golden jade robes were unearthed, the valuable jade pieces were well preserved, but the two pounds of gold wire used to connect the jade pieces were sucked away by tomb robbers one by one.
In the follow-up investigation, experts found that Liu Sheng's tomb had been "visited" by many groups of tomb robbers, but because of the unwritten rule, the golden jade clothes were able to escape the fate of being stolen many times and be completely preserved.
Coincidentally, the treasures that have been handed down because of the unwritten rules of tomb robbers are also the jade-encrusted lacquered coffins excavated from the Han Tomb of Lion Mountain.
Located on lion mountain on the eastern outskirts of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, the Lion Mountain Han Tomb is a large-scale han tomb with the entire burial chamber embedded in the mountain, and the location is quite hidden.
In the summer of 1990, after nearly 10 years of unremitting exploration, archaeologists finally discovered the exact location of the Han Tomb in Lion Rock. Three months later, the gate of the Lion Rock Han Tomb was finally displayed in front of the archaeologists.
Because of the hidden location of the tomb, archaeologists are full of expectations to see an unspoiled tomb, but when the door is opened, the messy scene in front of them shocks these "battlefield-tested" archaeologists.
There are a large number of jade pieces and broken jade scattered on the ground, the jade lacquer coffin of the King of Chu has also been ruthlessly pried open by the tomb robbers, and a large number of funerary gold and silverware, bronzes, jewelry and other treasures in the tomb have long disappeared, obviously they have been stolen by the tomb robbers, but a large number of Hetian jade and funerary jade on the jade lacquer coffin have been abandoned by the tomb robbers.
Compared with jade, gold and silverware and all kinds of jewelry are more popular with tomb robbers, the reason is also very simple, jewelry has a high degree of market circulation, convenient to sell in the second-hand market, and gold and silver can be heated and reforged, directly when gold and silver are used, which is convenient for tomb robbers to sell stolen goods more quickly.
The jade buried in the tombs of princes and nobles is mostly engraved with obvious royal features such as dragon patterns, which are not only not easy to change their form, but also very easy to be discovered by others, which is also a secondary reason why jade is always abandoned by tomb thieves.
Conclusion
Ancient China because of the tradition of respecting ghosts and respecting the life of the tomb often has a kind of reverence, the tomb is not only the resting place of the deceased, but also the place of remembrance and gratitude of future generations, and the tomb robbers steal the tombs of others all day long, the heart can not help but be afraid, "robbing the tomb does not steal jade" is not only their professional standard, but also a self-comfort in their hearts.
They believe that as long as they "do not steal jade", they will not be involved in unlucky things, but the ruthless destruction of tombs by tomb robbers and the extreme insult to the deceased are still a denial of the family and social culture of the deceased, and their behavior has been despised by the public from ancient times to the present.