Spanning thousands of years, where is the famous jade seal in history? These places may hold the answer!

Kojima Chikaze

2024-06-22 11:32Posted in Hebei Historical Creators

Not long ago, the National Palace Museum of South Korea showed the "Seal of the King of Joseon" engraved in Chinese characters as a 500-year-old national treasure, which made South Koreans excited and proud of their country's long history and culture.

However, as far as South Korea shows the seal of the Korean king's grandson in the long history of China, it is not worth mentioning, if the most authoritative and mysterious jade seal in Chinese history can be revealed, it is estimated that it will bring the effect of shocking the world.

The jade seal is a seal used by ancient Chinese emperors, and its representative symbolizes the legitimacy of the imperial power and orthodoxy.

The origin of the jade seal

The heirloom jade seal was created by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of ancient China, Qin Shi Huang unified China and created his own title of emperor, he let future generations know his exploits, so he asked Prime Minister Li Si to find someone to create the heirloom jade seal. Even Qin Shi Huang, in order to show the uniqueness of imperial power, stipulated that the seals of courtiers and ordinary people could only be called "seals", and only the emperor's seals could be called "seals", and also stipulated that only the emperor could use jade to make seals, and no one else could use jade to make seals.

Regarding the material of the heirloom jade seal, many people think that Qin Shi Huang obtained the Heshi Bi after destroying the Zhao Kingdom, and it is the heirloom jade seal created with the Heshi Bi. In fact, this is a misinformation, according to historical records, He's Bi is a kind of round jade, there is a round hole in the middle, the body is called "meat", and the wall is called "good". Therefore, Heshibi is a circular hollow shape similar to a disc, and its shape is slightly thicker than that of a disc, but it is not enough to create a jade seal with a very thick base.

Therefore, it is a folk misinformation to build the jade seal of the country, and it is recorded in the real historical materials "Yuan Turtle of the Book of Books" and "The History of the Ming Dynasty, Yufu Zhi, and the Emperor's Treasure Seal" that the jade seal of the country was created by Qin Shi Huang sent Li Si to find the best Lantian jade.

According to historical records, the jade seal of the country is four inches in circumference, according to the size of the Qin Dynasty, one inch is equal to 2.31 centimeters, so converted, the jade seal of the country is about 9.24 centimeters square, which is equivalent to the size of the hamburger that we modern people eat. The seal button on the jade seal of the country is five dragons, and the bottom is a very thick square bottom seal.

The front of the jade seal is engraved with the words "Ordered by the sky, both longevity and eternal prosperity", which means that the imperial power is given to the emperor by God, and God will bless the country to be strong and prosperous, and it will never die.

Although the words on the jade seal of the country are very good, no dynasty will always prosper and never decline, and the change of dynasties is a normal thing, so the jade seal of the country has also been displaced with the change of dynasties.

At the beginning, Qin Shi Huang himself lost the jade seal of the country, and after the jade seal was made, Qin Shi Huang liked it very much, and he had to take it with him wherever he went, and Qin Shi Huang liked to travel very much.

Therefore, in 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang traveled to the hometown of Chu, and he took a boat to Dongting Lake to play. As a result, there was a strong wind in Dongting Lake suddenly, and Qin Shi Huang's boat was going to overturn, and at the critical moment, Qin Shi Huang's attendants suggested throwing the jade seal of the country into Dongting Lake to sacrifice to the Dragon King to keep him safe.

So Qin Shi Huang listened to the suggestion and threw the jade seal into Dongting Lake, which was also a coincidence, and soon Dongting Lake was calm, and Qin Shi Huang was able to go ashore safely.

In fact, it is likely that Qin Shi Huang himself accidentally dropped the jade seal of the country into Dongting Lake when he was on a cruise, but Qin Shi Huang could not say to the outside world that he had lost the jade seal of the country, you must know that the jade seal of the country was granted by heaven, and the jade seal of the country was lost by Qin Shi Huang, which does not mean that Qin Shi Huang's imperial power was taken back by God, so Qin Shi Huang could only say that he used the jade seal to sacrifice the dragon king.

Therefore, when Qin Shi Huang was alive, he lost the jade seal of the country once, but according to historical records, eight years after Qin Shi Huang lost the jade seal, another mysterious person braved the hardships and dangers to help Qin Shi Huang salvage the jade seal from Dongting Lake and dedicated it to Qin Shi Huang.

However, according to historical records, the name of the person who dedicated the jade seal of the country is not recorded, and the person who is not recorded is not.

You must know that even with the historical development, the area of Dongting Lake is constantly shrinking, but even the current water surface area of Dongting Lake is about 2579.2 square kilometers, the area can be described as very large, not only large, but also very deep, the total volume of Dongting Lake is 22 billion cubic meters.

In the period of Qin Shi Huang, the area of Dongting Lake is much larger than the current area, there was no advanced salvage technology in that era, even if Qin Shi Huang lost the jade seal of the country, carved a mark, it has already sunk to the bottom of the lake, there was no advanced salvage technology at that time, how did this mysterious person find a small jade seal from such a big and deep Dongting Lake.

Therefore, the return of the jade seal to Qin Shi Huang by the mysterious person is likely to be a myth made up by the Qin Dynasty government at that time, in order to appease the people and let everyone in the world know that Qin Shi Huang's imperial power was granted by God, and no matter what, the jade seal can be returned to him.

Later historical records also confirmed that the jade seal of the country returned to the hands of Qin Shi Huang is a myth made up, three years after the jade seal returned to the hands of Qin Shi Huang, the Qin Dynasty fell, the Han Gaozu Liu Bang Chen Bingba, the third son of Qin held the jade seal of the country and knelt down to Liu Bang to ask for surrender.

After Liu Bang got the jade seal of the country, according to the historical records, he found that it was written "Ordered by the sky, both longevity and health", not the original "ordered by the sky, both longevity and Yongchang", which also best shows that the return of the jade seal to Qin Shi Huang is a completely fabricated myth.

It is likely that Qin Shi Huang made another jade seal in order to consolidate his rule in his later years, and then he was dissatisfied with the words "Ordered by the heavens, both longevity and eternal prosperity", and then re-made up the words "Ordered by the heavens, both longevity and health", symbolizing his desire to live forever in his later years.

However, it doesn't matter whether the jade seal of the country is the one at the beginning, Liu Bang values the process of the surrender of the third son of Qin, and Liu Bang gets the jade seal of the country, which means that he has been granted imperial power by heaven.

Therefore, after Liu Bang attacked and killed Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, to unify China and establish the Han Dynasty, he named the jade seal of the country that Ziying had originally sacrificed as the jade seal of the Han Dynasty. Liu Bang also liked this heirloom jade seal as much as Qin Shi Huang, and he had to take it wherever he went, and then pass it on to future generations from generation to generation.

The ending of the jade seal of the country

Although Liu Bang likes it very much, but his descendants don't like to bring the heirloom jade seal with him, after all, who wants to have nothing to do with that thing on his body, how uncomfortable it is, and then the emperor of the Han Dynasty will put the heirloom jade seal in the palace study.

Time transferred to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, after the death of Emperor Liu Yin of the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, a relative, controlled the government, Wang Mang was ready to usurp the throne at that time, but the time was not ripe, so Wang Mang called himself the "fake emperor" regent, and appointed the young prince Liu Ying as the crown prince, Wang Mang and the courtiers agreed that the regent would return to the government when Liu Ying was an adult, so that he could ascend to the emperor's throne.

Because Liu Ying is young, Wang Mang is only the regent, so the jade seal of the country is in charge of the queen mother, that is, Wang Mang's aunt Wang Zhengjun, and later Wang Mang wants to usurp the Han Dynasty to establish a new dynasty, so he sent someone to his aunt Wang Zhengjun to ask for the jade seal of the country, Wang Zhengjun was very angry, scolded Wang Mang is "ungrateful, pigs and dogs are not as good as the white-eyed wolf", and finally Wang Zhengjun was helpless and angrily smashed the jade seal of the country to the ground, broke a corner, Wang Mang was very cherished and sent someone to make up for this corner with gold, so since Wang Mang, the jade seal of the country has become a jade inlaid gold material.

However, according to historical records, the corner that Wang Zhengjun broke at the beginning was a dragon's tail on the seal button of the jade seal of the country, not the corner of the base as in today's film and television works or people's imagination.

After Wang Mang's death, the jade seal of the country fell into the hands of Liu Xuan, the first emperor of the country, and Liu Penzi, the founding emperor of the Red Eyebrow Army, and finally Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, unified China.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the rebellion of the ten permanent servants broke out, and the whereabouts of the jade seal of the country were unknown, and later the warlord Dong Zhuo of the Western Liang led troops to Luoyang to quell the rebellion of the ten permanent servants, and abolished the young emperor of the Han Dynasty Liu Wei and changed the Han Xian Emperor Liu Xie to control the government, which caused the dissatisfaction of the warlords from all walks of life in the world, so the princes of the Eighteenth Road would join the alliance to crusade against Dong Zhuo, and Dong Zhuo was forced to flee from Luoyang.

The first to attack Luoyang City was the warlord Sun Jian, after he led people into the palace in Luoyang, he salvaged the body of a palace maid in a well in the palace, and the body of the palace maid was hung with a small bag, which contained the jade seal of the country, and in this way the jade seal of the country was in the hands of Sun Jian.

Therefore, Sun Jian had a dream of being an emperor, thinking that God had granted him imperial power and he was going to be the emperor, he was very happy, but he did not make a noise, but quietly handed over the jade seal of the country to his wife Wu for safekeeping. Later, Sun Jian died in battle, and his son Sun Ce, in order to revive the foundation of the Sun family, took the jade seal of the country and exchanged soldiers and horses from Sun Jian's old boss Yuan Shu to create a foundation.

So the jade seal of the country came to the hands of Yuan Shu again, and Yuan Shu also had the idea of being the emperor, but later Yuan Shu said that the emperor was besieged by various warlords, and finally Yuan Shu was defeated. After Yuan Shu's death, his subordinates surrendered to Cao Cao with the heirloom jade seal, Cao Cao was the prime minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, "coercing the princes of the Son of Heaven", so this heirloom jade seal can be regarded as returning to the hands of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty.

In 220 AD, Cao Cao's son Cao Pi forced Emperor Han Xian to take the throne, and asked Emperor Han Xian to personally present him with the jade seal of the country, so the jade seal of the country came to Cao Pi's hands.

In order to demonstrate the legitimacy of his accession to the throne, Cao Pi, who was proclaimed emperor, specially ordered someone to engrave the eight words "The Jade Seal of the Great Wei Dynasty by the Han Dynasty" to prove that the Wei State was given by the Han Dynasty, not by force, and that the Wei State was legitimate.

Based on Cao Pi's operation, so in 260 AD, Sima Yan, a powerful minister of Wei, replaced Wei to establish the Jin Dynasty.

In 311 AD, the former Zhao Emperor Liu Cong captured Sima Chi, the Emperor Huai of the Jin Dynasty, and thus obtained the jade seal of the country. In 330 A.D., Shi Le destroyed the former Zhao to establish the Zhao regime, so he got the jade seal of the country, Shi Le in order to prove his destiny, and ordered people to engrave the four words "Mandate of Heaven Shishi" on the jade seal, at this time the jade seal of the country has been engraved with words.

After that, after the chaos of the Five Hu and the Great Chaos of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the regime changed frequently, and the jade seal of the country also changed hands repeatedly, until Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian unified the whole country, and the jade seal of the country came to the court of the Sui Dynasty.

However, this time it was only a short stop, the second Sui Dynasty died, Emperor Wen of Sui's son Yang Guang of Sui was killed in Jiangdu by Quan Chenyu Culture and killed, Yang Guang's wife Empress Xiao fled to Mobei with her grandson Yang Zhengdao and the jade seal of the country to join the Turks, so the jade seal of the country came to the grassland at the end of the Sui period.

Until 630 A.D., the Tang Taizong Li Shimin, who unified the country, sent the general Li Jing to defeat the Turks, and Empress Xiao took her grandson Yang Zhengdao to Li Shimin to present the jade seal of the country, so far the jade seal of the country was returned to the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin was very eager to get the jade seal to prove the legitimacy of his accession to the throne, before getting the jade seal, Li Shimin had made a lot of seals, until the arrival of the jade seal, Li Shimin put away all the seals made by himself, and only used the jade seal of the country.

In the era of Empress Wu Zetian, because Wu Zetian was particularly afraid of the word "death" in his later years, and the pronunciation of the word "seal" and the word "death" was similar, so Wu Zetian changed the seal to treasure, and since then, the title of "treasure" has been inherited and continued by successive dynasties.

The jade seal of the country was stable in the Tang Dynasty for a long time, but in the late Tang Dynasty Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it began to be displaced again, the last time the jade seal of the country appeared, it was in the hands of the late Tang Emperor Li Congke, when the founder of the Later Jin Dynasty Shi Jingjiao united with the Khitan to besiege the Later Tang Dynasty, Li Congke was defeated by Shi Jingjiao and the Khitan coalition army, and then in a desperate situation, Li Congke took his wife and children and the jade seal of the country to the Xuanwu Tower, and then Li Congke set fire to the Xuanwu Tower, and his whole family and the jade seal of the country were buried in the sea of fire, and the whereabouts of the jade seal of the country are unknown since then.

It should be said here that the melting point of jade is 1700 °, this temperature is difficult to achieve, and the kilns that fired porcelain in ancient times could not reach this temperature, let alone the open fire, so Li Congke's self-immolation may not be able to burn the jade seal of the country.

However, although the melting point of jade is very high, the internal structure of jade will be destroyed at high temperatures, which will increase the cracks, so the heirloom jade seal may have been burned at that time, or burned black, and was eventually ignored.

Since then, various rulers will make their own jade seals, which also makes the jade seals of the country emerge in endlessly, like Shi Jingjiao according to the jade seals of the country, "by the order of heaven, but virtue and Yunchang"; Later Zhou Taizu Guo Wei made two pieces in one go, one is the "Emperor's Treasure of Inheriting Heaven", and the other is the "Emperor's Divine Treasure"; Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin made the "Treasure of the Great Song Dynasty"; Zhao Kuangyin's younger brother Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi succeeded to the throne and made the "Treasure of Inheriting Heaven"; After Song Renzong Zhao Zhen ascended the throne, he made the "Treasure of the Emperor's Admiration for the National Ceremony".

It can be said that in less than a hundred years, there were many high imitations of the jade seal, and before the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, the Three Kingdoms, the Five Hu Chaohua, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties in these troubled times, there were countless imitations of the jade seal, but all of these, including the meaning and influence of the jade seal made in the Song Dynasty, are not as good as the jade seal left by Qin Shi Huang, so the emperors of all dynasties want to make their emperor's position more legitimate, and they will strive to find the jade seal handed down by the orthodox Qin Shi Huang.

In the period of Song Zhezong, there was a peasant named Duan Yi when he was plowing the field, he found the heirloom jade seal that accompanied Li Congke to be buried in the sea of fire, so he dedicated it to the imperial court, and later after the appraisal of thirteen knowledgeable scholars, it was determined that this heirloom jade seal was the one handed down by Qin Shi Huang that year.

So the jade seal of the country reappeared in the world, but soon after, in 1126 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin State, and the two emperors of Huiqin were taken away by the Jin people, and the jade seal of the country was also obtained by the Jin State. But what is puzzling is that later the Mongols conquered the Jin State and Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, but they never found the jade seal of the country.

Until the death of Kublai Khan in 1294 AD, the jade seal of the country was actually sold on the street in the downtown area, so it was taken away by the prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty.

After 1368 AD Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the general Xu Da to the north to attack the Mengyuan regime, the Yuan Dynasty was defeated by Xu Da and ran to Mobei, Zhu Yuanzhang had given Xu Da an order, requiring Xu Da to be sure to find the jade seal from the Mongols, but although Xu Da defeated the Yuan army, he has not been able to find the jade seal.

Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's emphasis on the jade seal, the people in the Ming and Qing dynasties were very keen to talk about the current jade seal, but most of these jade seals were counterfeits. During the period of Zhu Youzhu of Ming Xiaozong, there were still people who presented the jade seal of the country to Ming Xiaozong, but Ming Xiaozong saw on the spot that it was a fake.

Later, Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty defeated Lin Dan Khan of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, after the death of Lin Dan Khan, Lin Dan Khan's wife Namu Zhong took the jade seal of the Northern Yuan Dynasty to remarry Huang Taiji, so Huang Taiji claimed to have obtained the jade seal of the country, and then the jade seal of the country was collected in the Forbidden City.

However, what is interesting is that according to historical records, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty liked archaeological witnesses, and he personally organized some knowledgeable people to identify the heirloom jade seal collected by Huang Taiji, and finally even Qianlong himself had to admit that this heirloom jade seal was not the one handed down by Qin Shi Huang, but an authentic fake.

In order to cover up the embarrassment of his great-grandfather Huang Taiji being fooled by the fake jade seal of the country, Qianlong said that although the jade seal was a fake, it was in good condition, and it was harmless to talk about it as a fake. Since then, this heirloom jade seal was stored in the Shenyang Forbidden City, and was lost after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

As for the jade seal formulated by the Qing Dynasty, in 1924, Feng Yuxiang of the Northwest Army sent Lu Zhonglin to expel the late Qing Emperor Puyi from the Forbidden City.

At this point, with the complete collapse of the feudal dynasty, whether it was the heirloom jade seal handed down by Qin Shi Huang or the heirloom jade seal imitated by the Qing Dynasty, all of them were missing.

Write at the end

Therefore, the earliest jade seal created by Qin Shi Huang should have sunk to the bottom of Dongting Lake, and the jade seal with gold inlaid gold that has been circulated for the longest time is likely to have disappeared in the Song and Yuan dynasties.

After more than 2,000 years, the number of jade seals of the country was faint, and finally disappeared in the long river of history with the complete collapse of the feudal dynasty.

Perhaps one day in the future, the jade seal of Dongting Lake that can make Qin Shi Huang fall to the bottom of the lake again will appear, or the jade seal inlaid with gold will also suddenly appear, and if they can reappear in the world, it will bring a shocking effect to the world archaeological community.

Text/Kojima Chifu

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