Where is the tomb of the Tang Dynasty in Gansu?
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
"Gansu dug out the ancestral grave of the Tang Dynasty surnamed Li!"
Really fake, what the hell is going on?
As we all know, the ancestral tomb of the Tang Dynasty was the Yongkang Mausoleum, and in the territory of present-day Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province, the tomb owner was Li Yuan's grandfather and Li Hu, the great-grandfather of Li Shimin.
Li Tangzu's tomb Yongkang Mausoleum
No one has doubted the status and existence of this mausoleum for thousands of years. But the discovery of the fifth year of the Qing Dynasty (1825 AD) made things change.
In the fifth year of Daoguang, there is no specific name for what month and day, a farmer in Qingshui County, Gansu Province, leveled the land, and when he leveled it to a tomb, he dug out a stone slab - it turned out to be an epitaph.
This tomb is located on a terrace (Lujiawan) in the east of Luwan Village in Baisha Township, more than 20 miles east of the county seat, on the north bank of the Niutou River, and the tomb sits north and faces south. In addition to the epitaph, it was also dug up with the burial of gold and silver treasures, and there is no explanation.
Ancient tombs in Gansu
Fortunately, this epitaph has not been destroyed, in the past the peasant was simple, may also feel that the things in the tomb are unlucky, plus the epitaph is not valuable, in addition to the pig pen, the foot of the wall is useless, the farmer immediately buried the epitaph in place, and did not take it seriously.
Who would have thought that forty or fifty years later, that is, during the Qing Tongzhi period, a flash flood broke out in the local area and the epitaph was rushed out again.
Feeling rare, lu Zhenjia, a local Xiucai (a county student), copied the contents of the epitaph and reburied it.
Li Hu's Epitaph (copied by modern people)
Carefully interpreted, it was found that the owner of the tomb was actually Li Hu, the grandfather of Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and the tomb was the ancestral tomb of Li Shi- this matter must have had a considerable impact at that time, otherwise no one could have remembered it so clearly.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the provinces compiled local chronicles, and Gansu Province also established the Tongzhi Bureau, which was responsible for compiling the tongzhi of the whole province. In the eighteenth year of the Republic of China (1929 AD), the Gansu Provincial Tongzhi Bureau asked Zhou Shunji, the governor of Qingshui County, to search for this epitaph, and Zhou Shunji sent someone to dig up the epitaph from the ground and submit it in a text.
Topographic map of Clearwater
Construction excavated sui tombs
Later, the epitaph was handed over to the county education bureau at that time for safekeeping, and now it is stored in the Qingshui County Cultural Center, which has become an important material for studying the history of Tang and the genealogy of the Li clan in Shaanxi.
More than a hundred years have passed since this incident, and just when everyone was about to forget it, on October 29, 1997, the fourth page of the "People's Political Consultative Conference Daily" published an article entitled "Tomb of Li Hu, the Ancestor of the Tang Dynasty", which turned this matter upside down again, and immediately had a chain reaction among experts in the domestic academic circles, especially in Shaanxi and Gansu.
As for Li Hu's family lineage and life, it is recorded in the New Book of Tang Gaozu Benji (vol. 1): The Li family was a Longxi Chengji person, Li Hu's father was called Li Tianci, the Western Wei Shi was given the surname "Daye Clan", Li Hu was a lieutenant of the official office, and Li Bi and 8 other people assisted Wei Yougong in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, all of which became "pillar states", known as the "Eight Pillar State".
Tang tomb murals
In the seventeenth year of the reign of Emperor Wen of Western Wei (551 AD), Li Hu died, and after emperor Yuwen Jue of Northern Zhou received Wei Chan, he posthumously recorded his merits and was given the title of "Duke of Tang". Why Li Yuanjian's dynasty is called "Tang Dynasty", the most original source is here.
Li Hu gave birth to a son, Li Fu, and Li Yuan.
Li Yuan was born in Chang'an, and was born differently, with three nipples on his body. This seems to be deformed in modern times, but in ancient times it was attached to the nobility. When he grew up, Li Yuan attacked the title of "Duke of Tang".
However, the tombstone of Li Hu unearthed by Qing Shui subverted the Book of Tang, and there were many differences.
Portrait of Li Yuan
The Tang Dynasty records the royal origins of the Li clan, historians and folk have always had the saying of "concealing and exaggerating the birth", and most of the deeds of the ancestors of the Li clan and Li Hu himself have been appended and tampered with by the historians who wrote the Li Tang genealogy, and many decent contents have been fabricated and there are many omissions.
The emergence of Li Hu's epitaph provides empirical evidence for this view. It can not only correct the gaps in history, but also correct the mistakes and errors of the history, and provide valuable and important information for the study of the family lineage of the Li and Tang royal families.
The full name of the epitaph: "The Epitaph of the Great Sui Envoy Holding the Festival Horse Riding Grand General Kaifu Yi and the Three Si Shen Zheng Gong Shangzhou Assassin Li Fujun". The length and width of the Tuoben are 38 cm, the zhiwen has a total of 23 lines, the full line is 23 words, and a total of 475 words are excluded from the space.
The general placement of epitaphs is mostly located in front of the burial chamber
At the beginning of the Zhiwen text, it is said: "The public secret tiger character is mighty, and the Longxi Chengji people are also." The miao of the Former Gaoyang clan, after the Qin general. Born under the tree, because of the surname of Li Yan, he migrated from Longxi, and was called the Ling clan..."
The New Book of Tang calls Li Hu a "Wen Bin" instead of "mighty".
The epitaph records that Li Hu lived for 72 years, died on October 8, 577 AD in the sixth year of Jiande (577 AD), and was buried in the 18th day of the first month of the second year of Daye (606 AD) in □□ Liyuan, Neisha Township, Qingshui County, Qinzhou. ”
Because the death and burial were all before the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the content of the epitaph is more credible and closer to the facts than the records in the Book of Tang.
The Book of Tang records that the Li clan of the Tang Dynasty "changed the surname of Li to the official Because the official got the surname of Li, and the muzi was complete, and the surname of Li was changed with it", calling the ancestor Gao Tao Yao shiguan Dali and the official clan as the Li clan. After offending and fleeing, he had to eat muzi to save his life, and changed "reason" to "Li". The "Epitaph" says, "Under the tree, because of the surname of Li Yan", which means that Mr. Zu got the surname of "Li" because he was under the Tree of Li.
Stone carvings in front of the Yongkang Mausoleum in Shaanxi
The Book of Tang records that Li Hu's birth year is unknown, his grandfather Li Xi, the later Wei Jinmen town general, his father Li Tianxi, Shi Wei as the lord of the building, and the Great Unification gave Sikong. The epitaph records that Li Hu was born in 506 (the seventeenth year of the Reign of the Western Wei Dynasty), his grandfather was Li Jue of Wei Longxi Xingtai, and his father was Zhou Longdong Taishou Li Bao.
The Book of Tang records that Li Huguan was posthumously awarded the title of "Pillar State" by the Western Wei Taiwei and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, but this matter is not mentioned in the epitaph.
Stone carvings in front of Yongkang Mausoleum
The epitaph reveals that Li Hu's original burial place was Qingshui, Gansu. Why is there a tomb of Li Hu, that is, the Yongkang Mausoleum, in Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province? Quite simply, yongkang Mausoleum is not the original burial place, but a place of reburial.
The Yongkang Mausoleum was built after The Tang Dynasty Emperor Li Yuan built the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Hui Yao Emperor Number (Vol. 1) records: "Emperor Taizu Jing hu, emperor Ofe Wude (606 AD) posthumously honored Emperor Jing on June 22, 606 AD, temple number Taizu, buried Yongkang Mausoleum, in the border of Sanyuan County, Jingzhao Province. ”
Yongkang Mausoleum sealed the soil
This account is very brief and there are many questions.
Zizhi Tongjian (vol. 14), Li Hu died in May of the second year of Emperor Wen of Liang (the first year of Emperor Gong of Western Wei, 551 AD), 55 years after the construction of the Yongkang Mausoleum, where was he buried before? It should not be the current Yongkang Mausoleum.
If it had not been relocated from somewhere else, the Yongkang Mausoleum, which was built in Mihara County in the first year of Wude, would be a commemorative yiguan tomb.
Stone carvings scattered in the Yongkang Mausoleum area
However, while scholars questioned the false genealogy of the Li family recorded in the New Book of Tang and other historical books, and the suspicion of whitewashing the ancestors, some scholars questioned the tomb of Li Hu discovered by Qing Shui, "Is it really the tomb of Li Yuan's grandfather Li Hu" and believe that "this Li Hu is not the other Li Hu".
The place that cannot be bypassed is the time of the death of the two Li Hu.
Li Hu died in the capital in Qingshui's epitaph in the sixth year of Jiande (577 AD), and Ye fell back to his roots and was buried back in Qingshui, Gansu. The Zizhi Tongjian records that Li Hu died in the first year of the reign of Emperor Gong of Western Wei (551 AD). In comparison, the two Li Hu died 26 years apart, and they did not die in the same dynasty.
Sui and Tang dynasty murals
Could it be that one of the epitaphs and history books is misremembered? In theory, this is possible, but in fact it is impossible, so some scholars have proposed that the two Li Hu are "obviously not the same person."
It can be inferred from this that the tombstone of Li Hu found in Qingshui, Gansu during the Qing Dynasty is not the tomb of Li Yuan's grandfather Li Hu, that is to say, the tomb of Li Hu of Qingshui is not the ancestral tomb of the Li clan of the Tang Dynasty - Qingshui Li Hu should be a side branch of the Li clan of Longxi!
Murals of Hu people leading camels
Finally, by the way, the Tang Li clan is not a Hu person.
From the 1930s onwards, the issue of Li's clan was raised, and controversy was repeated.
Some scholars have suggested that the Li clan is from the Xianbei Tuoba clan, not the Han Chinese. The Republic of China scholar Liu Pansui put forward such a view in his article "Li Tang for the Examination of the Surname of Fan", and Wang Tongling also conducted a similar examination, publishing the "Yang Sui Li Tang Ancestral System Examination".
Horseback riding a beard
However, Li's view of the Hu people was opposed by many people, and the historian chen Yinke of the Republic of China was one of them.
Chen Yinzhi wrote a number of papers on this purpose, rejecting the view that the Tang Dynasty Li clan was a humble person. Chen Yinzhi believes that the family lineage of the Tang Dynasty Li clan was not prominent in the early years, "If it is not the 'broken settlement' of the Li clan of Zhao County, it is the 'counterfeit card' of the Li clan of Zhao County." ”
Tang tomb Hu people mural
Because generations have lived in Hu settlements, "gradually stained with Hu customs, the name is not elegant", so the Li family is infected with "Hu customs", compared with the traditional Central Plains Han people, the concept is very different. For example, in the marriage relationship, it is very "dirty": Tang Taizong Li Shimin continued to take his sister-in-law Yang Shi, Tang Gaozong Li Zhi married his father Concubine Wu Zetian, Tang Xuanzong took his daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan, and so on.
Li Hu's branch was originally from Shandong Junwang, and later when he "did not write a genealogy", it was changed to "Guanlong Junwang" and "annexed that his family lineage was related to the six towns".
Yongkang Mausoleum stone carvings