In 1975, the Yongcheng Archaeological Team of the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology and the Fengxiang County Cultural Center began to search for qin cemetery burials in Fengxiang. In a field with no crops in Nanzhi Town, Fengxiang County, green paste mud (fine texture similar to lake bottom silt, strong water barrier), charcoal, rafters, cinnabar and so on were drilled.
In the end, a largest and longest-consuming tomb in China has been excavated so far in China and the most labored and time-consuming archaeological excavation. Because it is the first Qin Gong Tomb found in Yongcheng, it is called Qin Gong No. 1 Tomb.
Tomb No. 1 of Qin Gong is the largest ancient tomb excavated in China so far, and the 186 martyrs in the tomb are the tombs with the most martyrs found in China since the Western Zhou Dynasty; the cypress wood "yellow intestine inscription" of the rafter chamber is the highest level of burial tools excavated in China so far in the Zhou and Qin dynasties; the wooden stele on the outside of the two walls of the chamber is the earliest tombstone in the history of Chinese tombs.
In particular, the stone chimes excavated from the tombs are the earliest stone chimes with inscriptions found in China. The most precious is the text on the stone chime, as many as 180, the font is 籀 script, similar to the "stone drum text", according to the text on it inferred that the owner of the tomb is Qin Jinggong.
Qin Jinggong (?) –537 BC), courtesy name Zhao ,赵氏, mingshi, son of Duke Huan of Qin, monarch of the State of Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period, reigned from 576 BC to 537 BC. In the twenty-seventh year of the Duke of Qin Jing (550 BC), the Duke of Qin Jing sent an envoy to the State of Jin and allied with the Prince of Jin, The Duke of Jinping. Soon, the Jin state reneged on the covenant.
At that time, Qin Jinggong's half-brother Houzi Needle was deeply favored by Qin Jinggong and was very rich. In the thirty-sixth year of the Duke of Qin Jing (541 BC), someone framed Houzi Needle, who fled to the Jin Dynasty for fearing that he would be killed, and brought thousands of cars loaded with belongings. Jin Pinggong was very puzzled and asked Houzi, "Since you are already so rich, why do you still want to run away?" Hou Zi Needle replied, "Qin Jinggong has no way, I am afraid of being killed, and I want to wait for the Qin State to replace the monarch before returning." ”
In the 40th year of the Duke of Qin Jing (537 BC), the Duke of Qin Jinggong died and was succeeded by his son Duke Ai of Qin. In fact, long before the Duke of Qin Ai succeeded to the throne, the Qin Jing Cemetery had been repaired. The specific events are not yet known.
The total length of the Qinjing Cemetery is 300 meters, of which the burial chamber is 60 meters long, 40 meters wide and 24.5 meters deep, and the total area of the tomb is 5334 square meters. It is 10 times larger than the tomb of the King of the Shang Dynasty in Henan and 20 times larger than the Tomb of Mawangdui No. 1 in Changsha! From one end of the cemetery, the entire tomb resembles a deep canyon. These reflect the economic strength of the Qin state at that time, as well as the brutality of the rulers and the misery of slave labor. Standing on the edge of the tomb and looking down, underneath are neatly arranged wooden boxes and wooden boxes, a total of 184, which is the coffin of the martyr who buried Qin Jinggong.
When further cleaning the coffin, the archaeologists were surprised to find that these voluntary martyrs lying in the coffin were all curled up strangely on their lower limbs!
This reminds archaeologists of the history books that recorded in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin people were popular for flexed limb burial, that is, when a person just died, the lower limbs were curled up with a cloth belt and tied upwards, and then buried in a coffin. This unique burial style further clearly points the target to the Qin people.
However, the ancient Zhang-zhung civilization on the Ali Plateau in Tibet, the early Lingnan culture 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, and the Majiayao culture in the upper reaches of the Yellow River about 4,000 years ago, have also been found in the tombs left behind by these ancient civilizations.