In June 1974, it was the hot summer in Beijing, and the workers in Dabaotai Village in the suburbs were still working under the scorching sun.
Suddenly, several drilling workers discovered several strange objects. Other workers rushed to form several circles when they heard the news. They saw some white mud paste exposed on the ground and some charcoal residue next to it. After discussion, several people reported the matter to the construction site leader, and the construction site leader reported the matter layer by layer. Finally, Huang Zuozhen, then secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, issued an instruction: , asks to dispatch the engineers and allocate 100,000 yuan...
What exactly was found below this construction site? Why did Huang Zuozhen send out engineers?
The discovery of tombs
1974, according to the instructions of relevant departments, the General Plant of Dongfanghong Petrochemical Plant planned to store several large oil storage tanks under two large mounds of soil in Dabaotai Village for future wartime needs.
According to the pre-excavation plan, the staff of the Beijing Geological Topography Survey Department carried out drilling, and all work is being carried out in an orderly manner.
However, on June 8, several workers were drilling and suddenly found a lot of charcoal and white mud paste in the soil. Everyone gathered around and talked: These charcoal and white mud paste should not be ordinary things.
So the workers reported the matter to the construction site leader. After checking, the construction site leader felt that the matter was extraordinary, so he immediately contacted the Beijing Cultural Relics Management Office.
Soon, two staff members of the Beijing Cultural Relics Management Office rushed to the scene.
staff listened carefully to the worker's master's introduction, and then immediately started the measurement and found that is a sand dune with a height of 9, a length of 100 in the north and south, and a width of 99 meters from east to west.
This sand dune, which is about 70 acres, is covered with weeds and sour jujube trees. At first glance, it is no different from ordinary sand dunes.
Considering that the charcoal and white mud paste excavated by workers are generally commonly used in the Han tomb chambers, the staff concluded that there might be a tomb below.
And according to the area of this sand dune, this tomb is likely to be a large tomb that can cause a sensation across the country!
In order to unveil the mystery of this tomb as soon as possible, the staff immediately returned to the unit to continue reporting the matter. As the reporting levels increased, Dabaotai Village became a "famous area" for a time.
At the same time, the construction work on the construction site was also suspended. Dongfanghong Petrochemical General Plant requires the Cultural Relics Management Office to come up with accurate opinions as soon as possible to facilitate the development of their drilling projects.
Finally, the Geological Survey Department, Dongfanghong Refinery and the Municipal Cultural Management Department held a joint meeting and decided to ask the Survey Department and experienced archaeological experts to assist in the supplementary exploration.
So, from July 3 to 8, a larger survey was launched again at the construction site.
What is surprising is that in addition to continuing to poke out charcoal and white mud paste, this time, a piece of Han Dynasty Wuzhu coins and a piece of wood 4 cm thick, painted with red lacquer on top and black lacquer on bottom.
After careful study by archaeological staff, it was initially determined that this was a large wooden tomb of the Western Han Dynasty. Tombs of such a large size were rare in China at that time. In order to further confirm the situation of the tomb, the leaders of the Beijing Cultural Relics Management Office coordinated a group of experts from all over the country to assist in the survey, and finally determined a Han tomb in the exact place below the construction site.
Since this fact has been confirmed, the most important issue is how to excavate this cemetery intact.
Soon, all the situations were reported to the Beijing Municipal Party Committee. After Huang Zuozhen, then secretary of the municipal party committee, learned the news, decided to stop the construction work in Dabaotai Village and personally supervise the archaeological excavation operation.
Then, Huang Zuozhen finished handling the important work and came to Dabaotai Village for inspection accompanied by staff from relevant departments.
However, in the process of exploring the excavation plan, some people suggested that the mound above the ancient tomb is a mound of earth, and the mound of earth itself is a cultural relic and cannot be excavated at will. The proposal of this view of
made all leaders and experts think. After discussion, everyone decided to first check the information to determine the identity of the tomb owner of the ancient tomb, and then judge whether it is necessary to conduct archaeological excavations based on this.
However, after a period of hard work, does not have direct information to prove which king, prince, general, and minister were buried under this ancient tomb, which also means that there is no way to know the specifications and burial objects of the tomb.
So, digging a tomb became the only way.
In August of this year, the Dabaotai Ancient Tomb Excavation Team was officially established in Beijing. The archaeological excavation work was officially launched on August 19, and everyone is looking forward to the stunning debut of the cultural relics and treasures under this tomb.
tortuous excavation process
Every staff member was extremely excited to learn that he was fortunate to participate in this massive cultural relics excavation project.
Then, the archaeological team calculated that the earthwork of this tomb was more than 36,000 cubic meters. At this time, the problem came:
Such a large cemetery, so much rammed earth, it is obviously not possible to rely on the excavation of on-site archaeologists. I am afraid that the true appearance of the tomb will not be seen until the second year of digging.
So, the person in charge of the archaeological team reported the matter to Huang Zuozhen, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee. Unexpectedly, Huang Zuozhen did not show any embarrassment after hearing this, but said with a smile:
"This problem is easy to solve. I will give a report to the comrades of the Beijing Military Region and ask them to transfer some engineers to assist!" After
, Huang Zuozhen coordinated with various parties to relevant departments to obtain approval documents for dispatching engineers, and batches of engineers also entered the archaeological excavation site one after another.
In order to further support this excavation operation, Huang Zuozhen once again instructed: allocated RMB 100,000 as the operating funds for this archaeological excavation project.
With the strong assistance and sufficient funds from the engineers, will everything go smoothly in the archaeological work? What objects will be unearthed in the ancient tomb? One month after excavation, the tomb eaves of this tomb were finally cleared. The tomb was 27 meters long from north to south, 23.5 meters wide from east to west, and there was a tomb passage from north to south.
On this basis, the formal grave digging room finally kicked off.
As the excavation work progresses, several ceramic spinning wheels of different shapes, several Yanming swords, and several clam sickles from the Warring States Period have appeared one after another.
These objects make archaeological experts more convinced that this excavation will surely gain a lot!
However, soon, someone found a hole on the side of the tomb. This hole is exactly what people often call "threat hole". looks like a common hole in ancient my country.
This instantly cooled down everyone's enthusiasm. It seems that this tomb has been tragically attacked by tomb robbers!
What’s even more unfortunate is that during the subsequent excavation operations of , everyone discovered several holes from different eras, some of which were circular holes often made by modern tomb robbers.
The bad news that has appeared one after another has made everyone speculate:
"Has this big tomb been looted by tomb robbers of all generations?"
"Such a huge excavation project would not be in vain, right?"
After all, the situation of "nine out of ten rooms in the Han tomb" was also very common in past excavation operations.
However, after a meeting and discussion, the archaeological team judged that this Han tomb was large in scale. Even if it was visited by tomb robbers, there should be many objects with research value.
Therefore, everyone should continue to explore according to the pre-plan.
Thankfully, a few days later, a good news came out:
The archaeological team discovered another ancient tomb on the southwest side of the tomb, and the owners of these two tombs are likely to be husband and wife.
makes such a judgment because Han pays attention to "buried in the same place and burial" when couples are buried together, and these two tombs that are parallel to meet this feature.
Then, experts divided the two tombs into Tomb No. 1 and Tomb No. 2, and continued to organize excavations.
However, during the subsequent excavation, just when everyone thought that the identity of the tomb owner would be confirmed soon, someone found a large area of burning on the tomb chamber.
This made the experts frown again, and everyone present prayed that the tomb would not be destroyed by the fire.
The identity of the tomb owner surfaced
At the same time, everyone also found that some wooden blocks were neatly piled around the tomb chamber, and the entire tomb chamber presented a "medium-shaped" structure. After the tomb structure of
was announced, it caused quite a stir in the country's ancient world.
Because this shape of Han Dynasty tombs appeared in my country for the first time, and those who can use this shape are generally royal identities. After
, the expert team found many animals used to bury for their lives at that time. After identification, they were , , , leopard, and , three horses.
In addition to these, the outer corridor of the tomb chamber also has some pottery urns and pottery figurines , which are filled with various animal bones.
All these indicate that the tomb owner lived a luxurious life and had a noble status during his lifetime. However, based on these alone, the specific identity of the tomb owner cannot be determined.
Soon, a staff member found a moment of fragments of lacquerware in the inner corridor of the tomb. Although the handwriting on it has been corroded for thousands of years, it can still be seen.
Experts immediately conducted research on this fragment. After comparing a large amount of historical documents, the identity of the tomb owner finally surfaced!
It turns out that under this tomb is the third son of Emperor Wu of Han Liu Dan , and is the King of Yan during the Western Han Dynasty .
After confirming the identity of the tomb owner, everyone continued to dig. However, after entered Liu Dan's tomb chamber, everyone was surprised to find that his coffin had been opened.
Not only that, His remains were also discarded not far from the coffin.
Seeing this scene, the experts looked at each other, while other staff members at the scene were talking about the fact that the tomb robbers were really immoral.
However, it is gratifying that although Liu Dan and his wife's two tombs were visited by tomb robbers several times, nearly 100 pieces of jade artifacts such as jade carved statue pattern ring artifacts, jade deformation Kuilong pattern sulfonium, jade slow-shaped disc, jade relief crab artifacts, etc. were unearthed with everyone's efforts, as well as some other precious cultural relics .
When the excavation work came to an end, some experts believed that Tomb No. 1 had not suffered much damage, and it was the only tomb in China at that time that belonged to the "codile palace, toilet room, yellow intestine " burial system.
In order to provide domestic and foreign scholars and the masses with a physical object that can be studied or viewed, experts recommend that this tomb be preserved, and it is best to build a special museum.
Finally, in order to better protect the Dabaotai Han Tomb site, the Beijing Municipal Government decided to establish a museum in 1979.
The museum construction team invited many experts to hold several discussions and listened to opinions on the principles, methods, materials and display outlines of the tombs.
After years of hard work in all aspects, a novel, unique and scientific site museum - Beijing Dabaotai Western Han Tomb Museum has finally been completed.
On December 1, 1983, the museum was officially opened to the public, and these precious cultural relics mined by were finally displayed in front of the world.
Amid the bustling crowds, some tour guides told the tourists about the miserable life of the tomb owner, King Yan Liu Dan...
The tragic fate of King Yan Liu Dan
Above the previous article has mentioned that Liu Dan was the third son of Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che . Although he was not the eldest son of the emperor, Liu Dan was diligent and studious, well-behaved and sensible when he was young, and was deeply loved by Liu Che.
After getting the recognition of his father, Liu Dan became more diligent and grew into a handsome and knowledgeable young man.
However, even if Liu Che likes this third son very much, he will not let him threaten the inheritance rights of the eldest son.
So in the sixth year of Yuan hunting (117 BC), he enthroned Liu Dan, Liu Hong and Liu Xu on the same day. Liu Dan was named King of Yan, and his fief was Jicheng , which is now Beijing area.
During his time as a vassal king, Liu Dan worked diligently to guard the border and was still deeply loved by Emperor Wu of Han.
However, in the second year of and (91 BC), the shocking witchcraft disaster in the Western Han Dynasty occurred in the Western Han Dynasty. The prince Liu rebelled on according to but ended in failure.
After the defeat, Liu Ju committed suicide in hatred, resulting in the vacant position of the crown prince. Emperor Wu of Han did not immediately re-enact the crown prince from many sons.
At that time, Liu Hong, the second son of Emperor Wu of Han, had also passed away. Among the remaining princes, Liu Dan naturally became the "big brother".
Liu Dan believed that the position of the crown prince was his own, so he secretly accumulated strength.
However, a few years have passed, Emperor Wu of Han still has no intention of establishing a crown prince. This is a frustrating Liu Dan. He is worried that his father would establish a crown prince in his other younger brothers, so he will never have a chance again.
In the first year of Houyuan (88 BC), Emperor Wu of Han was seriously ill. Liu Dan immediately sent an envoy to write a letter saying that he wanted to transfer back to Chang'an and requested a long-term garrison to defend Chang'an.
Emperor Wu of Han understood the purpose as soon as he saw the letter. Han Dynasty Only the crown prince is qualified to stay in Chang'an forever. Liu Dan wrote a letter at this time, which clearly wanted to recommend himself to be the crown prince!
Emperor Wu of Han angrily threw the letter aside, killed the envoy who came to deliver the letter, and found a reason to cut off the three counties and towns in Liu Dan's fief.
After this disgust of Liu Dan, Emperor Wu of Han finally realized that he had to establish a crown prince early, so he made his youngest son Liu Fuling the crown prince.
In February of the following year, Emperor Wu of Han died of illness, and his youngest son Liu Fuling ascended the throne, known in history as Emperor Zhao of Han .
Liu Dan was originally dissatisfied with his younger brother's ascension to the throne, but later he was sensitive and suspicious, believing that Emperor Zhao of Han intended to manipulate the court officials to target him.
So he secretly contacted the royal family Liu Chang, Liu Ze and others, preparing to raise an army to rebel and usurp the throne.
However, before he could take action, the plan of rebellion was reported to Emperor Zhao of Han, and Liu Dan and his gangsters were eventually arrested.
Emperor Zhao of Han did not execute Liu Dan because of his brotherly feelings, but Liu Dan disagreed and believed that Emperor Zhao of Han would find an opportunity to get rid of himself in the future.
So, after two years of peace, Liu Dan colluded with important officials in the court to prepare for another rebellion.
If you want to say that Liu Dan was really lucky, the second rebellion repeated the last farce, and he was reported before he could take action.
Seeing that this brother was so ungrateful, Emperor Zhao of Han issued an edict to denounce Liu Dan for having no face to face his ancestors even though he was alive. Liu Dan was ashamed and felt deeply hopeless of seizing power, so he committed suicide at home.
Although Liu Dan rebelled twice, he was Liu Che's own son after all, and the King of Yan enthroned by Liu Che himself, so it is not surprising that the tomb was grand after his death.
But what is sad is that this King Yan died in a cowardly manner during his lifetime, and was then thrown away by a tomb robber after his death. This should be the worst royal prince in the history of the Han Dynasty, right?
Conclusion
Dabaotai Han Tomb has been visited by tomb robbers several times. Although the number of cultural relics finally excavated is not large, its precious historical value cannot be measured by money.
It is precisely because of the progress of the ancient excavation work that vivid historical figures are vividly displayed on the paper, and we have the opportunity to feel the brilliant and splendor of Chinese culture for five thousand years!
