This story has to be told from Yuan Shikai's life experience. In the ninth year of Xianfeng, Yuan Shikai was born in a family of officials. His wealthy family allowed him to receive a high-level education at a very young age.

Yuan Shikai’s story is familiar to us, but few friends know that he once dug up his ancestral grave to be the emperor.

The story of this has to start with Yuan Shikai's life experience.

In the ninth year of Xianfeng, Yuan Shikai was born in a family of officials. His wealthy family allowed him to receive a high-level education at a very young age. When Yuan Shikai grew up, because he was short in size and his neck and legs were much shorter than ordinary people, the neighbors at that time called him the reincarnation of a "toad". Yuan Shikai participated in the imperial examinations many times and failed the exams in succession. After realizing that he was not a material for studying, Yuan Shikai simply abandoned his literature and followed the Qing army to North Korea to quell the rebellion.

1895 War ended, Yuan Shikai was appreciated by Li Hongzhang and was arranged to be responsible for training troops at a small station. At this time, Yuan Shikai had 7,000 people in his hands and became a big and small officer. From then on, Yuan Shikai gradually received attention from the Qing court and was promoted repeatedly. After Puyi ascended the throne, Prince Chun was regent. Due to some old past events ( Wuxu Coup ), the conflict between Prince Chun and Yuan Shikai was deeply rooted. After Prince Chun gained power, he immediately deprived Yuan Shikai of his military power. Yuan Shikai was very self-aware. Before Prince Chun killed him, he returned to Henan after he was ill and returned to Anyang to live in seclusion.

Yuan Shikai believes in Feng Shui and is very superstitious. He must read the physiognomy and ask questions before doing things. Yuan Shikai felt that the reason why he was persecuted by Prince Chun was entirely because of the poor feng shui of the Yuan family’s ancestral tomb in Xiangcheng, Henan. So, Yuan Shikai spent a lot of money to invite fortune teller to ask him to make Feng Shui for the Yuan family’s ancestral tomb.

After a field investigation by the fortune teller, he found that the Yuan family’s ancestral tomb is located at the “true dragon’s cave”, which is indescribable. However, there was a circle of walls built around the ancestral tomb, which hindered the "dragon energy", so Yuan Shikai's career would be quite bumpy. As long as this circle of walls was demolished, the Yuan family would prosper.

After listening to the fortune teller's nonsense, Yuan Shikai believed it and immediately sent someone to work day and night to push down all the walls around the ancestral tomb. Yuan Shikai mobilized all the troops to break ground, and the people nearby thought that Yuan Shikai had dug up his ancestral tomb. From then on, a saying has been circulated among the people: Yuan Shikai digging the tomb - the ancestral tomb is not upright.

From this story we can see that Yuan Shikai is a very superstitious person. Yuan Shikai's superstition was even implemented by him in his political career.

In addition, there is also a legend about the tomb of the Liu family of Yuan Shikai's mother.

1901, Yuan Shikai, then the governor of Shandong, was heartbroken by the death of his mother Liu, and submitted a memorial to the court to return to his hometown to bury his mother, and was worried for three years. However, at that time, the Eight-Nation Alliance and the Boxer Rebellion were in a serious trouble. Cixi issued an order to reject Yuan Shikai's request to bury his mother Ding You, and asked him to continue to rule Shandong. A year later, Yuan Shikai, who had been promoted to the Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, was able to carry the coffin back to his hometown to bury his mother. But when he arrived at his hometown in Xiangcheng, Henan, the coffin of Liu was blocked from the Yuan family's ancestral tomb and was not allowed to enter and bury him with Yuan Baozhong .

Since Liu was the concubine of his father Yuan Baozhong, Yuan Shikai had no choice but to face the opposition of the entire family in the face of the family rules of his ancestors. He could only find another place and find a Feng Shui treasure land for his mother. After searching for several times, a Feng Shui treasure land called "Qingniu Shachao" was found in the west of Liwa Village in the southeast of Zhengguo Town, Xiangcheng. The reason why this place is called "green bull slap" is that it is said that dead branches can take root and sprout overnight after being inserted into the nose of the green bull, connecting the earth's energy.

Yuan Shikai’s first choice is the face of the talent, not ability.

After the end of 1 Revolution, Yuan Shikai was elected as the president of the Republic of China. At that time, someone introduced him to the very capable Wu Dingchang , hoping that Yuan Shikai could promote this person to the Chief Finance Minister. However, after seeing Wu Dingchang, Yuan Shikai did not reuse this person because he felt that Wu Dingchang had "cheeks visible behind his back". Such a face was similar to Cao Cao , and it was concluded that this person could not be reused. In this way, the unlucky Wu Dingchang was arranged in the mint by Yuan Shikai, and no one could do the best.

In the early years, the King of Korea gave Yuan Shikai a jasper tea cup. Yuan Shikai loved this exquisite tea cup and used a jasper tea cup every time he drank tea. One day, while the servant was serving tea for Yuan Shikai, he saw the president sleeping soundly, so he stood by with a teacup. After a long time, the servant felt a little sleepy. He trembled his hand and threw the jade teacup to the ground, which turned into powder. Yuan Shikai was alarmed by the sound, turned over and sat up. Seeing that his beloved teacup had become a piece of shit, he was furious and scolded the servant.

The servant was so scared that his face was ashamed and could only lie, "I came in with a teacup. I saw that it was not the president who was sleeping on the bed, but a mighty big golden dragon. I was scared and then knocked over the teacup." When Yuan Shikai heard this, wasn't the big golden dragon talking about him?他大喜过望，并未怪罪小厮摔碎碧玉茶杯，反倒顺手取了件宝贝赏赐小厮，并千叮咛万嘱咐道：“这件事千万别对其他人说起。”

1914年，在河南为袁世凯翻修祖坟的工人进京汇报，称袁世凯老爹袁宝中的坟地旁长出一条紫色的藤蔓，有一丈多长，就像是龙一样盘踞在坟头上。 After hearing this, Yuan Shikai immediately rewarded the workers and repeatedly instructed the workers to keep the matter strictly confidential. In order to verify the authenticity, Yuan Shikai also asked his eldest son, Yuan Keding, to return to his hometown and go to his ancestral grave to observe the situation.

After Yuan Keding returned to his hometown of Xiangcheng , he wrote what he saw in the letter and reported it to his father: the vines grow very fast, and they are already as thick as a child's arms, and the color is as bright as blood. After reading the letter, Yuan Shikai was overjoyed and immediately replied to Yuan Keding and asked him to recruit more workers and build a wall next to his father's grave to prevent cattle and sheep from eating the vines.

Later, an astronomer wrote a letter to Yuan Shikai, saying that when he was observing the astronomical phenomena, he found a " Emperor Star " shining brightly in Henan. Judging from the movement trajectory of the star, he would arrive in Beijing in less than a month. Yuan Shikai believed that the imperial star was his symbol, so he ignored the outside world's public opinion and decided to restore the imperial system and become the next emperor after Puyi.

So, after Yuan Shikai's death, was his cemetery stolen?

Yuan Shikai was simply buried after his death. In 1916, the government built a cemetery for Yuan Shikai, which is now Yuan Lin. Judging from the appearance of Yuan Lin, the scale of Yuan Lin, but there are a lot of necessary things in Yuan Lin, and they are neatly distributed and arranged in an orderly manner. His tomb was also built in imitation of royal gardens. After checking the information, it was found that Yuan Shikai's cemetery had not been stolen. He had no money to hold a grand funeral when he was buried. During the Cultural Revolution, Yuan Lin, where Yuan Shikai's cemetery was located, also escaped and is still preserved intact.

Reference materials:

["Yuan Shikai Cemetery", "Biographies of Yuan Shikai"]