"There are the Thirteen Tombs in the north and the Nine Kings' Sleeping in the south." In Longquan Mountain, Wuhan, Hubei, there is such a tomb of the vassal kings that is comparable to Ming Tombs . Nine Chu kings from the Chu vassal lineage of the Ming Dynasty were buried here, which is very rare in the national Ming Dynasty vassal system of the tombs of the vassal kings. In addition, the lineage of the Chu vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty has run through the entire history from the early establishment of the Ming Dynasty to the demise of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that "a history of the Chu vassal king is equivalent to a history of the Ming Dynasty."
Many tourists come to Longquan Mountain for tourism and will ask the staff the same question: Why don’t you have stone statues here?
So what is stone statue life?
The stone people and stone beasts installed in front of the emperor’s tomb are collectively called stone statues, also known as “ Weng Zhong ”. There is indeed someone in Weng Zhong in history. He is more than two meters tall and is a powerful general in Qin Shihuang . After Weng Zhong's death, Qin Shihuang cast a bronze statue and placed it outside the Xianyang palace. Later, the Huns came to Xianyang to worship and saw Weng Zhong's bronze statue from afar. They were afraid and turned around and left.
Ming Tombs Stone Life
After that, in order to demonstrate the supremacy of imperial power, the emperors followed suit and set up lifelike stone life in front of the tomb. For example, Wu Zetian 's Qianling , Sima Dao has 18 pairs of stone statues in existence; Minghuang Mausoleum has 32 pairs of stone statues in Anhui, which is the best of ancient tombs.
Qianling Mausoleum Stone statues are born
Minghuang Mausoleum Stone statues are born
Stone statues are born
Not everyone is a human form. When the emperor held a ceremony during his lifetime, in addition to civil and military officials and military ceremonial guards, lions, elephants and other animals were also placed in cages and placed on both sides of the imperial road. Stone sheep, stone horse, stone tiger, stone elephant, etc. evolved from this. In addition, there are some legendary creatures, such as Stone Seal and Stone Kirin , which are used to demonstrate the emperor's pomp and power in the underworld.
Camel stone statue birth
So is it possible for only the emperor's cemetery to set up stone statue birth? It is also possible for vassal kings and heroes. For example, . The Western Han Dynasty. The famous generals of Huo Qubing have 17 stone statues in his tomb. One of the items "The Horse Steps on the Huns" is simple and grand, reflecting the tomb owner's aspirations and great military achievements.
The descendants of the Zhu family have always lived in the Longquan Mountain area, but they have never found stone statues. Archaeological staff did not find any remains of stone statues during the cleaning process. It is very likely that the King of Chu did not have stone statues.
So is the King of Chu not worthy of having a stone statue? According to the provisions of the Ming Hui Dian, "Stone Statues" can be set up in front of the tombs of officials of fifth ranks or above. The King of Chu obviously complies with the regulations. A large number of stone statues were set up in the tombs of the founding generals of the Ming Dynasty, namely the title of the Ming Dynasty's vassal kings, and the tombs of the famous founding generals of the Ming Dynasty, Tang and . Stone statues were also found in the tomb of King Xiang of Ming in , Xiangyang , which has a lower status than King Zhao of Chu.
Tang and Tomb Stone Statues
Then since Zhu Zhen has this qualification, why not set up stone Statues ? We have two speculations.
, one is because of competing with the eight great masters.
Longquan Mountain has been valued by scholars and literati since the Western Han Dynasty and became an important place for them to live or bury. In the early Ming Dynasty, eight families of Fan, Li, Shen, Zhang, Zou, Zeng, Du and Dong were gathered here, also known as the "Eight Great Masters".
After King Zhao of Chu divided Longquan Mountain into his own cemetery, it aroused the dissatisfaction of the "Eight Great Masters" of the indigenous people, and the two sides began to compete for land. The conflict between the vassal states and local people was intensified, and they were even sued by the Lingquan gentry to the imperial front. The court realized that this would be detrimental to long-term stability and therefore restricted the tombs of the vassal kings. This may also be because the King of Chu lineage did not set up stone statues, so it should not be overly extravagant.
The second is that the King of Chu followed the ancestral teachings of frugality.
The production of stone statues requires a whole piece of stone, which is very troublesome to transport and consumes a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. As mentioned earlier, Zhu Zhen and Shang Jian were more cautious after taking the lead in , Zhu Di, . Perhaps it was Zhu Zhen who asked his descendants to avoid their sharp edge and protect themselves with a gentle and obedient attitude, which led to no stone statues found in the tombs of the King of Chu who have been cleared.
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