The mystery of the headless stone statue in the tomb of Wu Zetian?

The only female emperor in Chinese history Wu Zetian used her life legend to tell the world that women can also be emperors and do no worse than men. On November 26, the first year of Shenlong (December 16, 705), 82-year-old Wu Zetian died of illness in the Xianju Hall of Shangyang Palace. The legendary empress finished her life, and at the end of her life, she specially ordered to go to the emperor's title, and as an empress, she and her husband, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi , were buried together with Qianling. She enjoyed all the glory and wealth during her lifetime, and after her death, future generations kept arguing about her deeds. A monument without a word is enough to make future generations puzzled. The headless stone man in Qianling is also very strange.

In the first year of Hongdao, Wu Zetian ordered the official minister Shang Shuwei to be in charge of the Qianling project. In August of the following year, Li Zhi was buried, after which the Qianling project continued. In May of the second year of Shenlong, the newly succeeded emperor Tang Zhongzong Li Xian ordered Wu Zetian to be buried in the Qianling Mausoleum; also the year before, Tang Zhongzong pardoned the royal family who had been persecuted to death due to political problems during the Wu Zetian period and re-buried them. Such as Princess Yongtai Li Xianhui, Prince Yide Li Chongrun, Prince Zhanghuai Li Xian and so on. In addition, in 706, Qianling also added the tombs of Xu Wang Li Sujie, Ze Wang Li Shangjin, and Yiyang Princess Li Xiayu.

In addition to the main tomb, Qianling also has 17 small burial tombs, where other royal family members and heroes are buried. Qianling Mausoleum is the best-preserved one of the eighteen tombs of the Tang Dynasty. As of 2013, only five burial tombs have been excavated, and a large number of cultural relics have been unearthed from it.

The mausoleum originally had two walls inside and outside, four gates, and many magnificent buildings such as Xiandian Quelou. Exploration shows that the total area of ​​the inner city is 2.4 million square meters. On the four sides of the city wall, there is the Zhuquemen in the south, the Xuanwumen in the north, and the Qinglongmen in the east.There is white tiger gate in the west.

During the Huangchao Uprising , in order to solve the expenditure of the army, Qianling's idea was raised. Huangchao mobilized 400,000 troops to start digging the Qian Tomb, but the trenches were dug more than 40 meters deep and the tomb crossing was not dug. After that, , Houliang, Chongzhou Jiedu, and Wen Tao also tried to rob Qian tombs, but they also failed: "Those who are in the territory of the Tang tombs will unearth them and take all the treasures they have hidden... Wind and rain cannot happen.” In the early years of the Republic of China, the Kuomintang general Sun Lianzhong mobilized a division to rob the Qian Tomb. The soldiers used explosives to blast around, but still failed to find the crossing of the tomb. Even the explosives can't be exploded, and Qianling's feeling in people's hearts has become more and more mysterious.

Outside Qianling, the most curious thing is not the wordless stele, but the 61 headless stone statues. These life-size stone men are dressed in different outfits, ranging from robes and waistcoats to lapels and purple sleeves. But they both stood side by side, arched their hands forward, and had an extremely humble posture, as if they were lined up here to welcome the emperor's arrival. For thousands of years, there has not been a very clear explanation. Because in ancient times, it was more common to erect stone statues near the tombs, but 61 stone statues without human heads are unique.

It was not until 1974 when two nearby farmers were working in their own fields that they accidentally solved this thousand-year mystery. The two hoeed a rock while hoeing the ground. In order to clean it out, they simply decided to "uproot it". But after dug out the whole stone, they were surprised to find that the stone was actually carved into a human head, and there were signs of fracture.

Although the two farmers are not highly educated, they are vaguely aware of the cultural relics that may be involved. The two immediately decided to report to the cultural relics protection department,At the suggestion of a local researcher, the two searched for the stone head, and they dug up many similar heads. In this way, the mystery of the headless stone statue that has plagued the past thousands of years was solved by two simple farmers.

After combining the avatar and body, archaeologists finally unlocked the secret of this thousand years. It turns out that these stone statues are not from the Central Plains, but from the Turkic people of Saibei . Their facial features are significantly different from those of the Central Plains, and their hair styles are also significantly different.

In addition, the researchers also found some words on the stone statues, such as "Prince Tochara Chikadajan", "Mujuhan King Stora", etc. These are the chiefs of the Turkic tribes. Therefore, these 61 stone statues were originally Turkic leaders who "guarded the mausoleum" of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian.

Why is the head of the stone statue neatly destroyed? One theory is that the heads of these stone statues were chopped off by the people of the Ming . In the late Ming and early Ming Dynasty, a foreign envoy went to Qianling to visit and found that his ancestors had been standing here to guard the tombs of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He felt that it was both detrimental and degrading to the country’s morale, and his self-esteem was severely damaged. , I wanted to destroy these stone statues. But he was afraid of causing dissatisfaction among the local people, so he thought of a clever plan. He trampled on grain in the crops near Qianling every night, and then fanned the flames the next day, telling the people that these were all made of stone statues, and they became refined at night and began to spoil the crops. To protect the crops and food, these stone statues must be wiped out and their heads cut off so that they cannot come out to harm the crops. The local people thought that the foreign envoy was very reasonable, so they chopped up the heads of the stone statues in a fit of anger. There is also a saying that when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China , they saw a group of foreign envoys standing in front of the Qianling Mausoleum of the Tang Dynasty.