After the National Day in 1955, Zheng Zhenduo, director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, was rarely angry and pointed the finger at a proposal placed on the table. The proposers of the proposal were not unknown juniors, but Wu Han, the well-known vice mayor of Beijing, and Guo Moruo, a famous writer. Guo Moruo and others were originally kind, they discovered the location of the Ming Ming Tombs, and wanted to excavate the emperor's tombs to contribute to the archaeological cause of our country. However, Zheng Zhenduo was obviously more professional and rational, and he believed that the technology at that time was not mature, and the consequences were not yet known, so he needed to walk slower and more steadily. Both sides had their own points, but the project was eventually finalized with different voices. However, good intentions can also do bad things. The golden silk nanmu that was thrown in the wild at random, and the dragon robe that turned black and became brittle and disappeared all indicate that from the time the project was finalized, the tragedy seemed to be doom......ed
Zhu Yijun, the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, reigned for nearly 50 years, but after his death, he became an unlucky emperor, and his mausoleum was destroyed three times. The first two vandalism were not fatal, but the third was a terrible loss for the good intentions. The first destruction of Dingling was related to the unfilial piety of Zhu Yijun's descendants. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the people were in dire straits, and the peasant leader Li Zicheng rose up, attacked the city and plundered the land all the way, and fought to the city of Beijing. Out of anger, he put a fire on the ancestral tomb of the Zhu family, which illuminated Beijing when the fire soared into the sky, and burned down three Ming Emperor tombs in a row, including Dingling.
The ground floor area of Dingling is 180,000, although the fire is big, but as far as the whole Dingling is concerned, it is still not obvious. The first destruction led to a great reduction in people's reverence for the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the Jurchen people's digging up of the relationship between the "dragon vein" and the Ming Dynasty. After the Qing soldiers entered the customs, the Ming Dynasty regime disappeared, and the safety of the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum was even more uncared about. Although the Qing soldiers smashed and looted, they also buried endless banes, and had to rebuild the Ming Tombs in disgrace. However, it was Guo Moruo, Wu Han and others who really brought devastating disaster to Dingling, who initiated the excavation and cultural relics protection of Dingling. A crack appeared on the wall of Dingling, giving hope to an archaeological team of dozens of people. Under the leadership of Guo Moruo and others, Zhao Qichang and Bai Wanyu, the principal and deputy leaders of the archaeological team, also agreed to excavate the Dingling Tomb. The real situation of archaeological work is different from the TV series "Ghost Blowing the Lantern" and "Notes on Tomb Robbery", there is no plot of simple difficulties and then "accidentally" discovering ancient tombs. The most difficult thing is to find the entrance, and to start digging before you can enter, and it is not advisable to act blindly. During the excavation of Dingling, they even dug three exploration trenches. The first trench started at the crack and was fortunate enough to have a harvest at a depth of one meter.
Digging along the carved "tunnel door" continued for a whole month. When hope was lost, there was an unexpected turn of events - a deep gate was dug and made of large bricks.
Not surprisingly, this is the first entrance to the trench. Based on past archaeological experience, the time has come to start digging a second trench. However, does Dingling follow ordinary archaeological experience? No one knows, so they can only try to dig it down.
The amount of work on this trench is quite large, and it coincides with the rainy season, so in order to prevent the destruction of the tomb, the archaeological work can only be carried out slowly. As the months passed, everyone was frustrated and lost interest in digging. Opposition is also growing. However, at this moment, Dingling brought another surprise to everyone - a migrant worker happily arrived in front of the archaeological staff with a small stone block with inscriptions.
After a simple cleanup, everyone saw the words on it clearly, and the whole scene resounded with laughter, because it read: "To the front skin of the King Kong Wall is 16 zhang deep and 3 zhang 5 feet". So, after the excavation of the third exploration trench, it leads directly to the white marble gate. As long as this door is gently opened, the mysterious veil of Dingling will be unveiled in an instant, and the dusty history of hundreds of years will be seen again.
However, is this door really that easy to push? Starting from the gate of the large bricks, as the excavation deepened, the smell of decay and decay became stronger and more uncomfortable. Although the appearance of Xiaoshijie gave everyone hope, it could not offset the adverse effects of the humid environment on the human body.
Seeing the King Kong Wall with my own eyes, I found a door made of bricks, and a group of proletarians were given goosebumps by the cool breeze blowing from inside the door, and they felt that there might be ** annoyance inside. Everyone comes here, whether it is a human or a ghost, they have to go in and take a look. Following the fine tradition of the country, cadres in difficulty should rush to the front first, so captain Zhao Qichang stepped forward. He carefully removed the first brick, then quickly removed the second, then the third, until a pitch-black hole was revealed. A rotten aura hit his face, making him shiver, and the others followed suit by half a step. A somewhat panicked voice came from the ranks, asking, "Could there be hidden arrows, poisonous insects, snakes, or ants in there?" Then the discussion began, with some asking if there would be zombies and others worrying about whether they would be in danger. In short, the atmosphere suddenly became lively. But when it was time to take the first step, everyone started to get nervous again. For safety, since ancient times, the first living creature to enter the mausoleum was a chicken. So the rooster clucked, flapped its wings, and walked quickly, seemingly safe all the way. Then everyone unloaded the bricks with all hands and feet, Zhao Qichang tied the hemp rope, handed the other end to his companion, and then followed the route taken by the rooster and walked carefully inside. It wasn't until they came to the end and reconfirmed their safety that the rest of the migrant workers and archaeological workers entered one after another, went through a series of difficulties, and came to the white jade gate.
Pushing open the gate of white jade, the Chinese archaeological community ushered in a feat. The lights illuminate the intersection of ancient civilization and modern civilization, and the scene is gorgeous and exquisite. Porcelain relics, jewelry, gold and silver, and precious brocades shine and attract the attention of everyone present.
What excites archaeologists the most is the mystery of the emperor's burial that is about to be revealed. First of all, look at the situation of Emperor Wanli, his coffin is surrounded by decorative bottles such as jade and plum ping, and there is also a red lacquered wooden box next to it, which is also full of rare antiquities.
Emperor Wanli was lying in a coffin of golden silk nanmu, covered with a quilt, and under the quilt were robes and fabrics, and his body had not completely decayed. He was lying on his side, face up, with his hands on his right and left side of his stomach, and a string of rosaries on his hands. The legs are unneatly flipped outwards to reveal the other half of the large characters.
Under his body, there were 9 layers of bedding, one of which was decorated with 17 coins that symbolized good luck. The other two larger coffins are buried with the two empresses of the Wanli Emperor, Empress Xiaoduan and Empress Xiaojing. Compared to the Wanli Emperor, the bodies of the two empresses were more badly decomposed. They are also both buried on their sides, but the specifications are different.
The specifics of the two queens are also different. Empress Hyoduan has her face facing west, her feet facing in opposite directions, and her hands crossed on her abdomen. And Empress Xiaojing's body was not covered with gold makeup and satin, one of her hands was on her head and one hand on her chest, just like Emperor Wanli. The staff was amazed and began to carry out the excavation work in an orderly manner. According to statistics, more than 3,000 cultural relics have been unearthed, including porcelain, fabrics, furniture, gold and silver jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, and royal daily necessities. Every artifact is valuable and needs to be protected, but where it is placed becomes a problem. The space vacated by the villagers' homes has been exhausted, the excavation task is beyond imagination, there is not enough space for cultural relics on wooden boards, many cultural relics are thrown into the ground at will, and even the golden silk nan wooden coffin where the body of the Wanli Emperor is stored has become firewood for the peasants. There are many unforgivable mistakes, and ignorance is to blame for this disaster. Staff members who lacked scientific and archaeological knowledge even touched the artefacts with their hands, causing serious damage. The cultural relics of Dingling, which were originally hidden underground, were suddenly exposed to a large amount of oxygen, and the fabric quickly turned black and brittle, and it fell apart when touched. Some specially treated cultural relics need to be stored and protected with special technology after excavation, but they are not aware of this. The more than 3,000 artifacts unearthed have either been lost to history or have been severely damaged and lost their value.
Man-made disasters are more terrible than natural disasters. The tragedy of Dingling was actually avoidable, as long as they had progressed slowly, carried out cautiously, and step by step, this disaster would not have happened.
Recalling that their original goal was to explore the Changling Tomb of Emperor Yongle, this made people a little afraid. Therefore, when the unfortunate incident of Dingling occurred, Guo Moruo and others proposed to continue to excavate the Ming Tombs, ** took into account the actual situation and resolutely rejected their proposal.