Sun Dianying, a warlord in the ** period, although his strength was not strong, he became famous for his theft of Dongling, and the whole country was in an uproar. If there was no such incident, perhaps he would just be one of the many ** warlords, and no one cared about him.
In the summer of 1928, Sun Dianying looted the Qing Dynasty's Dongling in Zunhua, Hebei Province in the name of suppressing bandits, mainly excavating the Yuling of Emperor Qianlong and the Dingling Tomb of the Empress Dowager Cixi.
Because Emperor Qianlong loved to collect antiques during his lifetime, and buried a large number of antique cultural relics in his tomb, Sun Dianying and others were dazzled by the treasures after entering the Qianlong Mausoleum.
Qianlong's mausoleum was stolen, and not only his own body was opened and exposed, but even the remains of the two queens and three imperial concubines buried with him were also abandoned by the soldiers and bandits.
However, the remains of Qianlong's Xiaoyichun Empress Wei Jiashi were preserved, although they were later destroyed. Qianlong's body had long since decayed, leaving only a snow-white braid, which was now well preserved.
Sun Dianying was born as a ruffian, he only recognized gold, silver and jewelry, so Qianlong's 80th birthday cast the treasure and jade seal of the Eight Expeditions and Elders was stolen by him, and then sold at Sotheby's in the United Kingdom in 2009 for 600,000 pounds.
When Sun Dianying robbed the tomb, he was only interested in gold, silver, jewelry, and jade, and turned a blind eye to antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and unique authentic works. He even threw Tang Bohu's original one-of-a-kind "Cold Autumn Picture" on the ground at will, causing it to be damaged.
However, what he didn't expect was that a 2-meter-long shroud he found in Qianlong's coffin was also discarded on the ground by him at will, and as a result, in modern times decades later, this shroud was auctioned out1The sky-high price of 300 million yuan.
The treasures in Qianlong's mausoleum are incomparable, and his shroud is not as ordinary as ordinary people think. This shroud was known as the Dharani Sutra Quilt in the Qing Dynasty, and it was a funeral item for the royal family, and ordinary people and ** could not use it during burial.
Only members of the royal family can own it, and in addition, some princes and dignitaries were given dharani sutras by the emperor on their deathbeds to be used in burials. If it is used without authorization, it is considered trespassing, which was a felony in the Qing Dynasty.
According to historical records, the Dharani Sutra was used as a funerary object around the Yuan Dynasty and was used in Tibetan Buddhism to transcend the dead, and the Han people usually did not use it.
The initial funeral system of the Manchus was mainly based on cremation, but after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the royal family began to implement burial, coupled with the Manchu Qing Dynasty's belief in Buddhism, especially in Tibetan Buddhism, so in the Kangxi or Yongzheng period, the royal family began to use the Dharani Sutra as a shroud to accompany the burial of royal members.
After Kangxi or Yongzheng, the royal family began to follow the rule of using the Dharani Sutra as a burial object, which reached its peak during the Qianlong period. Although the Dharani Sutra originated in the Yuan Dynasty, it is not found in the tombs of the royal princes and nobles of the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
However, the unearthed Dharani Sutra was mainly found in the tombs of the Qing Dynasty after Kangxi. These sutras are written in Tibetan with the mantras of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the names of the merits of the Buddhas and Vajrasas written in Tibetan script, supplemented by Chinese characters.
According to the rules of Tibetan Buddhism, the deceased who is covered with the Dharani Sutra will receive the blessings of the Supreme Dharma. Men and women, young and old, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, covering the body with the Dharani Sutra at the end of life can remove all sins and bring blessings.
Therefore, the Dharani Sutra became the favorite item of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, and it was also an exclusive item for the royal family. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Dharani Sutra was gradually flowed into the people, and it was once very expensive, and most of them could only be consumed by the wealthy class during the ** period.
To this day, the Dharani Sutra has become an ordinary funerary object.
The dharani quilt on Qianlong's body is a treasure made of Tibetan antelope cashmere, roe deer wool and silk mixed with silk by the nine living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism. It is 2 meters long and 1 meter wide38 meters, the process is complex, and it took 3 years to carefully make it by skilled craftsmen.
After the death of Emperor Qianlong, this precious set of scriptures was buried with him as a shroud. However, when Sun Dianying dug up Qianlong's mausoleum, he discarded it on the ground, believing that it was just an ordinary shroud.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Emperor Puyi sent members of the royal family to sort out the stolen mausoleum, a Manchu widow found the discarded scripture quilt, and because of its precious value, he took it out of the mausoleum in the name of remembering his ancestors.
This set of quilts has gone through countless vicissitudes and has finally been preserved.
In order to properly preserve a set of silk dharani quilts, the Qing Dynasty elder sewed them into the mezzanine of a robe. Until his death, he never divulged this secret, let alone buried it.
His descendants only know that this robe is a family relic from the Qing Dynasty, but they do not know its true value. Therefore, they sold it and finally won it at the Beijing auction in 2005 for 80,000 yuan.
At first, the collector did not know the mystery of the robe, but after closer inspection, he discovered its secrets. He tore open the yellow satin on the surface of the robe and found a set of silk dharani quilts that had been lost for nearly a hundred years.
This set was then taken to the auction house to test the waters, and in 2008, it was sold for 72.05 million yuan. The collector made a decisive move and brought it to the auction house again in 2010, this time, for 1300 million yuan of ** was successfully auctioned.
The celebrity effect of history can often lead to the inheritance of culture and the appreciation of artworks. The reason why this set of silk dharani sutras can be auctioned at a sky-high price is not only because it is a personal object of Emperor Qianlong, but also because it carries traces of history and cultural accumulation.
Similarly, although the Sutra of Silk Dharani on Cixi's body was also discarded by Sun Dianying at will, fortunately it was not stolen and was not auctioned off by the people. Later, when cleaning up the Qianlong Yuling, the strange events discovered by archaeological experts also made people have a deeper understanding of the mystery and wonder of history.
Although the Sutra of Silk on Cixi's body was not sold for a sky-high price, it is also a precious historical and cultural heritage. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, archaeological experts surveyed and opened the Yuling Tomb of Qianlong and the Dingling Tomb of Cixi to the outside world, showing these precious cultural relics to the public.
The Silk Dharani quilt on Cixi's body has become an exhibit, giving people the opportunity to learn about history and culture up close. In the process, we have come to a deeper understanding that the heritage of history is not only a cultural relic, but also a symbol of human wisdom and spirit.
We should cherish every moment of history, so that culture can be passed on and history can be continued.
Originally, Yuling is easy to accumulate water for a long time, Qianlong reigned during the maintenance and treatment, although there was no water problem, but since Sun Dianying robbed the tomb, the phenomenon of water seepage and water accumulation appeared again.
Now every rainy season, heavy rain comes, Yuling needs to pump water every day, and according to experts, the reason why the Qianlong sarcophagus will "walk" down against the tomb door may be because of the buoyancy caused by water seepage and water accumulation, causing the sarcophagus to float out against the tomb door.
However, this phenomenon remains a mystery, waiting to be revealed by archaeologists. Emperor Qianlong, the last great monarch in the history of China's feudal dynasty, left many legends and mysteries behind his death, and his funerary goods doubled in value and even fetched sky-high prices at auction.