How did an archaeological captain who studied law lead a team to overturn the general perception of historiography for 700 years?This is the story of a modern man who "crosses" a thousand years and "makes friends" with Emperor Wen of Han.
Before I was assigned to the Institute, I didn't even know what archaeology was all about. Thirty years ago, Ma Yongying was an administrator of the security department of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, and now he is a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, the leader of the Hanling archaeological team, and a member of the Democratic Progressive Association. In the past 30 years, he has taken root in his hometown of Xi'an, using a shovel and a pen to protect the historical splendor.
Ma Yongying at work. (*From China News).
丨Solve the puzzle to find the tomb that has "disappeared" for thousands of years.
The latest issue of the American magazine "Archaeology" selected the "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in the World in 2023", and the animal burial pit found in the tomb of Emperor Ba of the Han Dynasty in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province was selected. Ma Yongying is the leader of the archaeological project in Baling, and he finally realized his long-cherished wish - "personally dig out a complete Western Han Dynasty from the ground".
Liu Heng, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, was the third emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and the founder of the first prosperous era in Chinese history. However, the mausoleum of this famous emperor in history has "disappeared" for thousands of years due to erroneous documentary records.
Since 2011, the archaeological work of the Western Han Dynasty site has been advanced to Baling, and the archaeological team of the Han Tombs has taken over the important task of history and started the search for Baling. After more than ten years of repeated investigation and exploration, the archaeological team led by Ma Yongying finally confirmed that the Jiangcun Tomb, which is more than 2,000 meters away from the "Phoenix Mouth" in the north, is the real tomb of Emperor Han Wen.
Before the archaeological work of Baling began, Ma Yongying had been dealing with the Western Han Emperor's Mausoleum for more than 20 years. When asked about the significance of the archaeological work in Baling, Ma Yongying said that it was "to supplement the history of the Western Han Dynasty", and there was also a poetic saying that "I became friends with Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty".
He admitted frankly that in the process of "looking for Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty", he has been under great psychological pressure, because the documents of the Yuan Dynasty clearly record that Baling is under the "phoenix mouth", and if he wants to overturn the general perception of the historical community for 700 years, there must be sufficient evidence.
In 2017, after repeatedly confirming that there were no relics of the emperor's tomb in the "Phoenix Mouth", Ma Yongying led the archaeological team to officially conduct archaeological excavations on the 8 outer pits of the Jiangcun Tomb, hoping to find clues to unlock the identity of the tomb owner.
The emergence of key evidence was somewhat "unexpected": on a rainy day, when Ma Yongying and his colleagues walked along a muddy path, they found a cliff on the side of the road, which was washed away by the rain and revealed traces of a "rammed earth wall".
This is exactly the "outer garden wall" of Baling that they have been looking for for a long time. The outer garden wall extends down, encloses the Jiangcun tomb and the Mausoleum of Queen Dou 800 meters away, according to the emperor and queen of the Western Han Dynasty "with the strange cave" of the imperial mausoleum system, can only be surrounded by Emperor Wen of Han with Empress Dou. Combined with a series of previous evidence chains, the Jiangcun Tomb was finally confirmed as the tomb of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty.
On December 14, 2021, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially announced this major discovery, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese archaeology. The determination of the location of the Baling Tombs completes the last piece of the puzzle of the 11 imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty.
Tapirs unearthed from the animal burial pit of Baling. (*From China News).
丨Make friends with Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty
The ten years of looking for Baling were also the ten years when Ma Yongying "made friends" with Emperor Wen of Han, and he found a different Emperor Wen of Han.
According to the current words, Emperor Wen of Han was a very individual person, and his mausoleum was different from others, creating a new kind of imperial mausoleum regulation. Ma Yongying introduced that in the Western Han Dynasty, the fiefdom is a symbol of imperial power, and among the 11 imperial mausoleums in the Western Han Dynasty, only his Baling Mausoleum is not able to "seal the soil", "This is related to Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty advocating frugality, he does not repair the fiefdom, but in a more special way, highlighting the imperial power."
For example, we found a double cemetery in the Baling, which was the first cemetery layout in the history of the Han Dynasty. Ma Yongying found that Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty had built a circle of pebbles around his own mausoleum in his great mausoleum, forming a separate mausoleum for the emperor's mausoleum.
Why is Baling so special?In order to uncover the mystery of Baling, Ma Yongying looked through the historical materials related to Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, and even did not let go of the "wild history", "Putting together the fragments of history, you will find a new Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty." ”
As the first emperor to usher in the first prosperous era in Chinese history, Emperor Wen of Han worked hard to abolish the harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty, build water conservancy, encourage farming, advocate conservation, and lead by example.
However, in Ma Yongying's view, Emperor Wen of Han was occasionally "emotional". Among the 11 emperors of the Western Han Dynasty, 9 of the emperor's tombs are in Xianyangyuan. Ma Yongying believes that the reason for influencing Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty to "violate the ancestral system" and build the emperor's mausoleum in Bailuyuan is that in addition to setting up Balingyi to guard the capital, there are two important personal emotional factors, one is that because Empress Lu was buried in the Changling Tomb of Han Gaozu, Emperor Wen's mother, Empress Dowager Bo, can no longer be buried in Changling with the queen ceremony;The second is Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty's "affection" for the fiefdom.
Not only that, Baling is also ironclad evidence that Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty attached great importance to filial piety. The outer pit of Baling can be called simple, and the outer pit of his mother Empress Dowager Bo Nanling has unearthed a large number of gold and silver utensils, wooden carts and living utensils, and even, archaeologists have found 380 animal burial pits, "He himself advocates frugality and asks for thin burial, but he is not stingy with his mother's burial, because this is a way to embody filial piety in ancient times." Ma Yongying introduced.
Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty's mother, Empress Dowager Bo, unearthed gold artifacts from the pit outside the Nanling Tomb. (*From China News).
丨Breakthrough becomes an "extroverted" archaeologist.
After more than 10 years, Ma Yongying finally found the "last piece of the puzzle" to make up for the history of the Western Han Dynasty. Looking back on Ma Yongying's archaeological road, I can't see any poetry.
To make more money as a lawyer, engaging in archaeology is purely to sit on a cold bench, or to return to the old profession!In 1987, Ma Yongying, who was studying law, joined the Institute of Archaeology to do administrative work, and his colleagues in the security department learned that he was going to change his career to archaeology, and they persuaded him to do so.
When he heard such words, he always smiled indifferently, "Once people get closer to their own interests and ideals, they have an impulse not to stop until they reach their goals."
In the summer of 1992, after graduating from the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics and Northwest University, Ma Yongying followed his predecessor Hu Lingui into the excavation site of the Tang Dynasty tombs. It was also his first time on an archaeological site.
It was the height of summer, and at the hottest time, he had to quietly hide under the tomb to cool off.
In my eyes, all the objects excavated in the tomb are alive, and behind the dust lies the truth of history, which has a magic power that touches people's hearts. Ma Yongying felt the charm of archaeology. In 1995, the archaeological team of Emperor Yangling of the Han Dynasty was established, and the captain Jiao Nanfeng recruited Ma Yongying to his command, and since then he has formed an indissoluble bond with the Western Han Emperor's Mausoleum, and he has been doing it for nearly 30 years.
Since the location of Baling was confirmed, receiving ** and introducing the archaeological work of Baling to the public has also become part of Ma Yongying's work.
Archaeology is a science of communication, and it is also the responsibility of a qualified archaeologist not only to do a good job of research and share the latest discoveries with the public in a timely manner. In recent years, this self-proclaimed "introverted" archaeologist has been constantly "out of the circle". He joined the Association for Promoting Archaeology and spoke out for the promotion of archaeologyParticipate in the recording of CCTV's 100 forums and give lectures in various places, so that more people can experience the charm of archaeology......He laughs that archaeology has made him an extrovert. (ENDS).
*: China News.
Author: Luo Luqiao.