In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the name Zu Dashou could not be ignored.
Some people praised him as a "generation of famous generals", who had successfully defeated Huang Taiji many times, although he finally chose to defect to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but this was also a helpless move.
Some people also criticized him for "bringing disaster to the country and the people, and not worthy of being a son of man".
Even today, Zu Da Shou remains a controversial historical figure. Although he is gone, his merits and deeds will still be judged by posterity.
However, I am afraid that even Zu Dashou himself would not have thought that more than 200 years after his death, his tomb was repeatedly violated by tomb robbers, the burial goods were swept away, and even the entire general's tomb was packed and taken away by foreigners and sent to the Canadian Museum for public exhibition, becoming a treasure ...... the town
Zu Dashou, born in 1569, died in 1656, at the age of 88. In ancient times, this was already a very rare longevity. However, for Zu Dashou himself, dying in battle under the city of Jinzhou may be better than living now as a human being.
It turned out that Zu Dashou's name was Zu Tianshou, but because the emperor ordered that he was not allowed to use the name "Tian", he had to remove a horizontal and change his name to "Dashou". In the fourth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji sent troops to defend Dalinghe City, and Zu Dashou, as a defender, insisted on holding the city for three months without reinforcements, and was unmoved in the face of the enemy's repeated persuasions.
However, after running out of food, he chose to surrender in order to survive.
Kyoto, the first Ming Kingdom, relying on Zu Dashou to be as stable as a mountain", but now Zu Dashou chose to surrender, which made Huang Taiji ecstatic, personally went out to greet him, and held hands with Zu Dashou to swear to the sky, and also "enthusiastically" arranged for someone to shave his money rat tail.
Although Zu Dashou was "in Cao Ying's heart in Han", he only surrendered by fraud, but he took the initiative to propose to Huang Taiji to lead troops to "steal" Jinzhou, and Huang Taiji "readily agreed".
However, after Zu Dashou went, he resolutely resisted Houjin, even if his son Zu Kefa might suffer because of this, he did not hesitate. However, the building is about to fall, what can we do with the strength of the ancestors?
After all, it's just a matter of doing one's best and obeying the destiny of heaven. In July of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640), Huang Taiji besieged Jinzhou, although there were reinforcements, but Hong Chengchou was captured by the Qing army and sent to Shengjing, unable to provide any help.
This time, Zu Dashou held out for more than a year, and there was a tragedy of cannibalism in the city again, and he "had to" choose Kaesong to surrender again.
Jinzhou fell, and there was a mess outside the gate, leaving only Ningyuan in the lonely city, and there were endless troubles in the future. Although Zu Dashou was named the chief soldier of the Yellow Banner of the Han Army and received preferential treatment in Mancheng, these so-called "favors" did not change his inner struggle.
He tried unsuccessfully to persuade his nephew Wu Sangui to surrender, and he did not contribute to the Manchus again. His surrender brought evil consequences, and later generations evaluated him as "a generation of famous generals, inside the customs, according to the outside of the customs, but he was a minister of the two dynasties, betraying the former master, failing the latter master, and really not a person inside and out."
What he would not have imagined was that more than 200 years later, his entire tomb would be sold to foreigners by "descendants".
In 1919, George Crofts, an Englishman, met a scrawny Chinese man with sly eyes in a blacksmith camp on the outskirts of Beijing. After the two spoke in a low voice, the man ushered Crofts into the hut and began a "negotiation".
* The period of social unrest brought the opportunity for foreigners such as Crofts to find antique artifacts. However, unlike other foreigners looking for gold and silver jewelry, Crofts pays more attention to those artifacts that are collectible.
The man, having learned of Crofts's appeal by chance, used his resources to get in touch with him. He tells Crofts that he knows of a little-known treasure and promises to help him find it.
Crofts was so curious about this that he traveled thousands of miles to the blacksmith's camp, chatted with the man in the house for a while, and then followed him to Yongtaizhuang.
Yongtaizhuang is the site of the Zu Dashou family's cemetery, but over time, the Zu family, which was once highly respected in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, has disappeared without a trace, and the cemetery is overgrown with weeds.
The burial goods in the tomb were looted by tomb thieves shortly after Zu Dashou was buried, and even the epitaph could not be found. When Crofts pushed aside the man-tall weeds and saw the scene in front of him, he was stunned.
Crofts was stunned by what he saw: an imposing stone gate came into view, flanked by a pair of stone statues of a 3-meter-tall civil servant, a military general, and a pair of camels.
Behind the stone gate is a stone mound, and in front of it is a stone table. He couldn't help but wonder, wondering what the Chinese man who had brought him to this cemetery had for his purpose. However, the Chinese man told him easily: "As long as you can see it, ** give enough, these things are up to you." ”
Curious, Crofts stepped forward to take a closer look. He noticed that the wall was carved with pictures of unicorns and deer monkeys, which were very beautiful, and it was clear that they were some years old. There is also a rectangular area on the lintel with Manchu and Han inscriptions, but due to its age, many things have been blurred.
Crofts found that the first few words in Chinese should be "Emperor Qing Yu Feng Guanglu Dafu", and if he knew Manchu, he would see that the second half of Manchu was written "......".Cemetery".
Crofts stared at the stone sculpture in front of him, intrigued by the story behind it. He asked the man why he wanted these stone carvings and whether future generations agreed.
The man suddenly shed tears and explained that these stone carvings came from the cemetery of the famous general Zu Dashou in the late Ming Dynasty, and he was the descendant of Zu Dashou. Many years ago, Zu Dashou's remains were relocated back to his hometown, and this cemetery was left behind and became a mound of clothes.
Now, the man's life has fallen into poverty, and he has no choice but to decide on the cemetery of his ancestors. Despite this, he believed that the Ancestors would understand his decision if they were knowledgeable underground. Crofts had no knowledge of Chinese history, so the man told him about Zu Dashou's past and portrayed him as a heroic and fearless figure.
Crofts, who has lived in China for many years, knows a thing or two about Chinese cultural relics. He pointed to the stone statue and asked the Chinese man: "The clothes worn by the stone statue don't look like the costumes of the Qing Dynasty, they should have been after 'shaving their hair and changing clothes', right?" ”
The man hesitated for a moment, then replied, "This is the special permission of the Qing Emperor to use the stone statue of the previous dynasty. Crofts just nodded in understanding.
Although there are other tombs in the cemetery, they are obviously not as collectible as the "Tomb of the General of the Ming Dynasty". Therefore, he decided to buy all the tombs of Zu Dashou.
However, this is the problem, these are not easy to transport items such as gold, silver, jewelry or porcelain, but real stone carvings, a single stone figure weighs at least 4 tons, how can he transport these heavy stone statues?
Crofts was a fur merchant, and eventually he had to leave, and it would be very troublesome to carry these bulky items across the sea. However, these trifles did not matter to the "descendants of Zu Dashou", who were delighted with Crofts's generous purchase.
Suddenly, Crofts made a suggestion: "To commemorate this transaction, let's take a picture together!" "The descendants of Zu Dashou" changed greatly after hearing this, but then he seemed to have figured out something and happily agreed.
So, the people at the scene took a group photo together.
Crofts was deceived by a man who claimed to be a "descendant of Zu Dashou", who was actually a tomb robber. When this tomb robber robbed the tomb in the ancestral cemetery, he found that the burial goods had been excavated by the "seniors", so he made up an identity and packed the entire tomb of the family and sold it.
After all, it was impossible for Zu Dashou himself to run from Ningyuan to Beijing to "settle accounts" with him. Although the costumes and hairstyles of the stone statues were made up casually by tomb robbers, they may be historically accurate.
At that time, when Zu Dashou followed the Manchu Qing Dynasty into Beijing, he was already nearly eighty years old, and it is likely that he had already begun to prepare for his own future, plus the Qing court had just entered the customs, people's hearts were uncertain, and the system was incomplete, so it was possible to give Zu Dashou some "grace".
However, after such a long time, it is impossible for Zu Dashou to come back.
Crofts spent a lot of money on horse-drawn carriages and special renovations to transport the precious artifacts from the cemetery out of Beijing to Tianjin. At that time, it was the Beiyang period, customs management was lax, and Crofts successfully sent the antiquities on ships to Canada.
The Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, struggling with a shortage of collections and few visitors, heard that Crofts had brought back a "cemetery" from China and decided to include it at all costs.
After negotiation, the stone carvings of Zu Dashou Cemetery were purchased by the Ontario Museum ** and specially opened an exhibition hall for exhibition. Its layout is completely based on the design of the time in Beijing, and it has a history of more than 100 years.
Although some people suspect that the tomb may not be Zu Dashou himself, but Zu Kefa, and some people even speculate that it should be the tomb of Zu Zerun based on the inscription on the epitaph cover, these claims are untenable.
In fact, Zu Dashou himself used a stone statue in the style of the Ming Dynasty to win over the Zu family by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but his sons, except for the youngest son Zu Zeqing, were basically loyal to the Qing Dynasty, especially Zu Kefa, and his performance in this regard can be said to be unmatched.
Zu Dashou's life was full of tragedy. As a general of the Ming Dynasty, he was highly respected, and he was able to stick to Dalinghe City and Jinzhou for three months or even a year, which showed his loyalty.
However, his fear of death and surrender made him the object of ridicule of future generations, and he became the villain of history alongside Yuan Chonghuan of "Five Years of Pingliao". Although his surrender was his own choice, his cemetery was sold by tomb thieves and sent to a foreign land, which made his descendants feel helpless and regretful.
Thankfully, Zu Dashou's remains are not in the grave, he is first and foremost a Chinese, and it would be an insult to him if his remains were to be visited in a Canadian museum.