Why didn’t ancient tomb robbers dare to steal Wu Zetian’s Qianling Mausoleum? Are there any special precautions for Qianling?
Many emperors' tombs were stolen in history. Because the burial objects of ancient kings were very valuable, they became popular in everyone's eyes. As long as the moral obstacles can be overcome, it is basically possible. You can do it now. But it is very strange that Wu Zetian’s mausoleum Qianling has never been stolen. In fact, it is a bit difficult to understand. Does Qianling have any special anti-theft skills? Let’s answer this puzzle for everyone, let’s do it together Take a look.
Most emperors have a tradition of generous burials, and a large number of rare treasures are often buried in their tombs. Naturally, this is accompanied by endless tomb robbing. In peacetime, the robbery of imperial tombs was just a petty theft among civilians, and once discovered, the tomb robbers would be severely punished.
However, during times of war, the act of robbing emperors' tombs became a common phenomenon. Not only was it popular among the people, but even individual governments and military would participate in it, and the scale was quite large.
Dong Zhuo once dug up all the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty and was called a great V in the world of tomb robbing
It is not uncommon for the military to participate in tomb robbing. For example, Fan Chong, the leader of the Red Eyebrow Army in the late Xinmang Dynasty, Dong Zhuo, a national thief in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, dug up the imperial tombs of the two Han Dynasties and obtained countless treasures. In modern times, there was the "Aventurine Bandit" Sun Dianying, who excavated the tombs of Qianlong and Cixi and gained a lot.
However, the military’s participation in tomb robbing is, after all, something that is despised by the world, so their robbing activities are usually secretive, and the robbing time is not too long to prevent outsiders from knowing about it.
In the large-scale excavation of imperial tombs involving the military, there was an "outlier". Not only did this person commit the crime for a long time and the scale of the excavation was large, he also had the courage to register the results of the excavation and publicize it in the country. , is really extremely arrogant. This person is Wen Tao, the warlord of the Five Dynasties who once excavated seventeen imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty.
What is incredible is that although Wen Tao was extremely crazy, he did not dare to rob Wu Zetian’s tomb. What happened?
Wen Tao once excavated ten tombs of the Tang Dynasty. Seven imperial mausoleums, extremely arrogant
Wen Tao was originally from Jingzhaohua in the late Tang Dynasty. When he was young, he became a bandit. Later, he was adopted by Fengxiang Jiedushi Li Maozhen as his adopted son and changed his name to Li Yantao. Huayuan, his hometown, served as the town general. Wen Tao was promoted to the governor of Yaozhou (Yaozhou is Huayuan) because of his meritorious service in following Li Maozhen.
Wen Tao is a typical "back-of-the-wall" warlord. He will submit to whichever family is stronger. There is no loyalty at all. During the Later Liang Dynasty at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Wen Tao wandered between Li Maozhen and Zhu Wen, courting Qin and late Chu. Finally, he was appointed by the Later Liang as the military governor of the Jingsheng Army and was renamed Wen Zhaotu.
The Jingsheng Army governs the Guanzhong area, and there are imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty (eighteen imperial mausoleums) within its territory. During his seven years as Jiedushi, Wen Tao took advantage of his position to carry out systematic and large-scale destruction of the imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty. He robbed 17 of them and obtained countless rare treasures.
Distribution Map of the Eighteen Imperial Tombs of the Tang Dynasty
However, Wen Tao was a warrior and was only interested in gold, silver, pearls and jade, but did not understand the value of other calligraphy and painting works of art. Therefore, during the process of tomb robbing, they were often destroyed arbitrarily, resulting in the destruction of many rare treasures, including Wang Xizhi's calligraphy masterpiece "Preface to the Lanting Collection" collected in the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, which was a shame for later generations.
Wen Tao’s original intention of robbing the imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty was just to raise military pay and expand the army. However, as the number of crimes and the treasures obtained increased, and after solving the problem of the shortage of military pay, his purpose of robbing tombs The purpose becomes to satisfy his perverted curiosity.
After excavating 17 imperial tombs, Wen Tao set his sights on the Qianling Mausoleum, the joint tomb of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty. The reason why Wen Tao robbed the Qianling Mausoleum last was because he heard that Huang Chao encountered many supernatural events when he tried to rob the Qianling Mausoleum, but ultimately failed to excavate the Qianling Mausoleum. Wen Tao was not sure.
Qianling Mausoleum is the joint tomb of Tang Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian
But Qianling Mausoleum is like a piece of fat hanging on the roof beam, which always makes Wen Tao, a greedy "fox" Hard to let go. So after excavating the other seventeen imperial tombs, Wen Tao decided to take action on the Qianling Mausoleum. But a strange situation happened again. Whenever Wen Tao's team of tomb robbers prepared to break the ground for excavation, there would be thunder and lightning, wind and rain around the Qianling Mausoleum. , the weather is fine.
This situation happened several times in a row, as if there were gods guarding Qianling in the dark. Wen Tao didn't understand the reason, but he was so scared that he had to give up in the end.
There are records in official and unofficial history that Wen Tao stopped digging due to abnormal celestial phenomena in the Qianling Mausoleum. Among them, the great writer Ouyang Xiu recorded in "New History of the Five Dynasties" that "in the seven years since Tao was in the town, all the tombs of the Tang Dynasty within its territory were excavated and the gold and treasures hidden in them were excavated... However, the Qianling Mausoleum was not affected by the storm."
The interior of the Qianling Mausoleum
Cheng Dachang, another great writer of the Song Dynasty, also recorded in the "Archaeological Edition" that "Historical records indicate that Wen Tao first came to the Tang Mausoleum, but the Qianling Mausoleum alone was inaccessible. There is wind and rain.” This shows that the credibility of this matter is quite high.
Although the "regret" of the Qianling Mausoleum was left behind, the record of plundering seventeen Tang Dynasty imperial tombs still made Wen Tao famous all over the world, and he was regarded as a model for future generations of tomb robbers.
After a tomb robber succeeds, he or she will hide the rare treasures they robbed, fearing that outsiders will know about them. However, Wen Tao did the opposite. He was afraid that the world would not know about his tomb robbing behavior. In order to publicize the "results" of tomb robbing, he compiled the many treasures he obtained into a book. His courage was beyond the reach of his peers.
In order to punish Wen Tao, Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, exterminated his clan
Wen Tao used stolen treasures to bribe the emperor and his ministers. Although he was notorious during the Later Liang and Zhuangzong periods of the Later Tang Dynasty, Wen Tao However, the officialdom is getting bigger and bigger, and he is ruling the roost in the local area, and his life is quite comfortable and nourishing. However, once Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty came to power, Wen Tao's good days soon came to an end. On the one hand, Emperor Mingzong was disgusted with Wen Tao's style of courting Qin, Mu, and Chu. On the other hand, he was deeply afraid that his practice of stealing imperial tombs would be imitated by future generations, so he exterminated his clan as a warning in 928 AD.