Exploration of Wu Zetian's Mausoleum

If the tomb of the emperor is the most difficult to dig in the world, then there is no doubt that it is Wu Zetian's "longevity domain"-Ganling. Her mausoleum was cut down by the sword of the cold weapon era and shelled by the machine gun of the hot weapon era. 1200 years, there were as many thieves with names as 17, of which 400,000 were dispatched at the biggest time, and Liangshan where Gan Ling was located was almost dug up. However, today, Gan Ling still does not abandon or give up, and dutifully protects the remains of her master Wu Zetian and her husband Li Zhi like Xu Sanduo. We can't help asking, the mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was hollowed out, the Zhaoling mausoleum of Emperor Taizong was swept away, and the bones of Emperor Kangxi could not be put together. Why can Wu Zetian's dry mausoleum be immune?

This matter has to start with the construction of Ganling. Ganling is located on Liangshan Mountain, 6 kilometers north of Ganxian County, Shaanxi Province, and 76 kilometers away from the ancient city of xi 'an. It was built in 684 AD, and it took 23 years for the project to be basically completed. Liangshan is a naturally formed limestone peak, with three towering peaks, the highest in the north, with an altitude of 1047.3 meters, and the lower in the south, with an east-west direction. At that time, the masses called it "Nitou Mountain". Looking from east to west of Ganling, Liangshan is like a woman lying on her back, with the north peak as the head and the south two peaks as the chest. People often say that it is a wonderful symbol of Empress Wu Zetian. Mr. Feng Shui, a Feng Shui master in the Tang Dynasty, thought Liangshan was very beneficial to the hostess. So Wu Zetian chose Liangshan as her husband Tang Gaozong and her "eternal domain" after a hundred years. After Tang Gaozong's death, Wu Zetian asked Yuan Tiangang and Li, famous magicians in the ruling and opposition circles at that time, to choose the site for the emperor. They traveled around Kyushu respectively, and when they came back, they all said that they chose Liangshan in Qi Hao County, Jingan County. Wu Zetian sent envoys to inspect. At the top of Liangshan Mountain, Yuan Tiangang said that he buried a copper coin here, and Li said that he ordered an iron nail here. Digging the ground, Li's nail was just inserted in the copper square hole buried by Yuan, and everyone present applauded in surprise. So Wu Zetian chose the mausoleum site in Liangshan, which is now the dry mausoleum. As far as geomantic omen is concerned, Ganling surpassed all the imperial tombs in the Tang Dynasty.

When Ganling was built, it was in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, with strong national strength, grand cemetery scale and magnificent architecture, and was called "the crown of emperors' tombs in past dynasties". At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, learned from historical lessons that there was no immortal country and no grave to dig. Starting from Zhaoling, he and his eldest grandson created a burial system with mountains as the tomb, which was designed by famous artists Yan Lide and Yan Brothers at that time. Tombs are made up of buildings and sculptures, and they are scattered on the mountains with the trend of "Dragon Board Phoenix". The dry tombs of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian developed and perfected the shape of Zhaoling. The cemetery is modeled after Chang 'an, Tang Dou, and is divided into Imperial City, Miyagi City and Outer Guo Cheng. The north-south main axis is 4.9 kilometers long. According to documents, there are two original city walls in the "Eight Miles a Week" of Ganling, and four city gates in the inner city, namely, Dongqinglongmen, Nanzhuquemen, Xibaihumen and Beixuanwumen. According to the investigation by archaeologists, the inner city of the cemetery is square, with the length of the north-south wall1.450m, the length of the east wall1.582m and the length of the west wall1.438m, with a total area of about 2.3 million square meters. There are many magnificent buildings in the city, such as 60 courtiers, such as the memorial hall, wing, cloister, Quelou and Di Renjie, as well as the ancestral temple and Xiagong. As for the treasure inside, after years of exploration and investigation, a cultural relic worker estimates that there are at least 500 tons! There are four caves on both sides of the front and rear passages, which are filled with the most valuable treasures of the Tang Dynasty. On both sides of the nearly 100-meter corridor leading to the King Kong Wall, there are various gold and silver ritual vessels. What interests the world most is the Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, a top national treasure. According to historical records, the Preface to the Lanting Pavilion said in Li Shimin's testamentary edict that it should be placed under his head. In other words, this treasure should be in Zhaoling, not Ganling. However, Wen Tao, the secretariat of Yaozhou in the Five Dynasties, stole Zhaoling, but there was no Preface to Lanting in his list of unearthed treasures, so nine times out of ten, the Preface to Lanting was hidden in Ganling. In the folk rumors around Ganling, it has long been said that Wu Zetian was buried with the preface to Lanting.

Such a rich treasure, Ganling attracts professional grave robbers, government officials, bandits, warlords and even peasant insurgents like pollen, and they come to dig with shovels and hoes. From the moment Wu Zetian lay in Ganling, Liangshan never stopped. The first person to go to Ganling was Huang Chao, the leader of the late Tang Rebel Army. Among the leaders of peasant rebels in past dynasties, his reactionary degree is second only to that of Zhang in the late Ming Dynasty. After the salt merchants led 600,000 troops to capture Chang 'an, they first burned, killed and looted. When the bandit had had enough fun, he suddenly found himself with nothing to do. As a matter of fact, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was gathering strength to prepare for the counterattack. At this time, someone told him that a lot of gravel was buried under the loess in the west of Liangshan. The news suggests that Huang Chao, the richest entrance of Ganling in Tang tombs, is likely to be on the west side of Liangshan, and gravel is likely to be the remaining raw materials after Ganling is built. Huang Chao exultation, immediately bring up 400000 soldiers, ran to the west of liangshan began to dig. These people are farmers and are very skilled in using shovels. Soon, they leveled half of Liangshan, leaving a 40-meter-deep "Huang Chao ditch". However, Ganling seems to have no entrance at all. Later, the troops of the Tang Dynasty rallied to launch a counterattack against Chang 'an, but Huang Chao was unwilling to flee empty-handed. Huang Chao, who claims to be a scholar, is so stupid that he simply knows that Ganling faces south. The emperor of the Tang Dynasty deliberately buried the gravel produced by the construction in a place more than 300 meters away from the tomb door. In other words, he dug in the wrong direction, which shows that an uneducated person can never become an upstart, because money or soldiers are not resources that benefit one side, but poisons that waste people's money and harm the world.

The second person who extended an evil hand to Ganling was Wen Tao, the envoy of Yaozhou in the Five Dynasties. It seems that this man was born to make trouble for the mausoleum of Emperor Li Tang. Before Ganling, 17 Tang tombs had been excavated, and only Ganling was left. But his ideal was shattered here. Huang Li can be classical. He also wanted tens of thousands of troops to dig Ganling in broad daylight, only to be blown down by the wind and rain three times. The weather cleared up immediately when the troops retreated. Tao Wen really didn't understand what was going on, but he didn't keep digging, so he gave up the idea. Gan Ling escaped the second robbery at this point.

The most dangerous thing is the third time. This time, it is not an army of 400,000, but a modern reorganization division. The tools of grave robbery are no longer hoes and shovels, but machine guns and cannons that cut stones like vegetables. The mastermind was Sun Lianzhong, a Kuomintang general in the Republic of China. He led his men to learn how Sun Dianying bombed the tombs of Empress Dowager Cixi and Qianlong, buried pots and cooked in Liangshan, and set up camp. Under the guise of military exercises, black powder blasted the three layers of stone slabs in the pyramid-shaped mound. When he was about to enter, a thick smoke suddenly appeared, spiraling up and turning into a tornado. Suddenly, it was dark, and seven Shanxi soldiers took the lead in vomiting blood and died. Where do others dare to come forward and let out a loud cry again? It is said that there are few survivors in one regiment of General Sun. The local people said, "Because Wu Zetian is from Shanxi, he hates people from his hometown to dig her grave, so the soldiers in Qixin will die." In this way, Gan Ling finally escaped the last bullet.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, by chance, several farmers discovered Ganling. 1960, the Ganling Excavation Committee was established in Shaanxi Province, and the excavation of the underground tomb of Ganling began on April 3. The excavation shows that the tomb of Ganling underground palace is located on the southeast mountainside of Liangshan main peak, and consists of trenches and caves. The trench depth is 17m, and all of them are filled with stone strips with a length of 1.25m and a width of 0.4-0.6m The pyramid-shaped mound has a slope shape, with a total length of 63. 1 m and an average width of 3.9m.. The stone strips are overlapped along the slope from south to north, with a total of 39 floors, 465,438+00 exposed on the plane, and 8000 stones for the 39 floors. The stone bar is fastened with dovetail-shaped thin waist iron bolt plate, and the hole between the upper and lower parts passes through with iron bar, and molten tin-iron juice is poured to blend with the stone bar. The excavation situation is the same as that recorded in the Biography of Yanshan Temple in the Old Tang Dynasty, "The gate of Ganling Xuanque is blocked with stone, and the stone gap is fixed with cast iron". In addition, archaeologists found no signs of stealing caves or being disturbed around Lingshan, which proves that Ganling is the only tomb of Tang emperors that has not been stolen at present.

Wu Zetian is a person who is good at conquering everything with time. She/kloc-entered the palace at the age of 0/4,/kloc-became queen in 0/8 and emperor in 35 years. After her death, it took her 1200 years to prove the firmness of her grave and the immortality of its charm. Even before Mr. Guo Moruo's death, he was obsessed with the central government's approval to excavate Ganling. It can be said that Wu Zetian conquered the world before his death and history after his death.