Where is the tomb of Wu Zetian, Emperor of Wu Zhou? Was Wu Zetian's tomb stolen and dug?

Where is the tomb of Wu Zetian? Wu Zetian died in 705 AD at the age of 82. She was the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty before her death, and was later forced to give up the throne. Finally, as Queen Tang Gaozong, she was buried in Tang Gaozong Mausoleum, which was attached to her grave. Among them, Ganling is very magnificent and is the largest mausoleum in the Tang Dynasty.

Panorama of Ganling

Ganling is located in Ganxian County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. Among them, Ganling is built on the mountain, and the exact location is on Liangshan in the north of Ganxian County. Liangshan is a conical mountain with three peaks, of which the northern peak is the highest among the three peaks. Niangan Mausoleum is built here, and the tomb of Wu Zetian is also here.

There is a legend about the location of Ganling in Tang Gaozong. At the beginning of his reign, emperors of all dynasties had to choose tombs, and so did Tang Gaozong, so he sent Sun Chang Wuji and Taishi Gong, who was in charge of the astronomical calendar, to choose the site. When they came to Liangshan, they saw the three peaks of Liangshan towering into the sky, facing the Wushui River and connected with Qishan, which was very spectacular, so it was considered as the holy land of Long Mai.

When they came back to report to Tang Gaozong, Yuan Tiangang objected that this place was not suitable for the emperor's mausoleum. If the people choose this place, three generations will prosper, but the emperor chooses this place, and three generations will be in danger. Two of the three short peaks look like women's breasts. If the emperor chose this place, it was controlled by women.

Therefore, Tang Gaozong hesitated. When Wu Zetian heard about it, she was very moved by what Yuan Tiangang said before that she could be a female emperor, which made it easy for Tang Gaozong to admire Sun Chang Wuji and belittle Yuan Tiangang, and finally decided to choose the mausoleum for this purpose. So Yuan Tiangang left the office for fear of being implicated in the future.

Why didn't Wu Zetian's tomb be dug up and buried as Ganling with Tang Gaozong's tomb? It is the best preserved imperial mausoleum so far, and it is also the one with the least damage among the eighteen tombs in the Tang Dynasty. Since ancient times, the imperial tombs have been remembered by many grave robbers. The Zhaoling Tomb of Emperor Taizong was excavated, and Emperor Kangxi not only lost the tomb, but also disappeared. Suppose Wu Zetian lived in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. The mausoleum was huge and contained many treasures, but the dry mausoleum was not destroyed. Let's see why.

Ganling local map

Looking at its history, Wu Zetian's tomb was not excavated by grave robbers, but because it was difficult to excavate. It should be the most difficult tomb to dig. During the period of 1300, Ganling was stolen by countless grave robbers, including 17 people with names. During this period, Ganling was attacked by swords and guns, but it was intact.

Among them, Huang Chao, the leader of the rebel army in the late Tang Dynasty, once dug Ganling. Because he heard that there was a lot of gravel under the west side of Liangshan, he thought it was the entrance of Ganling. So he dug with 400 thousand soldiers. Soldiers from peasant backgrounds used shovels to open a Huang Chao ditch several tens of meters deep, but failed to find the entrance, and then left angrily, spending so much labor but not knowing that the direction was wrong.

Another is Wen Tao, the messenger of the Five Dynasties. He had dug seventeen tombs of emperors in the Tang Dynasty before digging Ganling, and then mobilized tens of thousands of troops to dig Ganling in broad daylight, but when he went up the mountain, he was hit by wind and rain, so he went bankrupt.

The most dangerous time in Ganling was when Sun Lianzhong, the general of the Republic of China, was digging. At that time, with the rise of modern tools, he bombed mountain roads with cannons, camped in the name of military exercises, and blew up the tombs. Just before entering the customs, a tornado caused the vanguard to vomit blood and die, so Ganling was preserved.

Although modern science and technology are developed, the historical significance of this mausoleum is still great. In order not to destroy it, and there are many things to consider in excavation, in order to better protect cultural relics, excavation is not considered for the time being.