Introduction to the excavation process of Zeng Houyi's tomb

The Leigudun, about 2 kilometers northwest of Suizhou, Hubei Province, is surrounded by mountains and waters, which is an excellent land of geomantic omen. Legend has it that during the Warring States Period, Chu Zhuangwang personally beat drums here to command the army to fight, and the soldiers fought hard to quell the rebellion. Because of this fierce battle, the name of Leigudun has been passed down to this day. At the end of February, 1978, on a hill in the suburb of Suixian County (now Suizhou City), a factory building in the area of Dongtuanpo, Leigudun, where a radar repair unit of Wuhan Air Force was located, was expanded, and a large brown soil layer was blasted by red sandstone. Zheng Guoxian, the factory leader who came to inspect the work, suspected that it was a large ancient tomb. On March 1th, a joint exploration team was established. On the 19th, Tan Weisi, then deputy director of Hubei Provincial Museum and captain of the archaeological team, rushed to the scene with two technicians. From March 2th, archaeologists began to drill and excavate the tomb. Armed with a shovel, they drilled holes into the ground for detection. With more and more holes, the scope of the tomb pit became more and more clear. Detection shows that the tomb pit is 21 meters long from east to west and 6.58 meters wide from north to south, with a total area of 22 square meters. As far as the burial chamber is concerned, it is more than 19 square meters, which is 6 times larger than the No.1 tomb of Mawangdui in Changsha, 14 times larger than the No.168 tomb of Fenghuang Mountain in Jiangling, Hubei Province, and 8 times larger than the No.1 Chu tomb of Wangshan in Jiangling, Hubei Province, where the sword of Yue Wang Gou Jian was unearthed. Such a large wooden coffin was the first case in China at that time, and it was the first time that this kind of vertical cave tomb built on rocks was discovered in the south. As expected, after preliminary exploration, it was found that the upper layer of the tomb pit had been seriously damaged, and groundwater overflowed, which could not be protected intact. Tan Weisi suggested that excavation should be started immediately to save the cultural relics to the maximum extent, and this suggestion was accepted. However, a more worrying situation happened. Explorers found a stolen hole with an area of about .5 square meters in the north of the middle of the tomb pit. Will the cultural relics in the ancient tomb disappear? Heavy doubts and despair enveloped the staff at the scene. Tan Weisi led the team members to carefully clean up the stolen cave, and found that it was filled with silt and a few scattered slates, which is another bad sign, indicating that the ancient tomb has been flooded. Many people at the scene are frustrated that this is an ancient tomb with no excavation value, and the cultural relics inside are likely to be stolen and eroded by water, so it is difficult to preserve it well. However, Tan Weisi insisted on excavation. At his urging, the exploration team applied to the superior for excavation, which was approved by the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and National Cultural Heritage Administration. After nearly two months of planning and preparation, on May 11, 1978, the excavation of Zeng Houyi's tomb officially began. With the remaining fill in the grave completely removed, 47 giant stone slabs covering the grave are completely exposed. Archaeologists used a large crane to uncover the slate, and found that under the slate was rammed earth with a thickness of about 25 cm, and under the rammed earth was a layer of green paste mud with a thickness of 1 cm to 3 cm, and under the green paste mud was a thick layer of charcoal, which reached 6, kg. On May 22, the charcoal was cleared, and the upper slab of the tomb was undoubtedly exposed. Archaeologists used a large crane to uncover the slate, only to see muddy water in the room and several wooden coffins floating on the water. At the same time of pumping water, in order to prevent the wooden coffins from breaking the funerary objects below, a crane was used to lift the floating wooden coffins out one by one. Open the coffin lid, which contains the remains of some women, aged between 13 and 25. There are 23 such female corpses in the whole tomb. According to experts, these female corpses should be buried with the tomb owner. In recent years, some scholars think that these women are musicians who play songs and dances for the tomb owner Ceng Houyi on weekdays. As the water level drops a little, people find that this is a wooden tomb with vertical holes, which is dug in red gravel rock, with a polygonal plane and no pyramid-shaped mound. The tomb pit is 21 meters long from east to west, 16.5 meters wide from north to south and more than 13 meters deep. The wooden coffin * * * has 12 coffin walls, with a height of 3.1-3.5 meters, and is made of 171 long wooden planks, reaching 38 cubic meters. According to the orientation, the tomb is divided into four chambers, namely, East, Middle, West and North, all of which are rectangular, and the widths of the three chambers are the same, all of which are 4.75 meters. The main coffin is placed in the east room. The coffin has two layers, both of which are made of wood. The outer coffin is inlaid with a bronze frame, which is 3.2 meters long, .1 meters wide and .19 meters high and weighs 3.29 tons. There are 12 copper buttons on the top coffin lid, and the bronze frame of the coffin lid is made up of two longitudinal beams and four cross beams by mortise and tenon. The coffin wall is carved with patterns such as through carving, relief carving and round carving, including moire and triangular patterns, especially the dragon pattern with complex changes, bright colors, strong contrast and smooth lines. What is even more peculiar is that a hole is opened below one side of the outer coffin. Some people speculate that this may be specially designed to allow the souls of the people inside the coffin to enter and exit freely. The inner coffin is 2.49 meters long, with a head width of 1.27 meters, a foot width of 1.25 meters and a height of 1.32 meters, and it is made by tenoning with wooden boards. The patterns on both sides of the inner coffin are very unique, with a split gate painted in the middle. Around the gate, dragons, snakes, birds, animals and other images are painted. The content is mysterious and magical, with more than 9 images in total. Warriors are painted on both sides of the door, with horns on their heads and bodies like fish and beasts, holding double halberds and staring at the front. Some people say that this is probably the image of soldiers in the underworld imagined by the painter. I hope that after the death of their monarch, soldiers will stand guard in the underworld to protect their safety. The god beast painted on the coffin has horns as beautiful as deer, but has the long neck and wings of crane. In ancient China, cranes and deer were auspicious animals, and immortals often flew in cranes. Perhaps, this staghorn crane is the god bird ready to carry its master to heaven. After preliminary identification, it was the owner of this tomb who was buried in the coffin, male, with a height of 1.61-1.63 meters. Combined with a Ge inscribed with the inscription "Ceng Houyi's Sleeping Ge" unearthed next to the main coffin, it can be concluded that the person in the coffin was a vassal of the State of Zeng in the Warring States period, named "B", so it was called "Ceng Houyi". And this short dagger is the weapon used by the guards in Ceng Houyi's bedroom. In the middle room of the tomb, funerary vessels and musical instruments are placed. At first, the archaeologists were pleasantly surprised to find three sets of bronze chimes hanging on three wooden frames. There are still several floors below the wooden frame. Will there be more and bigger bells underwater? Tan Weisi judged that the burial chamber is 3.3 meters deep, and now it has just exposed about 1 meter. There is still more than 2 meters of water below, and there must be supports underwater. Through the waves on the water, he vaguely saw a huge shadow. Tan Weisi ordered to slow down the speed of pumping water for fear that the clock stand would be out of balance and collapse. Time passed by bit by bit, and everyone was anxiously and excitedly watching the falling water surface. On May 24th, a number of Yong bells were unearthed. There were more than 2 bells on the second floor, 9 on the south shelf and 15 on the west shelf. On May 25, a large bell was exposed on the third-floor bell rack, and the bronze man on the northwest shelf was also dug out of the mud. At this point, a set of grand and magnificent chimes finally showed their true colors. The whole clock stand is supported by several bronze figures, who hold their hands up, wear a bronze sword on their waist, look straight ahead, look calm and calm, work fine and lifelike. There are 13 wooden coffins for martyrs in the west room, and weapons and chariots and horses in the north room. There are 15,44 pieces of ritual vessels, musical instruments, lacquered wood utensils, gold vessels, jade articles, weapons, chariots and horses, and bamboo unearthed in four tombs. Many of the vessels are unique in shape, vivid in image and gorgeous in ornamentation, which fully embodies the characteristics that Chu culture in the south and Central Plains culture in the north blend everywhere.