Uncover the mystery of Wu Zetian's headless stone statue and the wordless Gan Ling

Wu Zetian was the last controversial queen in the history of China. There are many rumors about her. This time, I will take stock of the unsolved mysteries about her mausoleum.

Wu Zetian's mausoleum is also called Ganling. Wu Zetian built her mausoleum about 85 kilometers northwest of the capital Chang 'an (now Xi Chang 'an), which is now Liangshan, Gan County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. Actually, Ganling is the mausoleum of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi (reigned in 649 AD) and Wu Zetian (reigned in 705 AD). It was built in the first year of Tang Guangzhai (684) and later in the second year of Shenlong (706).

In the first year of Hongdao, Wu Zetian ordered Wei Daijia, the official department minister, to be responsible for the Fuling project, and was buried in Li Zhi in August the following year. After that, the Ganling project continued.

In May of the second year of Shenlong, the newly succeeded emperor Tang Zhongzong Li Xian ordered Wu Zetian to be buried in Ganling; Also in the year before last, Tang Zhongzong pardoned the royal family who was persecuted to death due to political problems during the Wu Zetian period, and reburied Princess Lee Hyun-hui of Yongtai, Prince Li Zhongrun of Yide and Prince Li Xian of Zhang Huai. In addition, in 706 AD, Xu Wangli, Ze Wangli and Yiyang Princess Li were also buried in Ganling.

In addition to the main tomb, there are seventeen small tombs buried in Ganling with other royal family members and heroes. Ganling is the best preserved of the eighteen tombs in the Tang Dynasty. By 20 13, only five burial tombs were excavated, from which a large number of cultural relics were unearthed.

The mausoleum has two inner and outer walls, four gates, pavilions and many other magnificent buildings. Exploration shows that the total area of the inner city is 2.4 million square meters. There are Zhuque Gate in the south, Xuanwu Gate in the north, Qinglong Gate in the east and Baihu Gate in the west.

The 2-meter-high tombstone of Tang Gaozong Gaozong Ganling was erected by Emperor Gaozong in Biyuan County, Shaanxi Province. The original monument has been destroyed, and this monument was rebuilt during the reign of Qing Qianlong. On the right front of this monument, another tombstone inscribed by Guo Moruo is "Tomb of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Zetian Emperor", 12 Chinese characters.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, when Huang Chao rebelled, Huang Chao planned to rob the tomb, so he used 400,000 troops to dig a ditch more than 40 meters deep, but he didn't find the entrance to the pyramid-shaped mound, so he had to give up angrily. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Wen Tao organized troops to excavate all the tombs of emperors in the Tang Dynasty, but only Ganling survived because of its solid architecture.

1960, several local farmers shot and blew stones, and accidentally blew out the tomb door. 1960 February, the "Ganling Excavation Committee" was established in Shaanxi. After preliminary excavation, it is confirmed that the bombed place is the catacombs, and it is ready to continue excavation. However, the State Council Prime Minister Zhou Enlai gave instructions on the excavation plan of Ganling. "We can't finish the good work, but this matter can be left to future generations.". Later, the State Council issued a notice, demanding "don't dig the national emperor's mausoleum at present", and the excavation of Ganling stopped.

Because the road in Ganling is complete, no new stolen caves have been found. Many experts believe that Ganling is the only tomb among the 18 tombs in the Tang Dynasty that has not been stolen.

Explore and explore

On June 3, 20 12, 65438+ 13 10, a news that "National Cultural Heritage Administration and others once again studied whether to excavate the tomb of Wu Zetian on a large scale" was reprinted by many websites. On the morning of June 13, the head of National Cultural Heritage Administration Press Office confirmed that the news was untrue.

Regarding the news, the person in charge of the National Cultural Heritage Administration Information Office said on the phone: "There is no such thing at all, and the news is false." The person in charge also hopes to clarify this matter to the media through People's Daily Online.

On the afternoon of 65438+ 10 12, Huashang Daily also verified the matter with Chen Yande, deputy director of Ganling Management Office. Chen Yande said the news was untrue. "In the short term, the excavation of Ganling will never be put on the table for at least 50 years."

Chen Yande said that on June 5438+ 10 1 1, Zhao Rong, director of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, was still investigating Ganling. "At that time, Director Zhao Rong made it clear that the work to be done by the Ganling Management Office now is to protect cultural relics and the environment and do a good job in the comprehensive management and rectification of Ganling Scenic Area."

The Mystery of Ganling-Headless Stone Statue

What is particularly striking about Ganling is that there are two groups of stone statues on the east and west sides of Shinto outside Zhuquemen, which are neatly and respectfully arranged in front of Yuling. There are 32 statues on the west side and 29 statues on the east side, totaling 6 1 statue.

These residual statues of stone men are between meters high and meters high, and the size is similar to that of real people. People used to call these statues "Fan Xiang", "Wang Bing" and "61 Chen Fan". These life-size stone men wear different clothes, from robes and tunics to lapels and purple sleeves. But they all stood side by side, their hands arched forward, and their posture was extremely humble, as if they were lined up here to welcome the arrival of the emperor. But the strangest thing is that these stone statues have no heads, which makes people have many questions. Why did Ganling use these headless stone statues to guard the mausoleum? If you look at them carefully, you will find that the heads of stone statues can be seen from their necks. So, is the disappearance of these stone heads man-made or natural disasters?

There are different opinions about the reason why the stone statue has no head. One theory is that the heads of these stone statues were cut off by the Ming Dynasty. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a foreign envoy came to Ganling and found his ancestors standing here guarding the mausoleum for the Tang emperor. He felt that this was not only detrimental to national dignity, but also a humiliation to his own personality, and his self-esteem was greatly damaged, so he wanted to destroy these stone statues. But he was afraid of causing dissatisfaction among the local people, so he came up with a clever plan. Every night, he tramples on grain in the farmland near Ganling, and then the next day, just like fanning the flames, he tells the people that these statues are all made, and at night they become refined and begin to spoil crops. If you want to protect crops and food, you must destroy these stone statues and cut off their heads so that they can't hurt crops. The local people thought that what the foreign envoys said was very reasonable, so they cut off the heads of these stone statues in a rage.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, some poets used the poem "Red Horse Stripped from the Side" to describe Ganling, which should mean that horses and stone statues in Ganling fell to the ground one after another. The scene of the stone statue falling to the ground described in the poem seems to be similar to the folklore in time.

Although all of the above are folklore, which can't be used as a basis, archaeologists have further analyzed this phenomenon and found that natural disasters may have brought disasters to these stone statues. A large number of data prove that a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 8- 1 1 occurred in hua county, Shaanxi Province during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, that is, on June 23rd, 556. As the earthquake happened at midnight, more than 800,000 people were killed in the earthquake. Ganling is only 100 km away from Huaxian, which also belongs to the epicenter. Ganling suffered a devastating blow, which is the Huaxian earthquake that shocked China and foreign countries. According to experts' inference, this earthquake is one of the main reasons for the fracture of the head of 6 1 stone statue. Coincidentally, many stone statues and horses in front of the mausoleum suffered head injuries. And the material of these stone statues is not very strong. Because the stone used at that time had some stone defects, when the stone statue was damaged, the head was the most prone to problems. The researchers concluded that the 6 1 stone statue was probably partly destroyed by the earthquake and partly by the war in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Even though these stone statues have been destroyed, we can still find the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty from their images.

The Mystery of Ganling —— Silent Monument

On the east side of Sima Dao outside Zhuquemen, stands the world-famous tablet of Wu Zetian without words. It is made of a complete boulder with a height of 7.53m, a width of 2. 1 m, a thickness of1.49m and a total weight of about100t, giving people a dignified and heavy aesthetic feeling. There is no inscription on the tablet. There is Yi Long in the center of the monument, with four left and right, totaling nine, so it is also called "Kowloon Monument". Eight dragons are skillfully intertwined, with distinct scales and muscles, moving silently and full of vitality.

On both sides of the monument, there are dragon figures, each with a dragon, and the lines are carved and lifelike. On the front of the monument, there is also a line carved lion horse figure (or lion horse fighting figure), whose horse bends its hoof and bows its head, which is gentle and lovely; The lion held his head high, his eyes bright, and he was very dignified. There are also many flowers and plants on the monument, and the lines are fine and smooth.

No word tablet is adjacent to Dongque in the north, Weng Zhong in the south and a sacred tablet in the west. It is magnificent, magnificent and exquisitely carved, and it deserves to be the crown of all previous dynasties. This wordless tablet, carefully designed and erected by Wu Zetian, not only attracts people's attention because of its prominent position in the stone carving of Ganling Cemetery, but also is favored and famous for its exquisite carving art, unique charm and legendary story.

When tourists come to Ganling, they almost stop at the monument without saying a word, or stare, or take pictures as a souvenir, or give directions and comments. The tablet without words is not only a symbol of Ganling in the eyes of countless tourists, but also a symbol of Empress Wu Zetian.

There are three opinions among the people about why there are no words on the tablet without words. The first view is that Wu Zetian's tablet without words is used to praise herself, which means that words can't express her merits. The second view is that Wu Zetian set up a wordless tablet because she knew that she was guilty of the most heinous crimes, and she thought it would be better not to write an inscription. The third view is that Wu Zetian is a self-aware person, and it is smart to set up a monument without words. It is the best way for future generations to comment on merits and demerits.

After the Song and Jin Dynasties, many tourists wrote words on the tablet without words. Since then, the tablet without words has become a tablet with words. Later, it experienced the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the tablets were engraved with figures from various dynasties. This not only forms a natural "inscription" on Wu Zetian's evaluation in content, but also has five forms in calligraphy: truth, cursive script, official script, seal script and running script, which may be the original intention of Wu Zetian not to write an inscription. But after a long time, the predecessors and descendants who mentioned the words on the tablet could not communicate, coordinate and take care of them. The inscriptions in the past dynasties were fragmented and chaotic, and the Nuoda Yitong tablet became the patchwork of the old monk. Among them, only 1 135 Travel Notes of Lang Jun, the younger brother of Daikin Emperor, is well preserved. It's written in Jurchen, with a Chinese translation beside it. Jurchen script is now extinct, and inscriptions have become valuable materials for studying Jurchen script and the history and culture of ethnic minorities in China.

Wu Zetian exists like a fan, and what happened to her and us at that time may not be possible. With our further exploration, we will also solve more mysteries about her.