The location of Emperor Hanwen’s tomb was confirmed, and this is how it was discovered

The location of Emperor Hanwen’s mausoleum was confirmed, and this is how it was discovered

The location of Emperor Hanwen’s mausoleum was confirmed, and this was how it was discovered. On the morning of December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage Important archaeological discoveries and research results in Gansu, Henan, and Shaanxi were announced. The location of Emperor Hanwen's tomb was confirmed, and this was how it was discovered. The location of Emperor Hanwen’s tomb was confirmed, and this is how it was discovered 1

On the morning of December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an online meeting in Beijing to announce an important archaeological result: the owner of the Jiangcun Tomb is Liu Heng, Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty.

This result overturned the common understanding of historians in the past 700 years since the Yuan Dynasty and confirmed the true location of Ba Tomb, the mausoleum of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty. However, it is regrettable that the people who "promoted" the emergence of this archaeological achievement are a group that has been despised for thousands of years: tomb robbers.

The location of Ba Ling (Jiangcun Tomb) and its surroundings have been repeatedly invaded by "Tufuzi" (that is, tomb robbers) in recent years. In view of the serious situation of continuous theft of cultural relics in the Baling Mausoleum area in recent years, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology began to carry out rescue and excavation of the outer storage pits of Jiangcun Tomb and Nanling Tomb in 2017. What was announced on December 14 was the archaeological results obtained in the past four years.

Archaeological site of the burial pit outside the South Mausoleum of Empress Dowager Bo (photographed in November 2020)

The true location of Emperor Ba’s mausoleum of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty has been confirmed, and it is related to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che The tomb of his concubine "Mrs. Gou Yi" was stolen and is inseparable. "Mrs. Gouyi" is Zhao Jieyu, the concubine of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che and the mother of Emperor Liu Fuling of the Han Dynasty Zhao. Her tomb is the Yunling Tomb of Han Dynasty, which is one of the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units. It is located in Tiewang, Chunhua County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province The town is located in the west of Dageta Village.

In July 2016, Han Yunling was robbed. The Chunhua County Public Security Bureau attached great importance to this and immediately set up a task force to investigate. In view of the seriousness of the case, the Ministry of Public Security listed the case as a case for supervision and directly organized and directed the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Bureau to carry out investigation work.

The police followed the lead and dug out one tomb-robbering gang. They then expanded their lines and members. After more than a year, they eliminated 8 criminal gangs that robbed ancient tombs and arrested 91 suspects. , 96 cases of theft, excavation, and reselling of cultural relics were detected, 10 vehicles involved were seized, and more than 1,100 cultural relics were recovered.

Relevant judicial documents show that the cultural protection units involved in these tomb robbers include: Tomb No. 66 of Duling (the tomb of Liu Xun, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty), Han Yunling, Jiangcun Tombs, Gansu Zhenyuan Ancient tombs in urban and rural areas of Yinjia County, ancient tombs in Wangjiamen Village, Wushan County, Gansu, ancient tombs in Danzhou Town, Yichuan County, Yan'an City, etc.

This series of tomb robbing cases, involving the Dizhai area (the location of Jiangcun Tomb) in Baqiao District, Xi'an City, can be traced back to 2001 at the earliest, but mainly concentrated after 2010. Judgment documents such as Xianyang Intermediate Court’s “(2018) Shaanxi Xingchu No. 46” and Shaanxi High Court’s “(2019) Shaanxi Xingzhong No. 292” show that the above series of tomb robbing cases have basically been resolved by Xianyang Intermediate Court and Shaanxi High Court from 2018 to The case will be heard in 2020 and a corresponding judgment will be made.

Stolen cultural relics from the Jiangcun Tomb (picture from Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology)

These tomb robbers have a clear division of labor, and there are funders and organized implementation There are those who visit grave sites, those who dig holes to rob the tomb, and those who sell stolen goods and realize them. Members of different gangs have both cross-cooperation and internal strife. The cultural relics involved include pottery figurines, pottery animal figurines, pottery chimes, stone chimes, bronze chimes, jades, etc.

Among them, Meng Jingjian, nicknamed "Boss Meng", frequently appeared in many cases. He not only organized and carried out tomb robberies, but was also responsible for buying and selling stolen goods.

The Xianyang Intermediate People’s Court found in the first instance that Meng Jingjian had robbed and excavated ancient tombs four times. Two of the crime locations were ancient tombs in key cultural relics protection units in the country. He was organized in the same crime. He acted as the principal offender; he also participated in four crimes of covering up and concealing criminal proceeds, and the total amount amounted to more than 100,000 yuan. The circumstances were serious and should be punished in accordance with the law.

On July 17, 2019, the Xianyang Intermediate People’s Court found the defendant Meng Jingjian guilty of robbing ancient tombs in the first instance, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 1 million yuan; guilty of concealing and concealing the crime. Offended, he was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 400,000 yuan. It was decided to execute the sentence of 14 years in prison and fined 1.4 million yuan; and his illegal income of 2.83 million yuan (1.9895 million yuan has been paid) was recovered. Meng Jingjian was dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment and appealed, but the appeal was rejected by the Shaanxi High Court.

Among these tomb robbers, the one who received the heaviest sentence was Zhang Xiaoyan. The court found that he had robbed ancient tombs eight times, and two of the crimes were carried out in locations nationwide. Ancient tombs in key cultural relics protection units, and precious cultural relics were unearthed in a crime. He is the leader of a tomb robbing gang and a repeat offender (he was sentenced to five years in prison for theft) and should be severely punished.

In the end, Zhang Xiaoyan was found guilty of robbing ancient tombs and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was also ordered to confiscate his personal property of 2 million yuan and recover his illegal income of 4.823 million yuan (198,300 yuan has been paid).

In addition, the cemetery of Empress Dowager Bo, mother of Emperor Liu Heng of Han Dynasty, was also robbed.

However, this case has nothing to do with the above series of tomb robbing cases.

From September 4 to September 6, 2016, Xiao Qiang, Liu Kaiming, Yang Bin, Zhao Peng, and Duan Xiaoli carried tomb robbing tools such as Luoyang shovels, probe rods, steel drills, and shovels on Xue Guoqiang's The white Jinbei van he drove came to the Empress Dowager Bo's Mausoleum, a national key cultural relic protection unit, many times. Xiao Qiang, Liu Kaiming, and Yang Bin were responsible for the excavations, while Zhao Peng and Duan Xiaoli were responsible for the lookout. 108 pieces of cultural relics including painted male and female standing figurines, and 49 painted pottery figurine heads and painted stilts and other cultural relics were unearthed.

Later Xiao Qiang and others hid the above-mentioned stolen cultural relics in a private house rented by Liu Qi in a village in Yanta District. At about 21:00 on September 6, Liu Qi inspected the stolen cultural relics in the house and agreed with Xiao Qiang, Liu Kaiming and others to purchase them at a price ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per item and take some of the cultural relics away in vehicles. The next day, Liu Qi was caught on the spot by the public security organs while transporting the cultural relics to his home in Gaoling District for storage. In fact, at about 3 a.m. on September 6 that day, the police received an anonymous call from the public reporting that someone was hiding cultural relics in a village in Yanta District. After receiving the call, the police launched an investigation and solved the case.

Cultural relics unearthed from the burial pit outside Jiangcun Tomb (picture from Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology)

Confirmed by the Xi'an Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau, the hole stolen in this case is located in The cluster of burial pits in the Mausoleum of Queen Mother Bo, a national key cultural relic protection unit, has historical, artistic and scientific value. Appraisal by the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Identification and Research Center found that a total of 108 pieces of Han Dynasty cultural relics including painted male figurines and painted female figurines were stolen, including 5 second-level cultural relics and 103 third-level cultural relics; painted pottery figurine heads, painted pottery heads, etc. There are 49 pieces of cultural relics from the Han Dynasty, including standing figurines and painted and seated statues, all of which are general cultural relics.

According to news released by Qinfeng.com, on December 10, 2019, the Shaanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision reported four typical cases of negligence in the protection of historical and cultural heritage. The first case was that of Xi'an City The Western Han Dynasty Imperial Mausoleum Protection and Management Center failed to manage and protect the Western Han Dynasty Empress Dowager Bo's Mausoleum, which resulted in the problem of theft and excavation of the site.

The report stated that after 2014, the Western Han Dynasty Imperial Mausoleum Protection and Management Center did not seriously organize the protection work of the Western Han Dynasty Empress Dowager Bo’s Mausoleum under its care. The management and protection system was lacking, daily inspections were sloppy, and the mass defense force was weak. . In September 2016, the burial pit accompanying the mausoleum of Empress Dowager Bo was robbed by a tomb robber gang. Although the case was detected by the public security organs and most of the cultural relics were recovered, some cultural relics were still damaged or lost. In November 2018, Feng Wei, the director of the Baling Management and Protection Department of the management center, received a serious warning from the party and was punished with administrative demerits. In July 2019, Wang Jingping, the director of the Management Center, was placed in the same case for other disciplinary and illegal issues, and was expelled from the party and downgraded. The location of Emperor Hanwen’s tomb was confirmed, and this is how it was discovered 2

On the morning of December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced important archaeological discoveries and research results in Gansu, Henan, and Shaanxi, especially the much-loved The Jiangcun Tomb in Bailuyuan, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province that has attracted much attention was finally confirmed to be the tomb of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty (the grandfather of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty).

The Jiangcun Tomb is located in Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. In 2016, the outer Tibetan pit was robbed. Afterwards, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, archaeologists inspected the Jiangcun Tomb and the nearby Queen Dou Mausoleum. Systematic archaeological surveys and explorations have been conducted on the southern tomb of Empress Dowager Bo and the "Phoenix Mouth" site that is said to be the mausoleum of Emperor Han Wen Ba Ling.

According to reports, Jiangcun Cemetery is located at the western end of Bailuyuan in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an. About 800 meters to the northeast is the Mausoleum of Queen Dou, about 2,000 meters to the southwest is the Southern Mausoleum of Queen Mother Bo, and about 2,100 meters to the north is the former National Security Unit. Ba Ling is located at the "Phoenix Mouth" location.

Archaeological exploration has confirmed that there are no Han Dynasty tomb remains at the "Phoenix Mouth" site, so the possibility of it being a Ba Tomb is ruled out.

The plane of Jiangcun Tomb is in the shape of "Ya", with no sealing earth on the surface. The sides of the tomb are about 72 meters long and more than 30 meters deep. More than 110 external storage pits were found around the tomb, and there are pebbles on the outside of the external storage pits. The cemetery facility (tentatively named "Shiweijie") is about 390 meters long on a side. There are gate sites on the middle and outer sides of the stone boundary. It is speculated that it may be an independent imperial mausoleum cemetery (the mausoleum of Queen Dou also has an independent Houling Mausoleum).

Remains of the cemetery wall were found outside Jiangcun Tomb and Empress Dou’s Mausoleum. It is speculated that they were located in the same large cemetery. The large cemetery is about 1,200 meters long from east to west and about 863 meters wide from north to south.

Archaeologists excavated 7 large burial pits and 8 external storage pits, and unearthed more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, bronze seals, bronze chariots and horses, ironware, and pottery.

Among them, the copper seals have the words "Chefu", "Qifu", "Zhongqi Qianren", "Fuyin", "Cangyin", "Zhongsi Kongyin", etc., indicating that there are many hidden treasures around Jiangcun Tomb. The pit should be built to simulate real government offices and treasury.

In the outer pit, which is more than 40 meters long, the densely packed pottery figurines are particularly eye-catching, and a large number of the pottery figurines are painted nude pottery figurines, which are called clothed pottery figurines in archaeology. .

According to preliminary clearance by archaeologists, there are thousands of naked pottery figurines.

The shape and scale of the Jiangcun Tomb are in line with the highest-level tomb specifications of the Western Han Dynasty. In addition, the mausoleum of Queen Dou and the Mausoleum of Empress Dowager Bo are located around it. Experts confirm that the Jiangcun Tomb is the mausoleum of Emperor Han Wen.

This archaeological work has determined the exact location of the tombs of Emperor Hanwen and solved the problem of the title of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty. The location of Emperor Hanwen’s tomb was confirmed, and this was how it was discovered 3

According to CCTV News Client, this morning (December 14, 2021), the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an online meeting in Beijing. It was announced that the tomb in Bailuyuan Jiangcun, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province is the tomb of Emperor Ba of Han Dynasty.

At this point, this thousand-year-old misunderstanding has come to an end.

As early as the Yuan Dynasty, "Leibian Chang'an Chronicles" recorded that the Mausoleum of Emperor Hanwen was located at Fenghuangzui. Fenghuangzui is located on the bank of Bailuyuan south of Maoyaoyuan Village, Xiwang Street, Baqiao District. It is a place from the original border. The protruding mountain top is connected to Bailuyuan through a beam in the south, and its northern slope is in the shape of a regular triangle. The entire mountain shape is very similar to the seal of the imperial mausoleum. Under the influence of the terrain and the historical records of "Mountains are used as tombs", there are many steles in front of "Phoenix Mouth", among which the more important ones are the "Imperial Monument of the 27th Year of Kangxi" and the "Sacrificial Monument of the First Year of Yongzheng". "The Royal Sacrificial Monument of the Twenty-Fourth Year of Jiaqing". The tallest and largest piece in the middle is the "Mausoleum of Emperor Han Wen" written by Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi in the 41st year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.

Phoenix Mouth

Nowadays, the provincial and municipal archaeological research institutes have jointly carried out archaeological work at the Bailuyuan Jiangcun Tomb and the South Tomb of Queen Mother Bo, and have achieved important results. With the help of the project leader, researcher Ma Yongying of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, and members of the archaeological team, the following article explains why Xianyang Plain and Bailu Plain and "Phoenix Mouth" are chosen instead of Xianyang Tomb for Emperor Hanwen's Ba Mausoleum by many people. Exclusive interpretation of the location of the site and the decisive evidence that the Gangcun Tomb is the Ba Tomb.

Phoenix Mouth on the Bank of Bailuyuan: Misrecognition of Ba Ling for Thousand Years

In 180 BC, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty came to the throne as the concubine of the Han Emperor Gaozu. At that time, both Han Gaozu and Han Hui Emperor He was buried in Xianyang Plain and formed the ancestral mausoleum area. However, Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty abandoned this place and chose the Bailu Plain area to build Ba Mausoleum. What are the reasons for this choice? There is no clear record in historical data, but after research by later generations of scholars, two views have been given:

First, the imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty are arranged according to Zhaomu. Emperor Wen was the emperor who succeeded his brother, not the previous one. In the sense of inheritance from the eldest son, his mausoleum and Emperor Hui's Anling are both Mu, so it cannot be arranged and can only find another place;

Secondly, there is no Zhaomu system for the imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty, and Emperor Wen chose The address of Bailuyuan is just for personal reasons.

The Ba Mausoleum is so hidden, unlike other Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum sites with clear seals. This is because Emperor Wen Liu Heng advocated "thin burial" and made it clear that "because of the mountain, it cannot be afforded." Grave" edict. According to the "Book of Han: Chronicles of Emperor Wen" it is clearly recorded: "In the sixth month of Jihai in the seventh year of summer, the emperor died in Weiyang Palace. The posthumous edict said: Ba Ling Mountain and River will not be changed for the reason... Bury Ba Ling."

The lack of earthen seal means that unlike other imperial tombs of the Han Dynasty, there are huge "earth parcels" visible to the naked eye. Therefore, there have been two views in the academic circles on the structure of the tomb of the Han Dynasty emperor's tomb. One is the "cliff tomb theory", which believes that Ba Ling is indeed "hidden by the mountain", and the high cliff of "Phoenix Mouth" is the site of Ba Ling's mausoleum, which just confirms the form of "cliff tomb".

Another point of view is that although there is a record in the literature that "the tomb cannot be built", it can also be understood that the tomb is built in the mountain, so there is no need to build another earth seal. This is related to the terrain. Theoretically, the shape of the tomb of Ba Mausoleum should be the same as that of other imperial mausoleums in the Han Dynasty, which is a "vertical hole earth tomb".

There are many documents recording Ba Ling in history. According to Ma Yongying, "Historical Records", "Hanshu", "Shui Jing Zhu" and other volumes of history books have mentioned that Ba Ling "not repaired the grave" However, there is no further explanation of the specific shape of the "unruly grave". The records in the documents are prone to deviations in the process of transmission and copying due to the changes of the times.

In addition, most of the tombs of ancient emperors are kept confidential. For safety reasons, detailed locations are generally not marked. For example, the location of the imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty is only mentioned in "Sanfu Huangtu" "The Ba Mausoleum of Emperor Wen is located seventy miles east of Chang'an City. Because it is hidden in the mountains, the tomb is no longer raised."

"Seventy Li East of Chang'an City" summarizes the geographical location of Ba Mausoleum. The above and other similar The text makes most scholars rely on documents and experience to analyze the location of the tomb before archaeological excavation and physical evidence.

The statement that Ba Mausoleum is located at the mouth of Fenghuang was first seen in Luo Tianxiang of the Yuan Dynasty in "Leibian Chang'an Chronicle": "Forty miles east of Tonghua Gate in Jingzhao, under the mouth of Fenghuang in the north of Bailuyuan, "Hanshu" governs The pottery in Baling is not decorated with gold, silver, copper and tin, because the mountain cannot support the tomb."

People who have been to Fenghuangzui can easily find that this place is located in Maoyao, Xiwang Street, Baqiao District. On the bank of Bailuyuan in the south of Yuan Village is a hill protruding from the original edge. Its south is connected to Bailuyuan through a beam, and its northern slope is in the shape of a regular triangle. The entire mountain shape is very similar to the seal of the imperial mausoleum. The "Phoenix Mouth" itself, both in terms of appearance and the historical color given by later generations, has made this misunderstanding even more serious.

Under the influence of the topography and the historical records of "Mountains are used as tombs", the "Phoenix Mouth" is filled with cultural relic protection monuments, among which the more important one is "The Emperor Kangxi in the Twenty-Seventh Year" "Making stele", "Sacrifice stele in the first year of Yongzheng reign" and "Imperial sacrificial stele in the 24th year of Jiaqing reign".

The tallest and largest piece in the middle is the "Mausoleum of Emperor Han Wen" written by Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi in the 41st year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.

That is to say, as early as the Yuan Dynasty, people had the misunderstanding that the Ba Tomb was at the mouth of Fenghuang, which made the archaeological work of later generations more difficult. After all, without advanced technical means and Under perfect archaeological conditions, no one dares to easily overturn the views of "predecessors".

The layout of imperial tombs and tombs in the Western Han Dynasty: the hub that controlled the national transportation network

In the Western Han Dynasty, the location and construction of imperial tombs were not as simple as people think today. Political and cultural symbolic significance, the location of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum is closely related to the political and military situation at that time.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the main hidden dangers of the Western Han Dynasty were the powerful nomadic Xiongnu in the north and the old aristocrats of the Six Kingdoms in Guandong. Xianyangyuan, the main mausoleum area of ??the Western Han Dynasty emperors, was located at the northern head of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty. At that time, the transportation lines leading to the northern border and the northwest region had to cross the Wei River from Chang'an City and pass through Xianyangyuan. The government of the Western Han Dynasty built imperial mausoleums and tombs here, and moved a large number of old nobles, heroes and famous figures from the Six Kingdoms of Guandong here. In fact, in the north of Chang'an City, it created an artificial barrier to prevent the Xiongnu from going south, which not only weakened the local power of the powerful Perhaps, it also enriched the strength of the capital.

After Qin Shihuang established the first unified centralized empire in Chinese history, in order to strengthen his rule, he ordered the construction of various roads. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system and continued to develop on the basis of the Qin road transportation system. Baoxie Road and Ziwu Road were newly restored and opened up, forming a more developed transportation network around the country with Han Chang'an City as the center.

The imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty and their tombs are located in this huge transportation network, which has also changed the old transportation conditions to a certain extent, promoting the formation of a new transportation pattern in Chang'an and playing a role in transportation. The role of impulses and hubs. In addition to the good road conditions in the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum area itself, from a macro perspective, Changling, Anling, Baling, Yangling, Maoling, Pingling, Duling and other Western Han imperial mausoleums and their tombs are located in the entire Greater Chang'an. It plays a very important role in the overall transportation layout of the region.

For example, Ma Yongying, the leader of the Han Tomb archaeological team, believes:

Changling, together with Anling and its tombs to the west, control Ganquan in the north. , Chi Road in Yunyang;

In addition to following the Lintong road to Guandong, Baling is actually the Wuguan Road that leads to the southeast from Chang'an, passes through Wuguan, and points directly to the Jianghan Plain along the Dan River. The starting point;

Yangling and its tombs are located in the easternmost position on the Xianyang Plain in Weibei, and it is also a transportation hub;

Maoling and its tombs are the controlling The choke point between the capital Chang'an and the Western Regions was also the key to transportation when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty later attacked the Xiongnu in the north and passed through the Western Regions;

As for Duling, it is located at the northern end of Shaoling Plains southeast of the Han Chang'an City, as the Ziwu Road As the starting point, its role cannot be ignored.

It was through such hard work that the Western Han Dynasty achieved the so-called transportation situation of "the tombs of Chang'an, all the blessings from all directions come together". With Zhulingyi as the transportation hub, the increasingly complete umbrella transportation network leading to all directions played an important role in maintaining the prosperity of Chang'an City and Zhulingyi.

Looking through the locations of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleums and classifying them carefully, we can feel many similarities. For example: they are all located in Gaochang, most of them are located in the north of the capital, not far from Chang'an City. Convenient transportation and so on. The formation of these characteristics is also affected by many factors. For example, the construction of imperial mausoleums follows the principle of proximity. In order to "declare the high majesty" and "waterproof" considerations, the location of the imperial mausoleums requires "high openness" in terms of terrain.

For example, Xianyangyuan, the main mausoleum area of ??the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum, is located in a condescending position, with mountains to the north, Weishui River to the south, and Zhongnan in the distance. The terrain is as flat as a stone. As for the White Deer Principle, it goes without saying that it is about 25 kilometers wide from north to south and 6-9 kilometers long from east to west. The original altitude is 600-780 meters. It is high in the southeast and low in the northwest. It looks very high-pitched. On the east side is Lanwu Avenue, and Control the advantage of the blue martial arts channel.

Excluding the Phoenix Mouth: From a summary of the shape, structure and layout of the Imperial Tombs of the Western Han Dynasty

Since the 1980s, Chinese archaeological researchers have conducted a series of archaeological excavations on the Imperial Tombs of the Western Han Dynasty , roughly grasped and understood the shape, structure and layout characteristics of the imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty.

There are eleven imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty. Except for Du Mausoleum, which is located in the southeast of Xi'an, and Ba Mausoleum, which is located on the Bailu Plain in the northeast of Xi'an, the other nine are all located on the Xianyang Plain, one from east to west. The words are arranged. When classifying and sorting out, it is not difficult to find that most of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum sites are divided into three parts, namely the emperor and empress cemetery, the mausoleum, and the burial tomb area.

The layout is customary: sitting east to west, with emperors and empresses buried together in the same mausoleum but in different caves. The east gate of the cemetery is the main entrance. Except for the "unruly tomb" of Ba Mausoleum, the rest of the imperial mausoleums are covered with square or rectangular covers. Bucket shape.

Therefore, according to the geological and landform conditions of the location of Ba Mausoleum and the tradition of Xi'an imperial mausoleums, Ba Mausoleum should be located not far from the Mausoleum of Queen Dou. The mausoleum implements the joint burial system of "the same tomb in different caves" for emperors and empresses, that is, the emperor's mausoleum and the empress' mausoleum are located in the same cemetery, or the emperor's mausoleum and the empress' mausoleum are located in the same cemetery. The imperial and hou tombs of Changling and Anling are located in the same cemetery. Starting from Yangling, the emperor and hou tombs have independent cemeteries, but there are garden walls and trenches around them, forming a dual cemetery system.

Ba Tomb is located between Anling and Yangling. We will not discuss whether it belongs to the former or the latter for now, but there should be no doubt that the Emperor's Tomb and the Hou's Tomb are located in the same cemetery.

However, a closer look at the area once identified as Fenghuangzui shows that it is 2,100 meters away from the tomb of Empress Dou, which is 2,100 meters away from the tomb of Empress Maoling, the most powerful emperor in the Western Han Dynasty. The distance is still big.

Furthermore, the construction shapes of the imperial mausoleums and the Hou mausoleums should be basically similar. The possibility of a cliff tomb and a vertical cave earth tomb is very small (Queen Dou’s mausoleum has been confirmed, and the tomb shape is vertical. The mausoleum of the Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty inherited the characteristics of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum and developed. The mausoleum was independent, the mausoleum area was large-scale, the facilities were complex, and the functions were improved. Careful planning was done before construction. Planning and design, the project is constructed according to a certain planning and design blueprint. The same is true for the construction of the Ba Mausoleum. If the emperor's mausoleum is a cliff tomb, the Hou Tomb cannot be a vertical-hole earth tomb. On the contrary, the Queen Dou Mausoleum is a vertical-hole earth tomb, and the tomb shape of the imperial mausoleum must also be a vertical-hole earth tomb.

Therefore, Ba Ling should also be a "Ya" shaped vertical pit earthen tomb with four tomb passages. It is no different from other Western Han Dynasty imperial tombs, but the difference lies in whether there is a seal.

Secondly, the imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty were generally built on the edge of the loess plateau. Except for the imperial mausoleums, which were relatively high, the entire mausoleums were relatively flat with little height difference. If the Baling Emperor's Mausoleum is located at Fenghuangzui, the cemetery will need to be built on the steep slope on the east side of Bailuyuan. The cemetery will be uneven, with ravines and ravines, and the height difference will exceed 230 meters. It will also be difficult to build facilities such as external storage pits and ritual buildings. This also puts a question mark on the argument that Phoenix Mouth is Ba Ling.

Key evidence confirming that the Jiangcun Tomb is Ba Ling

The Jiangcun Tomb, located in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, was discovered in 2001. It was once mistaken for Princess Liu of Guantao. (Daughter of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty and Queen Dou) Tomb.

The mausoleum of Queen Dou is adjacent to the Bahe River Valley in the east, and to the north is Renjiapo and the southeast-northwest natural ditch on the north side of Jiangcun. There is also a southeast-northwest natural ditch on the south side of Jiangcun, and the Queen Mother Bo is on the south of the ditch. Nanling. The southwest side of Queen Dou's Mausoleum covers an area of ??1,400 meters from east to west and 1,100 meters from north to south, which is suitable for setting up the Ba Mausoleum. To the west, it is a slope, and the terrain gradually becomes lower. In addition, the "Xiaowen East Bedroom" seal was unearthed from the Hanyang Mausoleum site. Queen Dou's mausoleum is located on the eastern edge of Bailuyuan. The name of her dormitory garden is "Xiaowen East Bedroom", which also shows that the imperial mausoleum is on the west side.

The Bahe River flows under the seal of Queen Dou

The "Jiangcun Tomb" that was initially "misunderstood" as the tomb of Princess Guantao is located in Jiangcun. The east side and the west side of Queen Dou's Mausoleum. Although, the tombs of princesses in the Han Dynasty can all be compared to princes and kings. However, judging from the current archaeological facts, the scale of the princes' tombs has been found to be much smaller than the Jiangcun Tomb. Furthermore, when Princess Guantao was buried under Emperor Wu, her burial system could not surpass that of the princes and kings.

The "Jiangcun Tomb" has been discovered due to being stolen in recent years. In 2017, rescue excavations were carried out on the Jiangcun Tomb and the outer pit of Nanling. It has been found that the tomb is 40 meters long, 40 meters wide and 40 meters deep. 30 meters, there is a brick wall built close to the tomb. Inside the wall is an outer coffin built of Fang wood. Between the outer coffin and the second wall of Fang wood is an outer corridor about 2 meters wide and 2 meters high. There are a large number of piles accumulated in the corridor. There is a door on one end of the second week of the wooden wall, and there are the second and third corridors inside.

The tomb has a prominent location, a large scale, and a large number of external storage pits, which far exceeds the level of the princes and kings. Only the tomb is worthy of such scale, facilities, characteristics and location of the tomb passage. The mausoleum of Emperor Hanwen is questionable. It is an indisputable fact for two thousand years that the Baling Emperor's mausoleum has no land seal. It is true that the Jiangcun Tomb has no earth seal, which is in line with the record in the history books that Ba Tomb "cannot afford a grave".

The direct evidence that led archaeologists to identify Jiangcun Tomb as the Ba Tomb was because during the five-year archaeological excavation and exploration, they found the boundary of the Da Tomb, which is the tomb of Queen Dou. It is the largest outer cemetery "bounded by stones" surrounded by "Gangchon Tomb".

According to historical documents and field archaeological data, the basic structural elements of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum architecture include mausoleums, seals, tombs, gates, sleeping gardens, mausoleum temples, external storage pits, and roads , funerary tombs, necromantic tombs, mausoleums, prisoner cemeteries, garden provinces, garden temples, official residences, residences of those who built the tombs, etc.

The cemetery is an important symbol in the mausoleum structure to delineate the mausoleum and demarcate the mausoleum area. The mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty imperial mausoleum is called "yuan mausoleum" or "garden". According to archaeological exploration data, imperial mausoleums in the early Western Han Dynasty, such as Changling and Anling, adopted the single-layer mausoleum system of the same mausoleum for emperors and empresses; earlier, because everyone agreed that the tombs of Han Wen emperors adopted the "mountain-based mausoleum" burial system , buried under the Phoenix Mouth, so most of the focus is on drilling the Phoenix Mouth.

It is now unknown why the theory of Ba Ling at the Phoenix's Mouth arose.

Unfortunately, after examining the mountains around Fenghuangzui, archaeologists found that there were no holes in them, so there could not be a large tomb inside the mountains.

What is even more strange is that anyone familiar with the imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty knows that in addition to the earth seals, there are also rich mausoleum buildings on the ground. Today, although the building no longer exists and cannot be preserved, the remaining bricks and tiles can often be seen everywhere in the cemetery. However, the fact is that there are no remains of Han tiles around Fenghuangzui. There are no hollows in the mountain, and there are no remains of mausoleum buildings around it, so it can basically be denied that Fenghuangzui is the site of Baling Mausoleum. It's just a solid plain of soil.

Now, the successful discovery of traces of the Dalingyuan wall provides us with the most straightforward evidence to reveal the truth about Ba Ling.

China has a long history. The Western Han Dynasty was an important period of formation of Chinese culture. From a certain perspective, Han culture was formed based on the culture of the Han Dynasty. It is precisely this core value concept of historical exchange that constitutes the fact that our culture has not been broken for five thousand years.

Archaeology has never been a static process. Those historical events that have been overthrown, reconstructed and constantly demonstrated are the "truth-seeking" attitude of generations of archaeologists, and they are something we should learn from and be proud of.

●Thanks to researcher Ma Yongying, leader of the Han Tomb Archaeological Team, and teachers such as Cao Long and Zhu Chenlu for providing academic guidance on this article.