Cao Zhi and Yongqiu in Yongqiu

The green tomb was left in the sixth year of Yongqiu

The tomb of Cao Zhi, located in Houqibu Village, Tongxu County, was discovered in the sixth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty. Since then, Cao Zhi’s tomb has been destroyed several times due to the flooding of the Yellow River. Abandoned repairs. The current Cao Zhi Cemetery was built in 1998 with special funds allocated by the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau. In October 2000, Cao Zhi's tomb was listed as an important attraction in the "Three Kingdoms Tourism Hotline" by the National Tourism Administration.

In the last twelve years of Cao Zhi’s life, he was granted the title of Yongqiu twice and spent six years here. Yongqiu became a "landmark" in his life.

Yongqiu is present-day Qixian County, Henan Province. Qixian County was called "Yongqiu City" in ancient times and was the capital of Qi State. Qi has been a country here for more than 1,000 years, and there are many cultural deposits of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the territory.

Qi State is very ancient, and its history can be traced back to the beginning of Xia. Shang Tang destroyed Xia and sealed Xia's descendants to Qi. At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Qi was destroyed by the Song Dynasty. Duke Wu of Qi moved the capital from Yongqiu to Chunyu (now northeast of Anqiu County, Shandong Province) between Qi and Lu, and rebuilt the Qi State. It was destroyed by the Chu State in 445 BC.

The most famous allusion related to Qi Kingdom is "Qi people worry about the sky". It's a bit unfair that Qi Ren has been ridiculed for thousands of years when he asked "Heavenly Questions".

There is nothing related to Cao Zhi in Qi County today. On the contrary, the neighboring Tongxu County has Cao Zhi’s tomb and village names such as Qian Qibu, Zhong Qibu, and Hou Qibu. Why is this?

Opening the "Atlas of Henan Province", the three Qibu villages are all in Tongxu County, but close to Qi County. "In the history of Tongxu, the county was established very late, while Qixian was established very early. Qibu Village had been returned to Qixian before it was returned to Tongxu. At that time, the fiefdom of Cao Zhi, King of Yongqiu, was mainly in Qixian, but also included some surrounding areas. " Said Mr. Fu Wenzhi, president of the Qibu Poetry Society in Tongxu County and a man who has devoted himself to studying Cao Zhi for many years.

No wonder Qixian also regards Cao Zhi as his pride.

Cao Zhi was named King of Yongqiu in 223, and stayed here until 227, when he was transferred to Junyi (now Kaifeng). In 228, after Cao Pi died, Emperor Wei Ming Cao Rui sent him away. Returned to Yongqiu and stayed there for six years. Later he moved to Dong'a (now Dong'a, Shandong) and Chendi (Huaiyang, Henan).

After experiencing frequent migrations, Cao Zhi was like a leaf of duckweed, floating in the wind. He said in "The Expression of Appreciation to the King of the East" that "the left and right are poor, living on a subsistence diet, and the body is exposed."

The reason why Cao Pi and his son treated him like this is a long story.

Cao Cao had many wives and concubines, and he had 25 sons in total. He liked Cao Chong the most, who was "weighed by elephants on ships", but Cao Chong died at the age of 13. The sons advised Cao Cao to express their condolences, but Cao Cao said, "It's your luck that he died." Mrs. Bian gave birth to four sons for Cao Cao (Pi, Zhi, Zhang, and Xiong). Cao Pi and Cao Zhi began to compete for the throne very early.

Cao Zhi, whose courtesy name is Zijian, is "simple in nature, not dignified. His horses and horses are not gorgeous in clothes. Every time he comes in and asks a question, he answers the question." His ambition and talents are extraordinary, and he is especially favored by Cao Cao. . In 211, Cao Zhi, who was only 20 years old, was granted the title of Marquis of Pingyuan. Three years later, he was granted the title of Marquis of Linzi.

In the fight between brothers, Cao Zhi had a slight upper hand in the early years, and was almost made crown prince by Cao Cao several times.

However, Cao Zhi "acted willfully and drank immoderately", but Cao Pi "used skills to control it and pretended to be self-deprecating", and was good at using various means to serve Cao Cao and whitewash himself. Cao Cao was also worried about repeating Yuan Shao's mistake of abolishing the eldest son and establishing a young son, so he decided to make Cao Pi the heir apparent. At the same time, as compensation, he increased the number of households in Cao Zhi's fiefdom from 5,000 to 10,000.

Later, Cao Zhi made two mistakes. He took a car and walked on the Chi Road without authorization, and also opened the Sima Gate to leave the palace. This was a serious transgression. Cao Cao was furious and said, "The favor is declining day by day."

Cao Cao, who was suspicious and repetitive, once gave Cao Zhi a chance to perform. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Ren, who was stationed in Xiangyang, was besieged by Guan Yu. Cao Cao appointed Cao Zhi as Zhonglang General and led troops to rescue him. However, Cao Zhi was too drunk to perform his mission, and Cao Zhi completely fell out of favor.

Cao Cao was a ruthless politician. For Cao Pi's sake, he began to cut off Cao Zhi's wings - killing his adviser Yang Xiu, his father-in-law Cui Yan, and his wife Cui.

But the bigger crisis came after his brother Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor on behalf of the Han Dynasty. Cao Zhi was a former rival and potential danger, and Cao Pi and his son were deeply afraid of him.

Cao Zhi's life went from high to low - he was falsely accused, demoted, and transferred to several fiefdoms. From then on, he began his 12-year "suffering journey."

Cao Zhi’s Tomb in Qibu Village

Going eastward for about 12 kilometers from Tongxu County, from southeast to northwest, three natural villages are connected to each other, hidden among the green trees, Cao Zhi’s tomb is Located in Houqibu Village.

Next to Houqibu Primary School in the village, a large yard of about 1,000 square meters is full of newly planted small poplar trees and white artemisia, exuding a strong aroma. The round tomb of Cao Zhi's tomb is covered with fluffy green grass, and children are playing in front of the tomb. There is a monument next to the tomb "Cao Zhi's Tomb, a Cultural Relics Protection Unit in Henan Province", which was announced in 2000.

Standing in front of the tomb, it is inevitable to think of all the things in his life.

When he was a boy, he was proficient in vocal rhythm, good at singing and dancing, and was good at fencing. Literary critic Zhong Rong pointed out: "Cao Gong and his son are very polite; Pingyuan brothers are Yu Wendong; Liu Zhen and Wang Can are their wings." This fully affirmed Cao Zhi's backbone status in Jian'an literature.

Zhong Rong's "Poems" mentioned: "Chen Sizhi's article, for example, there are Zhou Kong in human relations, dragons and phoenixes in scales and feathers, pianos and shengs in music, and fur in female workers (on ancient dresses) Patterns)." He also said: "The character is extremely high, the words are brilliant, the emotions are both elegant and resentful, and the body and texture are full of charm both today and in the past, making him outstanding." This evaluation is "quite high".

Xie Lingyun, a poet of the Southern Dynasties, once said a popular saying: "Everyone in the world has one stone. Cao Zijian only has eight buckets. I have one bucket, and all the people in the world have one bucket." Cao Zhi is known as "The Eight Bucks" Talent" comes from this.

Hu Yinglin, a writer in the Ming Dynasty, believed: "In ancient and modern times, talents with early wisdom are mostly successful; those with great success may not be early wisdom. A combination of both, Wei Chen Si alone."

Cao Zhi is still alive. There are more than 90 poems, 45 poems, and writings in various styles such as chapters, tables, books, treatises, odes, steles, praises, and inscriptions.

Standing in front of the poet's tomb, I feel sad when I think of him streaking across the sky like a meteor at the age of 41.

Mr. Fu Wenzhi said: "Cao Zhi's tomb was discovered in the sixth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1470). In the summer of that year, the Yellow River burst, the waves were turbulent, and the mound where Cao Zhi's tomb was located was surrounded by floods. In winter When the water receded, a huge hole appeared on the hillock. There was a stone door in the hole, which was bolted from the outside. The walls of the cave were painted in vermilion or milky white, and a stone tablet was erected in the middle, with the tomb of Wei Caozhi engraved on it. There was a tunnel on the side of the tomb. It leads to Changzhi (now Changzhi Town) several miles away. Only then did people know that Cao Zhi was later buried here, and someone donated money to build an ancestral hall for Cao Zhi."

Nine years after Cao Zhi's tomb was discovered, That is, in 1479, Lou Liang, a native of the city (a Jinshi in the seventh year of Zhengtong in the Ming Dynasty, and an official to the deputy capital imperial envoy) retired and returned to his hometown. He discussed with the local people and rebuilt the Cao Zhi Temple. Because the area of ??the original ancestral hall and temple was too small, the mounds were leveled, the ditches were filled, and an ancestral hall was built to worship Cao Zhi. A main hall was also built to pray for the emperor to live forever and bless the people. A lecture hall, Zen room, wing room, and kitchen were also built, all connected in order and magnificent.

In the eighth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1580), Emperor Su Minwang saw that "only the remains of Cao Zhi's mausoleum were made of clay, trampled by humans and animals, and those who passed by were pitied", so he gave instructions for restoration.

Wang Qiaowu, who was the magistrate of Tongxu County at the time, spent a month from March 15th to April 16th of the lunar calendar in that year to renovate the tomb and the Mausoleum of King Chen Si. There are four couplets, and the gate is wide and narrow. The main niche is in the middle, which is well protected... The surrounding wall is surrounded by layers of gates, and cypress, locust, elm, and willow are planted to serve as shade wings. The scale is much smaller than that built by Lou Liang a hundred years ago.

Nowadays, there is still a stone tablet written and engraved by Wang Qiaowu in the cemetery, "Record of the Creation of the Tomb of King Chen Si in Tongxu County".

In the nearly five hundred years since then, the Yellow River has flooded several times, ancestral halls and temples have been abandoned and repaired several times, sediment has been silted up, and the hills have almost become flat ground. The last time the Yellow River flooded, a pond of more than 600 square meters was left in the north of the tomb, forming a situation where it was surrounded by water on three sides. The tomb was only a small mound, more than 20 meters wide from east to west, more than 20 meters long from north to south, and 3 meters high. ．4 meters.

In the 1940s, the old ancestral hall was demolished and a primary school was built in the south of the tomb, which is now Houqibu Primary School.

Mr. Chen Wei from the Cultural Bureau of Tongxu County said: "The current cemetery was built with special funds allocated by the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau in 1998. The wall separates the tomb and the pond from the south edge of the pond. 2000 In October 2016, Cao Zhi's tomb was upgraded to a "provincial treasure" and was listed as an important tourist attraction in the "Three Kingdoms Tourism Hotline" by the National Tourism Administration. It is as desolate as "Visiting the Relics Pilched with Manchurian Grass" and "The Temple is Manded with Artemisia and the Wild Geese are Sounding in Sorrow", but there is still a slight gap between the tomb owner's illustrious reputation.

The "Three Caves of a Cunning Rabbit" has become a puzzle

Standing in front of Tongxu Cao Zhi's tomb, it makes people confused. Cao Zhi died in Huaiyang, and there is a "Siling Tomb" there. There is also a tomb of Cao Zhi in Yushan, Dong'a County, Shandong Province. Adding this tomb, Cao Zhi can be considered one of the "Three Caves of a Cunning Rabbit". What's going on?

Let’s first talk about the “Siling Tomb” three miles south of Huaiyang City, Henan. In February 232, Cao Zhi "was granted the title of King of Chen in the four counties of Chen, with 3,500 households living there." In November of that year, he died here and left the "Siling Tomb".

Between 229 and 232, Cao Zhi was granted the title of King of Dong'a and often climbed Yushan. "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: Biography of Cao Zhi" said: "I sighed with the intention of ending, so I camped as a tomb." He was buried in Yushan. The mountains were his will.

Cao Zhi was sealed in Yongqiu twice and lived in Yongqiu for 6 years. This place is also the birthplace of the famous "Qibu Poem", and Cao Zhi's tomb is also left in Tongxu Qibu Village.

The three statements each have their own basis. But because there is "Three Kingdoms: Biography of Cao Zhi" as the basis, Dong'a seems to be renamed.

Fu Wenzhi does not agree with this statement: "Official history is sometimes not enough. Take Cao Cao as an example. According to "Three Kingdoms: Chronicles of Emperor Wu of Wei" and Cao Cao's "Legal Order", it is clearly stated that Cao Cao was After his death, he was buried in Gaoling (now Linzhang County, Hebei Province), but Cao Cao's tomb was not found there, and there is no local legend. In Cao Cao's hometown (now Bozhou, Anhui), it is widely said that there was a funeral at the four gates of Bozhou City, and Cao Cao was buried in 72 tombs. Story."

It is better to prove the "falseness" of others than to prove one's own "truth." Mr. Fu Wenzhi talked about his many years of “exploration and discovery”.

We have explained in the previous article the whole process of the discovery of Cao Zhi’s tomb in the sixth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1470). The tomb was only exposed due to the breach of the Yellow River, which shows the painstaking "self-protection" psychology of the tomb owner.

If it is a fake tomb, is it necessary?

From the perspective of the tomb structure at that time, further investigation shows that since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the upper class society has respected mourning and filial piety, and the trend of generous burials has been very popular. Cao Cao advocated thin burials and practiced them. He issued a "Final Order", proposing to choose barren land and have deep graves. No earth should be sealed, no monuments should be erected, and no gold or silver should be buried with them. The shape of the tomb of Cao Zhi in Houqibu Village is basically consistent with this. There is no monument outside the tomb, but there is a "stone" in the tomb. On the stone is only the name of the tomb owner. The tomb is built among hills and mountains, hidden underground (within the hillock), and is not sealed with earth. It meets the regulatory requirements of "no sealing, no erection" and deep tombs.

What really aroused Fu Wenzhi's interest was a bizarre record of Lou Liang in the Ming Dynasty.

Lou Liang recorded in "The Stele of the Reconstruction of Guanyin Temple": "...the south of the gate is too far to enter, and its tunnel reaches Changzhi..." That is to say, in the cave washed out by the flood , there is a deep and long tunnel on the south side (or opposite, because the tomb faces south) of the tightly sealed door of Cao Zhi's tomb, which leads to Changzhi, four kilometers away.

This tunnel was discovered in 1470. When Lou Liang wrote the inscription nine years later, "the tunnel still exists today." The tombs and tunnels are what Lou Liangxun said and saw with his own eyes.

Let’s talk about Lou Liang, who was born in Tongxu. He was poor and orphaned when he was young. In the seventh year of Zhengtong in the Ming Dynasty (1442), he passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. Zhou retired and returned to his hometown. He was an upright and honest official, and soldiers and civilians from far and near covered the road to send him away in tears, chasing him for hundreds of miles. After returning home, he lived in a thatched house in the countryside. After his death, he was buried in Sanligang, east of Tongxu County. Fu Wenzhi believes: "Lou Liang has a noble moral character and the inscriptions written by him are authentic and credible."

After the Ming Dynasty, there were still materials confirming the existence of the tunnel. Liu Yichun, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, wrote in his poem: "In the dark tunnel, beside the dusk clouds, the years pass by several years." In the 1980s, when the Place Names Office of Tongxu County Government was compiling the "Compilation of Place Name Information and Gazetteer", it was learned that: "Before liberation, there was a cave in the hillock in the northeast corner of Changzhi School. It was extremely deep. It was said to be the place where Cao Zhi took refuge and hid during his lifetime..."

After Fu Wenzhi investigated this, he believed that the earth that piled up the hillock came from Dig a four-kilometer-long tunnel. The entrance of this tunnel is in Cao Zhi's tomb, and the exit is "the cave in the northeast corner of Changzhi School." The function of the tunnel should be to build Cao Zhi's tomb and to provide a secret passage for Cao Zhi's descendants to walk when paying homage to Cao Zhi. Only in this way can the concealment of Cao Zhi's tomb be ensured.

The Cao Zhi Tomb Tunnel is four kilometers long and is no small project. If it can be preserved, it will be longer than the underground troop transport tunnel built by Cao Cao in Bozhou, Anhui. If Cao Zhi's tomb is just a tomb for burials, it would be unreasonable to go through so much trouble to explain it.

Since the tunnel was destroyed early in the Ming Dynasty, only documentary evidence including inscriptions can confirm this matter. The mystery of the long tunnel has become an unsolved case. The many mysteries surrounding Cao Zhi's tomb in Houqibu Village can only be discovered in the future.

Fu Wenzhi's textual research aroused political awareness in Tongxu County, and his textual research article published in "Central Plains Literature and History" also caused a certain response.