Cao Cao's Mausoleum

Cao Cao's tomb

synonym

Cao Cao's Mausoleum generally refers to Cao Cao's tomb

Cao Cao's tomb, namely Anyang Gaoling, is located in Xigaoxue village, Anfeng Township, Anyang City, Henan Province, 12 kilometers west of yebei City, the capital of King Cao Cao. According to the records of the Three Kingdoms and other historical materials, Cao Cao died in Luoyang in 220 and his coffin was buried in the hills to the west of ximenbao temple in Yecheng.

On December 27, 2009, it was unanimously confirmed by Chinese Archaeology circles

The State Administration of cultural relics finally identified Cao Cao as the owner of the Gaoling tomb located in the south of Xigaoxue village, Anfeng Township, Anyang City, Henan Province

. On June 11, 2010, Cao Cao's mausoleum in Anyang was selected as the first of the "top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2009".

In May 2013, Cao Cao's Mausoleum became the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In June 2013, Cao Cao's Gaoling and Yecheng sites were shortlisted in the 12th Five Year Plan for the protection of large sites approved by the State Administration of cultural relics and the Ministry of finance.

According to the State Administration of cultural relics, "the procedures of archaeological excavation, academic identification and publication of research results of Cao Cao's Mausoleum are in line with the regulations of archaeological work.".

Some scholars, such as Xu Pingfang, a member of the expert group of the State Administration of cultural relics, Yuan Jixi, a literature expert of the Wei, Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties, Zhang Guoan, a doctor of history of the Wei, Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties of Beijing Normal University, and Ni fangliu, a scholar of Chinese tomb raiding history

However, most of the doubters are not archaeologists, so they are not authoritative

. In March 2018, Henan Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology released the archaeological findings of Cao Cao's Gaoling from 2016 to 2017, and Cao Cao's remains were basically confirmed.

In August 2020, the protection and exhibition project of Cao Cao's mausoleum has entered the stage of cultural relics exhibition, and will be built into the Three Kingdoms Cultural Heritage Park, which will become an important platform for the study of the Three Kingdoms culture and the history of Han and Wei dynasties

.

Construction history

Cao Cao was born in Qiaoxian County of peiguo (now Bozhou, Anhui Province). He was an outstanding politician, militarist, writer and poet in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Cao Cao was buried in Gaoling after his death.

Judging from the existing historical materials and archaeological discoveries, Cao Cao did not have a secret burial, let alone a suspicious grave. He just advocated the simplicity of funeral. Unexpectedly, the "simplified" funeral added a lot of complexity to history. According to the records of the Three Kingdoms and other historical materials, Cao Cao died in Luoyang in 220 ad. his coffin was transported to Yecheng and buried in the hills to the west of the ximenbao temple in Yecheng. There was no tomb sealed, no gold and jade objects buried with him, and no tall and solid sacrificial Hall built. Hundreds of years later, the simple Tomb of Cao Cao was lost in the history. After the Song Dynasty, Cao Cao was regarded as a treacherous hero, and his unknown tomb site became a proof of his treachery. The seventy-two suspected tombs were widely spread in folklore and literary works, and many people believed them to be true.

Cao Cao's tomb is not a mystery, but since the Song Dynasty, no one knows where it is, and there is a legend that there are 72 suspected tombs. After the promotion of the romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao's tomb has become an eternal mystery known to women and children.

Cao Cao had a clear "statement" about his funeral. More than a year before his death, the "final decree" said that "Xiyuan of ximenbao ancestral hall is Shouling, because of its height, it is not sealed or planted." Before dying, it is even more clear in the "legacy order" that people should be buried in their usual clothes instead of jewelry. His sons, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, both wrote about the funeral and burial, and told them that they were buried in the west of Yecheng. Lu Ji and Lu Yun, the literati of Jin Dynasty, also introduced the funeral of Cao Cao in their works. In the biographies of Sima Yi, Jia Kui and others in historical books, they escorted Cao Cao's coffin to Yecheng for burial. For example, if Cao Cao set up a suspect tomb, he made a false statement on many historical materials left to later generations. Not only did he make efforts during his lifetime, but also after the change of dynasties, and no one found it in the following hundreds of years. This is absurd.

Historical data show that the sacrificial hall on Cao Cao's tomb was destroyed a few years later because of the simplicity of the funeral. There were no gold and jade objects buried with them, and they were not valued by tomb robbers. In addition, there were no tombs sealed and trees planted. After several dynasties, no one knew where Cao Cao's tomb was. However, in the Tang Dynasty, people had no doubt about the location of Cao Cao's tomb. Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, also made a memorial ceremony for Cao Cao's tomb. However, from the Northern Song Dynasty, although the location of Cao Cao's tomb was recorded in historical books, no one knew the location of Cao Cao's tomb in reality. It was also from the Northern Song Dynasty that Cao Cao was stereotyped as a traitor, and the unknown tomb site became a proof of his treachery. To the west of Yecheng, there are tombs of the Northern Dynasty, which are said to be the seventy-two tombs of Cao Cao. In the romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong said that Cao Cao's treachery was exaggerated when he set up 72 suspected tombs outside the Jiangwu city of Zhangde Prefecture. In Pu Songling's strange tales from a lonely studio, there is an article named Cao Cao's tomb, which points out that Cao Cao's tomb may be in addition to the seventy-two suspected tombs, but also shows its deceit. With the spread of these masterpieces, the mystery of Cao Cao's tomb has become more noticeable and more complicated.

Archaeological process

Yecheng in the past was in the southwest of Linzhang County in Hebei Province and in the northern suburb of Anyang City in Henan Province. Cao Cao's tomb has aroused great interest of local cultural relics, cultural and historical workers. According to Deng Zhicheng's complete collection of Gudong suoji, an ancient tomb was discovered by Cui laorong, a farmer in Cixian County, Hebei Province in 1922. The carved stone was described as Cao Cao, and was preserved by the County Department. The archaeologists in Handan city made a special verification of this clue, but found no reliable basis.

In 2009, Gaoling was excavated and recognized by Chinese archaeologists

The tomb of Cao Wei in Xigaoxue village, Anfeng Township, Anyang City, Henan Province was confirmed as Cao Cao's tomb.

On December 27, 2009, the State Administration of cultural relics announced that Cao Cao was the owner of Cao Wei's tomb in Anyang, Henan Province

. According to the State Administration of cultural relics, "the procedures of archaeological excavation, academic identification and publication of research results of Cao Cao's Mausoleum are in line with the regulations of archaeological work.".

Get certified

On June 11, 2010, Cao Cao's mausoleum in Anyang was selected as the first of the "top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2009".

 

In May 2013, Anyang Gaoling became the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units

 

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In June 2013, Cao Cao's Gaoling and Yecheng sites were shortlisted in the 12th Five Year Plan for the protection of large sites approved by the State Administration of cultural relics and the Ministry of finance.

In March 2018, Henan Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology released the archaeological discoveries of Cao Cao's Gaoling from 2016 to 2017, revealing the main structures of the five mausoleums, including rammed earth foundation trench inside and outside Gaoling, Shinto, Eastern buildings and southern buildings. According to the discovery, the excavation has drawn many new and subversive conclusions. Archaeological excavation confirmed the existence of Gaoling mausoleum and related architectural relics, and also showed that Gaoling was not completely "not sealed, not trees" as recorded in the literature. The ground buildings were only demolished in a planned way.

 

In August 2020, the protection and exhibition project of Cao Cao's mausoleum has entered the stage of cultural relics exhibition, and will be built into the Three Kingdoms Cultural Heritage Park, which will become an important platform for the study of the Three Kingdoms culture and the history of Han and Wei dynasties

 

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Features of Mausoleum

Cao Cao's funeral was relatively simple, but it left a deep mark in history. Because of its simplicity, it has "another section" in the history of Chinese emperors' funerals, which are mainly heavy funerals

 

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Chinese emperors have a long history of thick burial. The terracotta warriors and horses unearthed from the mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin shocked the world. Emperor Wu of Han built the mausoleum with one third of the world's tribute. Emperor Taizong's Mausoleum of Tang Dynasty "has a magnificent palace system, which is no different from the world.". It's the last emperor's mausoleum, Guangxu Chongling. Although the owner of the mausoleum was very depressed, the mausoleum is still quite spectacular. Thin burials have existed since ancient times, but Cao Cao was the pioneer in the thin burials of emperors. He did not build mounds, plant trees, or bury gold and jade objects. Liu Sheng, a king of the Han Dynasty, was dressed in 2498 pieces of jade and 1100 grams of gold thread after his death, but Cao Cao, who was named Emperor Wu, was only dressed in mended clothes. There were thin burials in the Cao Wei and even the two Jin Dynasties, but after the Tang Dynasty, thick burials became a tradition. The last imperial mausoleum was built in 1915, the fourth year of the Republic of China.

 

Since ancient times, thick burial has been the mainstream, which has a profound social and cultural foundation. The rulers of "filial piety is more important than mourning" and "ruling the world with filial piety" attach importance to funeral, not all to satisfy their desire for material possession. Although Cao Cao led several emperors to write a section of thin burial in the history of emperor's funeral, he could not produce more influence in the end. Moreover, in the atmosphere of heavy burial, it is inevitable that the undertakers will not be understood and supported. The reason why Cao Cao's tomb became a mystery may also be related to this. Many people don't believe that Cao Cao would simply kill himself. The thin burials in the Wei and Jin Dynasties are related to the war in the late Han Dynasty and the excavation of many thick burials. Although Cao Cao was regarded as the leader of the traitors, he did not expect that his funeral would become a strange mystery for thousands of years. Nearly 1800 years later, it still attracted people's attention.

 

Site structure

Henan Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology excavated a large tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Xigaoxue village, Anfeng Township, Anyang, and made a major archaeological discovery. Based on the on-the-spot textual research of ancient materials, authoritative archaeologists and historians identified the tomb as Cao Cao's mausoleum in the literature.

Cao Cao's mausoleum was stolen many times in the south of Xigaoxue village, Anfeng Township, Anyang City, Henan Province. In order to protect it in time and effectively, it was destroyed in December 2008

Chinese PinYin : Cao Cao Gao Ling