Lion mountain Chu Mausoleum

The mausoleum of the king of Chu is located in the lion mountain on the Third Ring Road of Xuzhou City in eastern Jiangsu Province. It was first discovered by Wang Kai, a famous archaeologist and researcher. In recent 22 years, with a shovel, he and his companions have successively found seven mausoleums of the king of Chu in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. The identity of the owner of the tomb is a bit mysterious. It may be that Liu Wu, the third generation king of Chu in the Western Han Dynasty (still controversial), was forced to commit suicide and was buried in a hurry after he was defeated in the "Seven Kingdoms rebellion" in order not to involve his family. If you are a fan of Han culture or tomb robbers, you might as well come here to find out.

Mausoleum of the king of Chu

synonym

Shizishan Chu mausoleum generally refers to Chu mausoleum

Located on terracotta warriors Road, Yunlong District, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, Shizishan Chu King Mausoleum is the mausoleum of a Chu king who was enfeoffed in Pengcheng in the early Western Han Dynasty. According to the research of archaeologists in Xuzhou, the owner of the tomb is Liu Ying, the second generation king of Chu, or Liu Wu, the third generation king of Chu, which has been affirmed by experts of Nanjing Museum. The Han Tombs in Shizishan evolved from the vertical cave tombs to the horizontal cave tombs in the early Han Dynasty. From the burial objects, there are Wenyang seal of Xue county and Lanling seal of Donghai County, which are in line with the identity of Liu Ying, the second generation king of Chu. Secondly, judging from the unearthed coins, the most unearthed Yujiao coins were used five years ago by Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, which coincided with Liu Ying's life time.

Liu Ying was one of the nine Qing ministers in the seventh year of Zongzheng's term of office. He took part in pacifying the rebellion of zhulv and established himself as the king of Chu Yi. In the second year of the succession to the throne of the Han Dynasty, the princes began to build their tombs. The reason why the tombs were not complete was that the tomb owner was in power for a short time and died suddenly. The construction of the Chu king's tomb in Shizishan was in a hurry, which coincided with Liu Yingke's seven-year reign in shangpi and his four-year reign in Chu. More than 4000 pieces of terracotta warriors and horses of the Han Dynasty discovered in 1984 are important funerary objects of the king of Chu. In 1994, the tomb of the king of Chu in Shizishan was excavated, which was once rated as "the top ten archaeological discoveries in China during the Ninth Five Year Plan". The jade garment unearthed from the tomb is the one with the best quality, the largest number of pieces and the best craftsmanship. The mausoleum of the king of Chu has a large scale and unique structure. There are hundreds of jades and nearly 300 seals and seals, which are rare in China.

geographical position

The mausoleum of the king of Chu is located at the southern foot of Shizishan, the Third Ring Road, in the eastern suburb of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

Mausoleum structure

The tomb of the king of Chu is the tomb of Liu Ying or Liu Wu, the owner of the terracotta warriors. The tomb is located on the south slope of the main peak of Shizishan mountain, 400 meters east of the Museum of terracotta warriors and horses. It was carved into stone and was stolen in the early years. Three ear rooms and one accompanying tomb were not found by the tomb robbers. Some important cultural relics have been preserved. The tomb consists of a passage, a patio, an inner passage, a corridor, an ear chamber, a side chamber, a coffin chamber and an accompanying tomb. The total length of the tomb is 117 meters, the width is 13.2 meters, the area is more than 850 square meters, and the volume of stone chiseled is more than 5100 cubic meters. It is the largest tomb with abundant cultural relics found in Xuzhou over the years. However, the tomb has not been built according to the original design requirements, and there are many places left in the interior to be completed.

Because of an unfinished mausoleum and a hasty funeral, the mausoleum of the king of Chu left many mysteries to the people thousands of years later. The cause of death of the owner of the Chu mausoleum is quite suspense, and the terrain system of the Chu mausoleum is also unexpected. It faces south from the north. The mausoleum is built directly in the mountain. It is 117 meters long and 13.2 meters wide from the north to the south. It is more than 20 meters deep into the foot of the mountain, covering a total area of 851 square meters. The volume of stone excavation is more than 5100 cubic meters. The grand underground palace almost hollows out the mountain. The project is huge and magnificent, which is rare in China. It should be the largest, best preserved, most unearthed cultural relics, the richest connotation, and the highest historical and archaeological value of all the Han Dynasty Tombs in Xuzhou.

The mausoleum of the king of Chu is a group of buildings imitating the ground palaces with complex structure and peculiar shape. From the outside to the inside, there are three floors of open-air vertical passage, patio, ear room, tomb door, corridor, side room, front hall and back hall. Among them, there are 12 large and small tombs, including kitchen ware, bath room, imperial treasury, imperial enemy Treasury, money Treasury, seal Treasury, front hall, coffin room, ritual room and funeral room for concubines of the king of Chu. The facilities and structures are complete, which not only reproduces the luxurious life scene of the king of the Han Dynasty in the Western Chu Dynasty, but also confirms the prevailing funeral concept of "treating death as life" in the Han Dynasty.

Among them, the ancient mausoleum's inherent atmosphere of Yin has drifted a little cold in my heart, but most of them lament that this huge project was actually built more than 2000 years ago by the ancients with simple tools such as iron chisels and iron axes! The mausoleum is also the carrier of human material and spiritual civilization, and the mausoleum of the king of Chu is also a treasure house of underground cultural relics. Although the main chamber of the tomb was excavated, more than 2000 pieces (sets) of various funerary objects, about 10000 pieces, were still unearthed. For example, more than 4000 pieces of jade are used in the most exquisite jade garment in China, while about 2100 pieces of jade are usually used in the jade garment. Moreover, the jade pieces used in this jade garment are all high-quality Hetian white jade. They are crystal clear, mild and moist, which can be called top-notch. In addition, there are red gold buckles that show the style of a king, jade ear cups that "the moon is like water, the sound is like a chime, and there is no cloud in the sky," walking plate pearls that "the moon pearl has tears" and hundreds of bronze and iron weapons This batch of funerary objects are of superb craftsmanship, which is amazing.

The main part of the outer passage. The walls on both sides are the original shape of more than 2000 years ago, which is completely formed by hollowing out a whole mountain manually. The average depth of this section is 14 meters.

At the junction of the graveway in front of the tomb, archaeologists cleaned up a accompanying tomb. It is the first time in the country that accompanying tombs were found at the entrance of straight tombs. The seal on which the deceased was wearing was engraved with the words "seal of food officer", indicating that the man was an official in charge of the meal of the tomb owner.

The main chamber. A group of four stone blocks, a total of four groups, 16 stone blocks, in the shape of "field" to block the tomb path for a full 10 meters. It's a pity that "the road is one foot high and the devil is one foot high". The tomb robbers dug the cave from the east side of the patio to the northwest, all the way to the entrance of the tomb. The accurate positioning is better than that of the archaeological investigation team. They made a bull's nose eye on the group of stone stoppers in the upper right corner, tied them with ropes, pulled them out like a morning glory, and then climbed directly into the main tomb from here, so they did not find the three chambers behind. The period of tomb robbery was very early, when Wang Mang usurped the throne - around 8 A.D. At that time, the productivity was very low, and each of these stone blocks weighed five or six tons. Such a huge amount of work could not be done in ten or eight days by one or two thieves. Therefore, it must be a large-scale official theft.

There is a cinnabar seal on the inside of the stone, which says "the second is Xiayang, the second is Dongfang, Jiandao, three feet nine inches wide, four feet and a half inches high, and five inches wide". The text above shows the location of the stone, that is, its size. Through the interpretation of the text, we can know that the stone is divided into four groups a, B, C and D from the inside out. This is the second stone below the second group from the East. From this passage, we can see that the designers of the tombs at that time had accurate marks on the location and size of each stone, which shows the high level of tombs construction in the Western Han Dynasty.

A large number of copper coins, more than 176000 in total, were unearthed in the tomb, and few cultural relics were unearthed in the tomb chamber. The main reason is that the tomb robbers have taken the lead, and the large pieces of gold and silver ware have been stolen, leaving only fragments of bronze mirrors, pieces of iron armor, copper arrows and so on.

Three beautiful gold ornaments were unearthed from the tomb. On the left is a gold band hook inlaid with emerald, in the middle is a golden lion's head, and on the right is a golden Pelican. They are not only pure in gold, but also exquisitely carved. But "gold is valuable, jade is priceless", which is more valuable to Yulong. But why didn't the grave robbers take it? At that time, there was a saying that "a gentleman doesn't get rid of the jade for no reason", and the jade dragon symbolizes the power of the king. No one dares to buy it, and it's easy to kill if you keep it, so the tomb robbers didn't dare to take it away.

The tomb is very magnificent in appearance, but rough in interior. In the East, there are obvious signs of being chiseled, and there is no time to finish. Generally speaking, coffins should be placed in the middle of the back room to die. Since it was not finished, it had to be moved to the coffin bed on the east side of the corridor.

Excavation process

Over the past 22 years, Wang Kai, a famous archaeologist and researcher, with a shovel, and his companions, has successively found seven tombs of the king of Chu in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. The archaeologist is still carrying a shovel around the mountains around Xuzhou, looking for the tombs of the king of Chu hidden in the mountains. The mausoleum of the king of Chu he found shocked the world, so his name was written into the world intellectual celebrities in Cambridge, England.

Discover people

Wang Kai

He graduated from the History Department of Peking University in 1963. He is tall and fat, with a red and black complexion. He looks like a man who has been working in the field for many years. In fact, this is the appearance of a typical archeologist.

process

In 1977, Wang Kai was transferred back to his hometown Xuzhou from Luoyang Museum. As soon as he set foot on this land full of strong Chu style and Han charm, he focused on the Chu mausoleum. There are 12 generations of Chu kings in the Western Han Dynasty buried around Xuzhou City. Before Wang Kai came back, Xuzhou can only determine the mausoleum of Liu Jiao, the first generation of Chu king, and the other 11

Chinese PinYin : Shi Zi Shan Chu Wang Ling