Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

Chapter 108: No Books, No Dragon, No Phoenix

In the past, the bandits in Guanzhong, Shaanxi, the bandits in Yanbei, Shanxi, and the bandits in Luoyang, Henan were all the backbone of the northern tomb-robbing circle.

Shaanxi and Henan are famous for their profound historical heritage and numerous large tombs, so the Guanzhong and Luoyang robbers are well-known.

The reputation of the Shanxi Yanbei Bandits is basically only spread within the circle.

Later, there was a saying in the tourism circle: "For above-ground cultural relics, go to Shanxi; for underground cultural relics, go to Shaanxi."

It also makes people think that Shanxi is only famous for its historical sites above ground.

Actually it is not.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Shanxi was the capital of the State of Jin.

It was the Jin State, the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period, which was later divided into three parts.

Therefore, there are many tombs of nobles from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in Shanxi. As long as you have the ability to find them, you will definitely become rich.

In the mid-1990s, tomb robbing was extremely rampant in Shanxi, and tomb-robbing gangs headed by Hou Linshan and Guo Binglin emerged.

However, not long after, they were all arrested by the relevant departments and executed after a public trial.

The tomb-robbing circle in Shanxi was quiet for a few years, and then the more rampant and ruthless Hou family emerged, and later the Hou family was also wiped out.

I have dealt with them all and visited the tomb of the Jin king twice.

But that’s all later, let’s get back to Lao Li.

Old Li handed the whip to Ershuan and signaled him to drive the carriage and follow.

Then he explained to me: "Tomb-robbing circles are divided into the north and south, and even into different provinces."

"On the one hand, there is the issue of the number of ancient tombs in various places over the centuries, and on the other hand, there is the issue of the geological environment."

The geological environment has a great influence on the selection and construction of tombs.

For example, the site selection in mountains and plains is very different.

Let me give you a more specific example.

Tombs in the Zhou Dynasty were not sealed or surrounded by trees.

Because there were no trees planted and no earth mounds built, tombs before the Zhou Dynasty were difficult to discover and were less likely to be robbed by officials.

Unlike the royal and aristocratic tombs of the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, which would be dug up by officials and looters whenever there was troubled times, only a few imperial tombs survived.

But I have only seen tombs with burial mounds from the Western Zhou Dynasty!

The tomb is in the south. Due to geological reasons, the groundwater level in that area is shallow, and water will seep in if you dig a hole in it.

So it is impossible to dig a deep pit for burial.

So the tomb chamber was built on flat ground and then covered with burial mound, forming the Western Zhou tomb with burial mound.

I say this to make everyone understand that tomb robbing cannot be dogmatic.

As the saying goes, it is better to have no books than to believe in them completely.

There are always some special cases that are beyond experience and book knowledge.

"Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan have similar geological environments and are located adjacent to each other, so technical exchanges are most frequent."

"So I say, from the root, we are in the same boat."

"By the way, Brother Chen, you have a family heirloom, right?"

I smiled and said, "I guess so. I've been listening to the village camel grandfather telling stories about tomb raiding since I was a child. Later, he gave me the family notes."

"The notes record the experience accumulated by several generations of his family, which is of great help to me."

I learned a lot from the notes given by Tuo Ye.

Although I don’t have much experience, I understand all the theories I should know.

Thanks to my good luck, I found the underground palace of Qingshan Temple.

Now that I think about it, finding the underground palace really depends largely on luck.

But luck is also indispensable when robbing tombs.

Later I met a colleague who was a bit unlucky.

He came from an archaeological drilling team. After mastering the use of the Luoyang shovel, he transformed himself into a tomb robber.

He accidentally discovered an ancient tomb from the Warring States Period.

But the ancient tomb showed signs of being robbed.

To determine whether it was worthwhile to go down into the filtration pit, he drilled a dense network of exploratory holes above the tomb chamber.

I want to explore the cave to see if there is anything underneath.

Because the tombs during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were all vertical pit tombs, they had no brick or stone vaulted roofs but only wooden roofs.

By hitting downwards with a Luoyang shovel, you can easily penetrate the roof and enter the tomb chamber.

By drilling holes intensively and checking whether the Luoyang shovel hits any hard objects, we can determine whether there are any hard objects such as bronze artifacts in the tomb.

He dug 120 holes in a row but didn't encounter any hard objects.

He felt that everything below had been stolen and the filter pit was no longer worth anything, so he packed up and left.

The next day I came to the place he mentioned and saw the exploratory cave he dug.

Each exploration hole is 30 centimeters apart and basically covers the location of the main tomb chamber.

It stands to reason that with such intensive caving, there shouldn't be any fish that slip through the net.

But I felt in my heart that he must have missed it.

After carefully studying the structure of the tomb, I shoveled into the southeast corner and hit a hard object with my first shovel.

He immediately ordered people to dig a hole and dug out twelve bronze artifacts in one night.

So luck is indispensable.

"The notes passed down by Tuoye's family say that the most important thing for tomb robbing is to consider Feng Shui. I wonder if you know Feng Shui, Brother Li?"

"Oh! I'm so ashamed to say so!"

Old Li sighed, "My grandfather was a famous Feng Shui master in his early years, but he was later kidnapped by bandits and forced to find a grave for them."

"My grandfather helped them find many large tombs and gradually got into the business of tomb robbing. Unfortunately, my father was too playful and didn't learn my grandfather's skills."

"When it comes to me, one crab is worse than the other. Now I can only see the simple ones."

I guess what Lao Li said about nine truths and one lie was probably a way of hiding his incompetence.

So I wanted to test his ability.

"Then you are better than me. I really don't understand Feng Shui. It's too difficult to learn it on my own."

"Feng Shui is not difficult. It mainly depends on the pictograms. Terrains with images of dragons, phoenixes, and tigers basically indicate the tombs of nobles." Old Li said casually.

"Especially Wu Zetian's Qianling Mausoleum. If you stand on a high point and look down, you'll see a giant phoenix!"

This is absolutely true.

If you go directly to Qianling Mausoleum, you won't be able to see the wonderful feng shui there at all.

Once you look down from a high vantage point, you will discover the uniqueness of the mountain range where Qianling Mausoleum is located, which is really like a phoenix.

Moreover, the location of Qianling Mausoleum is the tail of a phoenix, which implies more mystery.

You should know that Qianling Mausoleum is the joint burial site of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and Empress Wu Zetian.

Li Zhi was the emperor, so it was inappropriate to use the phoenix-shaped terrain as his mausoleum, not to mention that he was buried in the phoenix's tail position.

But the location of this mausoleum was determined by Wu Zetian.

She used the location of the imperial tomb to set up a feng shui layout that reversed the dragon and upended the phoenix, and eventually replaced the dragon with the phoenix and became an empress.

In fact, Feng Shui is mysterious, but it is not that mysterious either.

First, we need to understand what the most fundamental function of Feng Shui is.

When I read Tuoye’s family notes, I was inspired and felt that the most fundamental function of Feng Shui is to find a suitable place to live.

Humans during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period and even earlier periods often migrated.

Over time, a set of experience has been formed in choosing the environment of residence, which is the origin of Feng Shui.

Later, death was like life.

The method of choosing a relocation environment was applied to finding graves for the dead, and gradually developed into feng shui for graves.

"Well, did you bring Mr. Tuo's family notebook? If there's anything you don't understand, let me take a look. Maybe I can explain it to you."

Old Li is really smart.

I took the opportunity to read the family notes passed down by Tuoye.

"That thing is at home. Brother Li, you should teach me more about your experience."

"As long as you share your experience, I will tell you where those stone sheep and stone horses were originally placed."

I cast the bait.

"Really?" Old Li rubbed his hands excitedly.

"Experience is not enough to talk about, it has to be put into practice."

"Just tell me where the position is, and I'll teach you how to do it!"

"Do you like it?"