From mid-April to early May of 2000/KLOC-0, with the approval of National Cultural Heritage Administration, the Hubei Provincial Department of Culture, the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, the Jingmen Municipal Government and the Zhongxiang Municipal Government jointly organized the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other archaeologists to excavate the tomb of Liangzhuang King of Ming Dynasty outside Changtan Town, Zhongxiang City. Until the end of that year, the excavation work was basically over. Zhongxiang City, called Jiaoying during the Warring States Period, is the capital of Chu State and enjoys the reputation of "granary in the world". During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhong Xiang became the three directly subordinate governors of the country, just like Beijing and Nanjing at that time. 1994 Zhongxiang was listed as a famous historical and cultural city in China. In 2000, Zhongxiang Ming Tomb was listed in the World Cultural Heritage List.
According to the director of Hubei Provincial Department of Culture, the tomb of King Liangzhuang excavated this time is the burial tomb of King Liangzhuang and Princess Wei. Liang Zhuangwang was Zhu Zhan, the ninth son of Emperor Renzong of Ming Dynasty, and was buried after his death in 144 1 year. When buried, only the tomb door was blocked, and no wall was sealed for backfilling. 10 years later, Wang Wei, the princess, died, and then the tomb door that had been blocked was opened, and Wang Hao was buried with King Liang Zhuang.
The Prince's Tomb in Ming Dynasty is a high-level tomb, which generally has a drainage system, but the tomb has no drainage system. Instead, it was built in a place where you can see the groundwater, which should be related to some superstition at that time, meaning "don't stop until you reach the grave." There are a lot of funerary objects in the tomb. More than 5 100 pieces of gold, silver, jade, precious stones and porcelain were unearthed, including more than 400 pieces of gold and silver jade 10, and the weight of gold ware alone reached10 kg, and more than 3,400 pieces of beaded gems were unearthed. This is the first time that such a large amount of gold, silver and jewels have been buried with the prince's tomb of the Ming Dynasty, second only to Dingling, the imperial tomb of the Ming Dynasty. There are many kinds of gold, silver, jade and pearl jewelry buried with him, which are beautifully made and well preserved, and are still dazzling, elegant and breathtaking.
Important unearthed objects buried with the tomb are one after another. The bronze gilded Princess Seal is the appointment document of Princess Wei in 1433 (the eighth year of Xuande). Xi Shu is rarely buried in the tomb, and the princess Xi Shu is the first case found in the excavated tomb of the Prince of Ming Dynasty. Two pieces of "arm-wrapped gold" are made by winding a gold bar with a width of 0.7 cm and a thickness of 0. 1 cm for 12 times. Each piece is 12.5 cm long and weighs 295.5g and 292.5g respectively. They were used as decorations for women and buried in the tomb of a prince in the Ming Dynasty, which is the first case. There are five gold crowns with precious stones unearthed, the largest of which is 4.8 cm high, 5.2 cm in diameter and weighs 4 1. 1 g, and the top is inlaid with a pale yellow transparent gem. The crown is eight-petalled with eight precious stones of red, blue and green.
On the original ground of King Liangzhuang's tomb, there are buildings on the ground. Now only a part of Yingyuan's foundation site has been preserved, and all historical buildings have been destroyed. Now only traces of bricks are found. The tomb (underground palace) is built on the hillside, north-south, with a "middle" shape inside. It is a brick tomb with a cliff hole. There is an inclined pyramid-shaped mound at the southern end of the tomb, which is10.6m long. The tomb is divided into a front room and a back room, and the inside is covered with a layer of lime to prevent moisture. Tin ware, bronze ware and iron ware come from the front room, while the coffins of kings and princesses and the main gold, silver, jade and jewels come from the back room.
According to Wang Shaojie, the vice governor in charge of cultural work in Hubei Province, the excavation of the tomb of Wangzhuang in Mingliang is the largest and most valuable archaeological discovery in Ming Dynasty in Hubei Province. It is also an unprecedented discovery with the highest level and the largest number of unearthed cultural relics in the tomb of the Prince of Ming Dynasty in China, which provides new materials and new topics for the historical and archaeological research of Ming Dynasty. At present, this project has been declared as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 20001year.