A "Geomantic Treasure Land" Suspected of Cao Cao Gaoling
"It hurts to sell shoes, and the song blows in the ear. I don't know who to bury my bones in, but who to look at on the platform? " Cha, a poet in Qing Dynasty, wrote in his poem.
From Wujiang, Linzhang County, Hebei Province, to the west, to Cixian County, Hebei Province, Tuwei Mountain is continuous. This is the location of the legendary "72 Suspected Tombs". As early as 1980s, this tomb group has been identified as a tomb group in the Northern Dynasty, and the exact number is 134. However, Liu Xinchang, president of Handan Historical Research Association in Hebei Province, still thinks that compared with Gao Xi Cave Area in Anyang City, Henan Province, both places are possible, while Cixian County in Hebei Province is "more likely".
Cao Cao was buried in Yecheng after his death, which is clearly recorded in the official history-The Book of Jin Xuandi Ji and The History of the Three Kingdoms Shu Wei. In the west of Guye City, Liu Xinchang first demarcated Cao Cao's tomb as "about 5 square kilometers west of Wujiang town and country in Cixian County, Hebei Province and south-central Shi Chun Ying Township", or in 1997, this area was only about 2 kilometers away from Xigaoxue Village, Anfeng Township, Anyang, Henan Province, where Cao Cao's tomb was found.
Recalling the topography of Cixian County seen in the field trip, Liu Xinchang praised: "You knew the terrain was so good! The terrain of Ling Gang is obvious, which accords with the description of "basing on height, not closing trees" in the final order. Wang Bo, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote, "Climb high and look far, shed tears and watch the breeze". Wujiang Town is in the northwest, and Anyang Gaoxi Cave is in the southwest. "
Besides judging the terrain, Liu Xinchang's other supporting theory is the ancient geomantic theory, that is, the geomantic theory-the theory of four phases and yin and yang. The south-central part of Shi Cun Township and the western part of Wujiang urban and rural areas "are backed by Ling Gang, with Zhanghe River in front, Taihang Mountain in the west and open plains from high to low in the east", which not only meets the requirements of Cao Cao's "being buried with military and political ministers after his death", but also is a "land of feng shui".
"Fighting for Wei Wu's Tomb"
Like the fierce battle for monuments such as "Zhuge's hometown" and "Chibi original site" in recent years, Cixian County in Hebei Province is not the only "suspected" site. Until 2007, the search for the "West Wild Circle" failed for a long time, but Bozhou, Anhui Province put forward a new view: according to the general funeral law of the ancients, it is "not impossible" for Cao Cao to be buried in his hometown Bozhou if he is not buried in the fief.
In Bozhou, Cao Cao's hometown, the tombs of Cao Shi's imperial clan are concentrated in the Xue family solitary pile in the south of Bozhou. Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng, father Cao Song, eldest daughter Cao Xian and other dozens of mausoleums are distributed here. If Cixian and Linzhang in Hebei Province only outlined the possible scope of Cao Cao's tomb, experts in Bozhou, Wei Wu's hometown, gave a bolder and clearer guess: Tomb No.3, which is triangular with Cao Teng's tomb and Cao Song's tomb, was inferred as "suspected Cao Cao's tomb".
Li Can, the former director of Bozhou Museum, who is the local "the first archaeological person in Bozhou", said: The local funeral custom in Bozhou is to hold grandchildren on the right and grandchildren on the left, while Cao Teng's tomb, Cao Song's tomb and suspected Cao Cao's tomb are triangular, with Cao Teng's tomb as the center, Cao Song's tomb on the right and suspected Cao Cao's tomb on the left. This layout is just right. "If Cao Cao's tomb is not in the tomb of the Cao clan, why are it the tombs of his two generals, Zhang Liao and Chu Xu?" Li Can proposed.
The front room and middle room of No.3 tomb near Cao Teng's tomb have been stolen for a long time, and have not been excavated yet, and there is no archaeological evidence to support it. This situation is the same in the "Xiye Circle" in Hebei Province-1983, the Han and Tang Research Office of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences set up a Yecheng archaeological team in the local area to excavate the sites and relics around the ancient Yecheng and rescue some tombs, but no clues related to Cao Cao's tomb were found.
In contrast, the "Zhanghe Underwater Theory" and "Xuchang Theory" without the support of orthodox historical materials are even weaker. Liu Qingzhu, director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and an expert in Qin and Han Dynasties, even thought it was "not worth arguing about".
"Mysterious disappearance" cemetery
Jinshan, Yaxi Town, Gaochun County, Jiangsu Province is located at the junction of Lishui, Gaochun and Liyang, where ancient trees are lush. According to local villagers, there is a tomb of Cao Cao on Jinshan.
"Fellow countryman, I heard that there is a tomb of Cao Cao in Jinshan. Do you know where it is? " Strangers often haunt several villages near Jinshan in Gaochun County. Strangers came into the village to ask "Cao Cao's Tomb". Local villagers are more sensitive, because the village near Jinshan does have the saying that there is "Cao Cao's tomb" on the mountain. The villagers have been on guard against foreign spies. As long as someone comes to spy on the ancient tomb, they will keep their mouths shut, because they know that foreign spies are mostly grave robbers, mostly for the cultural relics in the ancient tomb.
Mr. Rui, a 62-year-old local resident, said that when he was a child, he heard that there was a tomb on the mountain, and it has been circulated in the village that the tomb on Jinshan is Cao Cao's tomb. In the 1960s, someone in the village went up the mountain to dig, dug three gates and dug antique gray bricks. On the gray brick, the words "Cao Jun Hou Taiping ordered Da Hou for four years" are written in quaint fonts, and there are small terracotta warriors and horses. The second door has a sword and the third door is a compass. According to local legend, it took three years and six months to build this tomb, which included nine gates and 654.38+ million spikes. Because the tomb was too deep and there were organs, no one dared to dig, so it stopped. A few years ago, someone contracted to dig stones in the mountains. As a result, the original site was not dug, and it was dug where there was a grave. After a while, all the diggers left. They must have dug something and left. Since then, the rumor of "Cao Cao's Tomb" on Jinshan has spread throughout the village, and many outsiders have come to inquire.
According to local villagers, the name of Jinshan also comes from the treasure tomb hidden on the mountain. Master Zhang, a villager, lives in Yongqing village not far from Jinshan. He is familiar with the path on the mountain. He volunteered to be a guide. He also visited the location of the mausoleum a few years ago. Less than a few tens of meters up the mountain, the road into the mountain was broken. Master Zhang said that a few years ago, there was a road leading to the mountain, which was built during quarrying. No one comes here to quarry now, and the road is blocked by jungle weeds. The reporter and his party found another road in the jungle weeds, with obvious traces of people walking. "No one has been to this mountain, and most of these footprints were left by grave robbers," Master Zhang said. After that, the reporter and Master Zhang walked along the trail, slowly groping their way forward, and finally found an empty field, which was the quarry of that year. We searched around the site, but found no trace of the grave.
"Is the tomb really dug up, or are we in the wrong place?" In order to find out the truth, we decided to go down the mountain to find Rui Bishou, the old branch secretary of Jinshan Village, to understand the situation. Rui Bishou is 78 years old. He served as the village party secretary in Jinshan village for more than 40 years. He knows the grave very well. Pointing to Jinshan, he affirmed that Jinshan was surrounded by jungles, and graves were not dug. Rui Bishou said that he couldn't tell which dynasty this tomb belonged to, and he couldn't tell whether it was Cao Cao's tomb. But he heard from a generation ago that the first person to find the ancient tomb was a villager named Rui Zulin. When he went up the mountain to collect firewood, he found that a sewer was full of antique gray bricks, so he brought some gray bricks back from the mountain every day and put them at home. Some gray bricks are waxed, and the words "Cao Junhou, Taiping four-year big Hou" are engraved on the gray bricks. The reporter tried to find the gray brick engraved with "Cao Junhou's four-year peace order", but none was found in the village.
The ancient tomb "can you try not to dig?"
Before there was any unearthed evidence, the debate about Cao Cao's tomb site had been circulated for several years in the analysis and inference of theory and literature. In the Study of Cao Cao's Tomb published on 1997, Liu Xinchang expounded six arguments for inferring the location of Cao Cao's tomb: the location of Cao Cao's last decree, the records in Xuandi Ji of Jin Shu, Shu Wei of Three Kingdoms, the landform features in Ce Wen by Cao Pi and Bi Wen by Cao Zhi.
At least the first three points, the same materials were also cited by Anyang as the basis for confirming Cao Cao's tomb.
The spontaneous textual research of local scholars and enthusiasts is in full swing, but the national cultural relics and archaeological institutions are reluctant to join in this excitement. The attitude of the archaeological community is very calm. "Our principle has always been: if you can't dig, don't dig." Asked about the social concern and interest in Cao Cao's tomb, Liu Qingzhu was somewhat helpless: "Our Yecheng Archaeological Team is mainly engaged in capital archaeology, as well as ancient buildings and cultural relics. There are many research methods, why do you have to dig graves? "
Pan Weibin, an associate researcher at Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and the captain of the archaeological team of Gaoxi Cave Tomb in Anyang, also supports this statement. "We are a rescue excavation." He stressed many times. When the excavation began in 2008, the tomb of Gaoxidong was only judged as "the tomb of Han and Wei emperors", and it was speculated that it might be related to Cao Cao's tomb or one of the tombs buried with him. When excavating, it is only closed according to conventional protective measures, which is far from the live-fire shooting of special police.
Liu Qingzhu said, "We won't do this kind of work" unless we find evidence to explain the identity of the tomb owner during the excavation. "This kind of work" includes taking a specific historical figure as the object, actively searching, inferring and delineating his tomb in the vast literature and history materials. Because of this, there has been no accepted conclusion as to where the tombs of the respective emperors Cao Pi, Liu Bei and Sun Quan were at the end of the Han Dynasty.