How did the grave robbers in the Qing Dynasty find the tomb site?

Grave robbery is a social and cultural phenomenon with a long history. Archaeological data of the Neolithic Age can already see the remains of conscious destruction of tombs. After the social change of "bad manners, happy collapse" in the Spring and Autumn Period, the wind of reburial rose, so grave robbery prevailed. Shaanxi Fengxiang 1 Qin Cemetery is the largest tomb in the pre-Qin period discovered so far, and it is also the largest tomb excavated by scientific archaeological methods in China at present. A total of 247 stolen caves were found in this ancient tomb, of which 10 directly entered the tomb.

Tool editing in the old society

1. On the one hand, excavating ancient tombs depends on people's skills and experience; On the one hand, it is operated by tools. In the old society, the tools of poaching were shovels, picks, shovels, axes, torches and candles. Before the Ming Dynasty, grave robbers did not have special detection tools, and iron cones began to be used in the Ming Dynasty. Its appearance makes grave robbers only take tombs with obvious signs on the ground (such as sealing soil and tombstones) as objects and never return. Grave robbers use a special iron cone to explore the unmarked underground on the ground. Once they find the ancient tomb, they can dig a hole directly and steal it according to the metal smell brought up on the cone. Wang Shixing in Ming Dynasty said in Guang Zhi Yi: "Luoyang is rich in water and soil resources, and burying people is not as good as spring." "However, although buried, thieves can still smell it. If there are gold, silver, copper and iron, they will make (dig)."

From iron cone to Luoyang shovel, it is a leap for grave robbers in the north to use underground detection tools. The north, especially Luoyang and Guanzhong, is located in the Loess Plateau with deep water and thick soil. The shovel clamp of Luoyang shovel is only 2 inches wide and is in a U-shaped semicircle. The shovel is mounted on the upper part.

Grave robbing tools

Long handle, every time this shovel is inserted into the ground, it can go down three or four inches deep, and when it is lifted, it can bring up the soil stuck in the semicircle.

Grave robbing and treasure hunting have existed since ancient times, especially today. Its methods, techniques and tools have developed into more modernization, intelligence and collectivization. Military compasses and detectors are used for detection, detonators, explosives and chainsaws are used for excavation, and cars, motorcycles and mobile phones are used for transportation and communication. Therefore, the struggle against excavating ancient tombs and selling smuggled cultural relics is more complicated and arduous, with a long way to go!

Skill editing

The four words of grave robbers

Different from Luoyang and Guanzhong in the north, Luoyang shovel is useless because of the thin soil and high water level in many places in the south. Local grave robbers "adapted to local conditions", after long-term exploration and summary, formed a set of methods and skills to find and understand treasures. Liu Hongfu, a Hunan scholar, has been dealing with folk antique dealers for many years, taking the opportunity to understand and study the modus operandi of grave robbers around Changsha before liberation.

Cao Cao-the most professional grave robber

And it can be summarized into four words: looking, smelling, asking and cutting.

"Look" means looking at Feng Shui. Old grave robbers are experienced and good at geomantic omen, so wherever they go, they should first look at the terrain and see where the ancient tombs that were destroyed on the ground are. As long as it is a real treasure trove of geomantic omen, it is usually a tomb with many treasures inside. Using geomantic omen to guide the determination of unmarked tomb sites on the ground is almost a hit. According to legend, during the Republic of China, there was a grave-robbing master named Cai in Changsha, and his feng shui was very good. If he goes out and chooses a place, his followers will gather around. Once he went to visit relatives in Ningxiang county and went to a scenic spot. He pointed to a rice field and told his colleagues that there must be a big tomb under this field, and the treasure in the tomb will definitely make you and me rich. None of his colleagues believed him, so the man made a bet with them: if there was no grave, he would lose 1000 dollars. On the contrary, 70% of the treasures are found in graves. Many people gamble wildly and secretly find dozens of villagers to dig at night. In the middle of the night, they dug up a brick tomb with pictures of the deceased's life before his death. There are swords, Baoding, jade articles, lacquerware, golden cakes, inkstones, bamboo tubes and other items in the tomb. Later, they sold them to American missionaries and got a lot of dollars to get rich.

"Smell" means smell. Grave robbers with this magical skill specialize in the olfactory function of the nose. Before digging, he turned over the surface soil of the tomb, took a pinch of tomb soil and put it under his nose to smell it fiercely, so as to distinguish whether the tomb was stolen from the smell of the soil and judge the age according to the color of the soil. It is said that Kung Fu can best distinguish the subtle odor difference between the tomb soil in Han Dynasty and the tomb soil in Tang Dynasty with amazing accuracy.

When Changsha was just liberated, an old grave robber was shot. He sold the cultural relics and national treasures he stole all his life to foreigners. This man is Wen Jia, who used to rob tombs in Han and Tang Dynasties. As long as you smell the unearthed objects, you can accurately determine the age. A grave robber brought some old lacquerware, saying it was from a prince's grave. Leaning on the couch, smoking opium, he picked up a lacquer ware, sniffed it under his nose, and then said with a smile, "Dear friend, it will take about seven months for your lacquer ware to be taken out in the urine pit." The man was shocked and even said, "Offend! Attack! "

"Asking" means stepping on the spot. People who are good at this way often dress up as Mr. Feng Shui or fortune teller, travel around the world, pay special attention to beautiful places and places they have been to, and pretend to be high officials. They are generally eloquent and good at chatting with old people. Wherever I went, I visited the local old people as a fortune teller or feng shui master, and got the information and location of the ancient tomb from the conversation. This kind of person has some skills and good eloquence, and it is easy to gain the trust of the other party. As soon as we found out the exact location of the ancient tomb, we immediately called a group of thieves to dig at night.

"Qie" means feeling the pulse. There are three meanings: the first layer refers to how to find the direction of digging a hole and enter the coffin in the shortest distance after discovering the ancient tomb. This kind of kung fu requires not only rich experience in robbing tombs, but also a keen sense of observing things. People who are good at this method often locate the coffin accurately according to the terrain direction, such as taking people's pulse, and then making a hole in the tomb from the slope to the head and tail of the coffin to steal the funerary objects. Zeng Guofan's tomb was stolen in this way a few years ago. The second meaning is to touch the treasure of the deceased after opening the coffin. Touch from the head, through the mouth to the anus, and finally to the feet. Touching a treasure is like feeling a patient's pulse. You should be careful and calm, pay attention to calm and accurate, and there can be no omissions. The third layer means touching the unearthed cultural relics with your hands. Because there are countless cultural relics touched by experts, they often don't have to look at them with their eyes. Just touch these objects slowly, and you will know what they are and how much they are worth. They often gamble with others to win or lose in this way, and they often win.

Second, listen to the thunder and distinguish the cemetery.

"Jiao Si made a fortune robbing a tomb" in The Thief of Clearing Money reveals the skills of robbing a tomb: "Jiao Si, a thief in Cantonese opera, is stationed in garrison, often near Baiyun Mountain, and takes robbing a tomb as his profession. There are dozens of people who have the ability to listen to rain, wind, thunder, grass color and mud marks.

One day, out of the northern suburbs, it was noon, and the lightning paid. Jiao told everyone to observe in all directions, saying that despite the thunder and lightning and the storm, I should be careful and listen again and again. Jiao Naiyi stood in the thunderstorm at the top of the mountain. After a while, it rained heavily and the east side came back alone. When it was called a loud thunder, I vaguely felt my feet floating, as if I heard a sound underground. Jiao Xi said,' I see. ……'。 "

This Jiao Si deserves to be a master of grave robbery! He not only mastered the ability of ordinary grave robbers to distinguish the color of soil from that of soil, but also was good at using some natural phenomena to help him find the grave. For example, in Lightning and Thunder, Jiao Si went out to rob a tomb in a thunderstorm, and he asked the people who robbed the tomb with him to stand in four different directions. After the rain, people from the east came running and said that when it thundered just now, they heard a faint sound underground. Which direction did he want to answer? Jiao Si was very happy and said, "We found it!" There is some scientific truth in this. The underground with graves is empty. When there is heavy thunder, it is easy to form a * * * sound, which sounds as if there is something underground corresponding to thunder.

Supplement: Modern grave robbery not only depends on Luoyang shovel, but also needs to master remote sensing and magnetic induction technology.

General process editing

First, look at the terrain.

"Look at the terrain" is very mysterious. People who don't know can't see it when they walk by the grave. People who know the trick can see it a few kilometers away. Some grave robbers "like" to go out for a stroll in snowy days, especially like the snow with "fine snow particles". The reason is related to "soil".

Soil is divided into "ripe soil", "living soil" (also called "flower soil") and "dead soil".

Huang Chao-the stupidest grave robber.

. Experienced grave robbers can tell at a glance whether there is an ancient tomb here, or even at a glance what era it is.

When exploring a tomb, you can first explore it with a probe and "feel" whether there is a tomb according to the feeling on your hand; After the shovel is determined, for example, if a shovel goes down to 10 meter, it depends on the depth and what the shovel brings out. Depth is also a sign. There are sawdust, cinnabar, pit ash and so on. This is a feature in what is brought out; Then, use a trowel to "smooth" the shape of the tomb, that is, set the coordinates. If you hit one on the left and miss ten meters, it's "finished", then go back to the right and continue playing, and so on. One by one, the dots are in the shape of a tomb more than ten meters underground. Then, according to the shape, depth, pit ash, wood (or stone, brick) and other characteristics of the tomb, we can infer the age of the tomb, the location of the tomb door and so on.

Second, dig a hole

After exploring the location, the next thing to do is to dig a hole. A terrible grave robber can dig a hole of more than ten meters, and he can do it without soil on the ground! It is puzzling that even if the cemetery is surrounded by a plain, it is very flat land, and there are no mounds around for hundreds of meters and miles. Therefore, it is impossible to pile soil outside, and the hole is so small that no one can see it when working. This superb technology is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Grave robbers will seal the hole when they finish their work. Some holes are only as big as manhole covers. When you open it, look down and go straight for more than ten meters. There is no end in sight in the dead of winter.

Third, enter the grave.

Generally speaking, the arrangement of tombs and artifacts in any dynasty has its own rules. If you look at the tombs of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty or the Western Han Dynasty, you will know where the coffin should be, where the pottery is buried, where the metal utensils are, what will be in the ear chambers on both sides, and so on. When you really go down, go straight there and dig in the past (Han tombs are generally collapsed, and they are full of soil, which is actually soil, moving forward in the soil and everything is in the soil). Generally, expensive funerary objects will be placed in the coffin of the tomb owner, with the left shoulder and right foot.

There are also some tombs, such as Ming and Qing tombs, with thick roofs, because most of the tombs at that time were made of blue bricks, with seven vertical and seven horizontal floors and fourteen floors, which were more than two meters thick. So when digging a hole, you should avoid the top of the tomb. So once the shovel hits the brick (the shovel will fly in the dust when it is lifted), it is necessary to find another place to smash it.

This "other place" may sometimes be close to the tomb door, and sometimes it may be close to the back wall of the tomb. It is possible, depending entirely on the shape and characteristics of the tomb itself. After looking at the shape, I think the coffin in this tomb may be close to the tomb door, so when digging holes, it is close to the tomb door, and vice versa.

A tomb, like a tank, has its armor (tomb wall, anti-theft layer) and fortress (tomb top is very thick), but it also has weaknesses. The weakness is the tomb wall, or the bottom of the tomb.

Some grave robbers saw that the tomb was too strong, and the top and periphery were difficult to handle, so they had to dig another vertical shaft and a horizontal well and go directly under the tomb. After reaching the bottom of the tomb, continue to open a shaft downward, then dig up with tools, dig through a small hole at the bottom of the tomb, and then enter the tomb through this small hole. In this way, the walls and top of the tomb were not destroyed, but the tomb itself was looted.

However, this method is rarely used. Take the Ming tomb with masonry structure as an example: its back wall is the weakest, basically there are only two layers of bricks, so when drilling vertical holes, you can drill along the back wall of the tomb without digging two layers of brick-thick tomb walls. For the Ming Tombs, almost all the ancient pirate caves are open at the back wall.

Before liberation, many people stole the Ming Tombs by one person and one night, wearing rat clothes, using both hands and feet, digging holes, entering tombs and taking things. It is not easy. At that time, when a person couldn't drill the shaft, he left the tomb for a certain distance, then dug down at a certain angle, obliquely down, touched the back wall of the tomb well, and then dug through it. The calculation was very accurate.

It should be noted that the process of grave robbers entering the tomb seriously damaged the relationship between the structure of the tomb and the remains, instead of cleaning it up in the order of accumulation and revealing the original tomb with detailed scientific records, as archaeologists do. Therefore, this destruction is irreversible, and the lost information can never be recovered in the face of the remnants of piracy, which has caused great losses to human cultural heritage.

Before liberation, grave robbers were usually done by one or two people, not too many. They spent an evening working with their own special tools (digging equipment) and special one-piece clothes (mouse clothes covered with various "equipment").

On the one hand, stealing ancient tombs depends on people's skills and experience;

Before liberation, the digging equipment used a part of the sharp blade of the plowshare as the "digger", and the "three-piece set" was very similar to a propeller, and the rear part was closely connected with a spiral "soil-discharging" device. This can not only dig out the soil and drain it, but also penetrate the tomb brick (spiral principle, just increase the horizontal strength, without pressing hard).

From iron cone to Luoyang shovel, it is a leap for grave robbers in the north to use underground detection tools.

Luoyang City, Henan Province has a long cultural history. Historically, it is the ancient capital of the 13th Dynasty and has always been the political and cultural center of ancient China. Today, the "Three Treasures of Luoyang" in Luoyang are Longmen Grottoes, Baima Temple and Luoyang Shovel. The first two have excellent reputations, and the third one seems disgraceful, because it is a grave robbery tool. Tomb raiding is really popular in Luoyang city, mainly due to the thick burial style in Luoyang since ancient times. From ancient times to the present, the dignitaries in Luoyang pay attention to thick burial, and they often attach great importance to the construction of tombs, so that there are so many tombs in Luoyang. Wang Jian, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once described Luoyang's dense tombs:

There is almost no idle soil at the top of Beimang Mountain.

It is full of Luoyang people's old graves.

Many people are buried in ancient tombs,

There is no place to buy gold.

It is precisely because of this that the wind of tomb raiding has prevailed in Luoyang since ancient times, and tomb raiders in past dynasties are also talented people. There is a story about the origin of Luoyang shovel in Luoyang:

In Ma Po Village, Mangshan, Luoyang, there was a farmer named Li Yazi, who made a living by robbing tombs since he was a child. One day in the 12th year of the Republic of China (1923), he arrived in Mengjin County, more than ten miles away. An acquaintance in Magou Village, Yanshi County is building a shed to sell fried steamed bread. When the two sides met and greeted each other, he saw that the man was busy digging a small vertical round hole in the ground with a tile-shaped shovel with short handle to insert the shed column. This man used this shovel to poke into the ground, and when he lifted it, he brought out a lot of soil, which immediately triggered his "inspiration": this guy is lighter than the shovel in digging stolen holes, especially using the original soil, which is conducive to judging the situation of different underground strata. So he found a piece of paper, drew a big original pattern with a shovel clip, and immediately found a blacksmith to build it according to the picture after returning home. Really handy, the effect is good. Later, other grave robbers followed suit, so they were widely "promoted".

Luoyang shovel is used to dig holes and borrow soil, and its working principle is similar to that of oil exploration and geological sampling. Therefore, the shovel body is not flat but semi-cylindrical, similar to the shape of a tile tube, much like a common weapon in the 1970 s and 1980 s-a pipe plug.

The clamp of Luoyang shovel is only 2 inches wide and is a U-shaped semicircle. Although Luoyang shovel with a long handle on the upper part of the shovel looks like a semicircle, its shape is actually neither round nor uneven. The most important thing is to create a radian when molding, which requires careful beating. If you are not careful, the shovel you hit will have no soil. Moreover, the manufacturing process of Luoyang shovel is more complicated. Usually, making a small shovel has to go through nearly 20 processes, such as blank making, calcination, heat treatment, molding and polishing, so it can only be made by hand. If a good Luoyang shovel is finished, it can be driven into the ground for more than ten meters, or even dozens of meters. After shoveling, the inner surface of the shovel head will bring out a tube of soil. In this way, the grave robbers continued to drill deep underground and analyzed the soil structure, color, density and various inclusions of different soil layers. If it is cooked soil that has been touched by later generations, there may be ancient tombs or ancient buildings underground. If ceramics, iron, copper, gold and wood are found in inclusions, the nature and layout of underground collections can be inferred. Experienced grave robbers can judge the underground situation by the different sounds made by Luoyang shovel hitting the ground and the feeling on their hands. For example, compacted walls are naturally very different from hollow tombs and tombs.

Similarly, dig different tombs and rob them with different tools. The heavy shovel evolved from Luoyang shovel was used to dig the Han tombs, the flat shovel was used to dig the Tang tombs (similar to crescent shovel of Lu), and the rolling fork and skimmer were used to ram the soil into the Han tombs (most of the Han tombs were potholes and collapses).

After liberation, the department of cultural relics and archaeology improved it, and used it for the investigation and drilling of whether there are cultural relics underground, which made a contribution to the archaeological work of cultural relics. However, it was used by grave robbers to go astray again in the grave robbery frenzy that swept across the country in.

A modern robbery gang usually has three or four members, not less than three, and it is unlikely to exceed five. These people have their own division of labor.

The tools used by modern grave robbers are much more advanced than before. The general Luoyang shovel was eliminated, and the shovel used was modified on the basis of Luoyang shovel, which was divided into heavy shovel and lifting shovel (also called mud shovel). Because the wooden pole behind Luoyang shovel head was too long and the target was too big, it was abandoned, and it was replaced by a spiral tube, which could be nested layer by layer and extended at will. Usually when you look at the terrain, you take it apart and put it in a shoulder bag.

Like ~! !