The only way to rob a tomb is to write a novel. I don't appreciate it.

First of all, I want to talk about Luoyang shovel, the most commonly used and practical tool in grave robbery. It is said that Luoyang shovel was invented by Li Yazi, a grave robber in the countryside near Luoyang, Henan, China in the early 20th century, and was gradually improved by later generations. It was first widely used to rob tombs, and later became an archaeological tool. Juxian Wei, a famous archaeologist, witnessed grave robbers using Luoyang shovel in 1928, and then applied it to archaeological drilling, which played an important role in the excavation of famous ancient city sites such as Yin Ruins and Yanshi Shopping Mall in China.

Luoyang shovel, also known as exploratory shovel, is an archaeological tool and a semi-cylindrical shovel. A section of ash pole with an extendable handle. When in use, poke the ground vertically downward, take out the underground soil with a semi-cylindrical shovel, and gradually dig a deep well with a diameter of about 10 cm to detect the soil quality of the underground soil layer, so as to know whether there is an ancient tomb underground.

The common Luoyang shovel is semi-cylindrical, 20-40 cm long and 5-20 cm in diameter. After installing elastic wooden poles, it can be driven into the ground for more than ten meters. By distinguishing the soil structure, color and contents brought by the shovel head, we can judge whether there are ancient tombs in the soil and underground. There are more than 20 manufacturing processes of Luoyang shovel. The most important thing is to make radians when molding, which requires careful beating. If you are not careful, the shovel you hit will have no soil. This kind of shovel is only produced by several manual workshops in Luoyang and can only be made by hand so far. At present, Luoyang shovel is no longer a special tool in archaeology, but has played an important role in the fields of architecture, highways, railways, mines and so on. Luoyang shovel has always been an indispensable tool, especially in foundation grouting and geological exploration.

The main function of Luoyang shovel is to present the samples of the unchanged underground soil layer, and to see the age and structure of the old soil, living soil and soil layer from the soil color, so as to judge the underground situation. In archaeological excavation, many factors depend on personal experience, and it is also said that the old Luoyang shovel can judge the distribution of underground tombs by tasting the soil with its mouth. Because the damage is small, there is no requirement for the environment, and even in some extreme cases, the survey effect is better than some live survey equipment.

China has a long history of robbing ancient tombs. The earliest recorded tomb in history is the tomb of Shang Tang, the first king of Shang Dynasty, about 3600 years ago. Robbery first appeared in the late Western Zhou Dynasty more than 2770 years ago. Someone got a jade seal with a cross carved on it from the excavated ancient tomb. Nobody recognized it at that time.

Rules and excavation methods of grave robbers

There are two kinds of grave robbers. One is official thieves, such as Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao in the late Han Dynasty, Wen Tao in the Five Dynasties and Sun Dianying in the Republic of China. , are famous. They often use a large number of soldiers to do this with burning sticks. There is also a kind of human thief, which is distributed all over the country and has a large number. They all secretly dig graves and coffins, take out the buried property and treasure, and make a fortune. Most of them are concentrated in places with many ancient tombs, such as Luoyang, Henan, Guanzhong, Shaanxi and Changsha, Hunan.

Before liberation, these full-time grave robbers were usually two people in partnership. Many people form gangs, and one person does less. There is a simple reason. If one person can't manage it, two people can do it together: at first, one person digs a hole, and the other person cleans the soil while watching the wind; Later, one person dug the grave, and the other person picked up the pit soil and funerary objects. Most of these two people are related by blood (many good friends), but strangely, there is less relationship between father and son. This may be because the business of robbing tombs is ultimately shady. Even if I do this disgraceful thing, I will maintain my image as a father. I was embarrassed to take my son with me. My son later found out and pretended not to know. Why do two people want to find blood relatives when they are partners? This is to prevent people who pick up jobs at the mouth of the cave from fighting for money. That is to say, when the person under the hole finishes his work and passes everything, he will clap his hands or pull the rope to signal the person at the hole to pull him up. If the people in the hole are motivated by money, when the people in the hole come up quickly, they will suddenly loosen the rope, and the people under the hole will suddenly fall from a distance of more than four or five meters, and they will be unable to move because of fractures and injuries. People at the mouth of the cave will quickly bury the pit soil under the hole, and the people below will die.

These people have robbed tombs for a long time, accumulated rich experience, are good at camouflage, and have a set of methods to deal with anti-theft organs in tombs. After the goal of robbing the tomb is determined, if the small tomb doesn't take much effort, it will be dug in a few nights, so make a quick decision and take out the funerary objects and leave. For large and medium-sized tombs, the following measures should be taken: First, in the name of land reclamation, tall crops such as corn and sorghum should be planted around the tombs to cover up their excavation activities for one or two months. The second is to build a house next to the grave to hide people's eyes and ears, and then dig a tunnel from the house to the grave. You can't see any problems from the outside, and the ancient tomb has long been ransacked. Third, while building a fake tomb on the edge of the ancient tomb, secretly dig tunnels and enter the ancient tomb to steal property.

Evolution of tools for robbing tombs in the old society

On the one hand, stealing 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 always only aim at tombs with obvious signs on the ground (such as sealing soil and tombstones). 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 upper part of the shovel is equipped with a long handle. Every time you drill, insert this shovel into the ground, you can go down three or four inches deep, and when you lift it up, you can bring out the ground trapped in the semicircle intact. 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.

About the origin of Luoyang shovel, there is a story circulating 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".

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, in recent years, in the national grave robbery frenzy, it was used by grave robbers and went astray again.

Four-word formula for grave robbers in Changsha in the old society

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. Mr. Liu Hongfu, a Hunan scholar, has been dealing with folk antique dealers for many years, and took the opportunity to understand and study the methods and techniques of grave robbers around Changsha before liberation, which can be summarized as "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. It is very successful to use geomantic omen as a guide to determine unmarked cemeteries on the ground. 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.