What tools are there for grave robbery?

Before liberation, tomb raiding was usually one or two people, not too many. Usually, the time is at night, and they have 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; 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 had no special detection tools. In the Ming Dynasty, they began to use iron cones. Its appearance makes grave robbers always only aim at tombs with obvious signs on the ground (such as earth seals 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 choose the orientation according to the metal smell brought by the cone and dig a hole directly for theft. 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)."

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 an excellent reputation, and the third one seems to be disgraceful because it is a grave robbing 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. 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".

Luoyang shovel is used to dig holes and borrow soil, and its working principle is similar to that of oil exploration and geological sampling now. Therefore, the shovel body is not flat but semi-cylindrical, similar to tile pipe, much like a common weapon in the 1970 s and 1980 s-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 tomb, the flat shovel was used to dig the Tang tomb (similar to crescent shovel of Lu), and the rolling fork and skimming knife were used to ram the soil into the Han tomb (most of the Han tombs were collapsed).

Modern grave robbing tools 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.

Grave robbing skills of grave robbers

Four-word formula for tomb robbery in Changsha in the old days

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. Before liberation, Liu Hongfu, Hunan Province learned the methods and techniques of grave robbers around Changsha, 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 good at talking with old people and telling stories of the past. 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.

Listen to the thunder and tell the cemetery.

There is a sentence in "Customs Clearance Bill 6 1 Thief", which tells the skill of robbing a tomb: "Jiao Si is widely used to steal a tomb, and he is stationed on the border, often near Baiyun Mountain, and his occupation is to rob a tomb. 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.