A dark hole suddenly appeared above the main tomb, which made archaeologists feel tight.

This is a day in 2004, and their location is Hongshan, a suburb of Wuxi, Jiangsu.

It's not far from here to Wuxi and Suzhou. The vast Taihu Lake is lying quietly in the southwest, looking at one mound after another.

Archaeologists have discovered many graves here since 2000. A number of precious cultural relics, including jade jade, jade dragon and jade turtle, were unearthed in the mounds called Tiger Dun, Culm Dun and Zoujiadun by local people, and these cultural relics were included in the new national archaeological discoveries in 2004 10.

In the process of sorting out these funerary objects, the historical keywords of these tombs gradually became clear:

Noble tombs from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period.

In addition, more importantly, the cultural characteristics of unearthed cultural relics belong to: Yue State.

Strange! Hongshan area has always been regarded as the ruling center of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period, just a stone's throw from Gusu, the capital of Wu.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, wuyue and China competed for hegemony for hundreds of years. Why did the tombs of Yue nobles appear in the territory of Wu?

With the expectation of solving the mystery, the excavation finally progressed from small tombs and medium-sized tombs to large tombs, and Qiu Chengdun entered the field of vision.

Among the mounds in Hongshan area, Qiu Chengdun is incredibly big, nearly 80 meters long and 6 meters high, almost as high as two floors.

Such a tall enclosure is bound to symbolize a high-standard tomb, so Qiu Chengdun is expected to solve all the mysteries in one fell swoop.

However, later excavation results prove that Qiu Chengdun is like a looming fog, which permeates the depths of history and makes people more curious:

The grave where the hole thief appeared seems to be empty. How do a group of precious funerary objects reappear after twists and turns?

How did the excavation of these cultural relics subvert some previous understandings of historians?

At the same time, 1 strange funerary objects make everyone confused about one thing:

Who is the owner of the tomb?

Today, Allen takes you into the mysterious Qiu Chengdun.

In 473 BC, Gou Jian, the King of Yue, who had been struggling for ten years, led a great army to the city outside Gusu. His yearning for Yue was like a dazzling meteor, which crossed the last night sky in the Spring and Autumn Period.

The night sky has not changed for thousands of years. In the ancient land of Wu, Qiu Chengdun's tomb in the state of Yue is like a constellation full of the most mysteries, waiting for modern people to decipher it.

Let Alan introduce you to this Qiu Chengdun first.

First of all, from the geographical point of view, Qiuchengdun is located in the westernmost part of Hongshan Tomb Group, with an east-west trend and a rectangular overlapping bucket shape.

Among the rolling mounds of Hongshan, Qiu Chengdun is the largest. Archaeological excavations are even more amazing:

Qiu Chengdun's historical composition is very rich, and cultural remains of several periods are buried, which can be said to condense half of the ancient history of Jiangnan area.

For example, at the bottom of Qiu Chengdun's stratum, there are ancient cultural layers such as Songze culture and Majiabang culture, as well as relics such as broken pottery pieces that have been cleaned up. In addition, an altar of Liangzhu culture period was found.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the previously accumulated mounds were skillfully used and built on them.

At that time, the construction method of tomb craftsmen was to pile soil in the west and north of the mound to form an east-west rectangular mound, and then dig the tomb pit in the middle of the mound.

Maybe you will be curious: why not dig underground here like tombs in the northern region, but pile up soil on the ground first and then dig?

That's because, as a water town, there are many rivers and lakes in Jiangnan, and the groundwater level is generally high. So our ancestors invented the tradition of piling up soil first and then rebuilding the grave.

The whole tomb pit is in the shape of "Zhong". After exploration, the length is close to 57 meters, the width is about 6 meters and the depth is about 3 meters.

An ancient tomb nearly 57 meters long! What does this mean?

Judging from other wuyue tombs unearthed in the south of the Yangtze River, high-ranking nobles are generally around 15- 16 meters, medium-sized tombs are basically around 8 meters, and small tombs are generally around 4 meters or even smaller.

Even if we look at the whole country, we only found a tomb of the State of Yue during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with a scale of over 57 meters.

That is the famous Yueling Mausoleum of Yinshan King in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the only Wang Yue-class mausoleum discovered so far, with an amazing scale, about 100 meters long.

In this way, from the perspective of tomb specifications, Qiu Chengdun is superior to all the nobles in Yue, second only to the King of Yue.

Secondly, as a pit tomb, although it is different from the tomb carved by Yuewang Mausoleum in Yinshan, it is not as deep as the tomb of Zeng Houyi at the same time, which is 13 meters. The shape of Qiu Chengdun's tomb is unique.

Generally speaking, the tomb pit is divided into tomb pit, tomb and back room. Among them, the main room and the north and south rooms are carefully separated by wooden boards in the tomb.

In addition, the common tombs in aristocratic tombs in this period have not been found.

And the stolen cave that frightened archaeologists ran through the bottom of the tomb in a horrible way.

Time seems to have swept away, leaving no one behind. In Qiu Chengdun's early excavation and cleaning, there were no coffins or tombs in this tomb, only the top of the tomb was empty.

Is it really stolen?

Just when people lamented Qiu Chengdun's bad luck, a turning point suddenly appeared.

On this day, at the end of the western tombs, a large number of funerals suddenly reappeared on the ground. Dense celadon ritual vessels and daily necessities, such as a pile of treasures lost for thousands of years, are piled up in an inconspicuous corner.

After finishing, this batch of artifacts is nearly 1000 pieces, which is exciting!

It turns out that Qiu Chengdun's tomb has no tomb, which is different from other tombs. Therefore, although the stolen hole went deep into the tomb, the grave robbers obviously didn't find the right direction.

At the same time, there is a secret room hidden at the back end of the entrance to Xiling, which is the place where funerary objects are usually stored, so the treasure hidden here has survived the disaster and survived to this day.

Among these treasures, the most impressive are these bronze celadon ritual vessels and wine vessels.

I believe you must want to ask: celadon? Where did the porcelain in the tomb of Yue State come from during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period?

In fact, the development of China porcelain is much longer than we remember.

The basic feature of porcelain is that porcelain clay ware is glazed, the firing temperature is above 12 10 degrees Celsius, and the glaze color is usually blue or yellow, which has the characteristics of high hardness, high density and low water permeability.

Although celadon beans were found in some Western Zhou tombs in China more than 3,000 years ago, it was generally believed in academic circles that China's porcelain-making technology had matured since the Eastern Han Dynasty. Before the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was regarded as "primitive porcelain", and many of them failed to meet the standards of porcelain in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

Therefore, among the celadon unearthed from Qiu Chengdun's tomb, to the surprise of scholars, there are more than 200 pieces that meet the physical and chemical standards of "porcelain"!

Therefore, to some extent, they have rewritten the history of China porcelain, more than 600 years ahead of schedule!

For example, this celadon tripod with Y 6.

The shape of the organ is very unique, with a bulging waist and a nearly flat bottom, and a symmetrical semi-ring ear outside the mouth, with a height of 17 cm.

As the name implies, the dehydration cylinder is a dehydration cylinder with the shape of a dehydration cylinder.

Ding is a traditional ritual vessel in the Zhou Dynasty, while Yu is a kitchen utensil, and its function is similar to that of today's steamer.

In addition to celadon ritual vessels, some celadon vessels are also surprising.

Such as this celadon wine warmer.

The diameter is nearly 26 cm and the height is about 8 cm. It is also gray tire color and blue glaze color. The abdomen is slightly inclined, with four decorative floor heads and three short feet at the bottom.

At first glance, it was vegetarian, but after careful inspection, it was found that there were many dried Kun on the wine warmer.

I saw a flat top cover with a 13 exquisite round hole, and a number of small celadon wine glasses were unearthed.

Looking back more than 2000 years ago, fine snow was falling outside the window, and the high hall was warm and harmonious.

Fearing that wine would hurt the stomach, the Yue nobles who were greedy for wine filled the small hole of the wine warmer with hot water and put the cup full of wine in it.

There may be a stove plate under the wine warmer, and a charcoal fire will be lit to keep warm, so after drinking, a cup of hot wine will be poured and drunk while warming.

Standing in front of this wine warmer, even after a thousand years, we can still smell warm wine and smoked wine today.

I wonder if Shaoxing yellow wine is warm in the cup?

In addition to these celadon ritual vessels, Qiu Chengdun also hides more surprises.

Archaeologists found scattered celadon hanging bells and celadon chimes in the process of cleaning tombs and ritual vessels.

It seems that musical instruments are buried in the tomb!

According to the previous excavation experience, in the tombs during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the funerary utensils had a strict etiquette system, and they were often buried in sets to safeguard the identity and status of princes and nobles.

For example, a complete set of bronze bells was unearthed from the famous tomb of Zeng Houyi, which caused a sensation in the world.

Therefore, if there is a A Qing, the supporting musical instruments, such as chimes, must be buried in the tomb, even including some musical instruments with Vietnamese characteristics.

But I can't see it anywhere. Where did they go?

Not going to be buried? Or is it only partially buried? Judging from the etiquette culture at that time, it was unlikely.

So it was stolen?

It is also unreasonable. Why don't grave robbers steal musical instruments instead of exquisite celadon ritual vessels and jade articles?

While wandering, almost 10 days later, the expert found the clue-the secret was hidden on the south wall of the tomb.

It turns out that on this ordinary tomb wall, there is a vertical hole hidden, which is impressively a niche.

When I opened this niche, I saw 90 celadon instruments neatly placed inside, which were well preserved, as if they had just been put in yesterday.

The answer came out.

After cleaning up, these 90 instruments cover 10 categories, which are basically percussion instruments.

Among them, there are Yong, Qi Bo and Qing who imitate the Central Plains system.

These are no strangers to everyone. The so-called chime music is to match a corresponding number of bells, stirrups and chimes under different status levels.

When the bells are solemn and elegant, and the bells are crisp and melodious, the elegant China voice flows in the banquet of the nobles and spreads in the long river of history.

In addition, most other musical instruments belong to local culture, including celadon drum stand, squatting, squatting and so on.

It is worth noting that this part is different from the imitation of Central Plains musical instruments, and most of them belong to military musical instruments.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago, how did the musical instruments symbolizing elegance connect with the fighting in the battlefield?

Fortunately, history left a live broadcast.

"Mandarin Wu Yu" faithfully records the scene of Fu Xi, the sworn enemy of Yue State, fighting for hegemony;

At that time, facing the army of the State of Jin, Fu Cha was red-eyed, and personally drummed and sounded the shackles.

So in the loud and magnificent battle songs, Wu's soldiers were in high spirits and shouted ShaSheng everywhere.

Although the drums played by Fucha are lost in history, celadon instruments of the same style are preserved in Qiuchengdun.

First of all, this celadon drum stand.

The tire color is gray and the glaze color is yellow. The seat is bowl-shaped, and the middle is a thick and short jack for installing the drum.

The whole drum stand is not a whiteboard, but decorated with the word "people" and the word "S" stamped on it. The side of the stand is also dotted with four ear tubes for floor covering, which is unique.

This cultural relic is a part of the "drum" that we often say today.

There is also this celadon (sound the same as "pure").

The glaze is yellow and the tiger buckle is shallow. In addition to the exquisite design of the button, it is also decorated with a stamped "S" pattern.

If the drum encourages the team to move forward, it will command the team to retreat.

In fact, the so-called "ringing the golden bell and retreating" in the idiom includes percussion instruments such as Chiyou, but Chiyou in the idiom should be made of bronze.

Qiu Chengdun's celadon is a treasure among the funerary objects of Yue State.

Imagine that more than 2000 years ago, when the Vietnamese army led by Gou Jian killed the capital of Wu, the sergeant shouted for his death, and the drums were high, which was limited to the harsh, and the war situation advanced and retreated, oppressing everyone to launch a general attack on the final victory.

In addition, the discovery of another celadon instrument subverts people's understanding of a period of history:

That's celadon (fǒu, homophonic with the word "no").

I believe many people know this word because of the story of Zhao Lin in Historical Records.

In the middle and late Warring States period, under the blade of the Qin army, the six eastern countries, especially Zhao, lived and died.

In 28 1 BC, Qin captured Shicheng of Zhao, and then killed 20,000 soldiers of Zhao. In a bloody atmosphere, the king of Qin and the king of Zhao met at the Mianchi meeting a few years later.

When Zhao Haoqi, an ambitious state of Qin, saw Huiwen, he specially asked him to play the piano. Hearing this, the prince of Zhao had to play a song, and Qin historians immediately wrote:

On a certain day, the king of Qin ordered the king of Zhao to play the piano.

This is a naked insult!

Suddenly, Lin Xiangru, the minister of Zhao, came forward and said to the king of Qin Qingyin, "Please hit the king of Qin, too!" !

Qin refused shyly, but Lin Xiangru threatened to save Zhao's face.

Seeing that he had worked so hard, the king of Qin could only knock "for the prince of Zhao".

This story was included in middle school textbooks and widely circulated, affecting a generation.

However, although the story is gripping, what kind of musical instrument is Yi? No one knew for a long time.

In archaeological excavations, no physical musical instruments have been found before, so many people simply understand "Yi" as a large earthen basin or a container.

Paradoxically, however, from the circulating literature, it is undoubtedly a musical instrument.

For example, in Shuowen, there is an explanation of the "left" of the musical instrument: drums are used to celebrate songs. It is used to beat the rhythm and then sing along with it.

Sounds like the originator of hip-hop music.

The celadon vase unearthed from Qiu Chengdun's tomb has uncovered the eternal mystery of musical instrument vases.

This celadon vase is nearly 43 cm in diameter and 28 cm in height. Glazed inside and outside, deep and wide belly, rolled out at the edge. The body is decorated with symmetrical wide animal-faced ears, and the lower part is decorated with missing short hoofs and feet.

As if ready to step out, waiting for the host to knock at the door.

Moreover, as can be seen from this precious artifact, compared with ordinary earthen pots, it has obvious differences:

It was first regarded as a musical instrument at that time, and the unearthed position was the musical instrument niche for storing chimes.

In addition, the shape of the bowl is designed for tapping sound, the abdomen is deeper and wider than the ordinary earthen basin, and there are three feet to suspend the body, creating enough resonance space.

In this way, even if you tap lightly, you can make a loud echo.

At the same time, the decorative patterns of patterns are more complicated and elegant than ordinary earthen pots.

Disappeared for thousands of years, wuyue's voiceless sounds reappeared in this way.

At this point, the treasure was unearthed and the sound reappeared. The fog that can be shrouded in Qiu Chengdun has not dispersed, but it is getting stronger and stronger.

No coffin was found and no written materials were unearthed. This specification is second only to the King of Yue, and it has a luxurious burial tomb. Who is the owner? Why is it buried in Wu?

Just as archaeologists were thinking hard, a rare cultural relic with a strange appearance and unprecedented appearance surfaced from the eastern part of the tomb.

This is an exquisite ball with a snake: this is the first discovery in the archaeological history of China. At first glance, the colorful colors reveal the strange atmosphere of ancient times and hide the secrets of the tomb owner thousands of years ago.

Linglong Ball has a foot diameter of 6.6 cm and a height of 6.4 cm, and consists of eight snakes that bite together from end to end.

The snake body and the head of the snake rise, and the round eyes are slightly open, forming a delicate sphere.

Careful observation shows that the snake head and snake body of Linglong Ball are dotted with blue glaze, which gives people a mysterious feeling.

What's even more amazing is that as a kind of low-temperature glazed pottery, the white tire, red color and blue glaze of the glaze ball have never faded after thousands of years of vicissitudes.

Previously, it was generally believed that the glazing technology of this kind of dotted glass did not mature until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but the appearance of exquisite balls subverted this view and advanced it by 1000 years.

Maybe you will ask, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago, could China produce glazed utensils?

The answer is of course yes!

Although many people only know that porcelain is produced in China, historically, the development of over-glaze colored vessels in China has a long history, which can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty.

At first, many local colored glasses were made of by-products of bronze casting, and then they were refined and processed, and most of them survived in the form of micro beads and tubular decorations.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the scarcity of glass, whether imported from abroad or produced locally, glass was often used as a valuable object buried with the dead, such as glass beads unearthed from Hongshan Tomb and Zeng Houyi Tomb.

Therefore, an over-the-glaze colored ware of this size and craft, such as the snake exquisite ball, can be said to be unparalleled in the world and rare in the world.

And what exactly is this snake ball used for?

Judging from the peculiar shape of Linglong Ball and the high specification of Qiu Chengdun's tomb, although there is no historical record and its specific function is difficult to recover, it must be related to the totem worship and sacrifice of "snake" symbolizing the royal power or theocracy of Yue State.

In fact, more than 2,000 years ago, as a southern vassal state, Yue was located in the south of the Yangtze River, far from the Central Plains. For a long time, it has been regarded as a barbarian country by the Central Plains countries, satirizing the "prevalence of prostitution temples" in Vietnam and mocking the Vietnamese people for going astray.

It is precisely because of this cultural difference between ethnic groups that the gods worshipped by Yue are difficult to be accepted by the Central Plains, and sacrifices and ceremonies are full of strange colors in the eyes of the Central Plains countries.

The appearance of the exquisite ball undoubtedly confirmed the mysterious Yueshen and sacrifice in the eyes of the Central Plains countries.

At the same time, in addition to the extraordinary value of the object itself, the exquisite ball has more significant significance:

We use a direct clue to judge the identity of the owner of the tomb, that is, under the King of Yue, above all others, no one who is an important official of the country has the right to sacrifice!

Following this clue, according to the political system of Yue State at that time, the system of "five doctors" or "eight doctors" was implemented, and the doctors were under the King of Yue.

Encouragingly, with the deepening of research, another more direct clue surfaced:

According to the detection of carbon 14 unearthed objects, the burial time of Hongshan aristocratic tombs, represented by Qiu Chengdun and Tiger Dun, is estimated to be around 470 BC.

At this point, history and archaeology surprisingly point to an important event:

In 473 BC, Gou Jian, King of Yue, annexed the State of Wu!

The identity of the tomb owner seems to become clear step by step:

This man was not only an important official of Gou Jian, but also a doctor of Yue State. He witnessed the destruction of the Wu War and was buried when the Wu State perished.

Who could it be?

In 473 BC, more than 2,400 years ago, Gou Jian, King of Yue, lived a hard life and realized his dream of revenge.

Under his command, the Vietnamese army invaded Suzhou and Wudu, and Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, felt cornered and committed suicide.

After the downfall of the State of Wu, the Vietnamese army ran amok between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, and governors from all walks of life congratulated them.

Gou Jian has become the last hegemon in the Spring and Autumn Period, while Ran Ran, the hegemon of Yue, rose on the eve of the Warring States Period.

Maybe I have suffered too much and want to protect my hegemony in my arms. After achieving a career, Gou Jian looked around and let the doctors who had followed him die "abnormally" and set foot on the last journey of his life.

According to Zuo Zhuan, Historical Records, Yue Jueshu and other documents, the doctors of Yue in Gou Jian's period were, Shi Mai, Kucheng and so on.

Except for Smai, who died before the destruction of Wu, the rest basically died after the destruction of Wu.

For example, he refused to listen to advice, hesitated to remain in power, was given the sword by Gou Jian, and died by the sword.

Fan Li's ending is more legendary. Historical records record that he went boating and went nowhere, and Shi's peers were added to later plays.

Although it sounds beautiful, Jia Yi recorded another diametrically opposite story in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty:

Fan Li did not bring beauty to the Jianghu, and was finally executed by Gou Jian.

No matter what the truth is, he left an eternal warning that still shines in the history of China:

This sentence tells the hero's mentality:

A bird hides its bow, and a rabbit cooks it. Being a man depends on when to progress, when to yield, when to rise and when to perish!

Fan Li, who died of unnatural language, saw through the truth. ...

Is the owner of Qiu Chengdun's tomb really one of them? Or is there someone else?

Qiu Chengdun's historical sky is doomed to be foggy.

But at the same time, isn't the tomb of Yue State in Hongshan, represented by Qiu Chengdun's tomb, a precious cultural heritage?

The rich celadon treasure in Qiu Chengdun's tomb has changed the academic understanding of celadon and musical instruments. To some extent, it rewrote the history and confirmed the long history of China porcelain.

The unique snake-rolling exquisite ball in Qiu Chengdun's tomb is the first discovery of low-temperature glazed pottery with bright colors and perfect combination with pottery in China. It is not only a precious cultural relic, but also shows China's extraordinary ceramic technology in the pre-Qin period.

Finally, wuyue's hegemony, the fire, Qiu Chengdun's tomb and Hongshan's tomb all left us with treasures and puzzles to be discovered:

Like who owns the grave? Is it really one of Gou Jian's doctors?

And: why did a large number of tombs of the nobles of the State of Yue gather around Wudu before and after the demise of the State of Wu?

I believe that the subsequent decryption will add more touching treasure discoveries to this well-known history of China.

Everything in the past can open the preface!

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