Ganling, located at the top of Liangshan Mountain in Ganxian County, Shaanxi Province, is the burial tomb of Li Zhi, the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and the only empress Wu Zetian in China history. On the east and west sides of Zhuque Gate in Ganling, there are stone carvings, which are traditionally called "Fan Statue" and "Wang Bin Statue" according to the original carving method. It is unprecedented in the history of China and foreign countries to use "foreign envoys" to guard the tomb, because guarding the tomb is the responsibility of ministers and envoys are symbols of a country. More strangely, most of these stone statues have lost their heads. People can't help asking, why did Ganling use "foreign envoys" to guard the mausoleum? Why do they have bodies but no heads?
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Zhao Kai, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said in his notes for You Shixiong's "The Map of Ganling" that "the burial of Ganling has helped a lot". Wu Hou, who had no idea about the great legacy of Emperor Taizong, wanted to boast about the afterlife, so he recorded 6/kloc-0 chiefs, each with its own shape, so that future generations could understand. "
Accordingly, later generations thought that these sweet ministers came to pay homage to Tang Gaozong. Reminiscent of the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the Tang Dynasty was strong, and the border minority regimes sent envoys to surrender. When the funeral was held for Emperor Gaozong, the leaders of the frontier ethnic minorities all attended. In order to show her majesty, Wu Zetian ordered people to carve stone statues according to these mourning clothes and looks, which seemed reasonable.
However, the researchers found that the fact is not so simple. Most of these stone statues are dressed in left-handed samurai clothes with round necks and tight sleeves. A skirt is a skirt. Historically, most people in the Central Plains of China were right-handed, and the costumes of ethnic minorities were left-handed. Right-handed and left-handed people have also become an important symbol to distinguish Han people from Hu people. Judging from the costumes worn by the stone statues, there are not only nomadic people but also ethnic minorities around the western regions.
And these stone statues, without exception, all hold the water board with their hands. The so-called water board is a long and narrow board held by China's ancient ministers when they went to court. Usually made of ivory, it records what the court wants to say. In addition, jade bags were found on more than 20 stone statues.
The so-called jade bag refers to the bag with official seal carried by officials with more than five products in the Tang Dynasty, as well as governors and secretaries. All these remind us that these stone statues are officials of important positions in the Tang Dynasty, not messengers. Some statues of Ganling people have many words "so" written at the beginning, indicating that they died before the stone statue was carved. For example, in the west of Ashnami, there is a stone statue with the name "so" in front of it. According to records, Ashinan was the leader of the West Turkic, and was once named a general in title of generals in ancient times.
After Tang Gaozong ascended the throne, he became the highest local military and political chief in the Tang Dynasty and died in 662 AD. In 683 AD, Tang Gaozong died of illness and was buried in Ganling the following year.
Then, Ashnami, who died more than 20 years before Tang Gaozong's death, could not attend Tang Gaozong's funeral. There are more than a dozen stone statues with the word "so" engraved in front of their names, such as Lv Boshe, which further shows that the stone statues in Ganling are not the people who attended the memorial ceremony when Tang Gaozong or Wu Zetian were buried. Since the stone statue was not erected by Wu Zetian after the death of Emperor Gaozong, when was it carved? According to historical records, when the stone statue was just erected, the country name, official position and name were engraved on the back. Now, however, only a few of them can recognize their own names, and the rest are blurred.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Shi Xiong, a traffic historian,
Li Yuanhao asked Chang 'an Zhitu that only 39 titles and names were recorded in a year. In Qing Dynasty, Ye Yibao recorded 38 people in The Stone and Lyu3 bu4. At present, only six people have left their titles on the portrait of Chen Tian, and only 36 people can be admitted to the official title. The life stories of some of them are recorded in the history books of the Tang Dynasty.
Pirooz III, the king of Persia, whose father Yishou was the king of Persia in the portrait of the tomb, sent envoys to Chang 'an to offer live snakes in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan. Hou Yi was expelled by gluttony and killed by gluttony on his way to Tuholo. After his son Pirooz III succeeded to the throne, he was attacked by a glutton and went to the Tang Dynasty for emergency treatment.
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Because the two countries are too far apart to send troops. In order to show solidarity with Persia, Jiling City was made Governor of Persia, and Pirooz III was made Governor of Persia, but it was still destroyed by the big food. He fled to Chang 'an and became a general left. In the second year of Yifeng in Tang Gaozong, Pirooz III asked Tang Ting to build a Persian temple in Chang 'an, and finally died in Chang 'an.
Murong Nuobobo was a Tuyuhun native. Emperor Taizong of Li Shimin named him King of Tuyuhun Heyuan County and added the title of Eight Governors of Emperor Wu. There is also a statue of Emperor Taizong in front of Zhaoling, which has the same name and title as Ganling. In thirteen years, Murong Nuo made a special trip to Chang 'an to make a pilgrimage and propose marriage.
In the second year, Emperor Taizong "married the princess as his eldest daughter and ordered the right general tachileik to hold a ceremony to escort the princess. After Tang Gaozong succeeded to the throne, he was still the king of Qinghai. Because he was deeply loved by Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong and was closely related to the Tang Dynasty, a stone statue was carved for him in front of the tombs of the two emperors to commemorate him.
Kai Wei is the king of Khotan. Khotan is now Khotan, Xinjiang. During the Zhenguan period, the envoys of Khotan presented jade belts and other tributes to the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Xu and Turks settled in Qiuci, and Fu Yuxin, the king of Khotan, was very afraid and gave 300 camels as gifts to Xu.
Xue Wanbei, a social envoy, advised him to submit to the Tang Dynasty, so Fu, accompanied by Xue, went to Chang 'an to make a pilgrimage in person, was made a general, and was given jade belts, brocade robes and other things. He stayed in Chang 'an for several months before returning. In the third year, Fu Gexiong, the king of Khotan, died, and Wu Zetian made his son Wei Chikai the king of Khotan. Although Khotan is not a Han Chinese, he has been a vassal of China since the Han Dynasty. So, a stone statue was carved for its king in front of Ganling.
Most of these deeds recorded in the history books of the Tang Dynasty took place during the reign of Wu Zetian to Tang Zhongzong. It can be seen that these stone statues were carved in this period and were erected only after Wu Zetian buried Gan Ling. In fact, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was unprecedented, and the ruling forces surpassed the desert in the north and the verdant mountains in the west and reached the two river basins in Central Asia. The neighboring ethnic groups had frequent exchanges with the Tang Dynasty, and many ethnic leaders were appointed as local officials and served as twelve generals in the Tang Dynasty.
According to this situation, in the first year of Shenlong, when Tang Zhongzong buried Wu Zetian, more than 60 people who had served in the imperial court were carved in Ganling to reflect the ruling power of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian and the affiliation of all ethnic groups to the Tang Dynasty.
There are 6 1 statues in Ganling, 29 in the east and 32 in the west. However, this asymmetrical arrangement does not conform to the architectural pattern of ancient China, so some scholars suspect that there are not only 6 1 Buddha statues.
Sure enough, two unfinished original stones were found in the cemetery area on the east side of Ganling. The stone blank is 2.45 meters high and 0.86 meters wide. According to this size, it is consistent with the blank size of the stone statue. Later, a semi-finished product was found here, which carved human figures and bodies.
Nearby villagers found an unfinished stone statue not far from here. If you add the blank of the stone man and two semi-finished stone statues, the number of sweet ministers in Ganling is exactly 64.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, th
There is a saying that in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, there was an outstanding Khan named Wendao Luwu in the north. He is clever and brave. He is deeply loved by the tribal people. Somehow, someone carved his stone statue and stood in Ganling. Ashina Shiming, his son, was very dissatisfied when he learned that, so he disguised himself as a Lama and came to Ganling. He got angry as soon as he saw it. He lifted a stone to smash the stone statue, but it was protected by the mausoleum.
One day, while it was dark at night, the farmland near the stone statue trampled the crops, but it was rumored that the stone statue did it. Only by smashing his head can this disaster be avoided. People believed it, rushed to Ganling and smashed the stone head. Ashina Shi Ming took the opportunity to pick up her father's stone head, wrapped his back in a bundle and went home. Since then, the statue of the farmer on Ganling has become a headless stone statue.
Another view is that when Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, he saw a group of foreign envoys standing in front of Tangganling and felt humiliated by foreigners, so he cut off the head of the stone man. However, according to the research of historians, Eight-Nation Alliance had never been to Ganling at that time.
Legends are legends after all, but it is not difficult to see that the loss and damage of these stone statues are related to people's intentional or unintentional destruction. According to the analysis of relevant data, the destruction of Minister Fan's image has both natural reasons and human factors.
In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, that is,1555 65438+1October 23rd, a strong earthquake occurred in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province, with a magnitude of 8 to 1 1. As the earthquake happened at midnight, people were still sleeping, resulting in more than 800,000 people being killed in the earthquake. Hua county is only100km away from Ganling, which belongs to the epicenter and suffered a devastating blow. This is the famous Guanzhong earthquake in history.
Guanzhong earthquake is one of the main reasons for the head fracture of Chen Fan statue. Because there are not only statues of ministers, but also many stone statues and horse heads in Ganling. Expert: Besides the fragile neck of the stone statue, another important reason is the material of the stone statue. Because the stone used for carving at that time had some stone defects, that is, some light-colored lines that could be seen from the stone. When a stone is damaged, it is most likely to crack from these places.
Part of the statue of Fan Chen may have been destroyed in that big earthquake. The rest of the stone statues were probably destroyed by repeated wars in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties five or six hundred years ago. Although the head of the 6 1 statue has disappeared, the vivid images of tight-fitting and narrow-sleeved clothes, wide belts, short leather boots, feet standing side by side and hands bowing in front of us still show us the scene of courtiers standing in the court, which makes us full of infinite reverie about the prosperous Tang Dynasty.