Gao Lishi's Tomb —— The First Eunuch Who Can Be Comparable to the Emperor (1)

Introduction: Tailing Mausoleum is the home behind Li Longji, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, who started the prosperous era of Kaiyuan. For thousands of years, only one tomb has been waiting silently, accompanying the lonely Tailing. Who was so lucky to be buried beside the monarch in the feudal dynasty? What was his status before his death, winning the trust of the emperor and winning this honor after his death? The past is more than a thousand years, brushing away the dust of history, and the truth is waiting for us to uncover it ourselves. One night in March, 1999, two grave robbers tried to open an ancient tomb in Shanxi Village, pucheng county, Shaanxi Province. The violent blasting woke up the villagers, and the grave robbers fled in panic ... Who's grave is this, and what treasures are hidden in it, which attracted the grave robbers' late-night patronage? Shanxi Village, the only burial tomb in Tailing, is an immigrant village. Because its ancestors moved from Shanxi in the early Ming Dynasty, it was named "Shanxi Village". 1.5km northwest of the village is the Tailing, the final resting place of Li Longji, the prosperous emperor of the Tang Dynasty. The ancient tomb at the entrance of the village is said to be the only tomb buried with Tailing. The wind and grass are dying, and the ancient tomb is full of loneliness. Although the robbery was attempted, the stolen hole blown up by the thieves is still there. Why did the master who slept in the ancient tomb accompany Tailing alone for thousands of years? The local people said that they knew this mound was a burial place since childhood. When children went up to play, the old man would say, Don't go up. It was the tomb of Gao Lishi, a famous father-in-law in the Tang Dynasty. In Yaoshan, pucheng county, at the temple fair held every spring, there will be such a yangko performance-a trip by the Emperor of Ming Dynasty. In folk literature and art, whenever there is a Ming emperor and an imperial concubine, there must be a great eunuch named Gao Lishi. The eunuch dressed as a clown standing beside the emperor is a household name among the people in China. Legend has it that he took off his boots for Li Bai. He was the matchmaker between Tang Minghuang and Yang Guifei. Tang Minghuang took the imperial concubine home in anger, or let him go back to the palace ... However, is this humble tomb in Shanxi Village the famous tomb of Gao Lishi? In ancient China, whenever there were large tombs of emperors and powerful families, there would be Shinto and Tombstone, with stone men and horses on both sides of Shinto, while Tombstone recorded the life and identity of the tomb owner. So where are the Shinto and Tombstone in Gao Lishi's tomb? Confirmed by archaeologists, the location of Tombstone in Gao Lishi has long since disappeared, leaving only scattered rural earthwork. According to local cultural relics experts, Tombstone, who dug up an ancient tomb here in 197s, has now been moved to pucheng county Museum. This magnificent Tombstone, about 4 meters high, was erected during the Tang Daizong period in 777 A.D., and its inscription is entitled "Tombstone, the Grand Governor of Yangzhou, was given by the instrument and the Third Division of the Tang Dynasty". The tablet concisely records Gao Lishi's experience of serving four generations of emperors, namely Wu Zetian, Tang Zhongzong, Tang Ruizong and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. He died at the age of 79, but the details of his life record are vague. Accordingly, the cultural relics department recognized this tomb as Gao Lishi's tomb in 199s, but it was not excavated for the purpose of cultural relics protection. In view of the destruction of the ancient tomb caused by this grave robbery, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology was forced to conduct a rescue excavation in 1999. Facing the upcoming tomb of Gao Lishi, we can't help wondering: As one of the most famous eunuchs in the history of China, what is his tomb like? What kind of treasures will be hidden in it? And what are the differences between the tombs of eunuchs and ordinary people? Wang Xingmin, director of the Tailing Cultural Relics Management Office, recalled the scene of entering the tomb of Gao Lishi. Although more than 1,2 years have passed, there is still a clear distinction between the ripe soil filled in the tomb and the raw soil that has not been passive underground. Two soil troughs were formed when the barbell fell during burial, which were left when the wooden coffin bed was laid down thousands of years ago. It was along these two grooves that archaeologists removed the buried cooked soil and successfully entered the dusty tomb. On the wall of the pyramid-shaped mound, people found a niche where funerary objects were placed, but the funerary objects that should have been in the niche were gone. At that time, there were pottery figurines, pastel figurines and jade figurines in the niches, which were sealed with bricks and painted with murals on the outside. The content of the mural is the portraits of Qin Qiong and Weichi Gong, famous celebrities and founding fathers of the Tang Dynasty, that is, the guardian door gods, who are responsible for guarding the tranquility of the residence behind the tomb owner. Before the archaeologists entered the tomb, they saw the broken and messy traces at the end of the pyramid-shaped mound. It can be concluded that the tomb has been stolen, and the traces of the excavation have been long, and I am afraid that it has been stolen more than once in the long years. Through the long pyramid-shaped mound and three stone gates to the tomb, people found three stolen holes in the tomb. In the earliest grave robbery in the 198 s, the grave robbers first took away the most valuable gold and silver funerary objects in the tomb. Then, another group of grave robbers who entered from Shimen found that someone had already got there first, so they knocked down and smashed the coffin bed of the tomb owner and turned the tomb upside down. Looking through the tomb, we can see that this is a typical tomb in the middle Tang Dynasty. There is a brick dome on the top and a coffin bed made of green slate on the bottom. The world is round, suggesting the ancient world view. The wall of the tomb was originally painted with various murals depicting the life in the Tang Dynasty, which had already fallen off under the erosion of years. Because Gao Lishi's tomb has been robbed many times in history, there are few funerary objects left in the tomb. However, archaeologists have found something special in the regrettable mess. In the process of cleaning the tomb, human skull fragments, mandible fragments and femur fragments were found sporadically. These bones were identified by Mr. Han Kangxin from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They belonged to an elderly individual, aged between 6 and 7, and could be preliminarily identified as the remains of Gao Lishi. Based on this, we can completely imagine the scene when the tomb was robbed: later grave robbers worked hard to enter the tomb, but they didn't expect nothing. In the dark tomb, they frantically searched for treasure, and even dragged the skeleton on the coffin bed to the ground from embarrassment, so Gao Lishi's bones scattered all over the floor ... According to the leg bones found in the tomb, we can roughly calculate that Gao Lishi's actual height is about 1.75 meters, and he is burly. This is consistent with the record of Gao Lishi's height of seven and a half feet in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, but it is obviously quite different from the popular image of Gao Lishi. In people's minds, Gao Lishi, like the famous Peking Opera segment "Drunken Imperial concubine", is a typical clown image, holding the dust in his hand, being passive to Nuo Nuo and pandering to his master. Until now, the villagers in Shanxi Village, Pucheng County, Shaanxi Province still feel that the traitor-like eunuch in the opera took off Li Bai's boots, and Yang Guozhong was the number one, that is, the real big eunuch Gao Lishi in history. The image in the hearts of this public is obviously waiting for the confirmation of more archaeological excavation results. All the treasures in Gao Lishi's tomb have been stolen, but archaeologists have found an epitaph, a treasure that grave robbers despise. The epitaph was buried underground with the coffin in the ancient burial custom, and was used to record the life of the owner of the tomb. It was given to Yan Luowang in the underworld as the resume of the deceased. The so-called "final verdict" refers to the epitaph. To our surprise, this precious epitaph clearly describes a Gao Lishi completely different from the folk saying. The epitaph reads: "Its generous amount, outstanding artistic career, talent for publicizing and caring, and traces of charity are in the theory of the elders, which is good for the ancients." "It means that Gao Lishi is generous, magnanimous, very talented in civil and military affairs, and has a strong ability to help the emperor govern the world. He is ready to help others, and has won high praise from the respected elders, who are quite upright and upright. It can be said that the evaluation of Gao Lishi is extremely high. However, many ancient epitaphs are full of praise, and even empty beauty hides evil. So, how credible is this epitaph? According to the conclusion of experts in Tang Shi, when Gao Lishi died, both Tang Xuanzong and Tang Suzong's father and son had died, and the grandson of Xuanzong had succeeded to the throne. There was no need to flatter a former eunuch who had already lost power and influence. Therefore, this epitaph was written by his contemporaries, and it was also a comment after Gao Lishi lost power. Its content is highly credible and can be called a fair evaluation.