Borrowing spirits to rob tombs: the fever of digging ancestral graves for descendants of Qing emperors

Prince Rui Dourgen, the history of grave robbery in the Republic of China? Insider Volume Author: Ni Publishing House: China Overseas Chinese Publishing House "Awakening" Tide During the Republic of China, descendants of the Qing Dynasty emperors had a pleasant excuse to dig ancestral graves-"Awakening". Awakening is one of the customs of China's past two burials. Is to dig the coffin or bone out of the old grave and bury it in another place. The reason is either that future generations immigrated and moved away with their ancestors in order to feel at ease; Either the original burial place is not good, please ask Mr. Feng Shui to find a good place for burial, Geely; Some of the original cemeteries were occupied and had to be moved away ... The descendants of the Qing Prince "resurrected" their ancestral graves, mostly for unrelated reasons, mainly for making money. Before the fall of the Qing dynasty, the descendants of these princes were all majestic. After the Revolution of 1911, these people lost power and had no maids to wait on them. The footman embraced each other and suddenly declined. Some people are forced by the pressure of life to simply pedal tricycles in order to survive. For example, Yan Sen, the maiden of Empress Dowager Cixi-the Wang family of Keqin County, the last generation of county king, had no choice but to become a rickshaw driver and was nicknamed "Che Wang", hence the name "Che Wang Tomb" for her ancestral grave in fengcun, Mentougou. Without money and the ability to make a living, the descendants of these rich sons who are used to living with their mouths open and naked began to squander their ancestral businesses. It's good that the descendants of a monarch like Yan Sen can stand on their own feet. However, most people began to "sell ancestral graves" after selling all their ancestors: first sell grave trees and then sell land, and finally "wake up" and directly dig up the funerary objects for money. Mr. Feng Qili, a Beijing scholar, is an expert on Wang Yefen. He made a systematic investigation on the distribution of Wang Yefen around Beijing, and wrote the book Wang Yefen in Qing Dynasty. Mr. Feng Qili mentioned many cases of Wang Yefen's theft in his book. King Kewang's Tomb in North Tiancun, Jingxi, 19 13 (in the second year of the Republic of China). Later, people put down trees in the cemetery and then sold most of the cemetery. Seeing this situation, the grave robbers soon came to the cemetery. Later, the descendants of King Ke sold out all the tiles and stones here. 1924 (13th year of the Republic of China) came to "wake up" and thoroughly planed the ancestral graves. The "Blue Wang Qi" cemetery is located in front of the Xianren Cave in the Ming Tombs. It is the cemetery of the second son and his descendants of Tong Qi A, the deputy director of Zheng Qinwang, including the "East Palace" and the "West Palace". 1930 (in the 19th year of the Republic of China), there was a drought in Changping and a locust plague broke out. After selling the trees in the graveyard, one of Wang Fu's brothers tore down the wall to sell bricks and tiles, and finally "resurrected". The tomb of Prince Yi in Banbidian, Changping County is the eighth son of Qianlong and the oldest prince of Yongxuan. The prince lived to 87 years old. 1925 (14th year of the Republic of China), later generations sold the trees, bricks and stones on his grave and then "resurrected". It is said that when I opened the underground palace, I saw two coffins. The body is well preserved and there are many funerary objects. The "Twelve Mausoleums" outside Dongzhimen, Beijing is the cemetery of twelve sons of Kangxi. 1929 (Republic of China 18), Pu Zhi, a descendant of Duke Zhen, demolished all the buildings on the ground of the Twelve Mausoleums and sold bricks and wood to Wotou Liu in Dongzhimenli. Then "wake up", after digging the underground palace, I found three coffins on the stone bed, buried in Xiaowangjing Village, and the funerary objects were naturally left behind. ...... During the Republic of China, many descendants of monarchs did this by selling trees and land to dig ancestral graves, and there was a wave of "awakening". Especially the phenomenon of selling trees is the most serious. Trees in the cemetery were never sold before. They are planted to protect feng shui. These trees are commonly called "feng shui forest", and cutting them down will destroy feng shui. But think about it, the Qing regime has fallen, the "dragon" has died, and the cemetery still talks about Feng Shui. Our thief's "old house" has a tomb of King Zheng in Baishiqiao, the western suburb of Beijing, which is the first tomb of Zheng Qinwang in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty. The earliest burial place here is the sixth son of Shu 'erhaqi, the third brother of Qing Taizu. The tomb of Jirlalang is commonly known as the "old house", and later the tomb of the prince is the "second house", and later the tomb of the king of Min County is the "new house". There are so many ancient trees on the tomb of Zheng Wang that three or four people can't carry them. Later generations began to sell trees when life was tight: 1926 (in the 15th year of the Republic of China), Zhao Xu, Zheng Qinwang, sold the trees here to a timber factory, and his uncle Le Tai didn't want any money. When he placed trees, he symbolically left four trees beside Wang Ye's tomb, two of which were listed as "ancient and famous trees", so they were preserved. After selling the trees, the building materials were dismantled and sold: 1927 (in the Republic of China 16), Zhao Xu sold the Tuolong tablet and tiles to Zhang Xueliang. When the Northeast Army came to demolish Wang Ye's grave, it also set up a sentry. 193 1 year (20 years of the Republic of China), grave robbers were found on the tomb of King Zheng. These grave robbers were buried in several tombs of Fang Fujin and Shu Fujin near JiErlang's "old residence". Someone thought something was wrong and called the police. The police caught the grave robber who was digging the old house. After the trial, they learned that the grave robbers turned out to be poor and embarrassed Zheng's biological parents. The "old house" was later saved. 1945 (34 years of the Republic of China) Before Japan surrendered, a group of plainclothes grave robbers stole the "old house". After Japan surrendered, a senior official of the National Army sent someone to rob the tomb and stole a number of funerary objects. When I was looking at mending the grave, I found that the grave robbers blasted the "old house" with explosives, then made a hole from it and got into the underground palace. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the descendants of the King of Zheng simply left nothing behind to "wake up" once. The urn is blue and white porcelain, which was later acquired by Beijing cultural relics department at a high price.