Chapter 1,297 The Emperor gave gold bricks as a congratulatory gift
According to statistics, more than 5,300 pieces of various types of funerary objects including gold, silver, jade, gems, etc. were unearthed in the tomb of King Liangzhuang alone.
Among them, there are more than 1,400 pieces of gold, silver, and jade, and more than 3,400 pieces of beads and precious stones.
Its level of luxury is unprecedented among the Ming Dynasty princes who have been excavated, second only to Ming Shenzong's Dingling Tomb. It is another major archaeological discovery of the Ming Dynasty after Dingling.
Some of these classic ornaments have a large number of gemstones on them.
The most famous ones are definitely the "gold-set gem cap" and a 200-carat "colorless sapphire", which is also the largest one in our country so far.
Speaking of this, some people may not be able to help but wonder, "How much is such a big gem worth?"
Experts also responded: It is impossible to estimate;
Some friends may not understand. Gemstones, like gold and silver, are all measured by weight. How can they be "invaluable"?
Let me say a few more words here. Generally speaking, the value of gold and silver is mostly measured in grams, and its value is calculated based on the cumulative total weight;
But "gems" are different. Generally speaking, for every additional carat of a gemstone, its value is not "accumulated", but may double.
It weighs "200 carats" and has historical value. This is the main reason why experts say it is "unvaluable".
Some friends may ask, such a large colorless sapphire should be the most valuable cultural relic in the tomb of King Liangzhuang, right?
The answer is also surprising. The most valuable thing in the tomb of King Liangzhuang is not the 200-carat "colorless sapphire", but two fifty-tael "gold bricks", totaling 100 taels.
Friends who know something about the tomb of King Liangzhuang may know that the cultural relics in this large tomb are "priceless".
In addition to gems, items such as filigree gem-inlaid belts, gold-inlaid white jade belts, etc. are all considered national treasures;
On the contrary, the value of gold and silver appears much dimmer.
How could the value of a "colorless sapphire" be less than two, one hundred taels of "gold bricks"?
To put it simply, two gold bricks, one is 13 cm long, 9.8 cm wide, 1 cm thick, and weighs 1937 grams;
The other piece is 14 cm long, 10 cm wide, 0.8 cm thick, and weighs 1874.3 grams;
One of the gold bricks is engraved with the words "In the 17th year of Yongle's reign, one ingot of 80% color gold was purchased from Western countries and other places, five hundred and twenty ounces."
The literal meaning is easy to understand. It mainly talks about the weight and origin of two gold bricks.
Here is the key point. These two gold bricks are actually imported goods imported from the "West" by Zheng He during his voyages to the West;
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", "gold bricks" were engagement gifts given by the Ming Dynasty court to the royal family and nobles. This also shows that King Zhuang of Liang married twice in his life.
Friends who have studied history may say, "Don't bullshit."
Two gold bricks were unearthed from the tomb, so it is said that King Zhuang of Liang was married twice? There is no basis at all;
King Zhuang of Ming Dynasty died at the age of thirty and had no heirs in his life. In the end, he was expelled from his title.
At first glance, this statement makes sense.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records: "The king of Liangzhuang Zhan Bian, Renzong's nine sons, came to Luzhou in the fourth year of Xuande. He died in the sixth year of Zhengtong. He had no children, so he was excommunicated."
To put it bluntly, King Zhuang of Liang is called "Zhu Zhanbian (ji)", the ninth son of Ming Renzong and the great-grandson of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang;
Zhu Zhanbian was named "King of Liang", and his fiefdom was in today's Beihu Province. He fell ill and died at the age of thirty, leaving no heirs. Because of this, the title of "King of Liang" was removed by the court.
This raises several questions: How could King Liang Zhuang suddenly die suddenly when he was just standing?
Zhu Zhanbian was the noble king of the vassal, so he should have a group of wives and concubines. How could he not leave any heirs?
Since the title of "King of Liangzhuang" has been removed, why does the emperor still pay so much attention to his mausoleum?
These issues are not mentioned in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", and they have added many unsolved mysteries to today's historical research;
Finally, among the piles of gold, silver and jade, the archaeological team found two "stone" epitaphs and two gilt seals.
Only then did the mysterious veil of "King Liangzhuang" unravel.
It turns out that in the tomb of King Liangzhuang, there is not only "Zhu Zhanbian", but to be precise, it is a "husband and wife tomb";
The strange thing is that the person accompanying King Liang Zhuang was not his "first wife", but his second wife.
To put it simply, "Prince Zhuang of Liang" got married at the age of seventeen, and his wife was Ji, and the two of them got along well;
It was a pity that the Ji family died young, which made the king of Liangzhuang depressed. He missed his ex-wife so much that he did not renew their relationship for five years until he met his second wife, Wei family.
It was also because of the good fortune of King Liangzhuang that the Wei family became more gentle and considerate. The two fell in love with each other and lived happily together. They also gave birth to two little "princess princesses".
King Zhuang of Liang got married twice, and Emperor Ming twice gave him "gold bricks" as congratulatory gifts. This is the value of these two gold bricks.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Prince Zhuang of Liang and the Wei family only lived together for eight years before another tragedy occurred.
This time it was the turn of the "King of Liangzhuang" who had just turned thirty to die;
Although the Wei family was not the official wife, she had a deep affection for King Zhuang of Liang. She wanted to be buried with her husband several times, and this matter also caused trouble in the court.
At that time, Emperor Zhengtong of the Ming Dynasty was in power, and he was the nephew of King Zhuang of Liang in terms of seniority;
Emperor Ming was impressed by the deep love between King Liangzhuang and his wife, and finally issued an "edict" personally, ordering the Wei family not to commit suicide, and to continue to retain the "Prince of Liangzhuang" fiefdom, palace, etc., so that the Wei family could raise their two young daughters with peace of mind.
This was not simple in ancient times.
Because it stands to reason that King Zhuang of Liang has no sons and no one can inherit the title of King Liang, so the fiefdom must be recovered.
Since it was the emperor's "edict", Mrs. Wei had no choice but to put aside her distracting thoughts and continue to raise her two daughters;
Perhaps because she missed the king so much, a few years later, the Wei family fell seriously ill and left a will when she was dying, hoping to be buried with King Zhuang of Liang.
Let me explain that the "Tomb of King Liangzhuang" was not originally designed for joint burial, but only one tomb;
The Wei family had this wish, so the craftsmen had no choice but to dig up the tomb of King Liangzhuang again and temporarily build another tomb.
This is why the archaeological team found another tomb chamber, but "the tomb door was broken, but there were no fragments."
It should also be noted that perhaps hundreds of years ago, the story of Liangzhuang Wang and his wife was so famous that local masters from all walks of life "patronized" it;
For unknown reasons, the local masters destroyed the structure of the tomb, causing water to accumulate in the tomb.
At first glance, this seems to be an act of destroying ancient tombs. Who would have thought, but "water accumulation" has become the most powerful protective measure.
This created the miracle that "although there are rare treasures in the tomb, they have not been stolen after hundreds of years";
And the barbaric behavior of modern Tufuzi who used explosives almost completely destroyed this ancient tomb.
However, they found nothing because of the stagnant water and the inability to excavate on a large scale.
Of course, thanks to the timely excavation by the archaeological team, not only more than 5,300 precious cultural relics were saved, but also a romantic history that had been sealed for hundreds of years was revealed.
Romantic or not, Chen Wenzhebing was not interested. What interested him most was the treasure inside.
For example, gold silk inlaid with sapphire hollow double-luan peony hairpin, trapezoidal gold silk hairpin with precious stones, peach-shaped gold silk hairpin with precious stones, gold with precious stones bracelet, golden phoenix hairpin, etc.