Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

"Puchi." Zhang Nan smiled.

At that moment, the world lost its color in my eyes, as if only her blooming smile existed.

"My silly brother, your question is embarrassing your sister."

"There is no record of night-shining pearls in historical documents, and no night-shining pearls are found in any of the cultural relics currently registered across the country."

"According to my dad, night-shining pearls are fluorite-like substances containing rare earth elements or radioactive elements."

The answer is as expected.

I suddenly had an idea and wanted to show her the fake night pearl.

"Sister, do you know Biguo?"

"Yo."

Zhang Nan glared at me with a mixture of anger and joy.

Her watery eyes were wide open like almond kernels, filled with tenderness.

It made me fascinated.

"Why are you like my dad, always testing me with all kinds of questions?"

"Huh? I, I didn't mean to test you."

I explained in a panic.

"Hahaha, you look so nervous, are you afraid that I'll eat you?"

"If you don't mind, I'd be willing to be eaten by you..."

The more I spoke, the quieter my voice became, until I could hardly hear it.

But Zhang Nan seemed to have heard it, and tapped my head with her jade finger: "You are so smooth-talking at such a young age."

"No kidding, the Bi State first appeared during the Shang Dynasty. It was a vassal state of the Shang Dynasty and was called Bifang."

"After King Wu defeated King Zhou, he granted his half brother Ji Gao the land of Bifang and established the State of Bi."

"Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian records that Duke Bi's title was later abolished and he became a commoner, but there is no record of which generation the Duke Bi's title was abolished."

"The present Xianyang Plateau is likely the location of the Bi Kingdom's fiefdom."

These contents are almost the same as what Tuo Ye said.

It seems that the tomb of the king of Bi State really exists.

"By the way, Bi State is also related to Bi Su."

"The Bi constellation resembles a hunting tool with a small mesh and a long handle. This is the origin of the Bi State. It is possible that the ancestors of that place were skilled in hunting with this tool called Bi."

"Also, in ancient Chinese and Western astrology, Betelgeuse is believed to be associated with rain, so it is also known as the Rain Master."

After answering the question, Zhang Nan raised his head slightly, looking as if he was going to give me full marks.

I gave her a thumbs up and said, "Sister, you are amazing! You know so much."

"Hehe, just a trial run."

"Do you have any other questions?"

"Have."

"I'd like to ask, did the archaeological team encounter any strange incidents while digging the tomb?"

This is the question I want to know most.

If the archaeological team has encountered strange events, the risk of tomb robbery will be higher.

Zhang Nan held his chin with his right hand and said after thinking for a while, "Normally, no, but there have been some strange things."

"But in the end, it can all be explained by science."

"For example?" I asked.

"My teacher told me that the tomb of Prince Yide was excavated in 71."

"During the excavation, we lacked experience and did not use the method of lifting the roof to open the tomb chamber. Instead, we opened the tomb passage and entered directly."

"The first group of archaeologists who entered the area soon developed symptoms such as vomiting and confusion and were rushed to the hospital."

"People were in a panic at the time, saying it was retribution for some evil spirit."

"In fact, it was insufficient ventilation, polluted air and lack of oxygen that caused the health problems of the archaeologists."

The "big uncovering" refers to digging up the entire tomb.

The top of the tomb was removed to expose the entire tomb structure.

Most tomb robbers are not capable of using the large-scale roof-lifting method, so they locate the tomb chamber and dig a hole.

However, the government had sufficient manpower for tomb robbing and did not have to worry about legal and moral issues, so when they encountered a large tomb, they would usually use the method of removing the roof.

For example, when Dong Zhuo took control of Luoyang, he ordered his soldiers to dig up the ancient tombs in Mangshan by removing the roofs.

Nowadays, when archaeological teams excavate tombs, they mostly use the large-roof-lifting method.

First, it is highly secure.

Second, it can help us better understand the characteristics of tombs from different dynasties.

The third is to facilitate the extraction of cultural relics remaining in the soil.

At that time, I didn't think about the roof being uncovered, my mind was focused on the lack of ventilation.

In the story told by Tuo Ye, he heard a woman crying after entering the tomb. Could it be related to insufficient ventilation?

He said that when the tomb was dug, a green gas spewed out of the tomb that could be ignited.

This indicates that there is methane-like fermentation gas in the tomb.

These gases may be toxic and cause hallucinations after breathing.

With this reasoning, it can be explained logically.

As long as we ensure good ventilation and avoid inhaling toxic gases, we can solve the mystery of the tomb, right?

The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. I don't know why my brain went haywire.

As if possessed by a ghost, he took out the fake night-shining pearl from his bag.

"I dug it out while farming. It glows faintly at night. I tried to figure out what it was, but I couldn't."

"Sister, look, is this a night-shining pearl?"

Under the sunlight, the bead didn't look particularly special.

It is a translucent round bead, and you can see many cracks and floc-like structures inside it.

Similar to crystals of average quality that contain impurities and cracks.

When I handed the beads to Zhang Nan, my eyes flashed.

Suddenly I found that there seemed to be some words engraved on the beads.

I never looked closely at the beads in sunlight after I got them, so I didn’t even notice there was any engraving on them!

Zhang Nan took the beads and looked at them in the sunlight outside the window.

The beads turned gently between her slender jade fingers.

She seemed to discover that there were words engraved on the beads, and she frowned slightly and stared at them intently.

"Looks like gold inscriptions?"

Bronze inscriptions refer to the inscriptions on bronze ware from the late Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty.

Because the Zhou Dynasty called copper gold, the inscription font was called "jinwen". It was abandoned after the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms.

"Sister, can you understand the words above?"

I also came closer and stared at the words on the beads.

But those characters were completely different from the characters we use today. Even if I opened my eyes wide, I couldn’t recognize a single one.

"This is the character for 'Ba'. I don't recognize the character in the middle. Could the character below be a snake?"

"My dad's latest research topic is related to the Bashe snake, and I'm helping him copy the Bashe characters in various fonts."

"So these two characters are basically confirmed to be Bashe."

"But 巴蛇 is a word, so why is there another character in the middle? What kind of snake is 巴蛇?"

Zhang Nan tilted his head and thought, but he couldn't seem to figure out what the word in the middle was.

I also started to think about it curiously.

Sichuan is now called Bashu.

In the past, Ba and Shu were two countries.

When King Wu attacked King Zhou, both Ba and Shu sent troops to help, and the soldiers of Ba served as the vanguard and defeated the Yin army.

"Huayang Guozhi" records: The Ba army was brave and fierce, singing and dancing to embarrass the Yin people, and their former followers turned against them.

This record says that the soldiers of the Ba State were brave and valiant. They attacked while singing and dancing, causing the front line of the Yin people to collapse and flee with their spears dragging behind them.

The Pakistani warriors won the battle while singing and dancing. It seems a bit magical no matter how you look at it, but this is how it is recorded in the book.

Maybe they sing and dance, some kind of witchcraft?

"Does Ba here refer to the country? What kind of snake is in Ba?" I guessed.

"That makes sense... not right."

Zhang Nan suddenly stared at me and asked very seriously, "If these pearls really were from the Ba Kingdom, how could they be dug out from the Xianyang Plateau?"

"Tell me the truth, where did the beads come from?!"