Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

I pulled Cui Hao to kneel and kowtow in front of the relic tent.

"Buddha, we two have no choice but to offend you in order to lift the curse. Please have mercy on us and don't take it to heart."

After praying for a few words, we stood up and stood on both sides of the relic tent, grabbing the eaves at the top and preparing to push.

"One, two, three, get up!"

We both tried our best, and finally lifted the relic tent until our faces turned red and our necks became thick, and then slowly moved it to the side.

As soon as the entire relic tent was moved away, something on the base began to emit seven-colored light.

The light is as beautiful as a rainbow.

Bang!

Cui Hao was frightened by the seven-colored light, and his hand loosened, causing the bluestone relic tent to fall to the ground.

Fortunately, it didn't hit his foot.

Otherwise, I would have to go to the hospital with a broken bone.

"Did you see the seven-colored light just now?" Cui Hao asked me excitedly.

I nodded.

The colorful light flashed and disappeared. Although it existed for a very short time, it really existed.

"Brother, do you think this is the Buddha appearing?"

"Isn't the Buddha warning us?"

Cui Hao held my arms tightly with both hands, staring straight at the silver coffin on the pedestal, as if he was afraid of immediate retribution.

It is said that when the underground palace of Famen Temple was later opened and the eight-layered treasure box containing the Buddha's relics was discovered, colorful light also appeared.

I visited Famen Temple in the 1990s, and there were photos of colorful lights blooming on display in the treasure house.

I walked over to the pedestal and squatted down.

There is a gilded copper base under the silver coffin. Due to its age and the humidity of the underground palace, some of the gilding has fallen off, causing the copper part to develop bluish rust.

The silver coffin on the base is very delicately shaped like a coffin, with tassels made of pearls and colorful gems hanging around the lid.

There is a gilded lotus in the center of the lid, and the entire lid is inlaid with precious gems such as sapphires, crystals, and cat's eyes.

On each side are five images of Sakyamuni's disciples, some prostrating themselves on the ground, others with their hands clasped together, their expressions revealing grief.

I was amazed by the exquisite workmanship.

"beautiful."

"Brother, if you want to give this thing to Boss Dong, how much should he charge for it?"

Cui Hao's thoughts turned to money again.

He gets particularly excited when money is mentioned.

Even the fear of retribution was thrown out of my mind.

"It's hard to say, but this silver coffin is worth at least ten thousand. As for the things inside..."

As I spoke, I had already reached out to open the coffin lid.

As soon as the lid was opened, we both looked inside at the same time.

Inside was a piece of brocade wrapped in a square shape.

I took out the brocade and opened it.

A golden light burst out, it was a golden coffin!

"Hiss!" Cui Hao took a deep breath of cold air.

"Is this a golden coffin?!"

The golden coffin is very dazzling, with a ruyi-shaped pattern of honeysuckle vines and twined Baoxiang flowers on the lid.

Pearls are hung along the edge of the coffin lid, and the coffin body is decorated with pearl flowers.

In terms of workmanship and exquisiteness, it is absolutely top-notch.

"It should be a golden coffin."

I replied, and couldn't wait to open the golden coffin lid.

The coffin lid was opened, revealing two glass bottles inside.

The light green glass bottles are two large and one small, and are translucent.

I picked it up and held it to the flashlight.

The small ones contain crystals the size of rice grains, while the large ones contain powdery substances.

It is speculated that the crystalline substance should be sarira.

As for the powdered substance...I would boldly speculate that it is the ashes of Sakyamuni.

"Brother, let's take all of this away?" Cui Hao was greedy and completely forgot about the fear of karma.

In fact, there is no tomb robber who is not greedy.

People who are good at this job are all looking for quick money and to get rich quickly. In essence, they want to work less and get more.

I am also moved.

But these are the most precious treasures of Buddhism.

Take one to save your life, and you can also explain it to Buddha.

If you take everything away and sell it, the nature of the matter will be different.

"No, let's each take one relic and carry it with us. Don't take the others."

Cui Hao nodded somewhat disappointedly: "That's right, one should not be too greedy when taking things from the Buddha."

I opened the glass bottle and carefully poured out two relics.

The sarira is not much bigger than a grain of rice.

It is a light yellow, slightly transparent crystal, with a gem-like feel.

Later, I went to see the finger bone relics in Famen Temple and the parietal bone relics unearthed from Nanjing Da Baoen Temple. They were different from the relics I saw in Qingshan Temple.

The shapes of the finger bone relics and the parietal bone relics are so unique that the relics in Qingshan Temple are more realistic.

I took two sariras and placed them in Cui Hao's palm, then I closed the glass bottle and put it back.

Then the golden coffin was covered, wrapped with brocade cloth and placed back into the silver coffin.

Finally, the relic tent was restored, and everything was as if nothing had been touched.

Well, except that the brick wall that was smashed in can't be restored.

We returned to the ground the same way we came, and Wang Hu and the others were sitting not far away, talking in low voices.

When I came out of the tunnel, I happened to hear Lu Bin complaining.

"There are so many good things in there. He's too stingy to just let us take one each."

"If you don't want to divide it equally among the people, at least give us half of the things."

"He's only been talking these past two days. We're the ones doing all the heavy lifting. Why don't you all say something?"

Wang Hu slapped Lu Bin on the back of the head: "You are eating Master Chen's food, but you want to smash Master Chen's pot?"

"Without Master Chen teaching us how to dig a burrow, we'd probably just end up digging a hole!"

"Before we came, we agreed that we would work hard, and Master Chen would pay us wages and allow you to sell things. That's Master Chen's kindness!"

"It's fine if you don't know how to be grateful, but you're still talking nonsense and trying to mislead people! If you say another word of nonsense, I won't be polite to you."

Seeing that the two were on the verge of a fight, Liu Dongdong and others immediately acted as peacemakers.

"Old Lu, what you said is indeed wrong. When we work with Master Chen, we have to listen to his orders."

"If you want to eat more and take more, then go find a grave and dig it yourself. No one will say anything even if you keep it all for yourself."

"That's right, we all want to learn more skills from Master Chen."

They were all quite alert.

Knowing that learning skills can bring long-term benefits, being greedy for immediate things will only end up with more losses than gains.

When I came out of the tunnel, they hurriedly stood up to greet me.

"Master Chen is out!"

"We'll help you get your things...Huh? Why is Master Chen empty-handed?"

"Is the thing with Brother Haozi? Go and give him a hand."

In order to cover up his guilty conscience for saying bad things behind his back, Lu Bin acted the most actively.

He ran to the entrance of the tunnel to help get the things out, but saw Cui Hao also coming up empty-handed.

Now he was stunned.

I originally thought that we would throw away all the valuable things below, but I didn't expect that we would come up empty-handed.

"Mr. Chen, why didn't you take anything?" Lu Bin asked curiously.

I ignored him.

Instead, he ordered Wang Hu to take people to backfill the soil and bury the stolen hole.

Because this is a job that can be done in one night, there is no need to spread the soil, just backfill after the work is done.

Only when it takes several days to dig a tunnel, in order to avoid being discovered and arousing suspicion during the day, it is necessary to scatter the excavated soil.

For example, later a group of colleagues discovered a Han Dynasty tomb in the suburbs of Beijing and started working.

Being lazy, they did not spread the soil and piled the excavated soil in the fields. In a few days, many soil piles were built.

Passersby saw the piles of earth growing larger every day, became suspicious and called the police, and the group was arrested.

After they filled the hole, I smiled and hugged Lu Bin.

"Old Lu, I'm a man of my word."

"You took too much stuff from the underground palace, so Cui Hao and I came here empty-handed."

"What?!"

Everyone looked at Lu Bin, their eyes blazing with anger.

Everyone followed the rules and only took one item each, but Lu Bin broke the rules, which naturally angered everyone.

Wang Hu grabbed Lu Bin by the hair and pushed him to the ground: "You idiot, you bastard! How dare you break the rules!"

"It made Master Chen not take anything!"