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Han “Yongyuan” Chronicle Brick.
Or with exquisite ornamentation such as Qinglong, Tianlu, Fengniao and Pisces, or with clear year names such as Yuankang, Yongyuan, Yanxi, Chiwu, Yonghe and Xining … Recently, there are more than 8,000 ancient tomb bricks in the warehouse of Shaoxing Museum.
Previously, these ancient tomb bricks were temporarily stored in the property condominium center of Keqiao District Public Security Inspection Law because of a huge cultural relic theft case. Now that the case is closed, they finally have the best place to go.
From a stolen hole
Dig up a big case
“Three rooms, all filled with ancient tomb bricks. In order to transport these antiquities back to Ke Qiao in good condition, more than 10 police officers moved for three days and three nights. ” Zhang Junjian, captain of Hutang Strike Team of Criminal Investigation Brigade of Keqiao Branch of Shaoxing Public Security Bureau, still remembers the scene when he arrested the suspect.
“On that day, we caught 19 suspects on the spot.” Zhang Junjian said that this is a criminal gang entrenched in Yuyao, which is an integration of stealing, digging, collecting stolen goods and selling cultural relics.
The clue of this big case comes from a small hole stealing. It was January, 2020, when an orchard contractor in Jiangtao Village, Yangxunqiao Street, Keqiao District visited the garden on the mountain, he found that the land in the orchard had been dug, and some broken bricks and black woven bags were scattered around it. He suspected that there might be an ancient tomb, which was dug up by grave robbers, so he called the police.
After receiving the alarm, the police immediately rushed to the orchard for field investigation and quickly locked a car. At the same time, the police station also invited cultural protection experts from Zhejiang Province and Keqiao District to identify the suspected stolen ancient tomb. “This is indeed an ancient tomb. According to the patterns on the brick fragments left on the scene and the shape of the whole tomb, we judge that it should be a brick-topped tomb in the Three Kingdoms period.” Gao Xingjiang, director of Keqiao District Museum, said that when he arrived at the scene, he saw that the stolen hole in this tomb was already very large, about 2 square meters, and he could almost see the bottom of the tomb at a glance.
On February 24th of that year, the police formally opened an investigation. With the in-depth investigation, the investigators found that besides Yangxun Bridge, there were also a large number of stolen holes in Lanting, Wangtan, Fuquan and other places. Therefore, Keqiao Branch of Shaoxing Public Security Bureau set up a task force, led by Hutang Strike Team of Criminal Investigation Brigade of Keqiao Branch, and the police stations of Yangxunqiao, Lanting, Xialv and Wangtan participated in the investigation of this case.
By combining cases in series, investigating a large number of clues involved and comparing information, the task force quickly locked a criminal gang. The main leader of the gang is Fang Mou, a native of Yuyao. As early as a few years ago, he was sentenced by Shangyu District People’s Court for robbing ancient tombs. After he got out of prison, he still wanted to get rich by robbing tombs.
Therefore, Fang and his fellow villager Xu called a group of migrant workers from Guizhou and set up a grave robbery gang, which specialized in stealing ancient tombs in Zhejiang, with the goal of ancient bricks in ancient tombs.
Why ancient bricks? Because the ancient brick has a hard texture and beautiful and delicate characters, it has a certain market value. Ancient bricks can also be processed into inkstones. Such inkstones have a delicate and smooth surface, are not easy to seep water, and have excellent inking.
“An ancient brick with good appearance can sell for tens of thousands of yuan. If the product is almost the same, it can be sold for several thousand dollars after being processed into inkstone. Fang also specially rented two rooms for placing ancient bricks and processing machines for making inkstones. ” Zhang Junjian said that when they were captured, the gang had made a profit of nearly one million yuan by selling ancient bricks.
During the day, this group of “gold-groping school captains” disguised as tourists, used fishing and climbing as an excuse to step on the spot, and started digging holes and robbing tombs late at night. In this way, from the beginning of 2019 to May 2020, in less than one and a half years, this group of people have “laid hands on” more than 40 ancient tombs in the province and committed 26 crimes successively.
The final result can be imagined. “It is strictly forbidden to dig ancient tombs, which is expressly stipulated in the national laws.
Yes, they are bound to be punished by law. “Zhang Junjian said.
Stolen ancient tomb brick
Have a new “home”
“Although most of these ancient tomb bricks belong to ordinary cultural relics, they all have certain historical and cultural values, and are valuable in studying Shaoxing’s human history, customs, ancient arts and crafts, etc.” After learning the news, He Minglei, the curator of Shaoxing Museum, took the initiative to get in touch with Keqiao District Branch of Shaoxing Public Security Bureau, hoping that these ancient tomb bricks seized according to law can enter Shaoxing Museum.
Soon, this proposal was recognized and supported by the public security department. In February this year, according to the relevant provisions of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, Shaoxing Museum and Hutang Police Station of Keqiao District Branch of Shaoxing Public Security Bureau handled the handover procedures.
“The scene I saw at that time was quite shocking. We went to five staff members and invited six porters. It took more than a month to finish cleaning and counting these ancient tomb bricks, and packed them and shipped them back to the museum. ” Shi Lin, deputy director of the preservation department of Shaoxing Museum, said that they have done a very meticulous job in cleaning the ancient tomb bricks, and classified them according to whether they are complete in appearance, different ages and different ornamentation.
“Most of these ancient tomb bricks have ornamentation or chronological inscriptions. The times are mostly Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms Dongwu period and Jin Dynasty, and some of them are Tang and Song Dynasties, and the latest is Ming Dynasty. Chronicle bricks involve the titles of Yuankang, Ganlu, Yongyuan, Yanxi, Jiahe, Chiwu, Xianning, Taikang, Yonghe and Xining. There are figures, green dragons, white tigers, day deer, phoenix birds, Pisces, turtles, animal faces, gluttony, and treasure patterns in the pattern bricks. There are also some official and surname inscription bricks customized by the tomb owner’s family. Bricks are square, rectangular, narrow, knife-shaped, wedge-shaped and so on. ” Lou Lie, deputy research librarian of Shaoxing Museum, said that in order to place the more than 8,000 ancient tomb bricks, they specially bought hundreds of boxes.
Unfortunately, quite a few of them were cut and processed into inkstone blanks, which lost their original appearance. “But in any case, after these ancient tomb bricks entered the Tibetan Museum, they greatly enriched the materials of ancient vessels in Shaoxing Museum.” Yan Lie said.
Ancient brick
The story behind
Every ancient brick, every pattern and every inscription seems to be quietly telling a dusty history. He Minglei said that as guardians of cultural relics, they have the responsibility not only to protect Shaoxing’s cultural relics, but also to study and display them well.
“In the original collection of Shaoxing Museum, there are also many ancient tomb bricks. During archaeological excavations in Shaoxing, we usually select some ancient tomb bricks with typical ornamentation and special chronology as samples and keep them in the inventory. Accumulated over the years, there have been many, and they are all quite exquisite. ” Lou Lie said that this is also a new concept that Shaoxing Museum pays more and more attention to the protection of general cultural relics.
“Recently, in addition to these stolen ancient tomb bricks recovered by the public security department, there are also a number of ancient tomb bricks from the archaeological excavation of the infrastructure site of Lanting Branch of Shaoxing Second Hospital, Lianhe Village, Lanting Street, Keqiao District, which have just entered the warehouse of Shaoxing Museum, totaling six or seven hundred pieces.” Shi Lin said that these ancient tomb bricks are of good appearance, mostly from the Six Dynasties, but also some from the Tang Dynasty and the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
As a matter of fact, the collection and research of ancient bricks are well known among Shaoxing people. Zhang Xiaorong, president of Kuai Club and collector of Shaoxing, has a special liking for ancient bricks. Just in the Shangyu Huiji Jinshi Museum founded by him, there are more than a thousand ancient bricks on display. In particular, his collection of ancient bricks with the title of Yonghe, from the first year of Yonghe to the twelfth year, is complete, which is not easy. Each title records the legendary and brilliant story of the Jin Dynasty. Shen Tong, who lives in Didang Street, Yuecheng District, also wrote a book of his own collection of ancient bricks, and named it “Ancient Vessels in the Dynasty”.
“In the next period of time, we will organize and study these ancient tomb bricks more systematically, as well as rubbing and restoring them.” He Minglei said that an ancient brick is like a thick history book, which records the changes of various dynasties and tells stories of different periods. For example, character brick provides evidence for the study of the evolution of China’s calligraphy, while portrait brick provides material data for the study of art history. Combined with their own collections and Shaoxing folk collections, they plan to hold a special exhibition of ancient tomb bricks in July and August this year.