Xingyang Lady Hou Tomb, located at the south foot of West Taishan, Tan Village, Jiuhua Township, Kecheng District, is a rare tomb of the Yuan Dynasty in Quzhou, and is a provincial cultural relic protection unit in Zhejiang Province.
The man buried in the tomb was Fang Shi, the mother of Xingyang Hou Zheng Yonghe in the Yuan Dynasty.
Zheng Yonghe in the Yuan Dynasty in the fifth year of Yuan Yan in the examination of Jin Shi, took the post of scattered horse guard, and took the post of Taiping Road.
After the death of her mother, Fang Shi, Zheng Yonghe buried her scenery, and the tomb was built near Xiatan Village.
There are five pairs of stone people, stone horses, stone sheep and stone tigers given by the former emperor.
But this precious tomb, two years ago by a tomb robbing gang targeted.
Recently, the Kecheng District People’s Court opened the case of excavating ancient tombs, among which 12 tomb robbers were sentenced to prison for the crime of excavating ancient tombs.
In May 2020, for illegal profit, Tang (another case) invested and gathered Li, Zhao, Liu, Feng, Xie, came to Quzhou to dig the tomb of Mrs.Xingyang Hou.
According to the division of labor, by Li Mou is responsible for paying the cost, pick up personnel, the rest of the personnel to carry out the excavation and soil, soil and other work.
In August of the same year, because Li left, Tang and gathered Xiao to qu to replace Li’s work, and responsible for the lookout.
In the above grave robbers, in September of the same year, for illegal profit, Fang invested and gathered Lin, Xie Ping, Wu, Fan, Chen and Yan (another case), also came to Quzhou to dig the tomb of Mrs.Xingyang Hou.
In October of the same year, two groups of tomb robbers met in the process of tomb robbing.
After consultation, the two sides decided to form a gang to commit the crime, agreed by the party to continue to contribute, abandoned Xiao a party previously dug out of the hole, in the subsequent excavation process of the soil backfill cover the hole, and jointly from the party dug out of the hole to continue to carry out the theft.
In this process, Fan, Chen, Yan quit for some reason.
In early November of the same year, Wu and Xiao personnel have not been excavated to the tomb and quit, Fang party once again gathered Fan and Chen returned to Quzhou to continue to carry out the excavation.
On the night of November 8,2020, the gang discovered the tomb when the keeper of the tomb had to flee the scene in panic.
After the case, the public security organs quickly attacked, successively captured the members of the tomb robbing gang.
After the case was transferred to prosecution, the People’s Procuratorate of Kecheng District concluded that Fang and other members of the tomb robbing gang excavated ancient tombs with historical, artistic and scientific value and belong to the provincial cultural relics protection units, whose behavior had constituted the crime of excavating ancient tombs, so they filed a public prosecution according to law.
According to the second paragraph of Article 8 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Several Issues concerning the Application of the Law in Handling Criminal Cases against the Management of Cultural Relics, the acts of theft and excavation has damaged ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs.Those with historical, artistic, or scientific value should be recognized as having committed the crime of illegally excavating ancient cultural sites or ancient tombs.
The evidence in this case shows that the location and route of the tomb raiding gang’s illegal excavation are all within the protection scope of the provincial cultural relics protection unit. The depth of the illegal excavation has accumulated to over ten meters and the length has reached over twenty meters. Although it has not been excavated to the tomb, it has caused serious damage to the tomb of the Marquis of Xingyang.
After trial, the Kocheng Court held that the theft and excavation of ancient tombs is a gradual, continuous, and dynamic process, and the completion is based on the implementation of certain behaviors and standards. In this case, although the tomb raiding gang did not excavate the tomb chamber and found nothing, after on-site investigation and expert argumentation, it was found that their illegal excavation behavior caused serious damage to the tomb of the Marquis of Xingyang and should be considered as a completed crime.
Taking into account the role and status of each defendant in the crime, their confession, meritorious service, and confession of guilt and punishment, the court ultimately sentenced 12 defendants, including Fang, to imprisonment ranging from four years and ten months to ten years and two months, and also fined, in accordance with the law, for the crime of robbing and excavating ancient tombs.
Article 328 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China [Crime of Robbing and Excavating Ancient Cultural Sites and Ancient Tombs] Whoever steals and excavates ancient cultural sites or ancient tombs of historical, artistic, or scientific value shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are relatively minor, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also be fined; Those who fall under one of the following circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or have their property confiscated:
(1) Excavating and robbing ancient cultural sites or tombs designated as national key cultural relics protection units and provincial-level cultural relics protection units;
(2) The ringleader of the group that illegally excavates ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs;
(3) Repeatedly robbing and excavating ancient cultural sites or tombs;
(4) Stealing and excavating ancient cultural sites or tombs, and stealing precious cultural relics or causing serious damage to precious cultural relics.