Treasure inside the barren hill
The city center of Loc Tuyen, Shijiazhuang 3km to the east is a mountain, it is said that in the old days the mountain stood tall in the sea, so it was called Hai Son mountain.
At the foot of Hai Son mountain, there is a red mound about 30m high, which does not grow all year round, although the surrounding area is luxuriant with trees. For 30 years, a local brick factory has been exploiting the land here to bake bricks.
The hill in Shijiazhuang has been bare for hundreds of years. (Photo: Kknews).
On May 29, 1991, a group of brick factory workers were working when they heard people shouting that they had dug a treasure. People rushed to see and saw in the hand of a worker a black vase, it seems that this is an antique bronze.
The team of workers was convinced that there was an ancient tomb underneath the hill, so they scrambled to dig and even started fights. People who witnessed this scene quickly reported to the authorities, and the police immediately arrived at the scene to stabilize the situation.
After that, the archaeological team of the Institute of Cultural Relics of Hebei Province also came to the place, the experts couldn’t help but feel sad when they saw that a tomb area was seriously damaged.
Checking around the hill, the archaeological team made a surprising discovery: It turned out that this hill did not have any grass growing because the entire soil here was compacted with a layer of charcoal. Charcoal spread and soil compaction were popular methods of preventing moisture and erosion used in ancient tombs.
This shows that the tomb below has a huge size that covers the whole hill and that the newly discovered bronze items are only a very small part.
Fearing that future excavation activities would be disturbed by people and grave robbers, the archaeological team quickly contacted the Institute of Cultural Relics and asked to send the army to blockade the site and protect the warehouse. Huge treasure in the mausoleum.
The tomb has a huge size, the tunnels in the mausoleum cover the whole hill. (Photo: Sohu).
Who is the owner of the tomb?
The mausoleum below the hill is built in the shape of the Chinese character (中), which is a typical architectural style of the tombs of the Han aristocrats. During 3 years of excavation and rescue, the archaeological team has found 7,000 burial items of gold, silver, bronze, ceramic, lacquer… including many national cultural relics.
In particular, there were 3 horse-drawn carriages and 14 real horse skeletons that were buried with them, it is not difficult to imagine how the life of the tomb owner was during his lavish life.
So who is the owner of this “super mausoleum”? That great figure is Liu Shun, the 14th son of Emperor Han Jing, also the younger brother of Emperor Wu. Liu Shun was appointed King of Changshan, governing the land of Shangshan, now the area of Shijiazhuang.
7,000 burial items were found in the “super mausoleum”. (Photo: Sohu).
History books record that, because his father and brother were both emperors, and he loved him dearly, so Thuong Son Vuong Luu Thuan had an arrogant personality and often violated the national law. When he died, he was also buried with a lot of valuable burial items due to his noble status.
The area of Thuong Son Vuong’s tomb is located in the middle of a densely populated plain, very easy to be peeked by tomb robbers. So why did Luu Thuan choose this hill as the place to place the mausoleum? This is closely related to the feng shui view of the ancients.
The area of Shijiazhuang, which has a flat terrain, can only be selected on a small hill with the back of Hai Son mountain as the burial place. Fortunately, after more than 2,000 years, Luu Thuan’s tomb is still intact, only losing a few pottery and bronze items that the brick kiln workers sold when the new mausoleum was discovered.
