Chinese archeology is less than a hundred years old. Perhaps this explains the incredible number of archaeological sensations from the Middle Kingdom: not everything has been excavated there yet.
More recently, in 2011, an ancient necropolis was discovered near the city of Nanchang in southeastern China. Such a find somewhere in Europe would be the event of the century, but for China it is just "one of the 10 outstanding archaeological discoveries of the early 21st century." But soon the rank of the discovery may rise to "epoch-making".
Imagine the scale: the Haihunhou necropolis is comprised of eight tombs and a separate vehicle burial (five chariots, each drawn by four horses). The area of the necropolis is 40 thousand square meters. meters. Over five years of excavations, about 20 thousand artifacts have been found, including a centner of gold and tons of bronze coins, gold bars in the shape of horse hooves, jade jewelry, musical instruments, the oldest distillation device in China for obtaining alcohol, a library and an archive of documents for 5,000 bamboo tablets … The list is far from complete, besides, as the excavation progresses, archaeologists add hundreds of new positions to it every year.
Cleaning of a gold bar in the shape of a horse's hoof found in the tomb of Haihunhou
Photo: Xinhua
Archaeologists easily determined that the burials belonged to the era of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 9 AD), and focused their efforts on the main tomb of the Haihunhou necropolis. Guesses about the identity of its owner were fully confirmed in 2015, when the personal seal of the deceased was found. Haihunhou is not the name of the area, it is a direct reference to a specific person: hou (prince) of the Haihun estate, better known as Emperor Liu He.
Liu He is an extremely interesting person: neither before nor after was there a person in the Celestial Empire who managed to successively visit the king, emperor and an ordinary prince (in English-language texts the title "marquis" is used, a rank between a duke and a count).
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Liu He became emperor in 74 BC, but did not stay on the throne - he was deposed after only 27 days due to misconduct. In less than a month, he managed to commit 1,127 critical mistakes, all of which are listed in a long list of charges against Liu He. The leitmotif is "organizing festivities and merrymaking during the mourning period" for the late emperor and "squandering the state treasury."
Contemporaries considered that the deprivation of the imperial title and demotion in status were sufficient punishment for the young man. First, Liu He was returned to his homeland in Changyi, and ten years later the new emperor even conferred on Liu He the title of hou of the Haihun estate. Judging by the treasures of the Haihunhou necropolis, the "retired emperor" continued to live to the fullest. He was much less interested in power than earthly pleasures - feasting with friends, women, hunting and other aristocratic entertainments. Maybe they killed him: Liu He died quite young, at 33 years old.
The ancient Chinese bon vivant, of course, heard about Confucius, but, as they say, “did not read”. The fact that the sayings of Confucius were found in the afterlife library of the deposed emperor for indecency has a certain irony - and a deep historical meaning.
Confucius (551 - 479 BC) is considered the creator of the image of the ideal citizen of the Celestial Empire - modest, fair, disinterested, humane, with a high sense of duty to society. “A noble person thinks about duty, a low person cares about profit,” Confucius said.
The interests of the people were proclaimed as the supreme goal of management. The co-founder of Confucianism, Mencius, even substantiated the right of people to revolt against an evil ruler. A truly noble dignitary, according to Confucius, should be the teacher of the people, his direct duty is to educate the people, including by personal example. The sovereign is no exception. In Confucius, the concepts of "noble husband" (perfect, humane person), "sovereign" and "ruler" often coincide.
Installation with Confucius “Q Confucius No. 2 by contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Huan
Photo from the site lazerhorse.org
Liu He did not correspond to a single item, for which he paid. However, he took the sayings of Confucius with him to the grave (or they were put there by the organizers of the funeral) as a mandatory reading for a representative of the nobility of his time. The find once again confirmed the available historical data: Confucianism began to spread in Chinese high society during the reign of the Han dynasty, to which Liu He belonged.
Earlier, during the reign of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang, adherents of Confucianism were subjected to terrible repression - the views of the government of the great dictator and the followers of the great sage categorically did not coincide. The emperors of the Han dynasty turned out to be more far-sighted: they turned the teachings of Confucius to their advantage, and ultimately Confucianism formed the basis of Chinese statehood.
To understand the historical context, it is worth adding that in the 1st century BC, when Liu He lived and died, Confucianism had not yet taken shape into a single state ideology with canonical texts. This happened a century later. It is for this reason that the sayings of Confucius found in Liu He's tomb are of incredible value: they are one of the three early versions of Confucius' greatest legacy, the Lun Yu, known in the West as the Analects.
A bamboo tablet with a fragment of Confucius sayings from the Haihunhou necropolis
Photo: CTV News
"Lun Yu" or, in Russian translation, "Conversations and Judgments" is a collection of quotes, oral statements, legends and deeds of Confucius, compiled by his followers. Confucius himself did not write anything down: “I do not create, but I only repeat what I have learned,” he said. Master Kun considered himself a mediator, not inventing anything new, but only transmitting to his contemporaries the teachings of ancient sages and the fruits of his communication with the spirit world.
The compilation of Lunyu began after Confucius's death and took almost 50 years. For the last two millennia, this book has been one of the most read and revered in the Celestial Empire, an educated person was obliged to learn Lun Yu by heart.
"Lun Yu" was created by the students and followers of Confucius in the era of the Warring States (475 - 221 BC). Under the first emperor Qin Shi Huang, the recorded sayings, together with the people who disseminated them, experienced a terrible period of "burning books and burying the scribes." By the beginning of the spread of Confucianism during the Han dynasty, two versions of "Lunyu" were known, in the II century BC. a third appeared. The main difference between them is the number of hieroglyphs and chapters.
The two oldest versions were named "Speech of the Kingdom of Lu" (Lu Lun, 20 chapters) and "Speech of the Kingdom of Qi" (Qi Lun, 22 chapters). The third version, "Ancient sayings" (Gu lun), was according to legend found in the wall of Confucius' house and, possibly, was the earliest of all. It consisted of 21 chapters.
It is still unknown which of the three ancient versions formed the basis of the official (canonical) edition. The modern version of Lunyu consists of 20 chapters.
Which of the three versions was found in the tomb of the "failed emperor" Liu He? Archaeologists have little doubt that this is the largest of them - the version of Qi Lun, according to Chinese media.
The original Qi Lun was lost about 1800 years ago. If it is confirmed that the division of the text into chapters corresponds to the version of Qi preserved in later copies, it will be a truly epoch-making discovery for China and world science.
Professor Xin Lixiang, head of the Haihunhou necropolis excavation, talks about the find with the scientist's usual caution. In his opinion, additional research using modern technologies is required for final confirmation.
More than 5,000 bamboo tablets with hieroglyphs were found in Liu He's tomb. Confucius's sayings did not come to light right away, they got lost between officials' reports, medical treatises and agricultural records. Xin Li Xiang explained that scientists have completed the analysis of the tablets and are now engaged in conservation, which will be completed by the end of the year.
The main problem is that in ancient times the tomb was flooded, and all organic matter found in the burial (including the remains of Liu He) has traces of decay. Bamboo planks are no exception. After the completion of the conservation, experts will study the precious records by infrared scanning: modern technology will help identify unreadable characters and decipher the remaining fragments as accurately as possible for a complete analysis of the text.
Curiously, this is not the first Confucius-related artifact from the tomb of the "wicked" Liu He. In November 2015, archaeologists announced an incredible find: the oldest of Confucius' portraits, made on a lacquer screen, was discovered in the burial chamber.
“Three portraits are distinguishable on the screen, the captions to them contain the names of Confucius, his father Shulian He and one of his favorite students, Yan Hui. The names directly indicate that one of the three men depicted is Confucius himself,”said one of the leaders of the excavation.
The screen was partially restored, but the artifact is so valuable, and the lacquer coating and material of the screen are so fragile that the unique portrait has not yet been shown to the general public and it is unlikely that it will participate in exhibitions dedicated to the Haihunhou necropolis.
The state of a lacquer box (not a screen) found in Liu He's tomb
Photo: Xinhua
What would Master Kun say when he learned that the greatest artifacts associated with him come from the tomb of the most unworthy emperor of the Celestial Empire?
Perhaps he would have quoted himself: “Having met a worthy person, strive to equal him; when you meet an unworthy person, look inside yourself (Lunyu, 4:17).
Maria Myasnikova