Chapter 61: Main Text Chapter Sixty-Two Hidden Cavity

Main Text Chapter Sixty-Two Hidden Cavity

Hidden Cavity

Since ancient times, the Underworld Hall has been the place where the tomb occupant's coffin and outer coffin are laid, as clearly written in the burial classics; the Underworld Hall is also called Yin Ning Hall, and it is the core part of the mausoleum. Whether it is a joint burial or a solitary burial, the tomb occupant should be dressed in the great mourning attire, lie asleep in the coffin, and then have the outer coffin placed over it. Even if the tomb occupant's corpse cannot be placed inside the coffin and outer coffin for some reason, the tomb occupant's clothing, headgear, and footwear from life will still be placed inside the coffin and outer coffin for burial.

In short, there may be no corpse, but the coffin and outer coffin are always located in the sleeping hall, and throughout the ages, the grave-robbing officials who broke open the tomb doors and overturned the tombs have never also thrown out the coffin and outer coffin; besides, the robber tunnel's space is limited, so even if the coffin and outer coffin are not large, it is impossible to throw them out through the robber tunnel.

My worldview has been overturned once again; I rack my brains but cannot figure out what's going on—could it be that the tomb occupant's coffin and outer coffin have turned into water vapor and evaporated in this Underworld Hall?

All three of us were quite startled; Da Jin Ya, quick-witted, stood behind me and reminded: 'Lord Hu, take a look at this Underworld Hall—apart from lacking a coffin and outer coffin, what else seems off?'

I squinted and examined the Underworld Hall carefully from all sides; the Underworld Hall not only lacks a coffin and outer coffin, it can be said to have nothing at all—the floor is empty and bare, not to mention burial goods, there isn't even an extra stone.

However, looking at the scale and structure of the Underworld Hall, it is a top-notch Tang dynasty royal tomb: the architectural structure is round on top, square below, with corners and edges, stable and orderly; the shape above resembles the canopy of a yurt, presenting a dome-like form—this is what is called 'round heaven, square earth', which exactly matches the cosmology and worldview of people at that time.

On the floor of the Underworld Hall there are six stone stands, each of them empty, holding nothing; but I and Da Jin Ya know that these are meant to hold the six kinds of jade—cong, gui, zhang, bi, hu, and huang—used for sacrificing to the six directions, a privilege reserved for members of the imperial family.

The four walls of the Underworld Hall are not completely bare; they only have some undercoat murals, done in plain line drawing without color yet, depicting the sun, moon, and stars, mainly thirteen court ladies—some holding brocade boxes, some holding jade vessels, some holding musical instruments—each of the court ladies is plump and portly, presenting a scroll of Tang dynasty court life.

All the murals have only been given a base coat, with no color added; I have never seen such murals before, so I asked Da Jin Ya, whose decades of experience in antiques might let him discern what this means.

Da Jin Ya also shook his head repeatedly: 'Really strange—judging from these murals, this ancient tomb is definitely meant to bury an extremely important figure from the court, and moreover a female; perhaps a consort or a long princess, but these murals…'

Seeing Da Jin Ya trail off mid-sentence and fall silent, I knew he was uncertain, so I asked: 'Are the murals unfinished? Did they just start and then stop?'

Da Jin Ya, seeing I said the same, nodded: 'Yeah, that's exactly it—they're unfinished, but this is really too irregular…… not just irregular, it simply defies reason.'

It is extremely rare for an imperial mausoleum to halt construction halfway; even if something happens in the palace, making the tomb occupant a political sacrifice, or if someone intending rebellion is given a death sentence, it is still usually not publicized, and after death they would still be buried according to their entitled standards, because such a grand tomb is fit only for imperial family members, and the emperors also know that family disgrace should not be spread abroad—the inner tombs within the palace, harem, and court halls are rarely leaked out; they simply dispose of those who deserve death, then bury them however they should.

Seeing that probing here revealed nothing, I took out a candle, lit it at the southeast corner of the Underworld Hall; the candle's light was weak, but the flame burned straight, with no sign of going out. I glanced at the candle, felt somewhat reassured, and called Da Jin Ya and Pangzi to go check the front hall.

To conserve energy, we only turned on one flashlight; fortunately, the tomb chamber contained nothing, so we didn't have to worry about stepping on anything. The three of us, leading two large white geese, passed through the stone gate of the Underworld Hall and arrived at the front hall.

In ancient Chinese mausoleum layout, the Underworld Hall is given the utmost importance, the front hall comes next; the arrangement of the front hall follows the tradition called 'treat the dead as if they were alive', a system set by previous dynasties, which has been passed down in this way until the end of the Qing dynasty, the only difference being the scale.

What the tomb occupant's residence was like in life, the front hall should be the same; if the tomb occupant lived in the imperial court during life, the front hall must be built exactly like a real palace. Of course, aside from the emperor himself, the other imperial family members can only preserve in the front hall the area where they personally resided in life; it is impossible for every imperial family member to keep their living quarters unchanged in the mausoleum, to build a palace matching that standard—only emperors who have ascended the throne and grasped the great treasure can do that.

The three of us—myself, Da Jin Ya, and Pangzi—although we work in this line, we have actually never seen a genuine major tomb; today we just happened to come across such a place. If we were really allowed to excavate it, we would not dare to move such a huge ancient tomb; at most we would look for a tomb of a prince or noble.

This is also because we lack such sophisticated means to directly dig a robber tunnel and slip in from a vacant position; another reason is that we don't want to disturb such a large tomb—just casually moving anything out of here could cause a huge commotion, which would easily bring disaster upon us. My plan is to find a few tombs deep in the mountains and old forests, earn enough money, and then be done.

Today it was a lucky coincidence that we stumbled upon a ready-made robber tunnel, allowing us to enter this great tomb; beforehand we never imagined the Underworld Hall would be empty, and moreover the robber tunnel we entered was mysteriously sealed shut. Going to the front hall to have a look is merely an attempt to find some clues and figure out a way out.

As soon as the three of us entered the front hall, we were all shocked again: we saw that the front hall was even larger in scale, but its pavilions and halls had only been built halfway, then work stopped, and it has remained that way until now.

The front hall is indeed built just like the ancient palaces, but some important parts were not completed; they merely erected a rough framework. The stone door in the underground palace has been sealed shut, the four walls are made of huge stone blocks, the gaps filled with molten iron, reinforced with iron rods as thick as a duck egg. On the floor of the underground palace's front hall there is a small spring pool, and the spring eye still bubbles up with water.

I pointed at the spring and said to Da Jin Ya: 'Look at this little spring—this is what is commonly called a coffin spring. In a tomb situated on a auspicious feng shui spot, if there is such a spring eye, it is truly top-notch; the dragon vein also needs to rely on the terrain. When I initially examined the feng shui of this ancient tomb from outside, I thought although it is a dragon vein, it has already been eroded by wind and rain, damaging the mountain's form, turning the auspicious dragon into a lowly dragon lacking any protection. However, looking now, the terrain here is a rare hidden cavity; there is a spring eye in the spot, yet the flow of this spring eye is constantly that large, neither overflowing nor drying up—thus, in feng shui, this spot has the symbol of a vessel holding water; its source is heavenly, like water waves. Such a hidden cavity is extremely suitable for burying females, and their descendants will surely receive its blessings.'

Da Jin Ya said: 'Oh, is this what we commonly call a coffin spring? I've heard of it but never seen it. In that case, the feng shui terrain of this spot is intact, which makes it even stranger: why was the construction inside halted halfway? And moreover, the tomb occupant has not even been placed in the coffin?'

I said: 'Strange things happen every year, but today there are especially many—even the front hall is like this, still unfinished; it's really hard to comprehend.'

Pangzi said: 'I don't think it's strange either; perhaps they were caught up in a war at the time, or expenses ran too high, revenues couldn't cover expenditures, so such a massive tomb project simply couldn't be completed.'

Da Jin Ya and I shook our heads in unison; I said: 'Definitely not—if a mausoleum halts construction halfway and changes location, that is highly inauspicious for the owner. Moreover, those who select the tomb site would be executed along with their nine clans. First, this treasure spot, viewed from a feng shui angle, is absolutely problem‑hidden and concealed, making it hard for tomb robbers to discover; furthermore, it is a rare hidden cavity. It would not be abandoned merely because a better site was found, nor could it be due to war or disaster, for in that case they would not have sealed the underground palace. There is nothing installed in here, so it should not be a guard against grave‑robbing officials.'

Da Jin Ya also agreed with my view: 'That's right—from the condition of the tomb walls and the stone gate's sealing, after halting work they did not leave in a hurry, but closed the underground palace calmly and deliberately, and they do not intend to come back later to resume work; otherwise, just opening this stone gate would be a sizable project, and besides this stone gate, there are at least four other stone gates of the same scale on the outside.'

But why did the builders of this mausoleum abandon this place? There must be some unavoidable reason, yet we have racked our brains and still cannot figure it out.

It seems that the predecessor who built the Fish Bone Temple as a disguise and dug a robber tunnel to slip into the Underworld Hall was, like us, fooled by an empty tomb; we did not find his corpse here, perhaps he already found a way out.

We found nothing in the front hall, so we had to return the way we came; finally, when we went to look at the rear hall and the side halls of the two wings, if we still discovered nothing, we could only go back to the robber tunnel and enter that maze‑like Dragon Ridge Maze to find a way out.

The three of us talked as we walked, all feeling that this tomb is eerily unusual, with too many things that defy reason; I said to them: 'Since ancient times there has been the saying of doubtful tombs, used by Cao Zhu and Zhu Yuanzhang, but this Tang dynasty ancient tomb is certainly not a doubtful tomb; in here…'

While we were speaking, we had already walked back to the Underworld Hall; I had just said half of my sentence when Pangzi suddenly cut me off, and Da Jin Ya also placed his finger over his lips, making a silencing gesture. I looked up and saw that in the southeast corner of the Underworld Hall, behind the candle's glow, a 'person' appeared.