Chapter 65: A Major Case Uncovered!

"Grave robbing!?"

Everyone's eyes widened when they heard Quji say that word.

"That's right — grave robbing."

Quji explained: "It was the day before the La Sacrifice, the seventh day of the twelfth month. I went to visit my maternal uncle's home in Daqing Hamlet. On my way back, it started to drizzle, so I took shelter in a small hut in the wilderness between Daqing Hamlet and Zhaoyang Hamlet. The hut was originally for watching over the fields, but after that land was abandoned, no one used it anymore."

"I waited a long time and unknowingly fell asleep. When I woke, the sky was nearly dark, the rain was still falling outside, and several people had arrived outside the hut, arguing. I saw they were carrying swords, and fearing they were bandits, I huddled under the bed and kept out of sight. That's how I overheard what they were plotting…"

Quji said he heard at least four people talking inside the hut. They were complaining about the bad weather — if not for it, they could have smoothly dug open those tombs of Chu-era nobles and hauled out all the gold, silver, and bronze vessels to sell…

He listened, terrified. After the rain stopped, those men left. Quji steeled his nerves and followed their tracks up the mountain, where he discovered they were indeed digging at a hidden hillock — truly grave robbing. Before he was discovered, he scrambled and tumbled his way back down in a panic. That very night he returned home and fell ill.

"Grave robbing — how utterly wicked."

Old Man Pu muttered to himself. He was already at the age with one foot in the grave, and had already had his sons and grandsons find him a burial site, so he took this matter very seriously. Hearing that someone nearby was robbing graves, a feeling of shared sorrow welled up in him. The last thing he wanted was to be dug up after death, his bones cast into the wild, his soul left homeless.

The other young men, lacking his personal stake, were debating how credible the story was.

Dongmen Bao said, "Between Daqing Hamlet and Zhaoyang Hamlet is nothing but wilderness — where would any noble tombs be?"

Ji Ying was also somewhat skeptical: "I'm a local too. How come I've never heard of any?"

"There really are some."

Li Xian, however, spoke up, his expression dark: "My family also has traditions about this. In recent decades there have been no large burials, but several hundred years ago there were quite a few."

"Several hundred years ago?" Everyone was a bit surprised — that was rather distant from them.

Li Xian said, "Indeed. They are all tombs of various county dukes and enfeoffed lords from the Chu kingdom. My uncle once said that Chu had little else, but these nobles were the most numerous of all. Enfeoffed lords were many, their fiefs were vast, all jumbled together — within a hundred li there would be several. After these nobles died, they sought out places nestled against hills and beside water to be buried. In our Anlu County alone, there are quite a few."

Li Xian came from the Li clan, and when Chu ruled the Jiang-Han region, the Lis had been minor grand officers. Their knowledge of those old noble families far surpassed what Heifu and the others, of humble origin, could know.

Heifu had also heard about the extravagance of noble burials in this era: the coffin must have multiple layers, the burial must be deep, the deceased's garments must be numerous, the grave goods of patterned silk must be abundant, and the tomb mound must be tall.

Especially when a feudal lord or enfeoffed lord died, the wealth stored in the treasury had to be emptied. Gold, jade, and jewels were used to adorn the deceased, bound with silk cords and ribbons. Chariots and horses were buried in the burial pit. They would also invariably manufacture great quantities of curtains and canopies, bells and tripods, drums, armrests and mats, wine vessels, mirrors, dagger-axes, swords, feathered streamers, ivory, and leather goods, placing them in the deceased's funerary chamber and burying them — only then were they satisfied.

This state of affairs, though vigorously opposed by the Mohists, remained unchanged. Compared to the Central Plains, lavish burial was especially prevalent in Chu. The Chu people, steeped in all manner of myths and ghost stories, placed great importance on the afterlife. They even imagined a whole series of deities governing life and death, such as the Greater Master of Fate and the Lesser Master of Fate, to worship — and their incense still burns unbroken to this day.

As former Chu territory, Nan Commandery held many Chu noble tombs hidden in mountain hollows. Because of their rich grave goods, they drew the greedy eyes of grave robbers. Most descendants of these Chu noble tombs had followed the Chu king in his eastward flight over fifty years ago, when Bai Qi sacked Yingdu, and could no longer tend to their ancestors' blood offerings. This only intensified the rampant grave robbing, and Nan Commandery became a paradise for grave robbers.

However, the Qin authorities did not tacitly permit such acts just because the victims were Chu noble tombs. On the contrary, Qin likewise held that grave robbers who dug up ancestral graves committed acts of heinous wickedness worse than beasts, and therefore "prohibited it with stern authority and heavy punishments," enacting laws to severely punish grave robbers!

Grave robbing — especially grave robbing by a group in collusion — occurring in their tiny Huyang Village was absolutely a major case!

Heifu rose and said: "The Theft Statutes state that robbing a tomb is equal in crime to murder or maiming assault. The light punishment is tattooing and being made a wall-builder; the heavy punishment is death by dismemberment… Informers and capturers also receive rewards!"

He looked at Quji with some regret and said: "Gongshi Quji, since this was neither false accusation nor slander, what was there to hide? Why not come to the village office in person to report the crime, or pass word to the hamlet chief and have the hamlet chief inform the township officials? That way, far from being punished, you would have been rewarded. Why resort to such a poor stratagem as sending an anonymous letter?"

Quji also heard the regret in Heifu's tone and said with a bitter smile: "Let me tell you, Village Chief. For one thing, I was momentarily muddled. My new wife is with child, so I did not want to take risks. Yet I also could not just turn a blind eye, so I came up with the idea of informing the authorities by anonymous letter. Whether it succeeded or not, at least my conscience would be clear. At first I was counting on luck, thinking no one could guess it was me. Who knew the Village Chief would see through it like a god and find my home the very next day…"

This was only human. Quji was merely a minor gongshi with no background, while the grave robbers numbered several men. What if, after he reported them, the authorities failed to catch the criminals, and the robbers found out it was Quji who had informed on them? In their fury and humiliation, what if they took revenge on his family?

"There is also a second reason…" Quji hesitated, glanced at the others in the room, fixed his eyes on Heifu, and said: "I will tell it only to the Village Chief alone!"

…

After Heifu had sent everyone else out, he turned back and asked Quji: "Everyone is gone now. Whatever you want to say, say it."

"First, I must bow in thanks to the Village Chief."

Quji prostrated himself on the straw mat, bowing to the ground: "I thank the Village Chief for not binding me with ropes in front of my wife today, and for saying you were only asking me some questions. Otherwise, with her gentle nature, she would surely have been terrified…"

Heifu told him to rise: "Though I am village chief and enforce the law, who among us does not have parents, wife, and children? Where I need not make things difficult, I will not deliberately be harsh."

Quji smiled bitterly and said: "I have also heard some of the statutes in the township. I know I have committed an offense this time, but I do not know what punishment I will face. I hope the Village Chief can tell me."

"Anonymous letter delivery — the penalty is three suits of armor, equivalent to over four thousand cash. If you cannot pay it off, you perform labor service for the authorities."

Heifu said: "Given your family's means, paying it off shouldn't be too hard, right?"

"The Village Chief overestimates me. This four thousand cash is enough to ruin my family completely." Quji's face was bitter.

In this era, a wealthy household possessed about a hundred thousand cash in assets, with oxen, horses, and servants. A middling household had around twenty thousand cash and could afford an ox. Heifu's family had only just barely scraped past the ten-thousand-cash threshold. He had thought Quji's circumstances were better — but they were actually worse?

Quji began to pour out his woes, saying he had married the previous year and already spent several thousand cash. Now with little surplus left, he would probably have to sell off the household goods, and even his young wife's dowry, to scrape together the fine.

"My wife's dowry absolutely cannot be sold — that is emergency money. Once the child is born, we still need to raise it."

Quji gritted his teeth: "If it truly comes to it, I will just go perform labor service for the authorities."

Every word he spoke was a sigh, utterly bleak. With his sickly, feeble body, he probably couldn't handle even moderately heavy labor.

Though Heifu felt regret and sympathy — even a touch of guilt — he could not simply let Quji go.

In Qin, an official who "let a prisoner go" would be severely punished, made a firewood-gatherer with shaved head. Heifu had no desire to have his hair shaved off and go keep his predecessor, the former Huyang Village Chief, company.

Nor could he conceal the truth and report a lesser charge for Quji — that would make him guilty of "misapplying the law." If the misapplication was unintentional, he might only be fined. If intentional, he would have committed the crime of "injustice."

Hah, then he might be banished to the even more desolate Qianzhong Commandery to expand the frontier. That Huyang Village thief-catcher, Mai, who had framed him, seemed to be in Qianzhong Commandery right now.

Heifu could only silently say sorry to Quji in his heart: I'm sorry — I'm a cop.

Then he consoled Quji, saying that if he went to the county seat tomorrow and clearly explained the whole course of events, perhaps the prison clerk would be lenient?

On this point, even Heifu himself was not certain. Knowing the prison clerk Xi's iron-faced impartiality, he would surely never let a single violation of the law slide.

But Quji took encouragement from this and bowed again: "Many thanks, Village Chief. Then I will speak the whole truth!"

He raised his head, his mind made up: "Village Chief, the reason I would rather send a letter than dare to report in person is that, that day, when the grave-robbing criminals were discussing their plans, they mentioned a certain person's name!"

"Whose?" Heifu pressed.

Quji lowered his voice and said, enunciating each word: "The gatekeeper of Zhaoyang Hamlet!"

PS:

"Robbery involving wounding, robbing a tomb, abducting and selling people or abducting but not yet sold… all are punishable by dismemberment." — The Statutes on Theft, from the Second-Year Statutes and Ordinances.

This case is adapted from a true historical case — a gang grave-robbing case that occurred in the twenty-first year of King Zheng of Qin, also known as "The Case of Xing and Chang Knowingly Receiving Stolen Goods." The crime scene was Yidao in Nan Commandery. They dug for a year and sold many bronze vessels before finally being caught. See Yuelu Academy Collection of Qin Bamboo Slips (Vol. 3), pages 287–289.

(End of chapter)