I was determined to find Hu Shahu's tomb before Wei Shengnan, so I went to Gongqing City before I recovered from my illness.
The police car that had taken us to Vladivostok ended the cooperation, and we were replaced by six unfamiliar Russian youths who belonged to a security company, the same security personnel that Song Laosan had hired to protect us.
The Urban Development Memorial Hall in Gongqingcheng, although a free public exhibition hall, is like some small city exhibition halls in China, with few visitors. If staff members have something to do, the hall may close at any time.
Because we didn't have legal status, we couldn't enter the exhibition hall. In the end, Song Laosan came up with a solution: he had a security guard go in with his phone to video chat with us, and then film us under the direction of the translator.
In a small hotel near the memorial hall, I looked at the screen on my phone and said to Zhou Peng, "Have the translator go back and take a picture of the pillow in that cabinet."
Zhou Peng spoke a few words into the Bluetooth headset, and the translator said, "The person inside said he turned around but didn't see the pillow, and asked me to confirm if the translation was accurate."
I unscrewed a bottle of cough syrup and drank it: "That pillow is ceramic, shaped like a baby."
The security guard then realized what I was looking for and pointed the camera at a baby pillow in the display case.
This baby pillow has a unique design; it's a doll lying in a cradle, made entirely of white porcelain, with black accents on its eyebrows, eyes, and hair.
Seeing this, I am certain that it came from an ancient tomb, because according to historical records, some tombs in the Jin Dynasty used a child's pillow as a head pillow for the corpse, symbolizing many children and blessings for future generations.
Continuing on, there were several display cases containing carved stones. Zhou Peng said the descriptions said they were ancient stone paintings, but I immediately recognized them as carvings from the tomb.
At first, I thought they were brick carvings in the tomb passage, but upon closer inspection, I found that these patterned stones were of different sizes, none of them were flat, and some of the stones even had related patterns.
Upon seeing this, I immediately asked Song Laosan, "Third Master, communism in China was transmitted from the Soviet Union. Do you know if there was ever a movement like 'Destroy the Four Olds' in the Soviet Union?"
The so-called "Destroy the Four Olds" refers to the destruction of old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. During that period, the Red Guards were incited to blindly burn classical works, destroy cultural relics and paintings, and damage historical sites, resulting in the destruction of a large number of precious cultural relics. In some places, well-preserved ancient tombs were even destructively excavated and their contents were extensively destroyed, which can be described as a catastrophe in the domestic cultural relics community.
Song Laosan was somewhat vague: "I've never liked studying since I was a child. I know a bit about domestic history, but the Soviet Union has been dissolved for so many years, I can't answer that question."
Zhou Peng interjected, "As far as I know, the Soviet Union didn't seem to have any movements like the 'Destroy the Four Olds,' but there was a Great Purge in the 1920s and 30s. I don't know if that counts as the same thing."
Song Laosan was also completely confused: "Xiao Duan, we're looking at Jin Dynasty artifacts right now, how did you bring up Soviet culture?"
"I just wanted to confirm my guess."
Looking at the screen on my phone, I explained, "At first, I thought these things were tomb bricks, but now it seems they are clearly coffin beds. Even if these coffin beds aren't made of a single piece of bluestone, they must be made of several huge stones."
After hearing what I said, the monkey scratched his head and asked, "Didn't Professor Guo tell us that there are no records of ancient tombs being unearthed in this area? Since this coffin bed has appeared, where did the coffin go?"
"That's what I can't understand. Since this coffin bed could be unearthed, it means that someone must have seen the coffin. So why is there no record of it?"
Ignoring my sore throat, I lit a cigarette and pondered: "I think there are several possibilities. First, the tomb was damaged by a natural disaster and someone picked up these fragments. Second, it has been excavated but not reported, and only these things were preserved. Third, a farmer dug up the tomb but felt it was bad luck, so he threw away everything inside, and only a small part was sent to the memorial hall."
"We can't be that unlucky, can we?"
A look of dejection flashed across Song Laosan's face: "According to your logic, no matter which one is true, doesn't that mean the tomb we're looking for has already been opened? Wouldn't all our hard work coming here have been for nothing?"
The monkey, however, was quite optimistic: "Not necessarily. Isn't it said that most of the land in the Far East originally belonged to us? Since the area is so vast, how can you guarantee that these things came from the tomb we're looking for?"
“Because of the burial style of the Jin Dynasty.” Song Laosan took a deep breath: “The Jurchens, who rose to prominence in the 12th century, originated from the Sushen people of the pre-Qin period, and were called Mohe in the Tang Dynasty. The Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty still maintained the old Mohe customs of the Tang Dynasty in terms of burial, including earth burial and cremation. Earth burial usually did not have a tomb chamber, and the body was directly buried in the earth pit. Except for a few royal nobles, others did not have tombs. Since there is a coffin bed here, it means that a great person was buried.”
"What you're talking about is only the early Jin Dynasty. After the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, successive emperors greatly admired Han culture and vigorously promoted it. Starting with the second emperor, they began to promote the imperial examination system and employ Han officials. By the middle Jin Dynasty, the Jin people were influenced by the Liao and Song Dynasties and began to use burial objects such as coffins. By the late Jin Dynasty, brick tombs with stone slab roofs had become widespread. Most of the artifacts in the memorial hall are of the late Jin Dynasty style, so what the monkey said makes some sense. These things may not necessarily come from Hu Shahu's tomb."
After answering Song Laosan's question, I said to Zhou Peng, "Tell our security personnel to try and get information from the people at the memorial hall. I don't care what methods they use, they must find out the origin of these cultural relics as quickly as possible."
"Don't worry, the average wage in Russia is very low, especially in the Far East. As long as you're willing to pay, it's not a difficult thing."
Zhou Peng nodded, and then began to communicate while wearing headphones.
The process went much more smoothly than I expected. In just half an hour, Zhou Peng received several photos of archives and translated them as follows: "According to the archives, the City Development Memorial Hall was established in 2002. The reason for its construction was to provide Gongqing City with better conditions for attracting investment. At that time, the government required all lower-level administrative districts to submit some representative and commemorative documents and items for the construction of the museum to enhance the city's cultural heritage."
The artifacts we saw earlier were handed over by a small town called Chikso, along with some sewing machines and farm tools. When the memorial was first established, the staff were drawn from various units, and the origins of these items were not verified. They were categorized as daily necessities and building materials of ethnic minorities, and the names were registered according to those submitted by the town mayor, Zhukovsky.
After learning the origin of these cultural relics, I stood up excitedly: "I must set off for this town immediately, I want to see this person as soon as possible!"
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