72 suspected graves
About Cao Cao's cemetery, the most popular one is the saying of "seventy-two suspected graves". According to historical records, Cao Cao had 72 suspicious tombs in his life, among which there must be a real tomb. However, People's Daily once published an article "The Mystery of Cao Cao's 72 Suspected Tombs", saying that in the past, the ancient tomb in Cixian County, Hebei Province was considered as "Cao Cao's 72 Suspected Tombs", but now it is actually a large ancient tomb in the Northern Dynasties. The exact number is not 72, but 134. This makes the eternal mystery of Cao Cao's tomb hang up.
According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms Emperor Wudi, Cao Cao was buried in Ye (now Ye Town, southwest of Linzhang, Hebei Province) after his death. "Wendy in Shu Wei" records that Cao Cao was buried in Qiaoling, his hometown. There is a refined house built by Cao Cao, where Cao Pi was born, and there are graves of Cao Cao's grandfather, father and others.
Others believe that Cao Cao's tomb is located in Lingzhi Village in Anyang, Henan Province and Wen Xi Village in Linzhang, Hebei Province.
Magic in Liao Zhai
In the midsummer two hundred years ago, it was widely rumored that the Zhanghe monster began to eat people again. People who don't listen to discourage bathing in the river are suddenly dragged into the bottom of the river by something, and soon an arm or half a head will appear on the river, so the villagers will never go near the river again.
The local county magistrate also knows about it. In order to find out, he stopped the upstream water and the river collapsed. No monster was found, but a deep hole with a drainage screwdriver was found at the bottom of the cliff. People took off their knives and went into the cave. They saw a stone tablet that said "Cao Mengde's Tomb". They opened the tomb, which contained countless treasures.
This is a story in Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Although the stories in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio are all myths, the stories about Cao Cao's tomb are not completely groundless.
Some ancient books also infer that Cao Cao's tomb is at the bottom of Zhanghe River. Wei Wendi once wrote a poem "The Imperial Decree of Hou Zhi to Sacrifice the First King", which was based on the sentence "I want to sacrifice the first king on the river, and look up at the sorrow of the province", and there is a poem saying: "The bronze finch palace is dusty, and the Weiyuan waterfront. Even if Huang Xi is still considering this matter, the past situation will not be like this. "
A new theory of ancient tombs
Some people think that the ancients attached great importance to yin houses. Cao Cao, a formidable person, will definitely have a very luxurious house, which can't be easily found. In The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is said that Cao Cao is suspicious, treacherous and sensitive by nature. Some people speculate that the "evaporation" of his mausoleum is due to his character. According to legend, Cao Cao witnessed the horrors of many graves being stolen in his early years, so he tried his best to make the cemetery mysterious in order to prevent his misfortune after death.
An archaeologist found an important new evidence in the location of the legendary Cao Cao's tomb.
This new evidence is the discovery of an ancient tomb of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Linzhang, Hebei. The epitaph on this ancient tomb clearly says that it was built next to Cao Cao's tomb. According to this sentence, we can roughly judge the location of Cao Cao's tomb. However, at present, the state has regulations prohibiting the excavation of the emperor's tomb. Although Cao Cao didn't claim to be emperor before his death, he was posthumously named Wei Wudi, so this archaeological work didn't continue. It seems that the legend of finding Cao Cao's tomb at the bottom of the river is not completely groundless.
Many of the above viewpoints cannot be asserted because of the lack of physical evidence, or because the opinions of one family have not been recognized. Where is Cao Cao's mausoleum? It has become a hot spot that people will always pursue, and it has also become an unsolved case that has been debated endlessly in later generations.