During this excavation, the archaeological team discovered some ancient royal funeral ceremonies. But at the same time, due to the lack of technical means at that time, it caused serious damage to the imperial tomb. Many historical relics were destroyed, and even the coffin and body of the Wanli Emperor were not preserved. Therefore, the archaeological excavation of the imperial tomb was stopped.
In fact, for Guo Moruo, what he is most interested in is actually not the Ming Tombs in Beijing, but the dry tombs in Shaanxi.
Ganling is the mausoleum of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, and it is also the only imperial tomb in China history where two emperors were buried together and were not excavated by grave robbers. It has high archaeological value. One of the most attractive is Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, which is probably in this dry mausoleum.
It is said that after the death of Wang Xizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he was praised as? The best running script in the world? Preface to Lanting is passed down and preserved by its people. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, loved calligraphy and wanted this copybook. Later, Xiao Yi, his minister, cheated Lanting by three means.
Before his death, Emperor Taizong ordered his son Tang Gaozong Li Zhi to bury this rare treasure "Preface to the Lanting Pavilion". Since then, there has never been an original Preface to Lanting in the world.
It stands to reason that Li Zhi should obey his father's orders to place the Preface to Lanting in Zhaoling of Emperor Taizong, but after Zhaoling was stolen, there was no Preface to Lanting. Therefore, the dry tombs of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian became the last possible hiding place of the book Preface to Lanting.
Guo Moruo is a person who loves cultural relics very much. He very much hopes to witness the original work of Preface to Lanting in his lifetime. To this end, Guo Moruo also put forward the view that Preface to Lanting is an official script rather than a running script, hoping to explore Ganling.
However, in the case of the failure of Dingling excavation, Guo Moruo's request has only one reply:? The imperial tomb shall not be excavated for ten years. ? Therefore, Mr. Guo didn't finish his wish to dig Ganling until his death. The secret of the preface of Lanting collection can only be left to future generations to explore.