How China's Greatest Treasure Mysteriously Vanished
Aug 20, 2020 23:04:35 GMT
politicidal and mecano04 like this
Post by hi224 on Aug 20, 2020 23:04:35 GMT
Few countries could boast an artifact that is the literal embodiment of its founding as a nation, much less a civilization as ancient and historically significant as China. Yet, such an artifact indeed existed at one point and, arguably, likely still exists somewhere to this day, waiting to be discovered in a field or lake. Indeed, many very similar imperial artifacts have been discovered in recent decades, though none have turned out to be the Heirloom Seal of the Realm.
The Heirloom Seal of the Realm is a Chinese jade seal, a sacred piece of jade that itself boasts a long and interesting history. Many of the people in this sub will be familiar with the Chinese concept of the “Mandate of Heaven” - a Chinese philosophical teaching that was used in ancient and imperial China to justify the rule of the Emperor. The Heirloom Seal of the Realm was the physical embodiment of the Mandate of Heaven, the man that possessed the seal was said to possess the mandate of heaven. From this alone, it should be immediately clear how profoundly important this treasure was in Imperial China.
It was passed down from dynasty to dynasty for over 1000 years before mysteriously being lost. To this day, no one even knows when it was truly lost, much less how.
The seal was created in 221BC by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who destroyed all the warring states and united China under the Qin Dynasty. After acquiring the sacred Jade Heshibi from a fallen warlord, the first Chinese Emperor had it made into his imperial seal. Prime Minister Li Si had the following words (受命於天, 既壽永昌) inscribed onto the seal:
"Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life."
The Heshibi
The Heshibi (和氏璧) was among the most famous pieces of jades in Chinese history. Its origin date back to as early as the 8th Century BC, when it was discovered by a man named Bian He of the [Chu state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)). Bian He presented the unworked Jade to successive kings, both of whom had it judged to be worthless stone and punished him with foot amputation for his alleged attempt at deception. Only when the stone was eventually cut and polished into a [ritual stone disk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi_(jade)) was it recognized as a priceless treasure. In fact, it became a much sought after treasure among which the various warring states stole from one another.
A translation of a commentary from the 2nd Century BC writes of the Heshibi's origin:
Once a man of Chu, named Pien Ho, came by an uncut jade in the Chu Hills. He brought it home and submitted it as a present to King Wu. Thereupon King Wu had a jeweller give an opinion of it. "It is an ordinary stone," said the jeweller. The King, regarding Ho as a liar, had his left foot cut off. Upon King Wu's death, King Wen ascended the throne, when Ho again submitted it as a present to King Wen. King Wen also had a jeweller give an opinion of it. Again he said, "It is an ordinary stone." The King, also regarding Ho as a liar, had his right foot cut off. When King Wen died and King Cheng ascended the throne, Ho, carrying the uncut jade in his arms, cried at the foot of the Ching Hills. After three days and three nights his tears were all exhausted and blood flowed out. At this news the King sent men out to ask him the reason, saying, "Throughout All-under-Heaven men whose feet were cut off are many. Why should you be crying so bitterly?" "I am lamenting not the loss of my feet," said Ho in reply, "but for the calling a precious gem an ordinary stone and for their dubbing an honest man a liar. This is the reason why I am lamenting." Meanwhile, the King had a jeweller polish up the jade and got the treasure out at last. So it was designated "the Jade of Pien Ho"
The Heshibi was eventually acquired by the [Zhao state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_(state)) in the 4th Century BC, who then traded it to the Qin dynasty in the 4th Century BC.
Creation of the Seal
After Qin Shi Huang united China under the Qin Dynasty, becoming the first emperor of China, he ordered the Heshibi made into his imperial seal. Jade has long been regarded as precious in Chinese culture, and is regarded as symbolic of the inner beauty of humans. In fact, it is said that during the later Han Dynasty (the successor of the Qin), the Chinese associated jade with immortality to a point where some individuals attempted to drink jade in liquid form to gain eternal life. This association further complements the idea of the Mandate of Heaven and why the Seal was carved in jade, China's most valued material for thousands of years.
The Mandate of Heaven
After the death of the second Qin Emperor, his successor Zi Yin proffered the seal to the new emperor of the Han Dynasty, where after it was known as the "Han Heirloom Seal of the Realm". At the end of the Western Han Dynasty in 9 AD, Wang Mang, the new ruler, forced the Han empress dowager to hand over the Seal. The empress dowager, in anger, threw the Seal on the ground, chipping one corner. Later Wang Mang ordered the corner to be restored with gold.
This seal passed on even as dynasties rose and fell. It was seen as a legitimizing device, signaling the Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon the emperor. During turbulent periods in Chinese history, such as the famous Three Kingdoms period that was the setting for the classical Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the seal became the object of intense rivalry and obsession. Regimes which possessed the seal declared themselves as legitimate.
At the end of the restored Han Dynasty in the 3rd Century AD, Sun Jian found the Imperial Seal on the body of a court servant who had committed suicide by diving into a well. His son Sun Ce gave the Seal to Yuan Shu in return for 3000 soldiers, which he used to found the Kingdom of Wu. When Yuan Shu was defeated, the Seal came into the hands of Cao Cao, a warlord who rose to power and established what would later become the state of Cao Wei and, later, the [Jin Dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_dynasty_(266%E2%80%93420)). Cao Cao's son, Cao Pi, would later proclaim the Wei Dynasty as the legitimate successor state to the Han Dynasty and declared the other rival dynasties to be illegitimate.
The seal disappeared multiple times as it passed down the ruling lineage. Han historians claimed (perhaps disparagingly) that Qin Shi Huang was said to have cast the seal into Dongting Lake to ensure smooth passage for his boat. It was supposedly found and returned by an honest farmer eight years later.
To give you an impression of just how long the Heirloom Seal lasted, being passed on from dynasty to dynasty, I refer you to this diagram. The Seal is believed to have remained in the possession of the emperor from the beginning of the Qin dynasty to at least the end of the Tang Dynasty (possibly longer).
Loss
The seal was successfully passed down through successive dynasties for over 1000 years. To put into perspective how long it survived, this includes being passed down through the Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Sixteen Kingdoms period, Southern and Northern Dynasties period, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty
Created in 221BC, it was lost sometime between 907-960 during the “Five Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms period.” - an era of immense political upheaval that saw imperial China fracture into warring states. The era started with the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907AD and continued until the founding of the dominant Song dynasty in 960. In the following years the Song gradually subdued all of the remaining states. The exact time at which the emperor lost the seal is not known – likely because the emperor would not want this fact being known – but three main theories exist as to when, and how, the Heirloom Seal was lost:
At the end of the Later Tang Dynasty, when the last Emperor died by self-immolation. Although some records that state it was lost for good when the last Tang emperor burned down his palace as the invaders closed in, records of the Northern Song Dynasty state that it resurfaced 150 years later via a sharp-eyed farmer.
It was lost in AD 946 when the Emperor Taizong of Liao captured the last Emperor of the Later [Jin State](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_dynasty_(1115%E2%80%931234)). In the confusion and chaos, the Seal may have been lost by a servant or official of the Great Jin.
The seal may have come into the hands of the later Yuan emperors - the dynasty established by the Mongols. When the Ming armies captured the Yuan capital in 1369, it captured just one out of the eleven personal Seals of the Yuan emperors. The Heirloom Seal was not found. In 1370, Ming armies invaded Mongolia and captured some treasures brought there by the retreating Yuan emperor. However, once more the Heirloom Seal was not found.
It is known that by the time the Ming dynasty was established in 1368 the Heirloom Seal was lost. Neither the Ming Dynasty (the first dynasty to encounter Portugese explorers), nor the Qing dynasty (the final dynasty that would be overthrown in the 20th century), ever recovered the seal. It is believed that this is why the Qing Dynasty was obsessed with producing numerous imperial seals. They wanted to minimize the significance of the Heirloom Seal in case it was later discovered, which might lead to the Qing of Manchuria being declared illegitimate. Hence, the Qing produced countless imperial seals that continue to be rediscovered to this day.
The Qing emperor Qianlong had as many as 1,800 seals made, but we only have records of about 30. Most were crafted to commemorate events like imperial birthdays and military victories, and were kept in a special hall inside the Forbidden City. One of Qianlong's seals, made of steatite and decorated with nine dragons, fetched $22 million at a Paris auction.
Search for the Seal
Unfortunately, no prints by the Heirloom Seal exist, and most historical paintings simply show it held in the triumphant hands of a new emperor. In recent decades, several seals unearthed in the Chinese countryside - including one found by a 13-year-old boy in Shaanxi province in 1955 - were thought to be candidates for the lost treasure, but ended up being among the many other imperial seals of the Qing and Ming.
Unlike traditional treasures made of gold, the Heirloom Seal would not have been “melted down” by its discoverer or looter. It’s also unlikely that it would have been chiseled down into something else given the immense importance of the seal that anyone who finds it would immediately recognize, and the relative abundance of jade. Most likely, the seal was lost during a period of chaos and confusion, perhaps in the secret possession of someone before they were killed.
It is entirely possible that the Heirloom seal sits buried somewhere forgotten to this very day, at the bottom of a lake or buried beneath the earth, along with the countless other imperial seals that are discovered every few years.
It wouldn't be the first time a lost treasure of China has been rediscovered by farmers. In 1974 some farmers, in the process of digging a well, discovered the lost tomb of the first emperor - the very man that created the Heirloom Seal. It has been described as the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th Century, and houses the famous Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an. The tomb lay lost and undisturbed for over 2,000 years until some farmers discovered it by accident.
Value
It can be argued that, theoretically, the Heirloom Seal is the most valuable lost treasure in the world. As a treasure dating back to the founding of China as a unified state - and the physical representation of the Mandate of Heaven - Both The People's Republic of China (mainland china) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) would seek the treasure and likely be willing to pay untold billions.
Sources:
The Missing Seal - China Daily
The Missing Seal - World of Chinese
Wikipedia
The Heirloom Seal of the Realm is a Chinese jade seal, a sacred piece of jade that itself boasts a long and interesting history. Many of the people in this sub will be familiar with the Chinese concept of the “Mandate of Heaven” - a Chinese philosophical teaching that was used in ancient and imperial China to justify the rule of the Emperor. The Heirloom Seal of the Realm was the physical embodiment of the Mandate of Heaven, the man that possessed the seal was said to possess the mandate of heaven. From this alone, it should be immediately clear how profoundly important this treasure was in Imperial China.
It was passed down from dynasty to dynasty for over 1000 years before mysteriously being lost. To this day, no one even knows when it was truly lost, much less how.
The seal was created in 221BC by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who destroyed all the warring states and united China under the Qin Dynasty. After acquiring the sacred Jade Heshibi from a fallen warlord, the first Chinese Emperor had it made into his imperial seal. Prime Minister Li Si had the following words (受命於天, 既壽永昌) inscribed onto the seal:
"Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life."
The Heshibi
The Heshibi (和氏璧) was among the most famous pieces of jades in Chinese history. Its origin date back to as early as the 8th Century BC, when it was discovered by a man named Bian He of the [Chu state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)). Bian He presented the unworked Jade to successive kings, both of whom had it judged to be worthless stone and punished him with foot amputation for his alleged attempt at deception. Only when the stone was eventually cut and polished into a [ritual stone disk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi_(jade)) was it recognized as a priceless treasure. In fact, it became a much sought after treasure among which the various warring states stole from one another.
A translation of a commentary from the 2nd Century BC writes of the Heshibi's origin:
Once a man of Chu, named Pien Ho, came by an uncut jade in the Chu Hills. He brought it home and submitted it as a present to King Wu. Thereupon King Wu had a jeweller give an opinion of it. "It is an ordinary stone," said the jeweller. The King, regarding Ho as a liar, had his left foot cut off. Upon King Wu's death, King Wen ascended the throne, when Ho again submitted it as a present to King Wen. King Wen also had a jeweller give an opinion of it. Again he said, "It is an ordinary stone." The King, also regarding Ho as a liar, had his right foot cut off. When King Wen died and King Cheng ascended the throne, Ho, carrying the uncut jade in his arms, cried at the foot of the Ching Hills. After three days and three nights his tears were all exhausted and blood flowed out. At this news the King sent men out to ask him the reason, saying, "Throughout All-under-Heaven men whose feet were cut off are many. Why should you be crying so bitterly?" "I am lamenting not the loss of my feet," said Ho in reply, "but for the calling a precious gem an ordinary stone and for their dubbing an honest man a liar. This is the reason why I am lamenting." Meanwhile, the King had a jeweller polish up the jade and got the treasure out at last. So it was designated "the Jade of Pien Ho"
The Heshibi was eventually acquired by the [Zhao state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_(state)) in the 4th Century BC, who then traded it to the Qin dynasty in the 4th Century BC.
Creation of the Seal
After Qin Shi Huang united China under the Qin Dynasty, becoming the first emperor of China, he ordered the Heshibi made into his imperial seal. Jade has long been regarded as precious in Chinese culture, and is regarded as symbolic of the inner beauty of humans. In fact, it is said that during the later Han Dynasty (the successor of the Qin), the Chinese associated jade with immortality to a point where some individuals attempted to drink jade in liquid form to gain eternal life. This association further complements the idea of the Mandate of Heaven and why the Seal was carved in jade, China's most valued material for thousands of years.
The Mandate of Heaven
After the death of the second Qin Emperor, his successor Zi Yin proffered the seal to the new emperor of the Han Dynasty, where after it was known as the "Han Heirloom Seal of the Realm". At the end of the Western Han Dynasty in 9 AD, Wang Mang, the new ruler, forced the Han empress dowager to hand over the Seal. The empress dowager, in anger, threw the Seal on the ground, chipping one corner. Later Wang Mang ordered the corner to be restored with gold.
This seal passed on even as dynasties rose and fell. It was seen as a legitimizing device, signaling the Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon the emperor. During turbulent periods in Chinese history, such as the famous Three Kingdoms period that was the setting for the classical Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the seal became the object of intense rivalry and obsession. Regimes which possessed the seal declared themselves as legitimate.
At the end of the restored Han Dynasty in the 3rd Century AD, Sun Jian found the Imperial Seal on the body of a court servant who had committed suicide by diving into a well. His son Sun Ce gave the Seal to Yuan Shu in return for 3000 soldiers, which he used to found the Kingdom of Wu. When Yuan Shu was defeated, the Seal came into the hands of Cao Cao, a warlord who rose to power and established what would later become the state of Cao Wei and, later, the [Jin Dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_dynasty_(266%E2%80%93420)). Cao Cao's son, Cao Pi, would later proclaim the Wei Dynasty as the legitimate successor state to the Han Dynasty and declared the other rival dynasties to be illegitimate.
The seal disappeared multiple times as it passed down the ruling lineage. Han historians claimed (perhaps disparagingly) that Qin Shi Huang was said to have cast the seal into Dongting Lake to ensure smooth passage for his boat. It was supposedly found and returned by an honest farmer eight years later.
To give you an impression of just how long the Heirloom Seal lasted, being passed on from dynasty to dynasty, I refer you to this diagram. The Seal is believed to have remained in the possession of the emperor from the beginning of the Qin dynasty to at least the end of the Tang Dynasty (possibly longer).
Loss
The seal was successfully passed down through successive dynasties for over 1000 years. To put into perspective how long it survived, this includes being passed down through the Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Sixteen Kingdoms period, Southern and Northern Dynasties period, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty
Created in 221BC, it was lost sometime between 907-960 during the “Five Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms period.” - an era of immense political upheaval that saw imperial China fracture into warring states. The era started with the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907AD and continued until the founding of the dominant Song dynasty in 960. In the following years the Song gradually subdued all of the remaining states. The exact time at which the emperor lost the seal is not known – likely because the emperor would not want this fact being known – but three main theories exist as to when, and how, the Heirloom Seal was lost:
At the end of the Later Tang Dynasty, when the last Emperor died by self-immolation. Although some records that state it was lost for good when the last Tang emperor burned down his palace as the invaders closed in, records of the Northern Song Dynasty state that it resurfaced 150 years later via a sharp-eyed farmer.
It was lost in AD 946 when the Emperor Taizong of Liao captured the last Emperor of the Later [Jin State](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_dynasty_(1115%E2%80%931234)). In the confusion and chaos, the Seal may have been lost by a servant or official of the Great Jin.
The seal may have come into the hands of the later Yuan emperors - the dynasty established by the Mongols. When the Ming armies captured the Yuan capital in 1369, it captured just one out of the eleven personal Seals of the Yuan emperors. The Heirloom Seal was not found. In 1370, Ming armies invaded Mongolia and captured some treasures brought there by the retreating Yuan emperor. However, once more the Heirloom Seal was not found.
It is known that by the time the Ming dynasty was established in 1368 the Heirloom Seal was lost. Neither the Ming Dynasty (the first dynasty to encounter Portugese explorers), nor the Qing dynasty (the final dynasty that would be overthrown in the 20th century), ever recovered the seal. It is believed that this is why the Qing Dynasty was obsessed with producing numerous imperial seals. They wanted to minimize the significance of the Heirloom Seal in case it was later discovered, which might lead to the Qing of Manchuria being declared illegitimate. Hence, the Qing produced countless imperial seals that continue to be rediscovered to this day.
The Qing emperor Qianlong had as many as 1,800 seals made, but we only have records of about 30. Most were crafted to commemorate events like imperial birthdays and military victories, and were kept in a special hall inside the Forbidden City. One of Qianlong's seals, made of steatite and decorated with nine dragons, fetched $22 million at a Paris auction.
Search for the Seal
Unfortunately, no prints by the Heirloom Seal exist, and most historical paintings simply show it held in the triumphant hands of a new emperor. In recent decades, several seals unearthed in the Chinese countryside - including one found by a 13-year-old boy in Shaanxi province in 1955 - were thought to be candidates for the lost treasure, but ended up being among the many other imperial seals of the Qing and Ming.
Unlike traditional treasures made of gold, the Heirloom Seal would not have been “melted down” by its discoverer or looter. It’s also unlikely that it would have been chiseled down into something else given the immense importance of the seal that anyone who finds it would immediately recognize, and the relative abundance of jade. Most likely, the seal was lost during a period of chaos and confusion, perhaps in the secret possession of someone before they were killed.
It is entirely possible that the Heirloom seal sits buried somewhere forgotten to this very day, at the bottom of a lake or buried beneath the earth, along with the countless other imperial seals that are discovered every few years.
It wouldn't be the first time a lost treasure of China has been rediscovered by farmers. In 1974 some farmers, in the process of digging a well, discovered the lost tomb of the first emperor - the very man that created the Heirloom Seal. It has been described as the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th Century, and houses the famous Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an. The tomb lay lost and undisturbed for over 2,000 years until some farmers discovered it by accident.
Value
It can be argued that, theoretically, the Heirloom Seal is the most valuable lost treasure in the world. As a treasure dating back to the founding of China as a unified state - and the physical representation of the Mandate of Heaven - Both The People's Republic of China (mainland china) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) would seek the treasure and likely be willing to pay untold billions.
Sources:
The Missing Seal - China Daily
The Missing Seal - World of Chinese
Wikipedia