One very famous figure in the history of the Liao dynasty is Empress Xiao Xue (birth name Xiao Yan Yan). History has recorded her significant contributions to the country. During the reign of Empress Xiao Xue, the Liao dynasty entered its golden age. Traditionally, empresses were buried with great solemnity.
At that time, the Liao state was relatively wealthy, and the empress held a very noble status, so many burial items were placed in her tomb. Therefore, the tomb of Empress Xiao Xue has attracted the attention of many thieves.
The tomb of Empress Xiao Xue is located in a small village in the city of Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, China. Since the birthplace of the Khitan people is in Liaoning, her tomb was also placed here.
In 1119 AD, 100 years after her death, Empress Xiao’s tomb was looted, and most of the treasures inside were taken away. Subsequently, her tomb was “visited” by grave robbers four more times, so it can be said that almost all the burial items inside were gone.
The tomb of Empress Xiao Xue has attracted the attention of many thieves. (Illustrative photo: Sohu).
Why is the golden burial cloth still intact?
Although Empress Xiao Xue’s tomb has been robbed many times, a thousand years later, in 1995, her golden burial cloth was discovered in Liaoning.
The burial cloth features a pattern of four phoenixes and is incredibly valuable. Why did it remain intact after six robberies? The first reason is that the tomb contained a lot of gold and jewels. The thieves only focused on the immediately valuable treasures and thought the old cloth was worthless, so they left it behind.
Additionally, later thieves were afraid of being identified and facing trouble, so they dared not take items like the golden burial cloth. The cloth was stripped off and discarded on the ground, and when the robbers saw it lying in tatters, they paid no attention to it.
Thus, after six visits from grave robbers, the cloth was “lucky” enough to be preserved.
The abandoned cloth and its astronomical value!
Over time, Empress Xiao Xue’s tomb was forgotten for a long period. In 1971, when locals were digging a bomb shelter, they discovered this tomb. It wasn’t until 1995 that archaeologists began to clean up the tomb of Empress Xiao Xue, and the golden burial cloth embroidered with four phoenixes was finally uncovered.
This patterned cloth was woven with gold thread and inlaid with many gold beads on the collar and cuffs. It is the only relic from the Liao dynasty’s funerary artifacts found to date. The entire garment used 10,730 grams of gold, along with hundreds of large and small gemstones.
The material and craftsmanship of the cloth were of the highest quality during the Liao dynasty. Liao culture also played a very important role, so the value of the cloth is extremely high, even surpassing that of jade. According to experts, it is valued at approximately 3.4 billion RMB.
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