Anyang Cao Cao Gaoling Museum, the burial place of a great hero.

✔️In Anyang, I heard that there was Cao Cao's tomb, called Cao Cao Gaoling, also known as Anyang Gaoling, so I drove there. Because it is located in the south of Xigaoxue Village, Anfeng Township, Yindu District, Anyang City, it takes about 40 minutes by taxi from the city. ✔️There are two explanations for why Cao Cao's tomb is called "Gaoling". One is that it is related to the topography of the tomb. The other is that it follows the tradition of naming imperial tombs in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which has a commendatory meaning and is consistent with the naming habits of imperial tombs in the Eastern Han Dynasty. ✔️During his lifetime, Cao Cao formulated the "Final Order" and proposed the idea of ​​"simple burial". The important feature of this system is "no burial mound and no tombstones", that is, there is no burial mound on the surface, no monuments are erected in front of the tomb, and no gold, silver, pearls or jade are buried with the tomb. The burial objects are mainly pottery objects. After the excavation of Gaoling in Anyang, it was confirmed that the area around the tomb was a barren land. There was no burial mound or tombstone on the surface, and most of the exhibits were pottery, which was simple and crude. ✔️It is recorded that in the 23rd year of Jian'an (218 AD), Cao Cao selected the west plain of Ximen Bao Temple as the location of his tomb because "in ancient times, burials must be located in barren lands" and "the tombs are built on high ground" and the area is wide enough to "build a wide area". The main building of the Gaoling project seemed to be completed at the end of the 24th year of Jian'an. On the 23rd day of the first lunar month in the 25th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao died in Luoyang and was buried in Gaoling in Yexi on the 21st day of the second lunar month. According to records, in addition to Cao Cao, his wife Bian was also buried in Gaoling. ✔️In the third year of Huangchu (222 AD), Cao Pi dismantled all the ground facilities of Cao Cao's Gaoling, and since then the location of Gaoling has gradually become unknown. After the Song Dynasty, due to years of war in the north and the lack of markers such as tombstones and stone statues in the mausoleum, although Cao Cao's burial place was mentioned in the literature, there were obvious signs of mutual copying, and various conjectures and supernatural stories circulated, such as the "Seventy-two Suspicious Tombs" theory. Official history records that Cao Cao was buried in Gaoling, but its location remains a mystery. ✔️The discovery and excavation of Cao Cao's Gaoling was in 1998. Villagers in Xigaoxue Village, Anyang, discovered the tombstone of Lu Qian, the Minister of the Imperial Household and the Imperial Concubine of the Later Zhao Dynasty. It was recorded on it that the tomb was "forty-three steps west of the northwest corner of the former tomb of Emperor Wu of Wei". This discovery opened the prelude to the discovery of Gaoling in Anyang. In 2008, after preliminary drilling and expert investigation, it was identified as a large tomb from the late Eastern Han Dynasty. In November 2008, the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology officially launched a rescue archaeological excavation of the Xigaoxue Tomb in Anyang. During this period, archaeologists unearthed 8 stone tablets with inscriptions such as "Always used by King Wu of Wei" from the tomb. These important evidences directly indicated the identity of the tomb owner. After repeated discussions, it was finally confirmed that the Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb of Xigaoxue was the Gaoling where Cao Cao was buried. ✔️The existing area of ​​the entire Gaoling Cemetery is about 12,500 square meters, and the distribution area of ​​related relics is more than 50,000 square meters. It consists of Tomb No. 1 and No. 2 (Cao Cao's Tomb), inner and outer rammed earth foundation trenches, the sacred way, and the eastern part. Cao Cao's tomb consists of a tomb passage, brick retaining wall, tomb door, door-sealing wall, corridor, tomb chamber, side chamber, etc., covering an area of ​​740 square meters. ✔️On April 27, 2023, the Gaoling Ruins Museum, built on the original site of Gaoling, began to open to the public for a long time. Cao Cao Gaoling Site Museum