I don’t know if this is recent news, but this is the first I’ve heard of it, and I check up on this from time to time. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I think Cao Cao was easily one of the greatest human beings to ever walk the face of the earth. When he died, legends say that his tomb was protected by 72 decoys to keep his enemies from finding it and doing nasty things to it. And for about 1,800 years, that strategy worked, because no one had any clue where this man’s body was.

That’s over and done with because archeologists in China believe they have found his tomb near Anyang (in the village of Xigaoxue), Henan. Anyang (and the surrounding area) has a pretty prestigious history. Around 2000 BC, the legendary rulers Zhuanvxu and Emperor Ku supposedly made their capitals around there. Also, the Yin Dynasty had its capital (the first stable one in Chinese history) a few miles from present day Anyang. It was a good choice for Cao Cao’s tomb, I’d say. He couldn’t have it put somewhere too important to him, like his home village or his capital, because that’d be too obvious. Anyang was definitely a good decision.

According to one source, the tomb is 8,000 square feet, the size of a king’s tomb. Inside, they found the bodies of three people – a man in his 60s (Cao Cao was said to have died at the age of 66), a woman in her 50s (presumably consistent with one of Cao Cao’s wives, though I’m not sure which one. Details on them are kind of sketchy), and another woman in her 20s who is believed to be the other woman’s servant. They also found numerous stone tablets with the name King Wu of Wei, which, as near as I can guess, translates to the Invincible King of Wei, which is almost as awesome as Cao Cao’s other popular names, The Hero of Chaos and Lucifer.

According to other sources, there were a lot of other things found in the tomb aside from bodies and name-plates. These include weapons Cao Cao used, armor he wore (I want a helmet), and pottery that, knowing Cao Cao, he probably made himself. That’s about all that was found, though – Cao Cao tried to live simply and he wanted to be buried that way, too.

Now, as always, there are some who don’t think this is actually his tomb. I’m not really going to get into that here – it’s a little difficult for me to verify the authenticity of a tomb in Xiguoxue from here in America. When I go to China, I’m definitely going to stop by and see what I think.

Here’s a little bit of an ironic note: One of the important people involved in investigating this whole thing is Liu Qingzhu, the director director of the academic committee of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Another investigator is Sun Xin-Min, the chief of the Hunan Archeology Lab. And if you know anything about the three kingdoms, you probably think it’s as funny as I do that two of the people poking around Cao Cao’s tomb are a Sun and a Liu.

Anyhow, here are some pics.

Cao Cao's front door.

This would be the door part.

A stone pillow.

One of those King of Wei inscriptions.

Fancy stone painting.

Pics courtesy of China Hush

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