Are there many tomb robbers in China?

The topic of tomb robbing has been going on for thousands of years. First of all, we need to understand why tomb robbing occurs?

Generally speaking, there are two reasons. One is to vent anger. That is, you have done something wrong to me. When I seek revenge on you, you have already died. Then I will dig up your grave, whip your corpse, and grind your bones to ashes.

Typical representatives of this kind of thing include Wu Zixu digging the tomb of King Ping of Chu and Xiang Yu burning the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.

They do not seek wealth, but only seek revenge. This situation is extremely rare, after all, the dead are the greatest.

The other one is simple, seeking wealth.

In ancient times, emperors, generals, dignitaries, and nobles held power and wealth during their lifetime, and were afraid that they would not have so much wealth after their death. So they built large-scale underground gardens and buried countless gold, silver and jewelry.

The number and scale of tomb robbers in Chinese history ‌

The number and scale of tomb robbers in Chinese history are quite large. According to incomplete statistics, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, more than 200,000 ancient tombs have been robbed in China, and countless cultural relics have been lost to the public or abroad, causing huge cultural relics losses to China. Since the 1980s, tomb robbing in China has become more and more rampant, with tens of thousands of ancient tombs being robbed every year.

‌Motives and means of tomb robbers‌

The main motive of tomb robbers is to "get rich overnight" and obtain economic benefits by stealing burial objects in ancient tombs. Tomb robbing not only destroys the structural architecture of ancient tombs, but also poses great difficulties for experts' archaeological research. Tomb robbers have a variety of means, including the use of tools such as Luoyang shovels for detection, and the use of modern technology for precise positioning and excavation.

‌Historical background of tomb robbing

Tomb robbing has a long history in China, almost in sync with the rise of tombs. As early as in ancient books such as "Zhuangzi" and "Lüshi Chunqiu", there were detailed records of tomb robbing techniques. The earliest tomb recorded in history was the tomb of Shang Tang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty, which was about 3,600 years ago. It was robbed in the Western Zhou Dynasty about 2,700 years ago.