After parting ways with Zhao Feipeng, Chen Yiyang kept thinking about what Zhao had said about the burial of a fourth-rank civil official in a dragon robe.
He searched online and found that Zhao Feipeng was indeed looking at legitimate news, not made-up stories.
In 2006, in the Shijingshan area of the Imperial Capital, an exceptionally well-preserved male mummified corpse was unearthed, about 1.73 meters tall, with six toes on his left foot.
Archaeologists analyzed the hairline of the mummy and discovered that the deceased had his hair shaved during his lifetime, but when he was buried, his hair was styled in the traditional Han style by those who buried him.
This indicates that the mummy was likely a person from the late Ming to early Qing Dynasty, hence the shaved hair during his lifetime, but buried in the Ming Dynasty tradition.
The coffin bore the name Huang Zhuowu, so it was presumed to be his name.
However, the strange thing is, Huang Zhuowu has no record in history, and the burial style is quite peculiar.
The coffin clearly stated that Huang Zhuowu was a fourth-rank Zhongxian Dafu, a civil official position.
Yet, his body was dressed in attire embroidered with a qilin pattern, a symbol of a first-grade military official.
Qing Dynasty official clothing was strictly defined: birds for civil officials, beasts for military officials.
Dressing a civil officer in military attire for burial had never happened before.
And even more astonishing.
Under the military attire, he was wearing a golden five-claw dragon robe up close.
According to the Qing Dynasty system, four claws signify a python robe, five claws a dragon robe.
Among emperors over the generations, there are occasions where python robes were granted to cherished close courtiers, but throughout Qing Dynasty history, only seventeen people received such honor, and in the late Ming to early Qing period under Kangxi, only two people did, none with the name Huang Zhuowu.
Besides the close-fitting five-claw dragon robe, there was another five-claw golden dragon robe in Huang Zhuowu's burial attire, embroidered with more than thirty golden dragons.
This burial treatment far exceeded that of Huang Zhuowu's rank as a fourth-rank official.
Moreover, aside from this, no other person in Qing Dynasty history received such a burial honor.
Such a treatment, vastly surpassing Huang Zhuowu's rank, must have had official approval and recognition, and not arranged privately.
After all, under the feet of the emperor, in the Imperial Capital.
Anyone understands that five claws are dragons, four claws are pythons.
You could spend some money and maybe find someone willing to risk it to make a python robe for you, but the number of people who could make a five-claw dragon robe was known.
At that time, those who could embroider five-claw dragon robes typically worked for the imperial court and understood the significance.
What kind of money could you offer to make it worthwhile for them to risk everything to do this?
Chen Yiyang became increasingly puzzled as he looked through the information.
This matter was too bizarre.
But for a mummy surrounded by mysteries like this, Chen Yiyang thought there must be many scholars who had published papers on it on Zhiwang, so he'd see how others studied it.
However, when he searched Zhiwang for Huang Zhuowu, he found no related papers.
Which is even more strange.
Such a good research topic, how come no one published papers on it?
So he called historian for an inquiry.
"Mr. Chen, I have heard about Huang Zhuowu before. But this tomb is over at Imperial Capital; it does not come under our research scope here."
"What, even archaeology has circles?" Chen Yiyang understood what the expert meant, but couldn't help but gripe a bit.
"Even house dogs have circles, let alone humans." The historian said helplessly, "I really can't help with this research project; Mr. Chen, maybe you can post it online and see if any amateur enthusiasts offer some hypotheses."
"That's feasible too." Chen Yiyang thought, Huang Zhuowu has been excavated for more than ten years; there should be several street scholars who have studied Huang Zhuowu's identity.
So he posted this matter on his social media platform to see if any folk scholars would respond.
After leaving the Imperial Capital, Chen Yiyang was invited to visit Guangzhou city.
After having a meal with some local businessmen, he took a drive to casually tour Pearl River.
"Mr. Chen, please take a look, this is one of the landmark buildings of our Guangzhou city."
Chen Yiyang looked up.
Well, a giant copper coin stood on the ground, looking quite odd.
"This building was completed in 2013, named Guangzhou Circle Building," the companion continued to introduce.
"I think it should be called Copper Coin Building." Chen Yiyang thought the thing looked just like a copper coin.
"Haha, it indeed looks a bit like that. But the Copper Coin Building's designer is Italian, not a local. He probably didn't expect that after the building was erected, it would resemble our ancient copper coins so much."
Guangzhou Copper Coin Building map.
Seeing such an unattractive building, Chen Yiyang speculated it was most likely designed by someone foreign.
This wasn't to say the foreign designers were bad, but that foreign designers working locally usually didn't put much effort into it.
The reason being, designers live miserably before fame but earn well after fame.
When domestic entities hire foreign designers, they generally value fame and prefer those with long-standing reputations.
