Huai’an City in our very own Jiangsu Province has recently become the scene for a potentially grisly grave robbing. Did someone dig up the tomb of Han Xin’s mother and attempt to rob it? Local police have opened a case.
江苏省淮安市最近发生了一起可能可怕的盗墓事件。难道有人挖了韩信母亲的坟墓，企图盗墓吗？当地警方已立案。
The discovery came to light on 22 December, when local people posted online that a 5-metre deep hole had been dug into Han Mu’s Tomb in Huai’an and that the Tomb’s video surveillance had been destroyed.
12月22日，这一发现曝光，当地民众在网上发帖称，淮安韩牧墓被挖了一个5米深的洞，墓中的视频监控已被破坏。
The Tomb of Han Mu, i.e. the tomb of the mother of Han Xin, a great military strategist in the early Han Dynasty, is a Municipal Key Cultural Relics Protection Site located in Xianfeng Village of Chengnan Township in Jiangpu District of Huai’an.
韩母墓，即汉初伟大的军事家韩信的母亲之墓，位于淮安市江浦区城南乡先锋村，是市级重点文物保护单位。
Mr. Yao is a local cultural relics enthusiast. He specifically chose to visit the Tomb on the Winter Solstice of 22 December when upon he discovered the hole in the ground. White-plaster mud was scattered nearby and Yao said that such was a sealing material for ancient tombs from the late Warring States Period to the early Western Han Dynasty.
姚先生是当地的一位文物爱好者。他特意选择在12月22日冬至那天参观陵墓，当时他发现了地上的洞。附近散落着白色的石膏泥，姚先生说，这是战国后期至西汉初期古墓的封土材料。
As The Paper reports, that material was thus suspected to come from inside the Tomb of Han Mu.
据澎湃新闻报道，该材料疑似来自韩穆墓内部。
Yao then looked at video of the Tomb that he took on 8 December, and found there too was mud covering the location of the hole, and pieces of white plaster scattered nearby.
随后，姚先生查看了12月8日拍摄的古墓视频，发现洞口处也覆盖着泥土，附近还散落着白色的石膏碎片。
“This shows that the tomb was stolen more than half a month ago and the tomb robbers used soil to temporarily block the hole in order to cover people’s eyes and ears”, Yao speculated.
“这说明这座坟墓在半个多月前就被盗了，盗墓者用泥土暂时堵住了洞口，以掩人耳目”，姚推测。
Chen Ping, Cultural Relics Security Administrator for Han Mu’s Tomb, told reporters that last year there had also been an attempted robbery. “The Cultural Relics Bureau installed surveillance cameras before, but then they broke down”, Chen said, adding that the surrounding area was deserted and nothing had been stolen.
韩穆墓文物保卫管理员陈平告诉记者，去年也曾发生过一起盗窃未遂事件。 “文物局之前安装了监控摄像头，但后来就坏了。”陈说，并补充说，周围地区空无一人，没有任何东西被盗。
As to the latest attempt at grave robbing, investigations have concluded that no cultural relics have been stolen. Authorities backfilled the hole on 23 December, repaired the previously destroyed surveillance cameras and increased the number of cultural-relic managers for the Tomb from one to two so as to strengthen inspections thereof.
对于最近发生的盗墓事件，经调查，没有文物被盗。 12月23日，当局回填了洞口，修复了之前被毁坏的监控摄像头，并将古墓文物管理人员由一名增至两名，加强巡查。
