(A replica of what the seal could have looked like)
The Claim
One of the most valuable and important artifacts in Chinese history has been lost for over 1000 years
The Imperial seal of china, or the Heirloom seal of the Realm as its known in its home country, is a round disk shaped seal carved out of a legendary piece of Jade. The piece of Jade its carved from was found during the 8th century BCE by a very unlucky peasant named Bian He. After finding the large piece of Jade on his land he took it to a king who didn’t know what it was and punished Bian He with a foot amputation for wasting his time.
After that king was replaced by the next, Bian He brought the jade to the next king, hoping to be rewarded as he believed it to be valuable. The next king did the same thing and cut off his other foot for bringing him a worthless piece of green rock.
The stone was later found by Qin Shi Huang after he defeated the smaller independent states and united China. It was this new emperor of China that ordered the stone to be carved into an artifact to represent the Imperial seal, after which it was recognised as a priceless treasure.
After the death of the successor of Qin Shi Huang, the seal was passed to the new emperor of the Han Dynasty which is when the name was changed to the “Han heirloom Seal of the Realm”.
The seal changed hands many times over the next few centuries as it was seen as the equivalent of the crown jewels, and possessing it gave legitimacy to the ruler. As for when the seal was last seen, it appears to have vanished sometime during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period which ran between 907 and 960 AD.
The seal passed through the hands of the Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty and Sixteen kingdoms period, then on to the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty before going missing some time between 907 and 960.
As for how it went missing no one really knows for sure, but there’s several theories. The 2 main ones include when Emperor Taizong of Liao captured the last Emperor of the Jin state who probably hid it somewhere, and the last emperor of the Tang dynasty who went mad and died by setting himself on fire, leading to a whole range of ideas as to what he did with the seal before hand.
There have been numerous people coming forward over the years claiming to have found the seal, but non of the claims have turned out to be genuine. The most likely location of the seal would be in a hiding place set by one of the last rulers to possess it, who preferred to hide it instead of letting it fall into the hands of his enemies.
Unfortunately records on 1000 year old emperor hiding places simply don’t exist, and if it is hidden you can bet its going to be somewhere deep and next to impossible to find. But if someone did find the seal, it would be priceless to the Chinese government, but if you found it in China which it most likely is, you wouldn’t get out the country alive without handing it over.
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