A Warlord’s Many Titles in Turbulent Times

In the chaotic landscape of early 20th century China, few figures embodied the opportunism and moral ambiguity of the warlord era quite like Sun Dianying. His military career reads like a roadmap of China’s fractured political landscape, having served under virtually every major power broker of his time. From Zhang Zongchang’s Shandong Army to Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists, from Zhang Xueliang’s Northeastern Army to Wang Jingwei’s collaborationist regime, Sun collected titles like other men collected medals.

This serial allegiance-switching wasn’t unusual in an era when military commanders with personal armies could bargain their loyalty for rank and territory. What set Sun apart wasn’t the quantity of his appointments—though his resume included everything from division commander to provincial governor—but the singular infamy he would earn through one brazen act that would overshadow all his official titles: the looting of the Eastern Qing Tombs in 1928.

The Road to the Imperial Mausoleums

The Eastern Qing Tombs, located in Zunhua County about 120 kilometers east of Beijing, represented one of China’s most sacred historical sites. Constructed between 1661-1911, this sprawling necropolis housed five emperors, fifteen empresses, and hundreds of imperial concubines and princes across 80 square kilometers of carefully feng shui-designed landscape. By the late 1920s, with the Qing dynasty overthrown and China fractured by warlordism, the once-magnificent tombs had fallen into neglect.

Sun’s path to the tombs began with military defeat. As a commander under warlord Zhang Zongchang during the Northern Expedition, his forces suffered devastating losses against the combined armies of Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang, and Yan Xishan. Retreating to the Jixian-Zunhua area with his battered troops in May 1928, Sun faced a dire choice: continue fighting against impossible odds or surrender. He chose the latter, and in a pattern that would repeat throughout his career, his military force—however diminished—remained valuable enough to earn him a new position: commander of the 12th Army under Chiang’s National Revolutionary Army.

The Heist That Shocked a Nation

Stationed near the Eastern Qing Tombs to “suppress bandits” in June 1928, Sun learned that a former bandit-turned-soldier named Ma Futian planned to loot the imperial mausoleums. This presented both a problem and an opportunity. The tombs, though nominally protected, had become vulnerable targets. The last Qing emperor Puyi, living in exile in Tianjin’s Japanese concession, lacked the power to defend his ancestors’ resting places. Local guards, unpaid and demoralized, offered little resistance.

Sun moved swiftly. Dispatching troops to drive off Ma’s bandits, he then declared the area a military zone under the pretext of conducting exercises. What followed was less archaeological excavation than industrialized plunder. Using dynamite to blast through reinforced tomb doors—including the four massive stone portals of the Qianlong Emperor’s burial chamber—Sun’s soldiers ransacked two of the most opulent tombs: those of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1796) and Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908).

The haul was staggering. From Cixi’s tomb alone, soldiers reportedly extracted a legendary night-luminescent pearl from the deceased empress’s mouth (requiring them to cut through her throat), along with jewel-encrusted Buddhist statues, jade artifacts, and gold ornaments. The Qianlong Emperor’s tomb yielded ceremonial swords, rare porcelain, and the emperor’s 108-bead court necklace with its distinctive crimson orbs. Contemporary accounts describe soldiers stuffing their pockets with loose gemstones that had fallen during the chaotic looting.

The Scandal Unfolds

The theft might have remained undiscovered had greed not undone the thieves themselves. In August 1928, Qingdao police arrested three deserters from Sun’s army trying to sell stolen pearls. This led investigators to a trail of looted treasures: 35 crates of artifacts intercepted at Tianjin customs bound for France; 24 bronze Buddha statues seized from a government official; and Sun’s own subordinate, General Tan Wenjiang, caught attempting to sell artifacts in Beijing.

The scandal erupted nationwide. Newspapers dubbed Sun the “Eastern Tomb Raider,” while exiled Qing loyalists, led by the furious Puyi, demanded justice. The cultural loss was incalculable—many treasures were priceless artworks representing the pinnacle of Qing craftsmanship. Yet what followed revealed more about Republican China’s corruption than the crime itself.

Bribes and Impunity: The Aftermath

Facing prosecution, Sun deployed his most effective weapon: strategic bribery. According to his later confession, he distributed the loot to power brokers across the Nationalist government:

– The legendary “Nine Dragon Sword” went to Chiang Kai-shek
– The finest pearls from Qianlong’s necklace were gifted to secret police chief Dai Li
– Cixi’s famous luminous pearl allegedly went to Madame Chiang (Soong Mei-ling)
– Jewel-encrusted artifacts found their way to finance minister T.V. Soong and the powerful Kung family
– General Xu Yuanquan, Sun’s immediate superior, received enough gold and artifacts to become his staunch defender

When the military trial finally convened in December 1928, the outcome was preordained. Key witnesses recanted, evidence disappeared, and Sun himself never faced direct prosecution. By June 1929, with Sun already appointed to a new military position, the case was quietly shelved. The message was clear: in warlord China, armed strength and well-placed bribes trumped justice, even for crimes against national heritage.

The Cultural Catastrophe and Lasting Legacy

The Eastern Qing Tombs looting represented more than just a spectacular theft—it marked a watershed in China’s relationship with its imperial past. For centuries, imperial tombs had been inviolable symbols of the Mandate of Heaven. Their desecration signaled how thoroughly old hierarchies had collapsed. The incident also exposed the vulnerability of China’s cultural heritage during this turbulent period, setting unfortunate precedents for future tomb raiding.

Sun’s personal legacy proved equally damning. Despite later serving against the Japanese during World War II (including a creditable defense at Rehe in 1933), his name remained synonymous with tomb raiding. Captured by Communist forces in 1947 during the civil war, he died in prison that same year—an opium addict suffering from dysentery, his body as ravaged as the tombs he’d violated.

Today, while scholars debate the exact fate of the stolen treasures (some likely smuggled abroad, others possibly hidden in Wuhan’s Xu Mansion), Sun Dianying endures in popular memory not as a general or governor, but as China’s most infamous grave robber—proof that among all possible titles, history remembers only those truly earned.