Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Complete Record of the History of Tomb Raiders in China

Chapter 78 The Emperor’s Tomb That Makes Tomb Robbers Covet (1)
The whole country builds the Qin Mausoleum

Chinese emperors lived extravagantly during their lifetimes, and they were unwilling to be frugal after their deaths. They repaired their tombs to be more luxurious than the palaces they lived in during their lifetimes.Profound burial has become the most typical feature of Chinese funeral culture.Since the mausoleum has as many treasures as the palace, and the treasures in the palace cannot be snatched, the tomb robbers naturally set their sights on these cemeteries full of treasures.Even at the risk of killing the whole family and exterminating the nine clans, he would not hesitate.So, among the many imperial tombs, which ones are most worthy of risk for tomb robbers?In other words, which are the emperor's tombs with the richest funerary objects in China?According to folk and historical records, there are three imperial tombs with the most abundant funeral objects: Qin Mausoleum, Mao Mausoleum, and Qian Mausoleum.

The Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is located at the northern foot of Lishan Mountain in the east of Lintong County, Shaanxi Province.At that time, the Qin Mausoleum was "more than 115 feet high", which is converted into a modern height of about 56.2 meters, covering an area of ​​[-] square kilometers. "Historical Records The Chronicle of Qin Shihuang" has a very detailed record about Qin Shihuang's mausoleum: "At the beginning of the first emperor's succession, he passed through Mount Li and merged the world, and the world sent more than [-] people, wearing three springs, and pouring copper. To the coffin, the palaces and temples are full of rare artifacts and treasures. Let craftsmen make crossbow arrows, and those who have penetrated close, shoot them. Use mercury as the rivers, rivers and seas, and instill them with mechanical phases, with astronomy on top and astronomy below Geography. Use mermaid ointment as a candle, and those who are immortal will survive for a long time."

That is to say, the top of Qin Shihuang's underground palace was built with "grain stone" to block the underground springs; the bottom was painted with "dan lacquer" to prevent moisture.In the tomb, there are palaces and ranks of officials, and a large number of pearls and jades are also placed in the tomb.At the same time, the entire mausoleum was filled with mercury, just like rivers and seas surrounded by mechanical power to make it flow continuously.In addition, lighting objects for the sun, moon and celestial bodies are also made on the top, and the bottom is piled up to look like mountains and rivers.Burning candles made of mermaid ointment can burn for more than 5000 hours... It is simply the epitome of a prosperous world on earth that has been moved underground.

How much manpower and material resources did the empire spend on such a grand scale as the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang?

First of all, the amount of stone used is staggering.Hundreds of thousands of laborers transported stones from the mountains north of the Weihe River to the quarry, which covers an area of ​​75 square meters.According to the historical records of the scene at that time, the sound of tens of thousands of hammers chiseling the stone was earth-shattering.It is said that the people who transported stones at that time stopped the Weihe River.The amount of earthwork used to build the mausoleum is also huge.Only a mausoleum protection embankment called "Wuling" in the south of the Qin Mausoleum is 3500 meters long, 40 meters wide, and about six or seven meters high, with an earthwork volume of over one million cubic meters.So many mounds of soil, where to get the soil?It is said that there is only one borrowing pit called "Yuchi", which extends for 4 miles around, which shows the huge amount of soil used by the imperial mausoleum.

Let alone the manpower used.Qin Shihuang began to build the mausoleum after he ascended the throne. This huge project required 70 craftsmen, took 38 years, and cost one-third of the country's taxes to complete.2000 years ago, it really challenged the limit of human construction power.

While the finishing work on Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum was still in progress, the first peasant uprising in Chinese history broke out.Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up, and all parts of the Kanto region responded one after another.The crumbling pro-dynasty was declared destroyed after less than a year of struggle.

Regarding the number of burial objects in the Qin Mausoleum, Sima Qian said, "It is full of rare artifacts and treasures." Judging from the area occupied by the Qin Mausoleum, the value and quantity of its treasures are immeasurable. "Hanshu" and other historical books also record that "copper is smelted to imprison the inside, and lacquer is painted on the outside", "covered with pearls and jade, decorated with emeralds", "the beauty of the coffin is invincible", a pair of coffins is so valuable, how about The value of other cultural relics in the world is self-evident.The Bingmakeng of the Qinling Mausoleum is known as one of the "Eighth Wonders of the World".

Such an underground treasure house will naturally attract the patronage of tomb robbers. We have also mentioned in detail before that the first person to rob the Qin Mausoleum was Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu.But he just burned down the ground buildings of the mausoleum, and the purpose of stealing the Qin Mausoleum was not achieved.Although there are still many tomb robbers in later generations, the Qin Mausoleum is still the same. If we want to know the value of the Qin Mausoleum's underground palace treasures, maybe we can only get the date of Qin Mausoleum's excavation.

Many people were buried in Maoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wudi

Xianyang, located in the hinterland of Guanzhong, is the main gathering place for the imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty.During the Western Han Dynasty, 11 emperors built 11 mausoleums, 9 of which were located on the Xianyang plateau. Among them, the five tombs were the most distinguished, namely the Changling Mausoleum of Emperor Gaozu, the Anling Mausoleum of Emperor Hui, the Yang Mausoleum of Emperor Jing, the Mao Mausoleum of Emperor Wu and the Ping Mausoleum of Emperor Zhao , so it is called "Wulingyuan".In the ancient poems, the descriptions of "Wuling's young people fight for their heads" and "Wuling's furred horses are self-deprecating and fat" refer to the things that the dudes who lived in these Lingyi counties fought cocks and horses and did evil.

Among the 11 imperial mausoleums in the Western Han Dynasty, the largest is the Mao Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In Chinese history, such a large-scale imperial mausoleum can only be compared with the Lishan Tomb of Qin Shihuang.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che was a very outstanding emperor in the ancient history of our country.During his 54 years of rule, he created unprecedented great achievements.His great talents and military skills made the Han Dynasty the most powerful country in the world at that time. The Western Han Empire under his rule was stronger than the Roman Empire and became the undisputed center of world civilization.The era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has also become one of the most proud and great eras in the history of the Chinese nation.Therefore, this outstanding emperor naturally attached great importance to his mausoleum, and it took tens of thousands of people to complete it after decades to show the great achievements of his life.

Before his death, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made arrangements for the afterlife.First of all, Mrs. Gouyi, the mother of the crown prince, was ordered to commit suicide in order to eliminate the hidden danger of the empress mother interfering in the government.Secondly, Huo Guang was named General Da Sima, Jin Rixun was named General Chariot and Cavalry, Sang Hongyang was named Royal Doctor, and Shangguan Jie was named General Zuo.These four ministers are prudent, loyal, shrewd and capable, and they are all confidantes who have undergone long-term observation and testing and are able to entrust important responsibilities.History proves that Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty made proper employment arrangements at the end of his life.

In February 87 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally passed his birthday in Wuzha Palace in Chang'an, and was enshrined in the front hall of Weiyang Palace.He was buried in Maoling on the 2th day after his death.He reigned for 18 years and died at the age of 54.

Such a talented and broad-minded emperor must have racked his brains and tried his best when building his own underground empire.So, how did Emperor Wu of the Han choose the mausoleum site for himself?There is a story in this.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who had just ascended the throne, passed by the location of his tomb while hunting, and saw a unicorn-shaped animal in the distance.He drove his horse over, intending to shoot it, but suddenly it disappeared.At the same time, Emperor Wu saw a long-lived fruit tree. Therefore, Emperor Wu believed that this was a blessed land, and that God deliberately asked him to choose this place as the place where he would ascend to heaven a hundred years later.After returning to the palace, Emperor Wu immediately issued an edict to confine the place and start building a mausoleum.Regardless of whether this story is true or not, Emperor Wu really lived a long life, so that even the craftsmen who built the tomb in the first place died, but he is still alive.

So how long did it take Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to build the mausoleum for himself?This starts from the second year after he ascended the throne (139 BC), and the project was finally completed in the year of his death (87 BC), which lasted for 53 years.

According to historical records, when the construction of Maoling Mausoleum began, due to the huge size of the project and the large number of construction workers and supervisory officials, the area around the construction site soon became a bustling city.In 138 BC, when the Maoling project was in its second year, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made an astonishing decision to establish Maoling Town.He moved some meritorious officials, nobles and wealthy people in the early Han Dynasty to Maoling Township, which was several miles away from Maoling Township. At that time, there were more than 6 households of high-ranking civil and military officials, wealthy people, and Confucian scholars who moved and settled down.Dong Zhongshu, Sima Xiangru, Sima Qian, etc. all successively moved to Maoling with their families to settle down.

It took 53 years to complete the construction of this majestic emperor's tomb, and the manpower and material resources consumed were beyond imagination. "Book of Jin Suofu Biography" says: "The emperor of Han ascended the throne for one year and made the mausoleum, one-third of the world's tribute, one for the mountain temple, one for the guests, and one for the mountain mausoleum." That is to say, Emperor Wu of the Han used the whole country One-third of the total tax is used as the cost of building the mausoleum and collecting funeral objects.When the mausoleum was built, more than 3000 construction craftsmen and art masters were recruited from all over the country. The scale of the project is jaw-dropping.

What is the scale of Maoling, which consumes so much manpower and material resources?
The huge Fengqiu we can see so far is 46.5 meters high, 39.25 meters long from east to west at the top, and 40.6 meters wide from north to south.According to "Guanzhong Ji": "All the mausoleums of the Han Dynasty are twelve feet high and 120 feet square, but Maoling is fourteen feet high and 140 feet square." The above-mentioned figures are basically consistent with today's measured figures.The total area is 56878.25 square meters, and the volume of sealed soil is 848592.92 cubic meters.The cemetery is surrounded by a square shape, with a flat top, small top and big bottom, shaped like a bucket, and looks solemn and stable.

The scale of Maoling far exceeds that of other imperial tombs in the Western Han Dynasty.The mausoleums of Western Han emperors are generally about 30 meters high, and only the mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty exceeded the etiquette regulations at that time.When Liu Bang was alive, he set the Han Mausoleum system, "twelve feet high, one hundred and twenty steps square", but Liu Che may consider that his "great achievements" are greater than Liu Bang, so he built "Weimao Mausoleum fourteen feet long, square one hundred steps" Forty Steps" mausoleum.

In addition to the large pyramid-shaped seal, the Maoling Mausoleum at that time also had magnificent mausoleums, palaces, houses, etc. around it.Maoling is divided into Maoling Garden and Maoling Park, also known as the inner city and the outer city. The inner city is full of palaces and waiters, while the Maoling Park includes burial tombs, with a radius of tens of square kilometers.

There is also a building called Baihe Pavilion 350 meters southeast of Maoling.The White Crane Hall is an annex to the sleeping hall for the tomb owner to play. Now the locals call it the White Crane Tomb. It is an irregular rectangular earthen platform, about 53 meters from east to west, 40 meters from north to south, and 5 meters high. There are bricks and tiles of the Han Dynasty around it Residues and braised soil.To the east of the cemetery is the original temple of Emperor Wu, called "Longyuan Palace". There is a regular passage between the sleeping hall and the original temple.What is the function of this channel?To understand the function of this passage, let us take a look at the sacrificial activities in the Han Dynasty.At that time, when people offered sacrifices, they took the clothes and hats of the first emperor out of the dormitory and sent them to the temple through this way to be worshiped by all the officials. In this way, the function of the visible channel is extraordinary.

Maoling has many peculiarities in architecture. For example, about half a kilometer away from the Baihe Pavilion is a north-south ditch, 500 meters long, 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep.What is this for?It turns out that there were many rainy seasons in the ancient Chang'an area. If the accumulated water is not drained away effectively, the mausoleum is likely to collapse.In order to solve this problem, the engineering designers at that time designed such a canal.On the one hand, water can be stored in the canal in rainy seasons to avoid flood damage; on the other hand, the canal water can be used to irrigate the trees in the garden in dry seasons to meet the water needs of the palace people. wisdom.In addition, around the Maoling Mausoleum, there are also "Horse Chasing Pavilion" and "West Garden" for the tomb owner to play, but there are no traces left on the ground now.

Today, there are only relics of the rammed earth city around Maoling Fengtu.Archaeologists have found that the plane of the cemetery is almost square, 430 meters long from east to west and 414 meters wide from north to south.There is a gate in the center of each of the four sides of the cemetery, and each gate is about 12 meters away from the sealing soil of the mausoleum.There are double ques outside the door, and the distance between each pair is 16 meters to [-] meters.A dormitory garden was built near the cemetery, forming a magnificent temple and palace.

In 1975, Shaanxi archaeologists unearthed a large number of building materials from the Western Han Dynasty around the mausoleum, including striped bricks with tiger and basalt patterns, hollow portrait bricks with phoenix and keel patterns, large sapphire animal pattern paving heads and glazed walls, etc. A complete tile with 12 characters engraved was unearthed.According to the analysis and judgment of archaeologists, the place where the building materials were found was the location of the sleeping hall and side hall.

Did Maoling quiet down after the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty?the answer is negative.In order to prevent himself from being lonely after death, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also explained that the later emperors specially formulated a system to strengthen the management of Maoling Mausoleum. ", "door officials" and other bureaucratic institutions; and because Emperor Wu was lustful during his lifetime, after his death, a large number of court ladies were placed in the cemetery, making the number of people serving the cemetery as many as [-].These people live in the cemetery and serve the "soul" of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in daily life: arrange the utensils for combing and washing in the morning, prepare three meals during the day as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was alive, and prepare bedding for sleeping at night.

The main building under the mound of the cemetery is the underground palace, which is the most interesting place for everyone who visits the Maoling Mausoleum, because they all come with the same question, that is, what does the underground palace look like, and is it the same as the underground palaces of all emperors? , if it is different, what are its characteristics, what treasures are there in the underground palace, and whether these treasures are still there... To know the answers to these questions, you must know who built the underground palace in Maoling and how it was built of?

Soon after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came to the throne, he appointed Zhang Tang as Maoling Captain, who was responsible for supervising repairs.Zhang Tangke fulfilled his duties and carried out the construction of the underground palace in strict accordance with the requirements of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.He ordered the migrant workers who repaired the mausoleum to dig a large pit more than 40 meters deep. The height of the tomb is also more than 6 meters, and each side of the four sides is 8 meters long.At this time, the question came out again: how many people are needed to dig such a deep pit, and how to deal with the soil dug out of the pit?It is impossible to backfill it all, because the tomb is hollow, and this part of the soil is redundant, and the amount is relatively large. In addition, we have not seen other mounds around Maoling, so everyone will ask: What is the remaining soil? Where did it all go?The key to answering the first question is what tools were used to dig soil in the Han Dynasty.From the current data, we know that the Han Dynasty used two methods to dig soil: one uses a "chain bucket"-shaped device to transport the soil, that is, an artificial pedal device is installed on the top of the tomb, and it is driven by a bicycle chain such as the current one. The same principle (the only difference is that a wooden bucket for soil is installed on the chain knot) to transport the soil from a depth of tens of meters; another method is to make a gap from the side of the tomb, and then go out from the gap This method of soil transportation is only applicable to the early stage of the tomb project, that is, this method can be used at a depth of 30 meters. When the depth exceeds this depth, only the first method can be used.As for the treatment of these soils, the ancients also thought of a clever method, which is the water flushing method.The specific method is: dig a channel from a river that is higher than the terrain of the mausoleum.Bring the water from this river and pour the excess soil into this channel.Due to the inertia of water, the soil can be transported to a long distance without being accumulated in one place, which effectively solves this problem.Later, archaeologists found soil with the same properties as the soil tens of meters underground in Maoling at a distance of more than ten kilometers along the Maoling, and there were alluvial traces, which shows that the said method is true.

Compared with the huge ground buildings, the scale of the underground palace, the core building of Maoling, is even more astonishing.According to "Han Jiuyi", the underground palace covers an area of ​​one hectare and is thirteen feet deep. The tomb chamber is seven feet high and two feet long on each side. There are tomb passages on each side of the tomb that can pass six horse-drawn carts.The door of each tomb is also buried with hidden swords, volts and other organs to prevent theft.The establishment of these institutions is extremely concealed. According to literature records: Not long after the Maoling was completed, a soldier guarding the tomb wanted to steal the treasures in the tomb. As a result, he was shot dead in the tomb by random arrows before he even passed the first door of the tomb. Beside the door, it can be seen that the entire mausoleum is tightly set up.

There is a catalpa coffin in the tomb.Because in the Han Dynasty, the emperor's coffin was generally made of catalpa wood, and it was the place where the emperor's body was placed, so it is also called "Calpa palace".Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, like other emperors of the Han Dynasty, also used catalpa coffins.The Zi Palace of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had five coffins and two coffins.The five-story coffin is placed on the coffin bed in the middle of the coffin chamber at the back of the tomb.The second half of the tomb is a coffin chamber, which has two layers, and the inner layer is stacked with flat standing logs to form a "door".The south is a gap, and the outer layer is yellow sausage.The wood used in the five coffins is catalpa, catalpa and nanmu, three kinds of wood, which are hard and fine in texture, all of which are resistant to moisture and have strong corrosion resistance.Around the Zi Palace, there are four Xianmen, and there are toilets and yellow intestines. The function and purpose of the toilets are "sitting in Tibet". "Han Shu Huo Guang Biography" said: "Sit down, it's not a formal bed, but it's the one who can extend the guest at the side." Simply put, the toilet is a place to imitate the living and feasting of living people, and it is considered the most important place for living people during their lifetime. Precious items were buried with the dead in the tomb to be enjoyed in the netherworld.

According to historical records, Emperor Wu in the catalpa coffin contained cicada jade in his mouth and was dressed in a gold-threaded jade box. The boxes were all carved with patterns of dragons, phoenixes, and tortoises. People at that time called them "Jade Dragon Boxes".According to legend, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was about to enter the underground palace, the catalpa coffin automatically made a loud noise and emitted an unusual fragrance; after the Xianmen Gate was closed, the tomb passage was filled with fog, and the doorposts also collapsed. It took several months for the smoke in the tomb passage to dissipate .It is also said that Emperor Wu revealed his original shape shortly after he was buried, and said to Xue Ping, the mausoleum order: "Although I am dead, I am still your monarch. Why do you let your soldiers sharpen their swords on my tomb?" Xue Ping Still in shock, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has disappeared.Xue Ping hurriedly asked around, only to find out that there was a large square stone in front of the mausoleum, and the soldiers had indeed sharpened their swords here.The poor sword sharpener was killed innocently because of this, which shows that the dignity of ancient imperial power is sacred and inviolable.

(End of this chapter)