For thousands of years, many magical legends and stories have been triggered around the Qin Mausoleum underground palace. "Three Auxiliary Stories" records that Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, entered the customs and took 300,000 people to plunder the Qin Tombs. During the excavation, a golden goose suddenly flew out of the tomb, and this magical flying goose kept flying south. Hundreds of years have passed. During the Three Kingdoms period, in the first year of Baoding, someone sent a golden goose to an official named Zhang Shan. He immediately judged from the words on the golden goose that it came from the first imperial tomb ... such a magical legend cast a mysterious color on the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.
The hill at the foot of Mount Li is the tomb of Qin Shihuang, and the underground palace is deep and mysterious. In the north of the enclosure, there are sleeping halls and ceremonial buildings for officials to eat. There are two inner and outer walls outside the enclosure, which are 10 km long. There are hundreds of underground burial pits around the fenced land and in the east, west, south and north. The form, ritual architecture and layout of the enclosure, underground palace, inner and outer city walls of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum are different from any royal cemetery in the pre-Qin period. The mausoleum is large in scale and strange in design. The scale of the cemetery project, the number of workers and the duration are unprecedented.
The first person to record the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was Sima Qian, a master historian. He left a record of 160 in Historical Records of Qin Shihuang. According to Historical Records, the mausoleum of the first emperor was "more than 50 feet high." According to the scale value at that time, its height is about115m. 196 1 year, and the height of local book is 43 meters. 1982, with the help of the soldiers of the 8383 Army Corps of Engineers, the author conducted another survey of the tomb enclosure, and the results showed that the tomb was 55.05 meters high. Later, the altitude measured by aerial survey was similar. It can be seen that the soil erosion in the past two thousand years has reduced the height of soil closure by more than half. The bottom of the shell is rectangular. It is 5 15 meters long from north to south and 485 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of nearly 250,000 square meters.
The construction of the cemetery project was accompanied by Qin Shihuang's political career. When he was 13 years old and just ascended the throne of the king of Qin, the cemetery project began. The ancient emperor built a tomb before his death, which was not the initiative of Qin Shihuang. As early as the Warring States period, it has become a practice for kings to build tombs before their death. Such as "Shouling is fifteen years away" (Historical Records Zhao). There is also the tomb of Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Pingshan County, which was built before his death. Qin Shihuang only advanced the time when the monarch built the mausoleum before his death to the early stage of his accession to the throne. The construction of the cemetery project was not completed until Qin Shihuang died. It took more than a year for Emperor II to succeed to the throne.
Throughout the cemetery project, it can be divided into three construction stages. The initial stage of the cemetery project is 26 years from Qin Wang's accession to the throne to the unification of the whole country. At present, the design of the cemetery project and the construction of the main project have been carried out successively. Initially laid the scale and basic pattern of the cemetery. From the reunification of the whole country to the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang, these nine years were a period of large-scale construction of cemetery projects. "Historical Records" records: "With the world, the world sends more than 700,000." After nine years of large-scale construction with 654.38 million people, the main project of the cemetery was basically completed. It took more than three years from the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang to the winter in Qin Ershi, which was the last stage of the project. At this stage, it is mainly engaged in the finishing work and soil covering work of the cemetery. Although the mausoleum project lasted for 378 years, the whole project was still unfinished. A massive peasant uprising broke out that year. Chen Sheng's Ministry heard next week that Guangwu, the leader of the rebel army, led his troops to play at the water's edge less than a few kilometers away from the cemetery (now near Xingfeng, Lintong County). Facing the siege and bullying of the army, the new emperor Qin Ershi, who had not been tested by the wind and rain, panicked and hurriedly called his ministers to discuss countermeasures. He seemed to be driven crazy and shouted "What to do" to his ministers. After a period of silence, Shaofu ordered Zhang Han to make a suggestion: "The thief has arrived, and many people are in Xinjiang. It is too late to send troops near the county seat. There are many people in Mount Li. Please forgive them and give them an army to attack them. " Emperor II, who was in shock, immediately catered to him and decided that Zhang Han would directly lead the spiritual army to fight back against the rebels in Zhou Wen. So far, the cemetery project that has not been completely completed has to be suspended.
The designers of the Qin Mausoleum project not only carefully selected a treasure trove of geomantic omen, but also designed the overall layout of the cemetery in an ingenious way.
The mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is centered on a tall mound, and there are two zigzag rammed earth walls outside the mound, one on each side of the outer wall. The east gate is located on the east-west axis in the middle of the fence, and the gate is the largest. There are two doors on the north wall of the inner city, and one on each of the other three sides. In particular, the Quemen site at the south gate of the inner city still stands in the south of the tomb, which is very spectacular.
Thousands of years have passed, and the towering mound of Qin Mausoleum still stands at the foot of Mount Li. At that time, the rammed earth wall inside and outside 10 km long was already incomplete. What you can see now is only a section of the residual wall of the west wall of the inner city. The magnificent ground buildings were burned down by Xiang Yu as early as 2000 years ago. On the remaining sites, archaeologists found the mausoleum building sites, which are large in scale and concentrated in the north side of rich soil and the first half of the inner city. A ground complex was also found between the inner and outer walls in the fertile northwest. Judging from the location of the three groups of houses, it seems to be a breeding official building. There are several groups of unexplored ground buildings on the north and south sides of the site, and the scale is also considerable.
Before the 1960s, all speculations about the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor could only be based on documentary records and rumors. 1on March 29th, 974, when several farmers from xiyang village production team of Xiahe Brigade woke up the sleeping Terracotta Warriors, they immediately shocked the world. This amazing discovery also unveiled the corner of the mysterious veil of Qin tomb.
At that time, neither farmers who dug wells nor archaeologists who participated in exploration and trial excavation expected that the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit would have such a large scale. Shortly after the comprehensive exploration and trial excavation of No.1 Terracotta Warriors Pit, No.2 Terracotta Warriors Pit, No.3 Terracotta Warriors Pit and an A-shaped tomb were discovered 20 meters north of No.1 Pit. As far as the burial pit of terracotta warriors and horses is concerned, it covers an area of more than 20,000 square meters, and there are more than 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses similar to real people and hundreds of thousands of bronze weapons. This large-scale tomb is unprecedented not only in China, but also in the history of world tombs.
Since then, there have been archaeological discoveries in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor for more than 20 years. On the east side of the cemetery, more than 100 stable burial pits and 17 tombs have been found. On the west side of the cemetery, 3 1 rare birds and animals burial pits, an arc-shaped stable burial pit and 6 1 small burial pits were found. 10 rides a large painted bronze chariot and horse. The wooden chariot and horse is located in the west of the underground palace, under the intact soil. In recent years, a large animal burial pit has been found in the northern part of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, and armor pits and acrobatic figurines pits have been found between the east and west walls. ...
Isn't it an ideal underground kingdom that the cemetery is carefully designed and placed on the ground and underground?
(2) The underground palace is full of mystery.
The mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is an underground "kingdom" full of magical colors. The deep underground palace is full of mystery. The shape and internal structure of the underground palace are still not completely clear, which has aroused the speculation and reverie of many scholars for thousands of years. What kind of structure is the underground palace? How many treasures are hidden in the underground palace? Is there an anti-theft mechanism in the underground palace? How deep has the underground palace been dug? Is Qin Shihuang a bronze coffin, a sarcophagus or a wooden coffin? Is Qin Shihuang's bones intact? ..... This series of suspense has puzzled all experts and scholars. At present, we can only make a preliminary discussion and speculation based on the existing archaeological materials and related historical documents.
The mysterious underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum left only a very brief record in Sima Qian's works: "Wear three springs, pour copper, palace view, hundred officials, strange things and treasures are all hidden." Let the craftsman make a crossbow, and people who wear it at close range need to shoot it. Taking mercury as a hundred rivers and seas, instilling machines, there is astronomy on the top and geography on the bottom. Take mermaid cream as a candle, and it will last for a long time. "Archaeologists use this as a clue to try to find all kinds of clues that can reveal the mystery of the Qin Mausoleum underground palace.
Mystery 1: How deep is the faint underground palace?
According to the latest archaeological data, the actual length of the underground palace in Qinling Mountains is 260m from east to west, north to south 160m, with a total area of 4 1600 m2. The underground palace of Qin Mausoleum is the largest underground palace in Qin and Han Dynasties, and its scale is equivalent to five international football fields. Archaeological drilling further confirmed that this deep and grand underground palace is a vertical cave type.
Sima Qian said "going through three springs", while Nine Meanings of Hanshu said "extremely deep". Explain how deep it is to dig to the point where it can no longer be dug, and how deep is the underground palace?
The mysterious underground palace once attracted the interest of Chinese physicist Mr. Ding Zhaozhong. He used modern high technology and three scientists, including Chen Ming, to study and write articles, and speculated that the depth of the Qin Mausoleum underground palace was 500 to 1500 meters. Now it seems that this speculation is almost impossible. Suppose the underground palace is dug to 1000 meters, which exceeds the gap between the location of the mausoleum and the Weihe River in the north. This will not only make it difficult to discharge the water in the underground palace, but also cause the danger that the Weihe River water will flow backwards into the underground palace of Qin Tomb. Although this inference is quite different, it is the first time to explore the mystery of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum with modern scientific and technological means.
Experts and scholars in the fields of cultural relics, archaeology and geology in China have also done a lot of research and exploration on the depth of the Qin mausoleum underground palace. According to the latest drilling data, the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum is not as deep as people think. The actual depth should be close to the tomb depth of Qin cemetery in Zhiyang No.1. In this way, the actual depth from the pit mouth to the bottom of the underground palace is about 26 meters, and the deepest surface in Qin Dynasty is about 37 meters. It should be said that there will be no big error in this data, which is calculated according to the current exploration results. But whether this is the case or not depends on further verification of archaeological exploration.
Mystery 2: How many doors are there in the underground palace?
On September 17, 2002, the whole world witnessed the process of archaeologists exploring the inner space of the pyramid through live television. When the archaeologist put the robot in through the first stone gate, he didn't expect the robot to meet another stone gate. The world-famous pyramid archaeological project had to run aground. There may be more than two doors in the pyramid underground palace. So, how many tomb gates were built in the underground palace of Qin mausoleum?
In fact, the number of doorways in the Qin Mausoleum underground palace has long been answered in historical records. It just didn't attract the attention of scholars. It is clearly recorded in Historical Records: "When the great event is finished, it is hidden, closed to envy, admired outside the door, hidden by the craftsman, and cannot come back."
Coffins and funerary objects are placed in the middle door. The craftsman was busy in the middle gate, and suddenly "closed the middle gate and rewarded the outer gate." The craftsman's "no return" has also become a funerary object. There are both middle and outer envy doors here, and the inner envy door is self-evident. The three doors of the underground palace seem irrefutable. It is worth noting that Sima Qian used the word "closed" in the middle door and the word "lower" in the outer door, indicating that the middle door is a movable door that can be opened and closed, while the outer door is placed up and down. The Zhongxian Gate may be horizontally embedded in the grooves of two walls, and it is a big stone gate that cannot be opened. The inner envy gate may be similar to the middle envy gate. Three envy doors are likely to be in a straight line.
Mystery 3: What is the explanation of "going to astronomy"?
The record of "astronomy above and geography below" in the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum comes from Historical Records. What does it mean?
Xia Nai, a famous archaeologist, once concluded that "there is astronomy on the top and geography on the bottom". It should be painted or carved on the top of the tomb, which may still be preserved in the first imperial tomb in Lintong. In recent years, murals similar to "astronomy" and "geography" have been found in the Han tombs of Xi Jiaotong University. The upper part is the sun, moon and stars symbolizing the sky, and the lower part is the murals representing mountains and rivers. It can be inferred that there may be a relatively complete 28-star map in the upper part of the Qin Mausoleum underground palace, and the mountain geography represented by mercury in the lower part. In this underground "kingdom" symbolizing heaven and earth, the soul of Qin Shihuang can still "look up at astronomy and look down at geography" and rule everything here.
Mystery 4: The Mystery of "Mercury" Buried in the Underground Palace
The record of the first imperial tomb with mercury as the river and sea can be found in historical records, and there are similar words in Hanshu. However, whether there is mercury in the mausoleum has always been a mystery.
The development of modern science and technology provides a necessary prerequisite for verifying the eternal unsolved case of buried mercury in Qinling underground palace. Geological experts Chang Yong and Mr. thomas lee came to the tomb twice to take samples. After repeated tests, it was found that there was indeed a "mercury anomaly" in the soil sample of the first imperial tomb. On the contrary, soil samples from other places have almost no mercury content. Scientists have drawn a preliminary conclusion from this: the record of a large amount of mercury buried in Qin Shihuang's mausoleum recorded in historical books is reliable. Modern science and technology finally solved the eternal mystery of "mercury" buried in the underground palace.
As for why the underground palace buried a lot of mercury? Li Daoyuan, a scholar in the Northern Wei Dynasty, explained that "taking mercury as the river and sea lies in taking mercury as the four blasphemies, the rivers and mountains, and Kyushu, which has a geographical trend." It turns out that Mercury symbolizes the geography of mountains and rivers, corresponding to "astronomy".
Mystery 5: How much do you know about the treasures in the underground palace?
The phrase "exotic treasures, exotic things moved to Tibet" comes from Sima Qian's works. Liu Xiang, an earlier scholar than Sima Qian, once expressed such a deep sigh: "Since ancient times, there has been no burial of emperors." So, what fascinating treasures are collected in this magical underground palace?
Jin Yan, Zhuyu and Emerald are clearly recorded in Historical Records. No one knows what other rare treasures are. However, in the late 1980s, archaeologists excavated a group of large painted bronze chariots and horses on the west side of the underground palace. The precise modeling and exquisite decoration of horses and chariots are rare in the world. Previously, archaeologists also unearthed a number of wooden chariots and horses. Except the chariots and horses and the emperor figurines are made of wood, the other decorations are made of gold, silver and copper. There are such exquisite funerary objects outside the underground palace, so it is conceivable that there are rich funerary objects and exquisite collections in the underground palace.
Mystery 6: Did Qin Shihuang use a copper coffin or a wooden coffin?
What coffin did Qin Shihuang use? Historical records and Han books are not clearly recorded. Sima Qian only left a vague record of "death caused by dropping copper". So some scholars concluded that Qin Shihuang used a copper coffin. However, according to the literature, Qin Shihuang may not have used bronze coffins. "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" clearly record: "Smelting copper inside, painting outside." "Bejeweled, bejeweled", "The beauty of the coffin is not comparable to the original." I'm afraid the coffin decorated with jade outside here can only be made of wood. If it's a copper coffin or a sarcophagus, it certainly doesn't need to be painted. Only wooden coffins can be painted with earth paint.
Judging from the coffin system in the pre-Qin and Western Han dynasties, it is the emperor's privilege to use the "yellow sausage" big wooden coffin. Qin Shihuang, who claimed to have made greater contributions than the three emperors and five emperors, could not give up the wooden coffin of "yellow intestines" and switch to other coffins.
Mystery 7: Is there a room in the underground palace?
At present, archaeological exploration shows that the underground palace of Qin mausoleum is a vertical cave type. There may be a big wooden coffin with a "yellow intestine puzzle" in the tomb. If it is a wooden coffin tomb with vertical holes, the pyramid-shaped mound and the upper part of the coffin are sealed with rammed earth. In this way, the tomb is tightly packed inside and outside, and there will be no more space. However, Li Si, one of the directors of the mausoleum, said, "If you don't dig, you will have it. If you don't burn, you will have it. If you knock, it will be empty, as follows."
If Reese's words are recorded correctly, the underground palace is obviously shelled. It stands to reason that this passage can't be false. Because Reese personally presided over the mausoleum project as the left prime minister, he knew the structure of the underground palace like the back of his hand. In addition, this passage is for the saints, so it should be said that there will be no suspicion of adulteration. According to Reese, it can be inferred that the Qin Mausoleum is a bunker-style underground palace with a sealed vacuum. Otherwise, how can it be "empty"? How to "burn but not burn"?
According to the literature, the underground palace is empty and has a lot of space. However, since archaeological exploration has not yet reached the main part of the underground palace, it is still a mystery whether the inside of the underground palace is empty or true.
Mystery 8: automatic transmitter
Qin Shihuang also took great pains to prevent grave robbery. Historical records record that the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum "makes craftsmen use crossbows and arrows, and the wearer needs to shoot them." It means that a set of automatic shooting concealed crossbows is installed here. If the record is true, this is the earliest automatic burglar alarm in ancient China.
The Qin dynasty once made a crossbow with three arrows in succession. But the hidden crossbow placed in the underground palace is a set of automatic firing crossbows. When an external object touches the bow, it will automatically launch. It is also a mystery why the Qin Dynasty produced such a superb automatic launcher more than 2,200 years ago.
Mystery 9: Is Qin Shihuang's body intact?
In the mid-1970s, the discovery of "female corpse" in Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha shocked China and foreign countries. Its well-preserved bones are rare in the world. Some people speculate that Qin Shihuang's body will also be well preserved. Although there are objective conditions to protect the remains, are the remains of Qin Shihuang well preserved?
If only from the perspective of corpse protection technology, the female corpse of the Western Han Dynasty, which is less than a hundred years away from the Qin Dynasty, can be well protected, and the Qin Dynasty should also have anti-corrosion technology to protect the corpse. The problem is that Qin Shihuang died on the way out on patrol. To make matters worse, in the hot summer, the "corpse" didn't go far and smelled of smoke. In order to prevent the smell from spreading and let the wind spread, Zhao Gao and Hu Hai immediately sent people to pick up baskets of abalone from the river and put them with the "corpse" to disturb its smell. In this way, after more than 50 days of long-distance bumps, in September, the bones were finally transported back to Xianyang for mourning.
The time interval between Qin Shihuang's death and burial was nearly two months. According to the experience of contemporary corpse protection, general corpse protection must be dealt with immediately after the death of the deceased. With a slight delay, the body itself has begun to change, and I am afraid that even advanced technology can do nothing. Corruption began on the way to Qin Shihuang's body. I'm afraid the body will be unrecognizable before it is shipped back to Xianyang. In this view, it is unlikely that the remains of Qin Shihuang will be well preserved.
The above mysteries are just the tip of the iceberg of many mysteries in the Qin Mausoleum. With the deepening of archaeological research and the practical application of high-tech detection technology, the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum will one day shock the world again.