The ancients regarded the choice of cemetery as a great event for the benefit of future generations, especially the feudal emperor Qin Shihuang, who tried to spread it all over the world and naturally paid more attention to the location of cemetery. The reason why he was buried in Mount Li was explained by Li Daoyuan in the Northern Wei Dynasty: "Qin Shihuang built a heavy burial in Mount Li, which was Lantian, with rich yin and beautiful jade. The first emperor was greedy for his good name, so he was buried. " Li Daoyuan's view has been affirmed by most scholars in academic circles. However, some scholars have raised objections. On the one hand, those who hold negative opinions think that the selection of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Lishan depends on the ritual system at that time, while on the other hand, it is influenced by the traditional concept of "building a mausoleum on the mountain". (See No.5 of Qin Tombs and Cultural Relics Exploration, 1990. ) Now, from the perspective of geomantic omen, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is also an ideal geomantic omen treasure.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the concept of building a mausoleum by mountains had already appeared. Later, people chose cemeteries and attached great importance to the geographical environment close to mountains and rivers. "If you build a grave, you must come to the mountains to go to the water." (See "The Secret Buried Sutra of Dahan's Original Mausoleum") Mountains and rivers were regarded as the best places of geomantic omen by the ancients. As for when this concept began, there is no way to verify it. It should be said that the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is a model of "building a mausoleum by mountains and rivers". It is obvious to all that the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor faces Mount Li in the south and Lishui in the north. However, on the east side of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, there is also a artificially transformed fish pond water. According to "Notes on Water Classics", "Water flows out of the northeast of Mount Li and flows northward. Later, Qin Shihuang was buried in the north of the mountain. When the water meandered, it turned from east to north, and the first emperor built a tomb to borrow soil. The land is deep and the water accumulates into a pond. This is the so-called fish pond ... The water in the pond flows through the north of the first emperor in the northwest. " It can be seen that the fish pond water originally came from the northeast of Lishan Mountain, and the water flowed from south to north. Later, when the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was built, an east-west dam was built in the southwest of the mausoleum. The dam is 1000 meters long, generally 40 meters wide, 70 meters at its widest point and 2 to 8 meters high. It is what people usually call Wuling site. It is this dam that turned the fish pond water originally from Li Dongbei into a northwest flow, bypassing the northeast of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum. In addition, in the east of the cemetery, there is a hot spring water. According to the Water Classic Note, "there is hot spring water in the southwest of fish pond water, which can cure diseases all over the world". "Three" says: "There are hot springs in the northwest of Mount Li." It can be seen that the hot springs of that year corresponded to the fish pond water in the northwest. It is not difficult to find that the geomantic features of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum are that the back mountain faces south, and the east, west and north are surrounded by water on three sides. Isn't "Surrounding the mountains with water" a treasure trove of geomantic omen specially selected by Qin Shihuang's mausoleum?
The concept of "surrounding mountains and water" in Qin Dynasty had a far-reaching influence on later generations. Mausoleums in the Western Han Dynasty, such as Gaozu Changling Mausoleum, Wendi Baling Mausoleum, Jingdi Yangling Mausoleum, Wudi Mausoleum, etc., were all chosen by imitating the geomantic thought of "mountains surrounded by water" in Qin Shihuang Mausoleum. Later tombs basically inherited this idea of building tombs. [Edit this paragraph] Are there really flying geese in the mausoleum? What are the precious funerary objects in Qin Gong? This has caused many magical legends and stories for thousands of years. Flying geese in the underground palace is a very charming legend.
"Three Auxiliary Stories" records that Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, took 300,000 people to rob the Qin Mausoleum after entering the customs. During their excavation, a golden goose suddenly flew out of the tomb, and this magical flying goose kept flying south. Hundreds of years later, during the Three Kingdoms period (the first year of Baoding), there was an official named Zhang Shan who was a satrap in southern Japan. One day, someone gave him a golden goose, and he immediately judged from the words on the golden goose that it belonged to the first imperial tomb. Is there any historical basis for this magical legend? In recent years, some scholars wrote: "Although this is a legendary story, it shows that the cultural relics of the Qin Mausoleum have been lost abroad, as far away as Yunnan in the south. As for the golden goose, it is not only beautiful, but also can fly, which is also possible. Because in the Spring and Autumn Period, the famous craftsman Lu Ban was able to create a wooden goose, flying in the sky and flying directly to the city of Song State. Hundreds of years later, it is credible that craftsmen in Qin can make flying golden geese. " (Wu Bolun, The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Shanghai People's Publishing House1March 990) So, is this legendary story credible or not?
In China, a country that paid little attention to science and technology in history, it would be a rare miracle in the history of science and technology in China and the world if the flying golden goose could be built more than 2,200 years ago. However, the reliability of metal flying geese really makes Chinese people sweat. If you scrutinize it carefully, you will immediately see the flaw in this legend. Imagining a metal object flying in the air is not as simple as flying a kite and a light balloon. Because of its light weight, the latter can fly in the air with the help of natural wind. But for a metal object, if it only depends on natural wind power without mechanical power, I'm afraid even the basic problem of takeoff can't be solved. How did China solve the flight dynamics problem of metal objects 2200 years ago? Further analysis, assuming that the Qin Dynasty had the ability to make flying golden geese, the golden geese would fly automatically after being buried in the underground palace, and have been flying in the underground palace for nearly 1000 days and nights. When Xiang Yu opened the underground tomb, the flying golden goose flew out of the ground smoothly along the underground tomb, and then flew to the far south, crossing the mountain peaks thousands of meters high on the south side of the Qinling Mountains. If this anecdote had not been fabricated by gossip writers, Jin Yan's control and command system might have lagged far behind today's computers. Therefore, we can say for sure that there is no legend of metal flying geese in Qin tombs, and China people with modern scientific and technological consciousness should not believe this legend.
The problem of distinguishing forgeries in The Legend of Jin Yan should stop here. However, further, is there any trace of this legendary story fabricated by ancient literati in historical documents? According to the relevant documents of the Han Dynasty, there is a saying in Sima Qian's and Ban Gu's accounts that "gold is a flying goose". Obviously, two historians recorded "flying geese" made of gold in their tombs, and ancient scholars probably romanticized and "created" the story of the legend of flying geese.