Mount Li is famous for its unique hot springs and scenery. At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Youwang and his concubines praised the Lord here and staged a historical tragedy, which led to the rise of a vassal in the bonfire drama and thus ruined the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to legend, Qin Shihuang met the goddess in Lishan before his death and wanted to play the goddess in the tour. In a rage, the goddess spat on his face, so Qin Shihuang soon developed sores. Although this is a fairy tale, it can be vaguely seen that Qin Shihuang and Mount Li seem to have some fate. His cemetery is also next to Lishan Mountain. Why was Qin Shihuang particularly obsessed with Mount Li, a treasure trove of geomantic omen?
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 of the Northern Wei Dynasty: "Qin Shihuang built a burial in Mount Li, which was Lantian, whose yin was rich in gold and its yang was rich in 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, the author has written an article to raise objections. In the author's opinion, the choice of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Lishan depends on the ritual system at that time and is influenced by the traditional concept of "building a mausoleum on the mountain". (See my book "The Origin of Early Tombs in Qin and Wenbo", No.5, 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 want to build a grave, you have to go to the mountains to draw 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. The author once thought that the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was a model of building a mausoleum by mountains. Now it seems that this conclusion is not comprehensive enough, and it is not very accurate. It should be said that the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang 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. After Qin Shihuang was buried in the north of the mountain, the water meandered eastward, and the first emperor built a tomb to borrow soil. The land is deep and the water accumulates into a pond, which is called a fish pond. ..... The water flows northwest, crossing the north of Shihuang Mausoleum. " 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 "mountain by water" a treasure trove of geomantic omen specially selected by Qin Shihuang's mausoleum?
The concept of "mountains surrounded by 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 "relying on mountains and rivers" in Qin Shihuang Mausoleum. After that, the tombs of past dynasties basically inherited the idea of building tombs by mountains and rivers.
The legend of the underground palace being stolen
When the finishing work of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was still in progress, in 209 BC, the first peasant uprising broke out in China's history, and Chen Sheng's martial arts rose up, and all parts of Kanto responded in succession. Soon, a powerful rebel army led by Zhou Wen arrived at Xishui (near Xingfeng in the northeast of the cemetery), which is less than 10. At this time, hundreds of thousands of mausoleum repairers had to obey orders to abandon the unfinished cemetery project, and then Zhang Hanfeng was ordered by the Shaofu to stop the uprising army, and the crumbling Qin Dynasty died after less than a year's kneading. With the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, the bad luck of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum came.
Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, was the first person to visit the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. The plot and extent of Xiang Yu's excavation of the Qin Mausoleum are not the same in historical records, and even differ greatly before and after. Sima Qian recorded in Historical Records that Xiang Yu's excavation of the first imperial tomb was extremely rigorous. In all his records concerning cemeteries, there is no mention of the modern tomb of Xiang Yu. Only when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu scolded each other before the war, Liu Bang listed the top ten crimes of Xiang Yu, one of which was "digging the tomb of the first emperor". This statement comes from Xiang Yu's opponent Liu Bang, and even Sima Qian couldn't assert it when he wrote Historical Records, so he had to objectively and forever forget Liu Bang's original words. Later, when Ban Gu recorded this matter in Hanshu, he was also cautious. "The work of Mount Li was not finished, but millions of masters from Zhang Zhou went." Ji Xiang burned his palace and camp, and those who went there saw the excavation. Later, the shepherd lost his sheep and it got into his chisel. The shepherd held a torch to shine on the ball sheep and lost his hiding place. Since ancient times, burial has not been as prosperous as that of the first emperor. "A few years later, it's a pity that the outside was destroyed by Ji Xiang, and grazing was forbidden inside. This passage by Ban Gu was not his own invention. It's written by Liu Xiang 'an, the minister of Emperor Han Cheng. In those days, Emperor Han Cheng built Yanling and soon rebuilt Changling. "After several years of failure, it will be returned to Yanling, and the system is too extravagant." Faced with the situation of changing the mausoleum site several times and wasting a lot of manpower and material resources, Liu Xiang advised Emperor Cheng to be buried thinly and opposed thick burial. In the book of exhortation, he not only listed the typical cases of thin burial, but also talked about the consequences of thick burial, of which Qin Shihuang was the example he emphasized. As an exhortation, the author's subjective motivation and emotional color are obvious, and the historical examples involved are not completely accurate. Even so, the author's account of Xiang Yu's excavation of the first imperial tomb is measured. Xiang Yu just "burned his palace to build it, and those who went wanted to watch it dig." "A few years later, what he did outside Jixiang was blessed by Mu Zhi." It can be seen that Liu Xiang's remonstration book talked about Xiang Yu's burning underground palace, but did not assert that Xiang Yu robbed the Qin Tombs. In a word, a preliminary conclusion can be drawn from the original records of Historical Records and Hanshu: Xiang Yu led troops to dig the first imperial tomb. In short, from the original records of Historical Records and Hanshu, we can draw a preliminary conclusion: Xiang Yu visited the first imperial tomb and set fire to the "palace camp" of the cemetery, but it is impossible to assert that Xiang Yu led troops to excavate the first imperial tomb. However, in the Northern Wei Dynasty, when Li Daoyuan wrote Notes on Shui Jing and Wei Shui, his records were quite different from Historical Records and Hanshu. He wrote: "Xiang Yu entered the customs with 300,000 people, and things could not escape within 30 days. The Kanto thief sold copper, and the shepherd looked for sheep to burn, but the fire burned for 90 days." In fact, part of this record comes from Hanshu, when the shepherd found the sheep to burn it; The other part is illusory, which is different from Hanshu. For example, "Xiang Yu entered the customs and made a fortune, with 300,000 people, and he could not be poor in 30 days." Obviously, Li Daoyuan's record is artificially played, and his lines are full of imagination.
Sima Qian, the author of Historical Records, died over 100 years ago, Ban Gu, the author of Hanshu, died over 200 years ago, and Li Daoyuan died over 400 years ago. Arguably, the closer to the Qin dynasty, the more detailed the record should be. However, Sima Qian only "dug the tomb of the emperor" through Liu Bang's mouth; Ban Gu also said through Liu Xiangzhi that Xiang Yu "burned his palace and camp". It can be seen that these two historians are very cautious and noncommittal about whether Xiang Yu stole the Qin tombs. Later records affirmed: "Xiang Yu entered the customs and made a fortune, with 300 thousand people, and he could not be poor in 30 days." How many people dig graves here and how many days the excavated things have been transported are clearly recorded. This cannot but arouse people's doubts. What is the basis of Li Daoyuan? Besides, I'm afraid it's not credible to say that the shepherd burned down the underground palace where he was living.