Unsolved mysteries of Chinese history! The Mysterious Underground Kingdom, 9 Unsolved Mysteries of the Qin Emperor’s Tomb
In the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar in 259 BC, a baby boy with no special appearance was born in Handan, Zhao State. He was Qin Shihuang, the founder of the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. In the eyes of Westerners, he is China's Napoleon. He inherited the throne of the King of Qin at the age of 13. At the age of 22, an adult coronation ceremony was held in his old capital Yongcheng. From then on, he officially ascended the throne to "manage the affairs of state" and began his vigorous political career. At the age of 39, he sent troops to defeat the last vassal state of the Six Kingdoms in Shandong, captured King Jian of Qi, and completed the historical cause of unifying China. Then he lost no time in formulating and promulgating a series of laws and measures that were conducive to unification, and gradually established and improved the first unified political power in Chinese history. He died of illness at the age of 50 at "Sand Dune Platform" (today's Julu County, Hebei Province) during his patrol, ending his short life.
Qin Shihuang, who is a household name, is famous throughout the ages for completing the great cause of unification, and has been infamous for his tyranny. The Qin Dynasty only existed for 15 years, and his dream of being emperor forever was shattered. But the emperor system and emperor consciousness have influenced China for thousands of years. Not only the origin, life, merits and demerits of the First Emperor are eye-catching, but the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, located at the foot of Lishan Mountain, has also attracted much attention due to many unsolved mysteries.
1. The huge mausoleum is mysterious and unpredictable
For thousands of years, many magical legends have arisen surrounding the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum. "The Story of Sanfu" records that Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, entered the Pass and used 300,000 people to rob the Qin Mausoleum. During the excavation, a golden goose suddenly flew out of the tomb. This magical flying goose flew southward. Hundreds of years have passed. During the Three Kingdoms period, in the first year of Baoding, someone gave a golden goose to an official named Zhang Shan. He immediately judged from the words on the golden goose that the object came from the Mausoleum of the First Emperor... This kind of magical legend is even more... It casts a mysterious color on the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.
The hillock located at the foot of Lishan Mountain is the tomb of Qin Shihuang, and under the hillock is the deep and mysterious underground palace. On the north side of the seal are the ceremonial buildings of the dormitories and the official buildings. Outside the seal are two 10-kilometer-long inner and outer city walls. There are hundreds of underground burial pits around the seal and on the east, west, south and north sides. The seal of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum is The shape of the underground palace, the inner and outer city walls, as well as the ceremonial architecture and layout are all different from any monarch cemetery in the pre-Qin Dynasty. This imperial mausoleum is grand in scale and unique in design. The scale of the cemetery project, the number of workers employed, and the duration were unprecedented.
The first person to record the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was the master historian Sima Qian. He left a 160-word record in "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang". "Historical Records" records that "the tomb of the First Emperor's Mausoleum is more than fifty feet high." Its height was calculated to be about 115 meters based on the ruler at that time. The height measured by local authorities in 1961 was 43 meters. In 1982, with the assistance of soldiers from the 8383 Corps of Engineers, the author measured the soil of the mausoleum again, and the result was that the height of the tomb was 55.05 meters. Later aerial measurements of altitude were similar. It can be seen that due to water and soil erosion over the past two thousand years, the height of the soil seal has dropped by more than half from the original level. The bottom edge of the sealing soil is rectangular. It is 515 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 accompanied Qin Shihuang’s political career throughout his life. When he first ascended the throne of Qin at the age of 13, the cemetery project also began. Qin Shihuang was not the first emperor to build mausoleums during his lifetime. As early as the Warring States Period, it had become a common practice for princes and kings to build tombs during their lifetimes. For example, Zhao Suhou "started Shouling in the fifteenth year" ("Historical Records·Zhao Family"). There is also the Mausoleum of King Zhongshan in Pingshan County, which was also built during his lifetime. Qin Shihuang just advanced the time of building the mausoleum during the monarch's lifetime to the early stage of his accession to the throne. The construction of the cemetery project was not completed until the death of Qin Shihuang. The second emperor succeeded to the throne, and it took more than a year to build it before it was basically completed.
Looking at the cemetery project, it can be divided into three construction stages. The 26 years from King Qin's accession to the throne to the unification of the country was the initial stage of the cemetery project. At this stage, the design of the cemetery project and the construction of the main project were carried out successively. The scale and basic layout of the cemetery were initially established. From the unification of the country to the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shi Huang, these nine years should be regarded as a period of large-scale construction of the cemetery project.
"Historical Records" records: "When the world was united, more than 700,000 people were sent to the world." After more than 100,000 people and more than 9 years of large-scale construction, the main project of the cemetery was basically completed. From the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang to the winter of the second year of Qin II, it lasted more than three years and was the final stage of the project. This stage mainly involves the finishing works and soil covering work of the cemetery. Although the mausoleum project lasted thirty-seven or eight years, the entire project was still not completed. A magnificent peasant uprising broke out that year. Rebel leader Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's subordinate Zhou Wen led their troops to the vicinity of Playwater (near today's Xinfeng Town, Lintong County), which was less than a few kilometers away from the cemetery. Faced with the overwhelming force of the army and the threat to Xianyang, Qin II, the new emperor who had not been tested by wind and rain, was panicked. In desperation, he summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures. With a look of despair, he asked the ministers "What can be done about it?" pleading. After a period of silence, Zhang Han, the commander of the Shaofu, suggested: "The thieves have arrived, and we are in all frontiers. It is too late to send troops to the county. There are many disciples in Lishan. Please pardon them and send troops to attack them." The frightened second emperor immediately responded and said, It was decided that Zhang Han would directly lead the Xiuling army to fight back against Zhou Wen's rebel army. The cemetery project, which had not yet been fully completed, had to be suspended.
The designers of the Qin Mausoleum Project not only carefully selected a geomantic treasure, but also designed the overall layout of the cemetery with great ingenuity.
The Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum is centered on a tall tomb. Outside the tomb are two rammed-earth city walls in the shape of a zigzag, with a gate on each side of the outer city wall. The east gate is located on the east-west axis in the center of the enclosure, and is the largest gate. Except for the two gates on the north wall of the inner city, there is one gate on each of the other three sides. In particular, the Quemen ruins at the south gate of the inner city still stand to the south of the tomb, which is a spectacular sight.
Thousands of years have passed, and the tall mountain-like tomb of the Qin Mausoleum still stands at the foot of Lishan Mountain. The 10-kilometer-long rammed earth city wall inside and outside has long been incomplete. All that can be seen now is the remaining section of the west wall of the inner city. The magnificent above-ground buildings were burned by Xiang Yu more than 2,000 years ago. On the remaining ruins, archaeologists discovered the ruins of the mausoleum complex, which is large in scale and concentrated on the north side of the seal and the western half of the inner city. department. A complex of ground buildings was also discovered between the inner and outer city walls in the northwest of Fengtu. According to the cleared building foundations of the three groups of houses, they appear to be buildings built by officials. There are several groups of ground-level buildings that have not yet been excavated on the north and south sides of the Caiguan building site, and their scale is also considerable.
Before the 1960s, all speculations about the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang could only be based on documentary records and rumors. On March 29, 1974, when several farmers from the Xiyang Village Production Team of the Lower River Brigade woke up the sleeping terracotta warriors and horses with a hoe, they immediately shocked the world. This astonishing discovery also lifted up the mystery of Qin Ling.
2. The deep underground palace is full of mysteries
The Mausoleum of the First Emperor is an underground "kingdom" full of magical colors. The deep underground palace is full of mysteries. The shape and internal structure of the underground palace are still not completely clear. It has triggered the speculation and reverie of many literati for thousands of years. What is the structure of the underground palace? How many rare treasures are hidden in the underground palace? Is there any anti-theft mechanism in the underground palace? How deep was the underground palace dug? Is the First Emperor's coffin a copper coffin or a wooden coffin? Are the bones of the First Emperor intact? ... This series of suspense has troubled experts and scholars. At present, only preliminary discussions and speculations can be made based on existing archaeological materials and relevant historical documents.
The mysterious Qinling Underground Palace only left a very brief record in Sima Qian's writings: "Through three springs, copper was lowered into the coffin, and the palace view, hundreds of officials, rare utensils and treasures were filled with them. . Let the craftsman make a crossbow arrow, and use mercury as a tool for the rivers, rivers and seas, and use the mermaid ointment as a candle to save it for a long time." Archaeological experts regard this as a mystery.
Mystery 1: How deep is the underground palace?
According to the latest archaeological exploration data, the Qinling Underground Palace is actually 260 meters long from east to west and 160 meters long from north to south, with a total area of ??41,600 square meters. The Qinling Underground Palace is the largest underground palace in the Qin and Han Dynasties, with a scale equivalent to five international football fields. Archaeological drilling has further confirmed that the deep and grand underground palace is a vertical cave type.
Sima Qian said that it "went through three springs", while "Han Jiuyi" said that it was "extremely deep".
It means digging to the point where it can no longer be dug. How deep is the extremely deep underground palace?
The mysterious underground palace once aroused the interest of the Chinese physicist Mr. Ting Zhaozhong. He used modern high technology and three scientists including Chen Ming to research and write an article, inferring that the depth of the Qinling underground palace was 500 to 1,500 meters. This speculation now seems almost fanciful. Assuming that the underground palace is dug to 1,000 meters, it exceeds the height difference between the location of the mausoleum and the Wei River measured to the north. Not only would it be difficult to drain the water from the underground palace, it would even cause the risk of water from the Wei River flowing back into the Qinling Mausoleum. Although this inference is very different, it is the first to use modern scientific and technological means to explore the mystery of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum.
Domestic experts and scholars in the fields of cultural relics, archaeology, and geology have also conducted various studies and explorations on the depth of the Qin Mausoleum underground palace. According to the latest drilling data, the Qinling underground palace is not as deep as people imagined. The actual depth should be close to the depth of the tomb chamber in No. 1 Qin Gong Cemetery in Zhiyang. Calculated in this way, the actual depth from the entrance to the bottom of the underground palace pit is about 26 meters, and the deepest to the surface in the Qin Dynasty was about 37 meters. It should be said that there will be no major errors in this data, which is calculated based on the current exploration results. But whether this is the case still depends on further verification by archaeological exploration. Searching, trying hard to find all kinds of clues that can reveal the mystery of the Qinling Underground Palace.
Mystery 2: How many doors are there in the underground palace?
On September 17, 2002, the world witnessed the process of archaeologists exploring the internal space of the pyramid through live television. When the archaeologists put the robot in through the first stone door, they unexpectedly encountered another stone door. The world-famous pyramid archaeological project had to be shelved. The underground palace of the pyramid may have more than two doors. So, how many tomb gates were built in the Qinling Underground Palace?
The answer to the question of the number of doorways to the Qin Mausoleum's underground palace has already been found in "Historical Records". It just hasn’t attracted the attention of scholars. "Historical Records" clearly records: "After the important event, it was hidden. The middle door was closed, and the outer door was closed. The craftsmen hid it all, and no one came back."
All the coffins and funerary objects were placed in the middle door. Within. The craftsmen were busy working inside the middle gate, and suddenly "closed the Zhongxian Gate and went down to the outer Xian Gate." The craftsmen "never came back" and became funerary objects. This involves both the Zhongxian Gate and the Outer Xian Gate, among which the Inner Xian Gate is self-explanatory. The three gates of the underground palace seem irrefutable. It is worth noting that Sima Qian used the word "closed" in Zhongxianmen. Outside
Mystery 3: What is the explanation for "Shanggu Tianwen"?
The record of the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum as "astronomy at the top and geography at the bottom" comes from "Historical Records". What is its meaning?
The famous archaeologist Mr. Xia Nai once inferred: "'Astronomy on the top, geography on the bottom' should be paintings or line carvings of the sun, moon, and stars on the top of the tomb, which may still be preserved in Lintong today. "In the Imperial Tomb." In recent years, murals similar to "Astronomy" and "Geography" have been discovered in the Han Tomb of Xi'an Jiaotong University. The upper part is a symbol of the sun, moon and stars in the sky, while the lower part is a mural representing mountains and rivers. It can be inferred from this action that the upper part of the Qinling Underground Palace may have a more complete map of the twenty-eight constellations, while the lower part shows the geography of mountains and rivers represented by mercury. In this underground "kingdom" that symbolizes heaven and earth, Qin Shihuang's soul can still "look up at the astronomy and look down at the geography" and rule everything here.
Mystery 4: The mystery of "mercury" buried in the underground palace
The record of using mercury as the source of rivers and seas in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor can be found in "Historical Records", and there are similar words in "Hanshu". However, whether there is mercury in the tomb has always been a mystery.
China Donkey Blog Action The development of modern science and technology has provided the necessary prerequisites for verifying the ancient unsolved case of mercury buried in the Qinling Tomb underground palace. Geological experts Chang Yong and Mr. Li Tong came to the Mausoleum of the First Emperor twice to take samples. After repeated tests, it was found that "mercury anomalies" were found in soil samples from the seal of the First Emperor's Mausoleum. In contrast, soil samples from other locations contained little to no mercury. From this, scientists have drawn a preliminary conclusion: The record in "Historical Records" about the large amount of mercury buried in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor is reliable. Modern technology has finally solved the ancient mystery of "mercury" buried in the underground palace.
As for why a large amount of mercury is buried in the underground palace? Li Daoyuan, a scholar in the Northern Wei Dynasty, explained that "mercury is used to represent the rivers and the sea because mercury is used to represent the four rivers, hundreds of rivers, five mountains and nine states, which has the geographical potential." It turns out that mercury symbolizes the geography of mountains and rivers, which corresponds to "the astronomy of heaven".
Mystery 7: Is there space in the underground palace?
Current archaeological exploration shows that the Qinling underground palace is a vertical cave type. There may be a large wooden coffin with "Huang Chang Ti Cou" inside the tomb. If it is a vertical cavity wooden coffin tomb, the tomb passage and the upper part of the wooden coffin are sealed with rammed earth. In this way, the inside and outside of the tomb will be tightly sealed, and there will be no more space. However, Li Si, one of the presiding officers of the mausoleum, said: "If you dig it, it will not penetrate, if you burn it, it will not burn. If you knock it, it will be empty."
If Li Si's words are recorded correctly, then there is obviously something in the underground palace. shell. It stands to reason that this statement cannot be false. Because Li Si personally presided over the mausoleum project as Prime Minister Zuo, he knew the structure of the underground palace well. In addition, this passage was reported to the Holy Father in person, so it should be said that there is no suspicion of adulteration. If we go by what Li Si said, we can infer that the Qin Mausoleum was a sealed, vacuum large bunker-style underground palace. Otherwise, how could it be "knocking on nothing"? How can it be "burned without burning"?
According to documentary records, it is inferred that the underground palace is empty and has a large space. However, since archaeological exploration has not yet penetrated into the main parts of the underground palace, whether the interior of the underground palace is virtual or real is still a mystery.
Mystery 8: Automatic launcher?
Qin Shihuang also worked hard to prevent tomb robberies. "Historical Records" records: The Qinling Underground Palace "ordered craftsmen to make machine crossbow arrows, and those who penetrated would shoot them." This refers to the installation of a set of concealed crossbows that automatically fire. If the record is true, it is the earliest automatic anti-theft device in ancient China.
The Qin Dynasty once produced a crossbow that fired three arrows in a row. But the dark crossbow placed in the underground palace should be a set of automatically fired crossbows. When an external object hits the bow, it will automatically fire. How the Qin Dynasty produced such superb automatic launchers more than 2,200 years ago is also a mystery.
Mystery 9: Is Qin Shihuang’s body intact?
In the mid-1970s, the discovery of the "female corpse" in the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha shocked China and the world. The complete preservation of his bones is rare in the world. From this, some people speculate that the remains of Qin Shihuang will also be preserved intact. Although objectively there are conditions for protecting the body, has the body of Qin Shihuang been preserved intact?
If we look at body protection technology alone, the female corpses of the Western Han Dynasty, less than a hundred years after the Qin Dynasty, can be well preserved. The Qin Dynasty should also have the antiseptic technology to protect the remains. The problem was that Qin Shihuang died on the way to patrol, and what was worse was that it was the scorching summer season. Before the "corpse" had been transported far, it emitted a foul smell. In order to prevent the smell from spreading and leaking "wind", Zhao Gao and Hu Hai Immediately, people were sent to fish out baskets of abalone from the river, and put the abalone and the "carcasses" together to eliminate the smell. In this way, after more than 50 days of long journey, in September, the bones were finally transported back to Xianyang for burial. The interval between Qin Shihuang's death and his burial was nearly two months. According to contemporary body protection experience, general body protection must begin immediately after the death of the deceased. If there is a slight delay, the corpse itself will begin to change, and no matter how advanced the technology is, it may not be able to do anything. Qin Shihuang's body began to decay on the way, and it would have been completely unrecognizable before it was transported back to Xianyang. Based on this, it is speculated that the possibility of Qin Shihuang's remains being well preserved is very small.
The above mysteries are just the tip of the iceberg among the many mysteries of the Qinling Underground Palace. With the deepening of archaeological research in our country and the practical application of high-tech detection technology, the Qinling Underground Palace will one day shock the world again.
Answer: zzzccclong - Clerk Level 3 2-8 20:24
In the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar in 259 BC, a baby boy with no special appearance was born in Handan, Zhao State . He was Qin Shihuang, the founder of the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. In the eyes of Westerners, he is China's Napoleon. He inherited the throne of the King of Qin at the age of 13. At the age of 22, an adult coronation ceremony was held in his old capital Yongcheng. From then on, he officially ascended the throne to "manage the affairs of state" and began his vigorous political career. At the age of 39, he sent troops to defeat the last vassal state of the Six Kingdoms in Shandong, captured King Jian of Qi, and completed the historical cause of unifying China. Then he lost no time in formulating and promulgating a series of laws and measures that were conducive to unification, and gradually established and improved the first unified political power in Chinese history. He died of illness at the age of 50 at "Sand Dune Platform" (today's Julu County, Hebei Province) during his patrol, ending his short life.
Qin Shihuang, who is a household name, is famous throughout the ages for completing the great cause of unification, and has been infamous for his tyranny. The Qin Dynasty only existed for 15 years, and his dream of being emperor forever was shattered. But the emperor system and emperor consciousness have influenced China for thousands of years. Not only the origin, life, merits and demerits of the First Emperor are eye-catching, but the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, located at the foot of Lishan Mountain, has also attracted much attention due to many unsolved mysteries.
In the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar in 259 BC, a baby boy with no special appearance was born in Handan, Zhao State. He was Qin Shihuang, the founder of the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. In the eyes of Westerners, he is China's Napoleon. He inherited the throne of the King of Qin at the age of 13. At the age of 22, an adult coronation ceremony was held in his old capital Yongcheng. From then on, he officially ascended the throne to "manage the affairs of state" and began his vigorous political career. At the age of 39, he sent troops to defeat the last vassal state of the Six Kingdoms in Shandong, captured King Jian of Qi, and completed the historical cause of unifying China. Then he lost no time in formulating and promulgating a series of laws and measures that were conducive to unification, and gradually established and improved the first unified political power in Chinese history. He died of illness at the age of 50 at "Sand Dune Platform" (today's Julu County, Hebei Province) during his patrol, ending his short life.
Qin Shihuang, who is a household name, is famous throughout the ages for completing the great cause of unification, and has been infamous for his tyranny. The Qin Dynasty only existed for 15 years, and his dream of being emperor forever was shattered. But the emperor system and emperor consciousness have influenced China for thousands of years. Not only the origin, life, merits and demerits of the First Emperor are eye-catching, but the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, located at the foot of Lishan Mountain, has also attracted much attention due to many unsolved mysteries.
The first person to record the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was the master historian Sima Qian. He left a 160-word record in "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang". "Historical Records" records that "the tomb of the First Emperor's Mausoleum is more than fifty feet high." Its height was calculated to be about 115 meters based on the ruler at that time. The height measured by local authorities in 1961 was 43 meters. In 1982, with the assistance of soldiers from the 8383 Corps of Engineers, the author measured the soil of the mausoleum again, and the result was that the height of the tomb was 55.05 meters. Later aerial measurements of altitude were similar. It can be seen that due to water and soil erosion over the past two thousand years, the height of the soil seal has dropped by more than half from the original level. The bottom edge of the sealing soil is rectangular. It is 515 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 accompanied Qin Shihuang’s political career throughout his life. When he first ascended the throne of Qin at the age of 13, the cemetery project also began. Qin Shihuang was not the first emperor to build mausoleums during his lifetime. As early as the Warring States Period, it had become a common practice for princes and kings to build tombs during their lifetimes. For example, Zhao Suhou "started Shouling in the fifteenth year" ("Historical Records·Zhao Family"). There is also the Mausoleum of King Zhongshan in Pingshan County, which was also built during his lifetime. Qin Shihuang just advanced the time of building the mausoleum during the monarch's lifetime to the early stage of his accession to the throne. The construction of the cemetery project was not completed until the death of Qin Shihuang. The Second Emperor succeeded to the throne, and it took more than a year to build the cemetery before it was basically completed
Looking at the cemetery project, it can be divided into three construction stages. The 26 years from King Qin's accession to the throne to the unification of the country was the initial stage of the cemetery project. At this stage, the design of the cemetery project and the construction of the main project were carried out successively. The scale and basic layout of the cemetery were initially established. From the unification of the country to the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shi Huang, these nine years should be regarded as a period of large-scale construction of the cemetery project. "Historical Records" records: "When the world was united, more than 700,000 people were sent to the world." After more than 100,000 people and more than 9 years of large-scale construction, the main project of the cemetery was basically completed. From the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang to the winter of the second year of Qin II, it lasted more than three years and was the final stage of the project. This stage mainly involves the finishing works and soil covering work of the cemetery. Although the mausoleum project lasted thirty-seven or eight years, the entire project was still not completed. A magnificent peasant uprising broke out that year. Rebel leader Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's subordinate Zhou Wen led their troops to the vicinity of Playwater (near today's Xinfeng Town, Lintong County), which was less than a few kilometers away from the cemetery. Faced with the overwhelming force of the army and the threat to Xianyang, Qin II, the new emperor who had not been tested by wind and rain, was panicked. In desperation, he summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures. With a look of despair, he asked the ministers "What can be done about it?" pleading.
After a period of silence, Zhang Han, the commander of the Shaofu, suggested: "The thieves have arrived, and we are in all frontiers. It is too late to send troops to the county. There are many disciples in Lishan. Please pardon them and send troops to attack them." The frightened second emperor immediately responded and said, It was decided that Zhang Han would directly lead the Xiuling army to fight back against Zhou Wen's rebel army. The cemetery project, which had not yet been fully completed, had to be suspended.
The designers of the Qin Mausoleum Project not only carefully selected a geomantic treasure, but also designed the overall layout of the cemetery with great ingenuity.
The Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum is centered on a tall tomb. Outside the tomb are two rammed-earth city walls in the shape of a zigzag, with a gate on each side of the outer city wall. The east gate is located on the east-west axis in the center of the enclosure, and is the largest gate. Except for the two gates on the north wall of the inner city, there is one gate on each of the other three sides. In particular, the Quemen ruins at the south gate of the inner city still stand to the south of the tomb, which is a spectacular sight.
Thousands of years have passed, and the tall mountain-like tomb of the Qin Mausoleum still stands at the foot of Lishan Mountain. The 10-kilometer-long rammed earth city wall inside and outside has long been incomplete. All that can be seen now is the remaining section of the west wall of the inner city. The magnificent above-ground buildings were burned by Xiang Yu more than 2,000 years ago. On the remaining ruins, archaeologists discovered the ruins of the mausoleum complex, which is large in scale and concentrated on the north side of the seal and the western half of the inner city. department. A complex of ground buildings was also discovered between the inner and outer city walls in the northwest of Fengtu. According to the cleared building foundations of the three groups of houses, they appear to be buildings built by officials. There are several groups of ground-level buildings that have not yet been excavated on the north and south sides of the Caiguan building site, and their scale is also considerable.
Before the 1960s, all speculations about the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang could only be based on documentary records and rumors. On March 29, 1974, when several farmers from the Xiyang Village Production Team of the Lower River Brigade woke up the sleeping terracotta warriors and horses with a hoe, they immediately shocked the world. This astonishing discovery also lifted up the mystery of Qin Ling.
2. The deep underground palace is full of mysteries
The Mausoleum of the First Emperor is an underground "kingdom" full of magical colors. The deep underground palace is full of mysteries. The shape and internal structure of the underground palace are still not completely clear. It has triggered the speculation and reverie of many literati for thousands of years. What is the structure of the underground palace? How many rare treasures are hidden in the underground palace? Is there any anti-theft mechanism in the underground palace? How deep was the underground palace dug? Is the First Emperor's coffin a copper coffin or a wooden coffin? Are the bones of the First Emperor intact? ... This series of suspense has troubled experts and scholars. At present, only preliminary discussions and speculations can be made based on existing archaeological materials and relevant historical documents.
The mysterious Qinling Underground Palace only left a very brief record in Sima Qian's writings: "Through three springs, copper was lowered into the coffin, and the palace view, hundreds of officials, rare utensils and treasures were filled with them. . Let the craftsman make a crossbow arrow, and use mercury as a tool for the rivers, rivers and seas, and use the mermaid ointment as a candle to save it for a long time." Archaeological experts regard this as a mystery.
Mystery 1: How deep is the underground palace?
According to the latest archaeological exploration data, the Qinling Underground Palace is actually 260 meters long from east to west and 160 meters long from north to south, with a total area of ??41,600 square meters. The Qinling Underground Palace is the largest underground palace in the Qin and Han Dynasties, with a scale equivalent to five international football fields. Archaeological drilling has further confirmed that the deep and grand underground palace is a vertical cave type.
Sima Qian said that it "went through three springs", while "Han Jiuyi" said that it was "extremely deep". It means digging to the point where it can no longer be dug. How deep is the extremely deep underground palace?
The mysterious underground palace once aroused the interest of the Chinese physicist Mr. Ting Zhaozhong. He used modern high technology and three scientists including Chen Ming to research and write an article, inferring that the depth of the Qinling underground palace was 500 to 1,500 meters. This speculation now seems almost fanciful. Assuming that the underground palace is dug to 1,000 meters, it exceeds the height difference between the location of the mausoleum and the Wei River measured to the north. Not only would it be difficult to drain the water from the underground palace, but it would also cause the risk of water from the Wei River flowing back into the Qinling Mausoleum. Although this inference is very different, it is the first to use modern scientific and technological means to explore the mystery of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum.
Domestic experts and scholars in the fields of cultural relics, archaeology, and geology have also conducted various studies and explorations on the depth of the Qin Mausoleum underground palace. According to the latest drilling data, the Qinling underground palace is not as deep as people imagined.
The actual depth should be close to the depth of the tomb of Qin Gong Cemetery No. 1 in Zhiyang. Calculated in this way, the actual depth from the entrance to the bottom of the underground palace pit is about 26 meters, and the deepest to the surface in the Qin Dynasty was about 37 meters. It should be said that there will be no major errors in this data, which is calculated based on the current exploration results. But whether this is the case still depends on further verification by archaeological exploration. Searching, trying hard to find all kinds of clues that can reveal the mystery of the Qinling Underground Palace.
Mystery 2: How many doors are there in the underground palace?
On September 17, 2002, the world witnessed the process of archaeologists exploring the internal space of the pyramid through live television. When the archaeologists put the robot in through the first stone door, they unexpectedly encountered another stone door. The world-famous pyramid archaeological project had to be shelved. The underground palace of the pyramid may have more than two doors. So, how many tomb gates were built in the Qinling Underground Palace?
The answer to the question of the number of doorways to the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum has already been found in "Historical Records". It just hasn’t attracted the attention of scholars. "Historical Records" clearly records: "After the important event, it was hidden. The middle door was closed, and the outer door was closed. The craftsmen hid it all, and no one came back."
All the coffins and funerary objects were placed in the middle door. Within. The craftsmen were busy working inside the middle gate, and suddenly "closed the Zhongxian Gate and went down to the outer Xian Gate." The craftsmen "never came back" and became funerary objects. This involves both the Zhongxian Gate and the Outer Xian Gate, among which the Inner Xian Gate is self-explanatory. The three gates of the underground palace seem irrefutable. It is worth noting that Sima Qian used the word "closed" in Zhongxianmen. Outside
Mystery 3: What is the explanation for "Shanggu Tianwen"?
The record of the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum as "astronomy at the top and geography at the bottom" comes from "Historical Records". What is its meaning?
The famous archaeologist Mr. Xia Nai once deduced: "'Astronomy on the top, geography on the bottom' should be paintings or line carvings of the sun, moon, and stars on the top of the tomb, which may still be preserved in Lintong today. "In the Imperial Tomb." In recent years, murals similar to "Astronomy" and "Geography" have been discovered in the Han Tomb of Xi'an Jiaotong University. The upper part is a symbol of the sun, moon and stars in the sky, while the lower part is a mural representing mountains and rivers. It can be inferred from this action that the upper part of the Qinling Underground Palace may have a more complete map of the twenty-eight constellations, while the lower part shows the geography of mountains and rivers represented by mercury. In this underground "kingdom" that symbolizes heaven and earth, Qin Shihuang's soul can still "look up at the astronomy and look down at the geography" and rule everything here.
Mystery 4: The mystery of "mercury" buried in the underground palace
The record of using mercury as the source of rivers and seas in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor can be found in "Historical Records", and there are similar words in "Hanshu". However, whether there is mercury in the tomb has always been a mystery.
China Donkey Blog Action The development of modern science and technology has provided the necessary prerequisites for verifying the ancient unsolved case of mercury buried in the Qinling Tomb underground palace. Geological experts Chang Yong and Mr. Li Tong came to the Mausoleum of the First Emperor twice to take samples. After repeated tests, it was found that "mercury anomalies" were found in soil samples from the seal of the First Emperor's Mausoleum. In contrast, soil samples from other locations contained little to no mercury. From this, scientists have drawn a preliminary conclusion: The record in "Historical Records" about the large amount of mercury buried in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor is reliable. Modern technology has finally solved the ancient mystery of "mercury" buried in the underground palace.
As for why a large amount of mercury is buried in the underground palace? Li Daoyuan, a scholar in the Northern Wei Dynasty, explained that "mercury is used to represent the rivers and the sea because mercury is used to represent the four rivers, hundreds of rivers, five mountains and nine states, which has the geographical potential." It turns out that mercury symbolizes the geography of mountains and rivers, which corresponds to "the astronomy of heaven".
Mystery 7: Is there space in the underground palace?
Current archaeological exploration shows that the Qinling underground palace is a vertical cave type. There may be a large wooden coffin with "Huang Chang Ti Cou" inside the tomb. If it is a vertical cavity wooden coffin tomb, the tomb passage and the upper part of the wooden coffin are sealed with rammed earth. In this way, the inside and outside of the tomb will be tightly sealed, and there will be no more space. However, Li Si, one of the presiding officers of the mausoleum, said: "If you dig it, it will not penetrate, if you burn it, it will not burn. If you knock it, it will be empty."
If Li Si's words are recorded correctly, then there is obviously something in the underground palace. shell. It stands to reason that this statement cannot be false. Because Li Si personally presided over the mausoleum project as Prime Minister Zuo, he knew the structure of the underground palace well. In addition, this passage was reported to the Holy Father in person, so it should be said that there is no suspicion of adulteration. If we go by what Li Si said, we can infer that the Qin Mausoleum was a sealed, vacuum large bunker-style underground palace.
Otherwise, how could it be "knocking on nothing"? How can it be "burned without burning"?
According to documentary records, it is inferred that the underground palace is empty and has a large space. However, since archaeological exploration has not yet penetrated into the main parts of the underground palace, whether the interior of the underground palace is virtual or real is still a mystery.
Mystery 8: Automatic launcher?
Qin Shihuang also worked hard to prevent tomb robberies. "Historical Records" records: The Qinling Underground Palace "ordered craftsmen to make machine crossbow arrows, and those who penetrated would shoot them." This refers to the installation of a set of concealed crossbows that automatically fire. If the record is true, it is the earliest automatic anti-theft device in ancient China.
The Qin Dynasty once produced a crossbow that fired three arrows in a row. But the dark crossbow placed in the underground palace should be a set of automatically fired crossbows. When an external object hits the bow, it will automatically fire. How the Qin Dynasty produced such superb automatic launchers more than 2,200 years ago is also a mystery.
Mystery 9: Is Qin Shihuang’s body intact?
In the mid-1970s, the discovery of the "female corpse" in the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha shocked China and the world. The complete preservation of his bones is rare in the world. From this, some people speculate that the remains of Qin Shihuang will also be preserved intact. Although objectively there are conditions for protecting the remains, has the remains of Qin Shihuang been preserved intact?
If we look at the body protection technology alone, the female corpses of the Western Han Dynasty, which were less than a hundred years away from the Qin Dynasty, can be well preserved. The Qin Dynasty should also have the embalming technology to protect the remains. The problem was that Qin Shihuang died on the way to patrol, and what was worse was that it was during the hot summer season. Before the "corpse" had been transported far, it emitted a foul smell. In order to prevent the smell from spreading and leaking "wind", Zhao Gao and Hu Hai Immediately, people were sent to fish out baskets of abalone from the river, and put the abalone and the "carcasses" together to eliminate the smell. In this way, after more than 50 days of long journey, in September, the bones were finally transported back to Xianyang for burial. The interval between Qin Shihuang's death and his burial was nearly two months. According to contemporary body protection experience, general body protection must begin immediately after the death of the deceased. If there is even a slight delay, the body itself will have begun to change, and no matter how advanced the technology is, it may not be able to do anything. Qin Shihuang's body began to decay on the way, and it would have been completely unrecognizable before it was transported back to Xianyang. Based on this, it is speculated that the possibility of Qin Shihuang's remains being well preserved is very small.
The above mysteries are just the tip of the iceberg among the many mysteries of the Qinling Underground Palace. With the deepening of archaeological research in our country and the practical application of high-tech detection technology, the Qinling Underground Palace will one day shock the world again.