By the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, the tomb structure had undergone major changes. Most of the tombs of "cutting mountains for tombs" are horizontal caves, and are divided into ear rooms, front rooms and back rooms. The vertical-hole grave is built with bricks and stones. The shape and structure completely imitate the houses, palaces and courtyards in real life. This kind of tomb plays the role of a coffin, so there are only coffins and no coffins in the tomb. In these tombs, most of the walls are painted with colorful frescoes, or with molded portrait bricks, while in the tombs with stone structures, most of them are carved portraits. Murals have a wide range of themes, except for gods, monsters and historical stories, which mainly show various life scenes of the emperor before his death.
In the Western Han Dynasty, from the time of Gaozu, for political purposes, many burial tombs were set up in all tombs, which were called "accompanying tombs", forming a large-scale burial cemetery. Most of the people who were buried with him were the imperial ministers and relatives of the country at that time. According to records, Xiao He, Cao Can, Zhang Liang and other founding fathers were buried with Changling. Mausoleum was buried with famous soldiers such as Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. Most of the graves of the buried people were given by the emperor, each with a cemetery, garden city and ancestral hall. Some also buried their descendants next to their fathers' graves, forming clan cemeteries. The higher the status of the buried person, the closer it is to the Emperor's Mausoleum, and the higher the enclosure. Judging from the status and identity of the people buried with the Emperor in the Western Han Dynasty, most of the tombs buried with Emperor Gaozu, Emperor Wudi and Xuan Di were important officials and celebrities of the imperial court. But in the late Western Han Dynasty, Yuan Di, Emperor Cheng and Emperor Ai were buried with consorts, concubines and imperial secretaries. This situation reflects the political ups and downs and changes in the Han Dynasty from one side.
the Han dynasty was the most popular period in the history of China. Including treasures, funerary wares, pottery figurines, chariots and horses, grain, etc., there are all kinds of articles in front of and behind.
Although there have been so many thefts and excavations, the archaeological community has made so many thefts and excavations on Mausoleum, and the archaeological community is quite happy about Mausoleum. First, Mausoleum has been built for more than half a century, and its internal organs are so heavy that it is difficult to get in, so it is impossible to steal all the funerary objects. Second, early grave robbing only valued gold, silver and jewelry. Some cultural relics such as classics and utensils used by people at that time were not valued, and they would remain in the underground palace.
■ After more than a year's field investigation, archaeologists finally figured out the overall layout of the Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty
In the 194s, an American pilot accidentally saw buildings similar to pyramids in the northwest of Xi 'an. He called these buildings "Pyramids of the East". He and his flight crew only regarded these buildings as navigation landmarks because they didn't know what monuments they were.
In April this year, after more than a year of field investigation, archaeologists from Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology finally completed the exploration of Liu Che's mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and found out the overall layout of this mausoleum, which is considered by historians to be the longest ruling period, the most fruitful achievements and the most fruitful achievements in the history of feudal society in China.
"There were 11 emperors in the Western Han Dynasty. According to our archaeological investigation and historical documents, the things buried with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty were the most abundant, which could not be put in the mausoleum before his death. At that time, grave robbers stole the funerary objects. " Jiao Nanfeng, dean of Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute and captain of the Hanling Archaeological Team, said in an interview with Beijing Science and Technology News.
According to legend, more than 3 volumes of gold thread jade clothes, jade boxes, jade sticks and miscellaneous classics read by Emperor Wu were put in gold boxes and buried together.
At present, the gold and jade clothes worn by Liu Che are the most favored by archaeologists. Liu Xin's Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing in the Western Han Dynasty records that "when the Emperor of Han died, all the jade boxes were made of pearls, which were shaped like armor and connected with gold thread. In Zigong, Emperor Wu wears cicada jade in his mouth and a golden jade box. The boxes are all carved with the image of a dragon bending a phoenix and a fish forest, which is called the jade box of a dragon in the world. " It is said that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was tall and fat, and the jade clothes he wore were very large, with a total length of 1.88 meters, about 2,498 pieces of jade, and the gold thread of jade pieces was more than two kilograms. Emperors and nobles in the Han Dynasty wore "jade clothes" (also known as "jade boxes") when they died and were buried. They are made of many jade pieces with small holes in four corners, woven with gold wire, silver wire or copper wire, and they are called "Golden Jade Clothes", "Silver Jade Clothes" and "Copper Jade Clothes" respectively.
■ Although there have been many excavations, the archaeological community is still optimistic about Maoling.
According to historical records, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne at the age of 16, and the next year, in 139 BC. Legend has it that Liu Che, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, found a unicorn-shaped animal and a longevity fruit tree near Maoxiang during a hunting, and decided that Maoxiang was a treasure trove of geomantic omen, so he wrote a letter to enclose it and began to build a mausoleum. While Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty created his great achievements, his mausoleum was also expanding. In February of 57 BC, the 71-year-old Emperor Shou of the Han Dynasty finally lived in Wang Zuo Palace in Chang 'an and was buried in Maoling 18 days later. Maoling stopped construction, and at this time Maoling has been built for 53 years, and all the trees originally planted have grown into towering trees. During the Western Han Dynasty, the mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was called "Maoling" because it belonged to Maoxiang, Huaili County.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty died, and there was no peace after his burial. According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, when the peasant uprising army Red Forest Army captured Chang 'an, it burned the palace and "excavated the tombs and took their treasures". The treasures in the Mausoleum have been moved for dozens of days, but "the objects in the Mausoleum still cannot be halved". Later, when the rebels ran out of money, they stole Maoling again. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo also stole Maoling. He told Lu Bu to look for a secret recipe to treat the dumb when he entered Maoling. It turned out that his granddaughter Dong Bai was dumb. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao had no money to use during the uprising, and he also visited Maoling. During the Republic of China, Sun Lianzhong, a warlord, built a trench on the mausoleum, which was suspected to be a grave robbery. However, there is no specific written record of these tomb-robbing stories, and no one can tell how many treasures there are in the Mausoleum.
Although there have been so many excavations, the archaeological community is still optimistic about Maoling. First, Maoling has been built for more than half a century, and its internal organs are so heavy that it is difficult to get in, so it is impossible to steal all the funerary objects. Second, early grave robbing only valued gold, silver and jewelry. Some cultural relics such as classics and utensils used by people at that time were not valued, and they would remain in the underground palace.
■ There are more than 4 kinds of burial pits in the Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which is more than that found in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.
At present, what archaeologists want to know most is what the Mausoleum, which covers an area of nearly 6, square meters, looks like. It is very important to understand the layout for the protection of this cultural relic. After exploration, the Mausoleum sits west to east as a whole. The Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is located in the center of the Mausoleum, with double garden walls inside and outside. There are more than 5 buried tombs on both sides of Sima Road, and the mausoleum guarding the mausoleum is located in the northeast of the cemetery.
Ma Yongying, vice captain of the archaeological team of the Han Tomb, told people that the shape of the tomb is "Ya", and there is a pyramid-shaped mound in the middle of the four sides of the enclosure, and the plane is trapezoidal.
Jiao Nanfeng thinks that historically, every emperor who has made great achievements will inherit the system of his ancestors on the one hand, but we can also find from the information we have now that he has actually started to seek changes in layout according to his own contributions. For example, from the Western Han Dynasty, a hidden pit (commonly known as a burial pit) was set up on the outer layer of the mausoleum. A large number of things were placed in the pit, which represented the bureaucracy and army of the Han Dynasty. The emperor took these things to another world to continue his life. Through this drilling survey, it is found that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has changed a lot compared with the previous Gaozu, Wendi and Jingdi. The number of hidden pits outside the Yangling of Jingdi has greatly increased, reaching 183, but in Maoling, up to now, the number of various burial pits has reached more than 4. In fact, more than the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.
another change is the change of the layout of the burial pit. The burial pits of Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Han Jingdi were distributed in the east of the Mausoleum, and some were distributed in the north. Jiao Nanfeng said: "This can be said to be a system in the early Western Han Dynasty. The emperor faced the east, and the ministers stood on both sides of the east. When we arrived at Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, we speculated that he had a large number of burial pits not only in the east and north, but also in the west and south. We speculate that this reflects the idea of taking me as the center of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. This should be said to be a new stage in the development of the Mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty. "
■ This survey not only found Maoling City, but also found the cemetery of the tomb-repairing people. In addition, this survey also found Maoling City. Jiao Nanfeng said that this was an accidental discovery in this survey. According to the previous archaeological studies of Han tombs, all the tombs of the Han Dynasty should have tombs for guarding tombs, but none of them had found the tombs of Emperor Wu before. "We were lucky to find Maolingyi in this investigation." Dozens of Li Fang were found in the city of Maolingyi, among which the southeast was a pottery workshop area. We focused on the exploration in south-central China, and found many residential sites with architectural relics scattered around them.
Another important discovery is the cemetery of Xiuling people. Vice Captain Ma Yongying said that the cemetery of Xiuling people in Maoling is located in the south of Chenwang Village, Nanwei Town, about 4 kilometers west of Maoling Mausoleum. In the 197s, when the local people were leveling the land, they found a large number of skeletons with iron instruments of torture. According to the people present at that time, these skeletons were buried in disorder, with different heads, some even stacked together, and some were in a semi-kneeling and semi-squatting position. Maoling Museum has a small collection of iron instruments of torture collected here that year. Ma Yongying said: "According to the clues provided by the masses, in October 27, we carried out investigation and drilling about 1,5 meters south of Chenwang Village, and found a large number of small tombs with dense burial in an area of about 4, square meters. These tombs are 1.8-2. meters long, .4-.6 meters wide and about 2.-3. meters deep, and the interval between tombs is .2-.5 meters. According to this density, it is estimated that there are more than 2, bones buried in this cemetery. "
Maoling is the mausoleum of Liu Che, Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty. Located in Maoling Village, a township in Xingping City (formerly Xingping County), 4km northwest of Xi 'an. Now it is a national key cultural relics protection unit. It was built between 139 BC and the first 87 years, lasting 53 years. In the second year of Emperor Jian Yuan (139 BC), Emperor Liu Che built the Shouling Mausoleum here, and was buried here after his death in 87 BC. Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was a very talented feudal emperor who could be compared with Qin Shihuang in history. When he was in office, it was the heyday of the Han Empire. He adopted the grand strategy of rewarding farming, developing production, enriching Qiang Bing and fighting against Xiongnu. At the same time, he strengthened the centralized system politically, and implemented the government-run system of cooking salt, smelting iron, transporting and trading economically, building water conservancy, developing agriculture and developing foreign trade. Fighting against Xiongnu militarily opened the way to the western regions, firmly controlled the Hexi Corridor and reached Hainan to the south, which basically formed the pattern of the living space of the Chinese nation, thus making the Han Empire stand in the east of the world with a unified, prosperous and powerful posture. The Mausoleum is magnificent in architecture, and the sacrificial objects in the tomb are extremely luxurious and rich. It is said in history that "money and property, birds and animals, fish and turtles, cattle, horses, tigers and leopards, and raw birds, all 19 things are hidden". According to legend, Emperor Wu's gold-carved jade clothes, jade boxes and jade sticks were buried in the tomb. At that time, there were also sacrificial halls and sleeping halls in the cemetery, as well as houses where ladies-in-waiting and tomb guards lived. There were 5, people who managed the cemetery here and were responsible for watering trees and sweeping. Moreover, Maoling county was built in the southeast of Maoling, where many civil and military ministers and wealthy people moved, with a population of more than 277,. Maoling's enclosure is bucket-shaped, with the existing residual height of 46.5 meters, the base side at the bottom of the tomb is 24 meters long, and the cemetery is square, with a side length of about 42 meters. Up to now, the tombs in the east, west and north still exist, and there are tombs of Li Furen, Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, Huo Guang, Jin Ridi and others buried with the tomb in Lingzhou. It is the largest imperial mausoleum in the Han Dynasty, with the longest building time and the richest funerary objects. It is called the "Pyramid of China". Nine of the 11 emperors of the Western Han Dynasty were buried in Xianyang, and the tombs were arranged from west to east, nearly a hundred miles long and magnificent.