The Song Dynasty mausoleum has the shape of "sealing the earth to form a mausoleum". The architectural structure of each mausoleum is roughly the same, and it consists of three parts: the upper palace, the lower palace, and the burial place of the empress Ruan. The upper palace is the key area, and the lower palace is 30 meters below the upper palace and is a ground-level building.
When the ground was broken, excavation began on the "A"-shaped ground. The slope extending out in front was the tomb passage, and the "imperial hall" was behind it. Compared with the Maoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Tombs are much more economical, but compared with other tombs of the Southern Song Dynasty, they appear quite luxurious.
Although Song Tombs are not as luxurious as Han and Tang imperial tombs, they are also expensive. For example, the Yongzhao Mausoleum built by Zhao Zhen, Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, employed 46,700 migrant workers, consumed 500,000 taels of silver, 1.5 million guans, and 2.5 million pieces of silk. The cost accounted for half of the annual revenue of the treasury at that time.
The Imperial Hall is commonly known as the underground palace, also known as the Xuan Palace. It is the place where coffins are placed. Generally, it is dug 20 meters deep into the ground and is the core part of the mausoleum. In the center of the top of the imperial palace is the mausoleum, which is usually the top of the mausoleums of Ming and Qing emperors. It is commonly known as the tomb head among the people. The mausoleum is made of rammed loess and is in the shape of a square cover. It is divided into three floors, with pines and cypresses planted on the top floor.
Digbing deep into the underground palace is actually the most common method to fight against tomb robbing. Back then, Qin Shihuang dug his underground palace as deep as it could go, so "reaching three springs" had this meaning. Among the tombs of the Southern Song Dynasty, the underground palace of the Yong'an Mausoleum may be the shallowest. According to "History of the Song Dynasty, Ji Li Zhi, Mountain Tombs" (Volume 122), "the imperial hall is fifty-seven feet deep at the bottom and thirty-nine feet high. The mausoleum has three floors. Square, each side of the lower level is ninety feet long; the deepest underground palace may be the Yongxi Mausoleum, "the imperial hall is one hundred feet deep, eighty feet wide, and the mausoleum is two hundred and fifty feet wide." The four feet in the Song Dynasty are about one in modern times. meters, the Yongxi Mausoleum is 25 meters deep, while the Yongan Mausoleum is nearly 14.25 meters deep.
The underground palace of the Imperial Tomb of the Northern Song Dynasty is very beautiful, and it is indeed the "imperial palace". A modern tomb robber once climbed into the underground palace of Yongxi Mausoleum through the robbery cave. It was found that the underground palace of Yongxi Mausoleum is made of 14 layers of blue bricks, with patterns of celestial phenomena, pavilions, trees, figures and other colors painted on the upper and lower sides. The building is very solid.
Judging from the descriptions of the tomb robbers, anti-grave robbing factors were obviously taken into consideration when constructing the imperial tombs of the Northern Song Dynasty. This is also true. For example, Song Ling fully considered anti-grave robbing factors when sealing the underground palace.
The book "Facts about the Song Dynasty" written by Song Li You revealed the closing process of Song Yingzong's underground palace at that time. The thirteenth article of the book, "Yingzong was buried in Yonghou Mausoleum", introduces this. After all the royal personnel and ministers who entered the underground palace to bid farewell to Song Yingzong for the final time exited, they began to light the ever-burning lanterns in the upper underground palace.
When closing the stone gate of the underground palace, leave a person inside, support the poles in the door, and climb out from the gap in the middle of the stone gate. Then, he locked the big iron lock on the stone door and threw the key into the underground palace. The minister responsible for sealing the mausoleum personally restored the soil, inserted pointed iron rods, erected a large stone pillar in the center of the gap, and fixed the stone pillar with iron ropes. After the stone door of the underground palace was closed, the tomb passages leading to the underground palace began to be blocked. They were all filled with large stones and finally compacted with soil.
Although this kind of security treatment is not as powerful as Wu Zetian's Qianling tomb robbery method, it is still strict enough.
However, Song Ling has obvious shortcomings that are easily stolen. For example, the location of the underground palace is too obvious, and even inexperienced tomb robbers can find it and enter the underground palace. The Song Mausoleum is "built into a tomb by the accumulation of earth", unlike the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, which is "built into a mausoleum by mountains". Because the tombs of the Northern Song Dynasty were not built on steep mountains, no matter how solid they were, they were easier to dig than stone mausoleums, making it difficult for tomb robbers. This was a congenital defect.
Furthermore, the emperors of the Song Dynasty did not build the longevity palace in advance during their lifetime. They dug the site and dug the cave after their death. The construction of the mausoleum was relatively hasty and could easily leave safety hazards.
Why was the emperor of the Song Dynasty so urgent to be buried after his death? Because at that time, the royal family of the Song Dynasty implemented the ancient ritual system of "the emperor is buried in July", that is, the emperor must be buried seven months after his death. It is superstitiously believed that after seven months, the soul cannot enter the ancestral temple. Lei Yungong and others who were responsible for supervising the construction of the Yongding Mausoleum of Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty moved the palace without authorization, affecting the construction period, and were eventually "deathed with a stick."
It is indeed very difficult to build an imperial mausoleum within 7 months. The stones in the Song Tomb were all taken from Wan'an Mountain in Yanshi, a hundred miles away. According to "Epigraphies and Stone Collection·Yongtai Mausoleum Quarrying Records" (Volume 131), from February 10 to May 11, the stones needed to build the Yongtai Mausoleum were mined, and the Japanese mobilized 9,744 soldiers and Many of the craftsmen died of illness from exhaustion and were buried nearby in the mountains. Due to the rush to build the mausoleum, many bodies had not had time to be buried.
The mausoleums driven out in this way are naturally inferior to the tombs of Han and Tang emperors, and the security design such as anti-robbery is relatively rough. Judging from the buildings on the ground, it is easy to find the tomb passages and underground palaces, and it does not require much effort to rob them.