Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming XiaoLing is one of the most complete preserved of many ancient imperial tombs so far, from the completion of the Ming XiaoLing, to now more than 600 years, but it is still well preserved, which makes many people more curious, especially recently with the discovery of the Han Wen Emperor's tomb, set off a wave of research on ancient imperial tombs.
Many people have wondered why Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Xiao Mausoleum can be preserved for more than 600 years and still no one has robbed the tomb? In fact, this issue is not complicated, as long as we combine historical facts, it is easy to figure it out, I do not believe that I will take you to analyze it together.
The overall situation of the Ming Tombs
Ming Xiaoling was built from 1376, when Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were alive, so in the initial stage, in fact, the Ming Xiaoling tomb was not officially named, until the end of the first phase of the project in 1382, and Zhu Yuanzhang's beloved wife Empress Ma died and was buried in it, it was officially named Ming Xiaoling, as to why it was named this way, in fact, it was mainly related to Empress Ma.
Empress Ma followed Zhu Yuanzhang before Zhu Yuanzhang had a career, and the feelings between Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yuanzhang were very deep, plus in the early days of Zhu Yuanzhang's career, Empress Ma provided him with too much help and support, Zhu Yuanzhang started from a poor peasant, and he cared most about kindness.
There is a certain amount of grace in itself, plus the two have been together for decades after becoming husband and wife, so even if Zhu Yuanzhang has become emperor and has three thousand harem beauties, he still has not forgotten this bad wife, in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, no one can replace Empress Ma.
After the death of Empress Ma, Zhu Yuanzhang was devastated, personally handled the funeral for Empress Ma, and named Empress Ma "Empress Xiaoci", in ancient times to get such a title, absolutely can fully explain the depth of Zhu Yuanzhang's feelings for Empress Ma, and it is precisely because Empress Ma's title is "Empress Xiaoci", so Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial tomb was officially named "Ming Xiaoling" after Empress Ma was buried.
In 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died, after his death, Zhu Yunjiao buried him with Empress Ma in the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, at that time there were many concubines who were martyred for Zhu Yuanzhang, basically most of his concubines before his death were innocently martyred, but after Zhu Yuanzhang was buried, the Ming Xiaoling Tomb was not officially completed.
Ming Xiaoling was officially completed in 1405, if from 1376 to start the preparation, the entire project of Ming Xiaoling took nearly 30 years, according to some historical records, the entire project of Ming Xiaoling used a total of 100,000 soldiers and workers, the cost of money is as high as millions of taels, covering an area of more than 1.7 million square meters, quite magnificent.
Logically, an imperial mausoleum of such a huge scale should be visited by many tomb robbers, but why is it that from the completion of 1405 to the present, the Ming Tombs have been preserved so well for more than 600 years? I'll take you to unravel the mystery together.
It must be protected from a political point of view
The way to rob the tomb or destroy the imperial tomb mainly includes the destruction of the ruler, the destruction of the military and the destruction of some civilian organizers or individuals, from the perspective of the degree of destruction, the ruler and the military destruction is the most serious, for example, some of the buildings outside the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin were destroyed by Xiang Yu, these troops have very lethal weapons, the most serious damage to the imperial tomb.
So why was the Ming Tomb not destroyed? Mainly because he conforms to the political interests of the rulers, in the nearly three-hundred-year history of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants protected the Ming Tombs, which does not need us to say more, but why did the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China also do their best to protect the Ming Tombs?
In fact, it is necessary to consider political interests, in the early Qing Dynasty, the Manchus ruled the country, the regime was not stable enough, and the number of Han Chinese was far more than that of the Manchus, so they had to take certain means or measures to win over the Han and make the Han submit to their rule.
Among all the means of wooing the Han people, the best way is to use the dead to win over, so protecting Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Xiaoling became the preferred way for the Qing rulers to win over the Han people to stabilize the regime, and throughout the history of the Qing Dynasty, all the emperors paid more attention to the issue of protecting the Ming Tombs, but unfortunately, Nanjing was later occupied by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so that the Ming Tombs fell into another situation.
Fortunately, even after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan and others still protected the Ming Tombs, which was mainly due to political interests, the Qing rulers protected the Ming Tombs in order to stabilize the regime, and Hong Xiuquan and others protected the Ming Tombs in order to prove the legitimacy of The Han rule, and at the same time to inspire the rest of the Han people to join their ranks in order to deal with the Manchu Rulers more quickly.
Later rulers of the Republic of China, such as Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong and others, all protected the Ming Tombs, and the purpose behind them was basically the same, all in order to stabilize the regime and prevent others from making a fuss about it, and it was by relying on this most realistic factor that the Ming Tombs were preserved for more than six hundred years, even if the tomb robbers wanted to patronize, they would be turned away.
Reality doesn't allow it
Of course, this is not to say that there are no tomb robbers patronizing the Ming Tombs, to say that the reason why the tomb robbers did not succeed, in addition to the reasons why the rulers strictly guarded the Ming Tombs, there is actually a more realistic factor, that is, the geographical location and architectural advantages of the Tombs of the Ming Tombs, so that the tomb robbers are powerless.
From the geographical point of view, Ming Xiaoling is located in the main city of Nanjing, not far from the city, since ancient times, Nanjing is a relatively prosperous and developed city, the economy and transportation are relatively developed, tomb robbers want to rob tombs in this kind of place, it is tantamount to breaking into other people's homes in the daytime, it can be described as unobstructed, it is easy to be discovered by others.
If you take such a huge risk, you can steal some rare treasures, maybe there will still be many tomb robbers who have taken risks, but the problem is that the Ming Tomb still has a unique architectural advantage, so that those who try to rob the tomb have no way to find the entrance to the Ming Tomb Underground Palace, maybe they just went there to start looking for the entrance to the underground palace, they were found and taken away by others, and it is a fool's dream to continue to rob the tomb.
Ming Xiaoling is built on the mountain, there is no way to find the entrance to the underground palace, even if it has the current high-tech products, it is difficult to find the entrance to the underground palace, plus it is said that When Zhu Yuanzhang was buried, he was buried from thirteen directions together, people simply could not figure out which direction was the real entrance to the underground palace, so that it would bring more difficulties to the tomb robbers, and it was easy to talk about success in robbing the tomb.
Perhaps there are still some lucky tomb robbers in history, who have the opportunity to find the entrance to the underground palace, but because of the complexity of the building of the Ming Tomb, they want to dig up the underground palace, only relying on hoes or some simple tools can not be achieved, unless relying on explosives and other lethal things, but in the special geographical location of the Ming Tombs, who has the opportunity to use explosives?
epilogue
Combined with the real historical situation, the reason why the Ming Tombs have been well preserved for so many years is not that the tomb robbers do not worry about the Ming Tombs, but because the rulers always send people to protect the Ming Tombs, so that large tomb robbery organizations cannot get close to the Ming Tombs, as for those small tomb robber organizations or individuals, even if they go to the Ming Tombs, they will not be able to start because of the special geographical location of the Ming Tombs and the complex architectural structure, and finally leave!
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