In the Qin Tombs, you can see the deep background of civilization

Half Moon Talk Reporter Yang Yimiao

"The talented son of the south will be buried in the north, and the loess of Shaanxi will be buried in the emperor." In the nearly 2,000 years from Zhou Xing to the fall of the Tang Dynasty, more than 10 dynasties built their capitals in Shaanxi, leaving behind a large number of imperial tombs. Among them, the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, located at the foot of Lishan Mountain in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, has left too many mysteries and reverie for posterity with its magnificent scale matching that of "one emperor in ancient times".

From the accidental discovery of the Terracotta Pit by farmers digging a well in 1974, to being included in the "World Heritage List" by UNESCO in 1987, and then to being selected as one of the "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in the Past Century" and "Excellent Project for the Protection and Display of Archaeological Sites" not long ago, there have been too many moving stories in the research and protection, display and dissemination of the Qinling Great Site for more than 40 years. Approaching this thousand-year-old imperial tomb, which is equally rich in "mystery" and "strangeness", we can appreciate the deep background of ancient civilization.

The excavation site of the No. 1 pit of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum was photographed by Xue Yanwen

The Path of Discovery

The discovery of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit only revealed the tip of the iceberg of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin. Since the reappearance of the clay figurines called "Wa Shenye" by the local people, large-scale field archaeology work in the qin shi huang mausoleum area has been carried out.

With the excavation of "strange and rare artifacts" such as copper carriages and horses, stone armor, hundreds of figurines, bronze waterfowl, etc., many funerary pits and architectural sites around the sealing soil have "appeared", and the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin has been confirmed as the largest, most complex structure and most abundant buried imperial tomb in ancient China. Behind the conclusion is the blood and sweat of three generations of archaeologists.

From 1974 to 1998, the Qin Terracotta Warriors No. 1, NO. 2 and No. 3 pits were successively re-lit, and a series of important archaeological explorations and studies during this period laid the framework for the academic community to understand the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang. The excavation of the Qin Terracotta Warriors No. 2 pit adopted the open working mode of "excavation and exhibition", which was a major and amazing innovation at that time.

In 1998, taking the opportunity to sort out the excavation data of the Shijia Pit, the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum of Qin Shi Huang jointly formed an archaeological team to go deep into the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum area, relying on the national 863 project, conducting high-tech geophysical exploration of qin tombs, and finding a new direction for the archaeology of Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.

Since 2009, the archaeological excavations, protection and utilization of the Qinling Great Ruins have been repeatedly newly obtained under the favorable situation of gradually preparing laws and regulations and increasing scientific and technological strength. Major issues such as the shape, connotation and structure of the mausoleum have been further clarified, and the remains of the tomb building, tomb passage, burial chamber, main collection, outer treasure, and burial have been newly discovered, and the academic community's understanding of the Qin Tomb is increasingly three-dimensional.

During this period, the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum National Archaeological Site Park with Lishan Garden as the core was completed and opened, the construction of the Qinling Cultural Scenic Spot was fully launched, and the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum gradually formed a pattern of "one courtyard and multiple museums".

"A shovel, a rope, explore the secrets of the Lishan Mausoleum, and twilight in the morning." This is a song dedicated to all the archaeologists of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor's mausoleum, "Sauvignon Blanc". Its author is Yuan Zhongyi, who is nearly ninety years old, the first generation of Qinling archaeologists. Elder Yuan still remembers that even though there were insufficient manpower, lack of equipment and a simple working environment, colleagues still completed the excavation and restoration of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses and copper carriages and horses.

The Party of Protection

Since the discovery of the Qin figurines, in the past few decades, more than 600 funerary pits and funerary tombs of different sizes and shapes and different connotations have been found in the mausoleum area of Qin Shi Huang, and more than 60,000 precious cultural relics have been unearthed, and the fruitful results have far exceeded the expectations of today's people. The underground imperial capital of Tai Shi Gong's "Palace View Hundred Officials and Strange Artifacts Rare and Strange Migration Zang Manzhi" has gradually become a real scene that the world can see and know.

The unique collection of cultural relics and cultural landscapes have made the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin an internationally renowned tourist destination. By 2019, the annual audience here will exceed 9 million.

The surge in tourists has brought to the fore the tension between conservation and use, and the local government has recognized that the only way to solve problems is through the law. In 2005, the Regulations on the Protection of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Shaanxi Province came into effect, and the protection of the Qin Tombs had a legal criterion. As the first local regulation on the protection of imperial tombs, it not only preserves the historical style of the Qin Tombs, but also provides institutional reference for the protection of other imperial tombs.

In July 2010, the Shaanxi Provincial Government promulgated the newly compiled "Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Protection Plan", which divided the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Protected Area into two levels: the protection area and the construction control zone, and the overall protection area was expanded from less than 4.4 square kilometers to nearly 36 square kilometers, laying a solid foundation for future protection and utilization work. Subsequently, the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin formulated a medium- and long-term archaeological plan, and began to implement archaeological exploration surveys aimed at finding out the distribution and pattern of the entire mausoleum site, and in-depth research such as the design ideas of the Qin Tombs was also obtained.

"The archaeology of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin is not only the discovery, restoration and display of cultural relics, but also the exploration of 'invisible' major issues from the 'visible' cultural relics." Zhang Weixing, director of the scientific research and planning department of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum, said that it is necessary to study the sites and cultural relics of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum as a whole, and try our best to grasp the ideological concepts reflected in the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.

Not likely

Today's Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, which has been postage stamps and into textbooks, is a "Chinese business card" familiar to people around the world, but there are still many unsolved mysteries left to us by the Qin Tombs, and the possible ways to explore the Qin Tombs, today's Qinling archaeologists are still constantly seeking.

As early as the 1990s, the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum cooperated with the Bavarian Cultural Relics Bureau of Germany to carry out cooperative research on the analysis and protection of Painted Pigments of the Qin Figurines, and the protection of earthen sites and the optimization of pottery cultural relics restoration technology. In order to enhance the scientific and technological content of research, the international circle of friends of Qinling archaeologists has been expanding, from Janssen Pharmaceutical in Belgium to the American Desert Research Institute, all of which have contributed wisdom and strength to the archaeological research of Qinling.

Xia Yin, director of the Cultural Relics Protection Department of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum, introduced that many of the relevant scientific research achievements have been transformed into practical guidelines for the protection and restoration of cultural relics, from the large site body to the specific single piece of cultural relics, QinLing has formulated a complete protection technology plan. Many achievements have also gone out of the museum to support their peers, Fengxiang, Luoyang, Qingzhou... More than one cultural relics protection uses the "Qin Tomb Secret".

In addition to the protection work, the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum has also continued to make efforts in upgrading the exhibition technology. Today, clicking on the online exhibition hall of the museum, 2,000 high-pixel pictures spliced together to form a 50 billion pixel terracotta warrior No. 1 pit indoor panorama is the most eye-catching. Under the majestic momentum, the details of the clothing, hair bun, expression and other details of each terracotta warrior in the pit are delicate.

"Why are there terracotta warriors with green faces?" "How is the painted protection of the Terracotta Warriors carried out?" This is the problem that has poured in during a recent live broadcast at the museum. "You can feel the enthusiasm of the audience across the screen." Shao Wenbin, director of the Archaeological Work Department of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum, is no longer a live broadcast "Xiao Bai", he said: "More young people learn about the Terracotta Warriors through live broadcasting, and cultural relics workers also need to interact with them better." ”

Looking back on the 40 years since the museum came from the site, Li Gang, president of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum, said: "The road to the growth of the cultural and cultural undertakings of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum is a portrayal of the continuous improvement of China's cultural relics work to explore the roots of civilization and display the style of civilization. ”

Source: Xinhua News Agency