In history, there were "four ancient civilizations", but only China has been preserved to this day, and other civilizations have long been lost in the long years. Therefore, China's cultural heritage can be called the world's first, and the land under our feet has also accompanied the brilliant Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Chinese never believed in the "useless god", but also believed in his "ancestors", so the tomb has an important position in Chinese culture.
Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor in Chinese history. He had a palatial palace before his death, and after his death, he also had to take him to the underground "Elysium", because of the deeply rooted funerary culture, the specifications of his tomb were even more amazing. So what does the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Underground Palace, which cannot be excavated by modern technology, look like?
Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin
Before introducing the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Underground Palace, let's take a look at the entire Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. Located at the northern foot of Lishan Mountain in the east of Lintong District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit it found is known as one of the "Eight Wonders of the World". According to literature, its construction time ranged from about 247 BC to 208 BC, a total of 39 years.
As the first emperor in history, Qin Shi Huang spent a lot of thought on the construction of his mausoleum, and countless manpower and material resources were invested before and after.
The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang covers an area of 56.25 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the size of more than a dozen football fields. This may be the heroism of the emperor of the ages, compared to the narrow tombs of other emperors, Qin Shi Huang simply directly reproduced his own palace.
The underground palace of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin is rectangular, with a height of about 15 meters, an east-west length of 50 meters, a north-south width of 80 meters, and a depth of about 35 meters from the horizon. This underground palace is the mausoleum built by Qin Shi Huang for 39 years, and now the part that everyone has gone to tourism to develop is only some scattered funerary pits around, and the real main tomb has not been excavated so far.
The earliest documentary record of the Qin Shi Huang Underground Palace is the "Records of History", which describes it as follows, "When the First Emperor first succeeded to the throne, he wore the Li Mountains and the whole world, and the disciples under the heavens sent 700,000 people and wore three springs,...... Order the craftsman to make a crossbow arrow, and if he has penetrated, shoot it. From this description, it can be seen that the manpower and material resources spent on the construction of this underground palace, and the Qin Shi Huang Underground Palace built only by human power, the hidden secrets are obviously more than this.
China began to survey this majestic underground palace in the 1960s, but due to the lack of archaeological equipment and capabilities at the beginning, most of the survey was limited to the surface. It was not until 1986, when the 863 Plan was proposed, that archaeologists conducted a detailed investigation of the Qin Shi Huang Underground Palace. In the following ten years, people have discovered many magical features of qin shi huang's underground palace.
Duan Qingbo
In 1998, Duan Qingbo, who served as the leader of the archaeological team of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, led the archaeological team to investigate the area of nearly 3 million square meters in the mausoleum area. Nearly 20 funerary pits have been discovered, and a large drainage system in the underground palace and a "medium" glyph-shaped tomb second only to the main tomb of Qin Shi Huang have been found. In general, with the continuous progress of the survey, the unsolved mysteries about the Qin Shi Huang Underground Palace have also emerged more.
The spectacle of "mercury for the sea"
The hottest topic of discussion about the Qin Shi Huang Underground Palace is whether there is mercury in it, and there are many opinions that Qin Shi Huang created a "sea" in the underground palace with mercury. The "Records of History" describes the spectacle of mercury as the sea, "with mercury as a hundred rivers and seas, instilled in the machine phase, with astronomy on the top and geography on the bottom."
In other words, Qin Shi Huang not only had to move his own palace underground to accompany him to sleep, but also to create the same mountains, rivers and seas underground for his "soul" to watch. From this point of view, it is true that it is "entitled to be willful", and after death, it must also enjoy the same treatment as before death.
Of course, we mention the "History" mainly because it is the earliest document to discuss the underground palace of Qin Shi Huang, and many later documents also have records of mercury as the sea. For example, the "Ceremonial Department Tomb" in the "Beitang Shuqian" has an account of mercury for the sea, and the poem of the Qing Dynasty poet Yuan Ming also has "mercury for the sea, still the smell of abalone blowing fishy wind." ”
Therefore, mercury for the sea has become an iconic feature of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Underground Palace. Many people think that this is a rumor, after all, the mercury refining process of the Qin Dynasty is still very backward, how can it be possible to mine and refine so much mercury into the underground palace? However, in 1981, archaeologists tested using geochemical prospecting methods and did find that there was an "abnormal amount of mercury" in the dungeon.
Chang Yong and Li Tong's article "A Preliminary Study on the Burial of Mercury in the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang" pointed out:
Using the mercury measurement method in the geochemistry of surveying, a strong mercury anomaly was found in the sealing soil surface of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, covering an area of 12,000 square meters.
It can be seen that the description of mercury as the sea may not be empty, and there is indeed a large amount of mercury in the Qin Shi Huang Underground Palace. Several measurements were made since then, and the new measurements show that the strength of underground mercury anomalies also varies, with the strongest on the east side and the south side second, while the west and north sides are largely free of anomalies.
You can imagine the distribution of China's water system and ocean, it is true that the water sources on the east and south sides are more abundant, and face the sea. Therefore, it is very likely that Qin Shi Huang created the "Underground Water Silver Sea" according to the difference in the topographic distribution of this water system.
According to the book "Research on the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin", in the measured 12,000 square meters of strong mercury area, if the thickness of mercury is temporarily calculated at 10 centimeters, the volume of mercury in the tomb is 1.2 billion cubic centimeters. Then, according to calculations, the theoretical data on mercury hidden in the Tomb of the First Emperor should be 16255.2 tons.
So, if the mercury stock is really as mentioned above, where did Qin Shi Huang get so much mercury from? This brings us to a strange woman, she is Ba Widow Qing. Ba here means Berkshire, and Qing is her name. Such a widow received preferential treatment from Qin Shi Huang, who not only allowed her to live in Xianyang guest house for a long time, but also commended her as a virgin and specially built the "Huaiqingtai".
A closer look at ba widow Qing's family will reveal that her family is very rich, and more importantly, she "has a mine at home", which is the Dansha mine. Her family ran the Dansha business, also known as mercury sand, which is a natural ore of sulfide gong. Combined with Qin Shi Huang's pursuit of immortality and the hobby of refining immortal elixirs, coupled with the raw material demand for the mercury sea in the underground palace, it is not difficult to see that he treated the widow Qing precisely because she could help him refine a large amount of mercury into the mausoleum.
Dan placer ore
Has the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin ever been stolen?
After talking about the puzzle of mercury as the sea, we all seem to be able to imagine the magnificent spectacle of the dungeon. However, it should be known that this underground palace has spanned thousands of years, and in these thousands of years, the world has changed with each passing day and countless dynasties. In history, there have been many eras when tomb robbery activities are extremely rampant, and under the influence of such tomb robbery, it can be described as "ten tombs and nine empty spaces". So has Qin Shi Huang's underground palace also been visited by tomb robbers?
According to the results of the survey of the underground palace by relevant instruments and equipment, there are indeed two robbery holes on both sides of the qin shi huang mausoleum underground palace, and its diameter is about 1 meter. However, the depth is far less than the main body of the underground palace, it is reported that the deepest part of the cave is still more than 200 meters away from the underground palace, it can be seen that the tomb robbers have moved their minds, but the area and depth of the underground palace are too large, so it finally failed.
Some people may have heard Liu Bang's accusations against Xiang Yu, including mentioning that Xiang Yu found the underground palace where Qin Shi Huang was buried after the siege. The soldiers were driven to snatch away the gold and silver treasures, and finally a fire was set to burn the dungeon completely. Later literature enriched the description of this beginning with only a few words, such as describing the fire that burned for more than 90 days, and Xiang Yu saw a golden bird flying out when he opened the underground palace.
After all, history is compiled by man, so the authenticity sometimes needs to be examined. For this kind of historical fact, which begins with only a few words but becomes richer and more mysterious, there is generally an element of fabrication in it. According to the investigation of modern technologies such as modern remote sensing technology, the underground palace of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Shi Huang has never been stolen during this thousand years and is still well preserved.
As for xiang Yu once stealing the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, this statement is not accurate enough. To be precise, Xiang Yu found the burial pit near the underground palace, because according to the situation of the terracotta warriors and horses buried pits found now, many human figurines have been artificially destroyed, and there are also traces of fire on their bodies.
The everlasting "fish oil lamp"
In ancient times, it was believed that dead people also needed "lights" to illuminate them. Therefore, it is rumored that there are everlasting oil lamps in the mausoleum, but what kind of oil can make the lamp light for thousands of years? Many people believe that in the underground palace of Qin Shi Huang, there are also immortal oil lamps, which are made of whale brain oil and can burn for thousands of years.
However, did the Qin Dynasty already have the ability to hunt whales? Obviously, it seems unlikely to us, although Qin Shi Huang has sent people to the sea several times to find immortals and elixirs, so it is normal to see whales, but it is difficult to hunt this kind of behemoth in the ocean. Moreover, even if the whale is really hunted and refined into an oil lamp with its brain oil, the oxygen in the dungeon is not enough to make it "immortal".
Some scholars have speculated that the lamp in the qin shi huang's underground palace is more likely to be the "pearl of the night". Because if it is really a fish oil lamp, how to hunt whales and make so many oil lamps is another problem that cannot be solved.
Legends about the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang was obsessed with finding a panacea for immortality, and although he did not do so in the end, he must have believed in the saying that "the soul lives forever". Therefore, the legend about the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was also born.
It is said that if you live at the foot of Mount Li, you will hear bells and soldiers fighting in the middle of the night. There are also various theories about the origin of this bell, one of which is related to the mercury we mentioned earlier as the sea. Legend has it that qin shi huang's coffin was not made of wood, but of copper, and because of its density, it could float on the "sea surface". When the coffin hits the golden bell in the underground palace, it will make a sound, and after the impact, the soul of Qin Shi Huang will reappear, climbing to the highest point of Lishan Mountain to overlook the territory he once had.
However, these are all legends that have been handed down in the world, and they must have been modified by posterity. When you hear it, remember not to be convinced, all the puzzles can only be solved after waiting for excavation.
It will not be excavated for the time being
If it is said that in the last century, China's relevant science and technology were not developed enough, so it was not enough to excavate the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Underground Palace, but now it is reasonable to say that we have the strength to excavate. However, the excavation is not as simple as everyone thinks, taking the terracotta warriors that have been excavated as an example, they were all colored when they were first excavated, but because the investigation and excavation were not in place, resulting in their exposure and soon oxidized into the gray and fluttering appearance today.
The treasures of the dungeon must be more valuable than the terracotta warriors in the funerary pit, and we can say that we do not have the conditions to excavate them until we are not sure whether we can keep them in full shape. Moreover, according to the regulations of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the tombs of emperors cannot be excavated on their own initiative. Therefore, at present, the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Underground Palace still maintains an attitude of protection as the mainstay and survey as a supplement, and will not be excavated.