Ancient emperors attached great importance to their own posthumous affairs, and often built mausoleums for themselves before they died. When the emperor was buried, there were many things to accompany the burial. The emperor not only left on his own, but also took away rare treasures, and some dynasties also accompanied the burial of people. Presumably only the Song Dynasty made the exception of the tomb, which built the mausoleum after the emperor's death and stipulated that the construction period could not exceed one year. The first reason is to save, the second is not to work hard and hurt the people's money, and the third is to avoid tomb robbery. Even so, the imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty were destroyed in the war. It is said that Cao Cao set up seventy-two tombs for himself, and the tomb of Qin Shi Huang was filled with huge amounts of mercury.
Despite precautionary measures, the tombs of ancient emperors have been stolen. Tomb robbers are not for archaeology, their target is the treasures in the tomb. It is said that there is Wang Xizhi's calligraphy work "Orchid Pavilion Preface" in the tomb of Tang Taizong, and the treasures in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang will not be less. The target of tomb robbers is not only the tombs of emperors, but also other tombs that may have treasures, and there are not a few organized tomb robbers. It is said that in order to supplement military expenses, Cao Cao specially set up a lieutenant who touched the gold and did the work of robbing tombs. The modern warlord Sun Dianying used his army to steal the tombs of the Qing Emperor and directly used explosives to operate. In the face of such tomb robbers, ordinary tombs are not spared. Among the existing emperor's tombs, the well-preserved ones are in Xi'an, the ancient capital of Chang'an, among which there are tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and the tombs of Qin Shi Huang have excavated the terracotta warriors that accompany the burial, and most of them are still sleeping underground. The reason for the lack of excavation should be mainly due to the inability of technical conditions to be achieved.
After liberation, the state adopted protective measures for the tombs of ancient emperors, and the purpose of excavating ancient tombs was mainly to discover cultural relics and archaeology. There is a lesson in blind excavation, which is harmful to antiquities. In the 1950s, at the suggestion of Guo Moruo and others, the tomb of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was excavated, and thousands of precious cultural relics were unearthed. However, a large number of cultural relics such as calligraphy and paintings, silk fabrics, etc. are carbonized when exposed to the air, causing huge losses. To this end, Premier Zhou ordered that the excavation of the imperial tomb be prohibited.
For those ancient imperial tombs that are still sleeping, they will not be easily excavated. Only wait for the progress of science and technology to the day when the excavated cultural relics can be effectively protected.