As one of the wonders of the world, the Great Wall enjoys great fame in the world. At that time, it took a huge amount of manpower, material and financial resources to build it, and it was a miracle. However, when it comes to the projects that were built with huge sums of money in ancient times, most people only know the Great Wall, but in fact, there is another project that is almost not lost to the Great Wall under the construction conditions at that time, that is, the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin.
We all know that Yingzheng was obsessed with cultivating immortals during his lifetime, and wanted to pursue immortality, and when he died, he also had to make his mausoleum face east. For his own mausoleum, he also went to great lengths to build the mausoleum for him, and it is said that in the beginning there were a total of 700,000 workers working for him, plus later shifts of labor, a total of 2 million people.
At that time, the national population was at its peak, there were only about 20 million people, but the number of people who built the mausoleum reached as many as 2 million, and it was inevitable that the people who went to repair the mausoleum would not be the old, weak, sick and disabled, but all the young and strong boys, who accounted for nearly one-tenth of the number of people in the country. Even when the Pyramid of Khufu was built, only one-eighth of these people were used.
The construction of his imperial tomb began from the year he sat in the emperor, and the project continued for thirty-nine years, but Qin Shi Huang did not sit for so long as the emperor, he only reigned for thirty-six years. That is to say, even after spending such a huge amount of manpower, he could not complete his imperial tomb completely before his death, and it can be seen from how much sweat was paid behind this project. The construction of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin was built before the Great Wall, and its construction conditions can also be equally divided.
The entire imperial tomb covers an area of about fifty-seven square kilometers, and the whole is divided into three areas, the innermost is the inner city, then the outer city, and then extends outwards to the outside of the outer city, and the overall design is based on the Xianyang capital city to design. Probably in order to allow Qin Shi Huang to have a more familiar environment to live in after his death, in the middle of the cemetery is Qin Shi Huang's sealed mound, and under his sealed mound is all the core parts, that is, the underground palace.
Originally, Qin Shi Huang's sealed mound was hundreds of meters high, but more than a thousand years have passed, and his sealed mound has also been weathered a little bit in the years, and now only fifty meters in height remains. But even so, it will not have any important impact on the imperial tomb, because the real core part of the imperial tomb is under it, and the magnificent palace is hidden deeply underneath. Both the inner and outer cities are very simple rectangles, so the two cities together look like an elongated version of the word "Hui".
Moreover, the inner and outer cities are not empty cities, but really reproduce the appearance of the Qin Dynasty, not only have complete equipment, but also rare and exotic beasts, pottery figurines, etc., and the number of various facilities is really too numerous to count.
In 2016, archaeologists discovered many new burial pits of different sizes while exploring the Qin Tombs, and the area of the large pits reached several thousand square meters.
From the perspective of posterity, the Qin Tomb is really a breathtaking project, and it is also seen from it that there were indeed many skilled craftsmen during the Qin Dynasty, who actually designed and built such a large project. However, while being shocked, it also makes people feel very curious, who will supervise such a huge project?
Looking for historical materials can be found. It was mentioned in the "Chronicle of History" that there was only one overseer in the whole project, and that was Li Si. However, in other documents, it is said that this project has always been the responsibility of the minister, and we know that during the Qin Dynasty, many ministers were replaced, and Li Si was only the last.
But for the construction of the imperial tomb, it has always been the responsibility of the minister of a country. Since he was the minister of the Qin Dynasty, Li Si was naturally fully responsible for the construction of the tomb.
However, when Li Si served as chancellor, it was already thirty-five years before Qin Shi Huang, that is to say, when he took office, it was only five years before the completion of the imperial tomb, and before he took office, this project had already begun to be carried out for thirty-four years, and in these thirty-four years, the overall framework and filling most of the content had already been completed, and Li Si's role as a overseer was only the final conclusion.
Since Li Si is not the main overseer, who is the main overseer who is really responsible for this project?
There is no clear explanation in the historical data, so this has also aroused the speculation of many people. Among them, some people speculated that the overseer was Lü Buwei. However, according to historical records, after the rebellion of Zhao Ji's male favorite, Lü Buwei was exiled, so it is unlikely that lü Buwei was. However, looking at Great Qin, it seems that there is no more suitable candidate.
Before Li Si, there were still several people who were prime ministers. These ministers did contribute to the construction of the imperial tomb, but the greatest contribution to this project was actually Lü Buwei and Li Si.
When Yingzheng was still young, Lü Buwei had already controlled the power of the government and the opposition. When the imperial tomb was built, Qin Shi Huang had just ascended the throne, and he did not have real power at that time, that is to say, the construction of the imperial tomb still required the nod of Lü Buwei, who held the heavy power, to be implemented. Then since he chose to build the imperial tomb, it is likely to become the overseer of the early stage, so all the design of the imperial tomb is also very likely to come from his inspiration. That is to say, Lü Buwei has already designed everything, and he only needs to execute it according to his design in the later stage.
Until Li Si came to do the finishing work, it was also very important for the entire imperial tomb. With his superb ability, he perfectly integrated the mind of Qin Shi Huang into the imperial tomb. Lü Buwei and Li Si are therefore the ones who have contributed the most to this work.
Resources:
["Hanshu Chuyuan Wang Lie Biography", "Shi Ji Qin Shi Huang Benji", "Shi Ji Lü Buwei Lie Biography"]