Qin Shi Huang as the first emperor of ancient times called the emperor, his mausoleum was built for nearly forty years, when he ascended the throne began to select site construction, until his death was not really completed, and the Han Dynasty's imperial tomb was basically the emperor ascended the throne began to choose the site to build, but the construction of many imperial tombs in later generations was after the death of the emperor, such as the imperial tomb of the Tang Dynasty was built after the death of the emperor, the dedication of the tomb was built after the death of Li Yuan, which lasted eight or nine months, and the construction of the Zhaoling Tomb was relatively early. Because it was built after the death of Empress Changsun, there was also Qianling, after Li Zhi's death, Wei Waiting price presided over the construction of Qianling as an envoy to the mountain, and later Wu Zetian died, and Qianling was expanded, and Wu Zetian was buried with Li Zhi.
Of course, whether the emperor began to build the mausoleum before his death or after his death, the specifications of his mausoleum are very large, the interior of the mausoleum is very large, and it is difficult to imagine how huge the size of the imperial tomb is in the past forty years after the qin shi huang mausoleum was built for nearly forty years and nearly a million laborers were requisitioned. Even if the imperial tomb was completed in a few months, its scale is also huge, and the internal structure of the imperial tomb is not inferior to the building on the ground, even better than the building on the ground, and a large number of funerary products are placed inside, and the craftsmen responsible for building the imperial tomb have become a very important existence.
When the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was built, a considerable number of craftsmen and migrant workers were used, and at that time there was a martyrdom system itself, and Qin Shi Huang was afraid that the craftsmen would say everything in the mausoleum, so the craftsmen responsible for building the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum at that time were basically martyred for Qin Shi Huang, and they did not come out at all. Later, the burial system was gradually abolished, when the craftsmen would still have a part of the living in the imperial tomb to accompany the burial, the most important reason is that they can not come out, these craftsmen may be only a small part, they are responsible for closing the mausoleum after the last pass, that is, after the emperor is buried, they will not be able to come out.
Because the closure of the mausoleum is not closed from the outside, but from the inside, which is also to prevent tomb robbers from patronizing. In the beginning, the craftsmen did not know how to design the link of people coming out and the door closed from the inside, and could only sacrifice some craftsmen. After all, they want to ensure the closure of the mausoleum and the prevention of thieves.
But as time went on, the craftsmen began to seek a solution, preferably to close the door from the inside without sacrificing their lives, and through the joint efforts of generations or even dozens of generations of craftsmen, the solution was really there. One of them is a variety of top door devices.
The tomb door in the tomb of Liu Sheng, king of Zhongshan Jing, uses a kind of copper top door device, that is, open a rectangular stone trough in the middle part of the inside of the threshold, and then place the top door device into the stone trough, the top door device is a box shape made of copper, the rear end is solid lead, the weight of the two sections of the top door is very different, so that the light end of the stone trough will be cocked up, the middle crosses a circular shaft, the round shaft is just at both ends of the stone trough, first close a door, when the other door is closed, press over the light end of the top door, the door is closed, and the door is closed. The light end of the top door is cocked again, just against the door, which forms a dark latch.
In some tombs, the top door is set up at the top of the stone door, and the door is closed by using the two widths and narrowness of the top door, so that the door cannot be pushed from the outside.
Later, with the development of the times, tap stones gradually appeared, which is also a kind of top door device, using stones to block the door inside. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, tap stones were more popular. There is a kind of spherical tapestry, a large spherical stone, in the middle of the inner part of the threshold to get a semi-circular stone trough, the stone trough is connected to a curved path, put the ball into the path, and then close the door, the tap stone along the path into the stone trough, just close the door from the inside.
Another more typical is the tap stone in the Dingling Tomb, 1.6 meters high Han white jade tapestry, this tapestry is specially made, the two ends are wide, the middle of the long section is slightly narrower, the two stone doors inside the middle of the stone kan, and in the middle of the threshold from the stone door slightly distance chiseled on the stone trough, this stone trough is slightly inclined. When closing the door, first close a door, and then put one end of the tapestry into the stone trough, the other end into the stone of the stone door, slowly close the door, the tap stone with the action of gravity gradually tilted, until the door closed.
This is only part of the invention of the craftsmen, other ways may need to wait until the time of a typical mausoleum excavation to know, in short, the wisdom of the ancients is infinite, they can use these semi-automatic devices to achieve the closure of the door inside, compared with the various designs inside the mausoleum, it is not too special.
Of course, no matter how strong the mausoleum is built, there are always tomb robbers who will never forget it. And these top door devices can block some civilized points of tomb robbers, but can not stop the greedy tomb robbers, they usually use violence to open the tomb, and the top door device with the prevalence of tomb robbery, gradually have a solution. Therefore, some tomb robbers violently open tombs, and some tomb robbers use technology to rob tombs, and the results are the same, that is, destroying the tombs and then stealing all valuable funerary goods.