As soon as the ancient emperor ascended the throne, he had to build a gorgeous mausoleum for himself? Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty: I don't do that

There are countless emperors in ancient Chinese history, and as soon as these emperors sit on the throne, they will send people to build a mausoleum for themselves. And as his reign extended, the mausoleum would be renovated year by year, and the emperors used it to show their imperial power.

But in ancient times, mausoleums have always been regarded as fierce objects. It is obviously a great joy to ascend the throne, so why are the emperors in a hurry to let people build mausoleums? This is all due to the physiological, psychological and feng shui superstitions of the ancient people.

Interior of the tomb

The first is that the ancient people generally did not live for a long time, and their average life expectancy was mostly only forty-nine years old. The life expectancy of the Qing Dynasty was even only about thirty years old, so among the many emperors in ancient times, many died in their twenties. Even if every time the emperors go out to run errands or play and are recognized by the people, everyone will shout long live, but how long they can live, presumably every emperor has a number in mind, so many emperors will build a mausoleum for themselves as soon as they ascend to the throne.

The second is that the ancient people were very afraid of death, and the ancient people did not have a deep understanding of death. But in feudal society, people were deeply influenced by the theory of ghosts in the underworld. During his lifetime, the emperor was the king of a country, with unlimited power and glory and wealth. After their deaths, of course, they did not want to lose these rights and reputations, so the emperors not only built a mausoleum for themselves, but also built a very luxurious mausoleum, and when they died, they would also take a lot of gold and silver jewelry with them.

After all, the change of throne is fleeting, and maybe one day you will lose these rights and reputations and become nothing. Instead of waiting for his descendants to build a mausoleum for himself, it is better to repair the mausoleum first when he is still the emperor and has these rights. Otherwise, it may be the same as the Ming Chongzhen Emperor, because during his reign, there was no one to build a mausoleum, and after his death, he did not even have a tomb of his own, and could only be buried with his concubines.

The inner passage of the tomb

Finally, there is the feng shui concept of the ancients. Ancient people attached great importance to feng shui, and they felt that the tombs of their ancestors should be placed in a place with good feng shui. If the feng shui of the tomb is not good, then the fortunes of future generations and even the entire family will decline. This is especially true for emperors, and the choice of the location of the tombs of ancient emperors also has certain feng shui requirements. The emperors felt that the location of the mausoleum had a good feng shui, which could not only ensure the eternal survival of their own rivers and mountains, but also bless their children and grandchildren to enjoy happiness. Therefore, it is very common for the emperor to pick a place with good feng shui for himself when he is alive, and then build a mausoleum on top of it.

After analyzing the reasons, we know how important the ancient mausoleums were to the emperor. But there is one dynasty of emperors who are also very special, and we have not been able to find their tombs until now, that is, the Yuan Dynasty. When the Yuan Dynasty existed, there were a dozen emperors in total, how could there not even be a mausoleum?

Zhu Yuanzhang stills

And this is related to the way the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty were buried. First of all, the coffins of the Emperors of the Yuan Dynasty when they were buried were very different from ours. According to historical records, after the death of the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, the person in charge of the funeral would find a very thick Nanmu tree, cut off its trunk, and then split the thick trunk in half.

Then according to the height of the emperor, a hole was dug between the two halves of the trunk, and after digging, the emperor's body was put in, the two halves of the trunk were closed and painted, and finally the two trunks were tightened with a chain. The whole coffin looks like complete wood from the outside, so that others can't recognize that there is a person inside. After doing this work, the Yuan Dynasty people did not hold a funeral, but directly transported the coffin to the place to be buried.

Marco Polo once wrote in his travelogue that when the Yuan Dynasty people were transporting this nanmu, once they were seen by strangers on the road, they would kill this stranger and bury the emperor. Because they were afraid that this man would reveal the place where Nanmu was buried. Some people may wonder: even if they do not know where Nanmu is buried, the Yuan Dynasty people will erect a tombstone for the emperor, so that they will not still find the emperor's tomb? But in fact, the Yuan Dynasty did not even erect tombstones. Not only that, after they buried the nan wood in the soil, they would cover the soil tightly, so that people could not see that they had buried something.

The Yuan Dynasty people buried the ancestors so carefully, how should the descendants worship the ancestors? These things, they all take into account. While burying the emperor, they would kill a young camel by the tomb. When descendants want to worship their ancestors, they will lead a female camel. As long as the female camel passes by the place where the baby camel was killed, she will stop and make a wail, so that she can find the emperor's tomb. Only after the death of this female camel, the Yuan Dynasty people could not find the emperor's burial place, so the descendants of the Yuan Emperor could no longer worship the ancestors.

Later, when the Mongols worshipped their ancestors, they simply did not look for a real cemetery, they directly dug a large pit in the ground where they went, and burned sheep in the pit to cook to worship the ancestors, because they felt that the ancestors were at their feet, and this custom has been passed down. Because the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty did not have ornate mausoleums, nor did they have funerary items such as gold and silver jewelry, they were able to be at peace under the Nine Springs, and no one went to rob the tomb.