It's not that no one wants to steal, but there's no chance of stealing.
Among the imperial tombs that have been discovered on the mainland, there are only a few relatively well-preserved tombs, in addition to the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, it is the Ming Xiao Mausoleum of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Xiaoling, located in the southern foothills of the Purple Mountain in Nanjing, is the mausoleum where the Ming Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and his wife Empress Ma were buried, the name of the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, scheduled for 1382 AD, the reason for this name, it is said that there are two theories.
First, Zhu Yuanzhang took the meaning of "ruling the world with filial piety", and the other said that he took Empress Ma's nickname "filial piety".
In the year when the name of ming xiaoling was fixed, Empress Ma, who had accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang from poverty to emperor, died of illness and was buried in The Ming Tomb of Xiaoling, sixteen years later, Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness, and his grandson Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunjiao obeyed the edict to open the underground palace and buried Zhu Yuanzhang with Empress Ma.
So far, Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum has gone through more than six hundred years of ups and downs in the passage of time, in these six hundred years, although it has experienced great changes in the times, the Ming Xiaoling Tomb has been very well preserved, and to this day, it has become one of the best-preserved imperial tombs in China.
So, why is Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum so well preserved? Has no one in history ever fought the idea of this imperial tomb? Of course not, to know that Ming Xiaoling is after all a tomb of the founding emperor, everyone knows that it contains great value, so Ming Xiaoling does not know how many eyes of various purposes it has attracted.
The reason why the Ming Tombs have been well preserved so far, there are three very critical reasons, one is the special geographical location, the other is the clever anti-theft measures, and the most important thing is the coincidence, these three points add up, so that the tomb robbers who intend to attack the Ming Tombs have no chance to excavate.
Exceptional location
In 1382 AD, this year is the fourteenth year of Hongwu, from the perspective of years, at this time the Ming Dynasty has been established for more than fourteen years, after more than ten years of recuperation, coupled with a series of policies of the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty at this time, showing a thriving atmosphere.
It was also in this year, after many public opinions, zhu Yuanzhang finally determined the location of the mausoleum he built for himself.
This location is located in the southern foothills of the Purple Mountain around the Capital city of Nanjing, dulongfu playing under Mount Everest, the reason why it was chosen here, in addition to Nanjing is Zhu Yuanzhang's land of Longxing, there is also because since ancient times, here has the reputation of "dragon pan tiger".
Since it is a treasure land, it is naturally not only Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite, as early as the Three Kingdoms period, Wu Lord Sun Quan was buried here after his death.
When Zhu Yuanzhang determined the location of the mausoleum, some officials made a proposal that Sun Quan's tomb should be hollowed out and removed, and Zhu Yuanzhang thought about this for a long time and finally did not agree.
The reason for disagreement, in zhu Yuanzhang's words, is that Sun Quan is also a hero, let him accompany himself.
In any case, in short, Sun Quan's tomb was not removed, and Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Xiaoling Was built in this way, according to historical records, the Ming Xiaoling Tomb before and after a total of 100,000 military workers, whether in scale or investment, can be described as a huge cost.
The special geographical location mentioned above should start from the unique mountain structure on which the mausoleum is based.
Ming Xiaoling is backed by the Purple Mountain, its specific location is under the Purple Mountain's Dulongfu, the special feature here is that this mountain called "Dulongfu", is a strong and huge overall stone mountain.
What does that mean? That is to say, the Ming Tomb was built in this huge stone mountain.
According to relevant records, at that time, during the construction, the craftsmen who built the mausoleum used the method of hollowing out the stone mountain horizontally, and after hollowing it out, they dug down again, and finally began to build the underground palace.
One of the biggest benefits of this is that the mausoleum is very strong, and it will be very difficult for tomb robbers to open the mausoleum.
Why? Traditional mausoleums, are the use of deep excavation of the underground palace, and on the ground for sealing soil, such a mausoleum, as long as the tomb robbers want to enter, there will be a variety of methods.
And the entire mausoleum of the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, to put it bluntly, is a whole stone, if you want to go in, digging a secret passage from the side is definitely not feasible, and in addition to walking through the main gate, there is only one way left, from above to use the way of explosion to force in.
But in this way, the biggest problem is that the noise is too loud, but this is contrary to the tomb robber's usual hidden purpose, and too loud means that it is very easy to attract the attention of others.
Moreover, the Ming Xiaoling Underground Palace is located under the mountain, which shows that if the tomb robber wants to enter the underground palace by means of explosion, it is certainly not possible to blow it up once or twice, but if it is blown up more, it will always be discovered.
It is possible that when the tomb robbers first started and had not yet entered the underground palace, they would attract the encirclement and suppression of officers and soldiers because of the loud noise.
Therefore, with the protection of this solid mountain structure, a considerable number of tomb robbers have been eliminated from the root, and the geographical location here has also played a certain protective role.
As mentioned earlier, Purple Mountain is located around Nanjing, from the map, it is in the Xuanwu District of Nanjing, which is not far from the downtown area of Nanjing, and can even be said to be quite close.
The proximity to the central city of Nanjing means that whenever there is a little wind and grass here, the people in the central urban area will soon know.
We all know that the activity of tomb robbery pays attention to concealment and quick decision-making, but here in the Ming Tombs, these two points are difficult to achieve.
First of all, the sturdiness of the mountain dooms the tomb robbers to rely on the traditional way to enter the underground palace, must use large movements, and secondly, if large movements are adopted, it is bound to be noticed.
And Nanjing, whether it is the Ming and Qing dynasties or in modern times, is a bustling metropolis, so it is decided that tomb robbers do not dare, nor can they make any big moves near Nanjing.
Therefore, this special location under the eyelids of Nanjing, as well as the unique mountain structure, made the tomb robbers who had thought about the Ming Tombs in history have to give up the idea of digging the Ming Tombs.
It's not that the grave robber doesn't want to, but it's that he really can't do it, and there's no chance.
Clever anti-theft measures
Tomb anti-theft is probably something that almost every emperor in history will consider, after all, no one wants to pull out the body of the stolen tomb thief a few years after his death.
In order to prevent tomb robbers from "disturbing" themselves, successive emperors can be said to have hollowed out their minds, and various anti-theft measures and methods are also various.
Traditional anti-theft measures, in addition to hiding the entrance of the underground palace, will also use quicksand, organs, fire oil and other methods to stop the footsteps of tomb robbers.
Therefore, if a tomb robber wants to excavate a mausoleum, he needs to do two things, the first is to determine the entrance to the underground palace, and the second is to avoid or destroy the anti-theft measures.
But these two things that must be done cannot be done here in Ming Xiaoling.
First of all, to determine the entrance to the underground palace, according to the preliminary exploration carried out by archaeologists using modern scientific and technological means, the internal structure of the Ming Xiaoling Tomb is very different from the traditional mausoleum, the traditional mausoleum passage is in the middle of the mausoleum, but the tomb passage of the Ming Xiaoling Tomb is slightly biased to one side.
In this way, it makes it a problem to find the entrance to the tomb, and the unconventional design undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the tomb robbers to find the entrance, and if the entrance is not found, it means that the underground palace cannot be entered.
Of course, it is really impossible to find a forced explosion that can be used to break open, but the risk of using an explosion, in addition to attracting attention and attracting officers and soldiers mentioned above, there are also ordinary small-scale tomb robbers who do not have this strength.
Unless it is a unit like Sun Dianying, the "Great Thief of Tanglin", who commits a crime, it can only be a sigh of hope.
In addition, even if some tomb robbers are lucky enough to find the exact entrance to the underground palace, they will be blocked by the clever anti-theft measures of the mausoleum, and even suffer heavy losses.
This anti-theft measure is that on the top of the Ming Tomb, there are a large number of pebbles.
Pebbles look ordinary, but can not stand the large number, once the tomb robber opens the robbery hole, these pebbles will fall like rain in an instant, not only will fill the robbery hole, but also trap the tomb robber.
Although this anti-theft principle is very simple, it is very practical, so it also eliminates the possibility of tomb theft.
And this is only the first anti-theft measure of the Ming Tombs, excluding other anti-theft methods that have not yet been discovered internally, Zhu Yuanzhang must have been exhausted when building the mausoleum, and adopted a variety of methods to protect the safety of his mausoleum.
Moreover, during the Ming Dynasty, the tomb of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty has always been defended by military institutions such as Xiaolingwei, including in the Qing Dynasty, because the situation requires, there are also local governments to protect, and in modern times, not to mention, there is also no lack of protective forces.
Therefore, if you want to steal the Ming Tomb, you must first avoid the military forces that protect it, secondly, you must find the exact entrance to the underground palace, and finally, you must be able to survive under the heavy organs.
But the problem is, any of these three things, it is difficult to do, let alone achieve at the same time? Therefore, the grave robbers can only be discouraged.
Coincidences brought about by the changing times
In addition to the above factors, the biggest reason why the Ming Tombs are well preserved to this day is the coincidence given in the course of historical changes.
We all know that no matter how unique the geographical location, as well as the most clever anti-theft measures, there will always be flaws, and there is no shortage of tomb robbers with extremely clever means in history. The theft of imperial tombs is a ready-made example.
The Ming Tombs, on the other hand, have a special status that other imperial tombs do not have.
First of all, in the entire two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Tombs, as the ancestral mausoleums, must be the highest level of protection work, and the Xiaoling Wei is a good proof.
Xiaolingwei belongs to the same level as the famous Jinyiwei in history, but the division of work is different, but the strict training they receive is basically the same, and all those who can enter Xiaolingwei are carefully selected talents.
Moreover, according to historical records, there were 5,600 members of the entire Xiaoling Guard, divided into five institutes, and most importantly, the most important thing was that the most elite 500 of the 5,600 people were selected for the "close" guard of the Ming Tomb.
Under the protection of such an elite force, who would dare to open his eyes to the idea of Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum?
If you really do this, it is not just as simple as the head landing on the ground, you know, the Ming Dynasty is the only dynasty that invented the "Ten Tribes".
Strict protection and harsh punishment made the Ming Tomb very safe, and the entire Ming Dynasty, although except for a few emperors who were "out of tune", even if they were not in tune, none of them dared to be sloppy in guarding Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum.
By the time of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Tombs were still closely protected.
According to records, after the Qing army entered the Central Plains, all the imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty were well protected, such as the Kangxi Emperor who personally went to the Ming Tombs and "three prostrations and nine worships" there, and personally wrote a plaque of "Zhilong Tang Song" here.
Even during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, he also "poured incense and wine" here.
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty did this, of course, there was a certain need for the situation, but no matter what the purpose, no matter what effect they received, in short, for the Ming Xiaoling, it was a great thing.
As a result, the Ming Tombs were valued from top to bottom, from the imperial court to the localities, so although its defense work was not as tight as in the Ming Dynasty, it was at least justified.
Similarly, Zhu Yuanzhang, as the founder of the last Han regime, naturally also had an extraordinary position in the hearts of the Han people throughout the Qing Dynasty, like Hong Xiuquan, the organizer of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who went to visit the Ming Tombs in order to win people's hearts.
Therefore, under the needs of different purposes, Ming Xiaoling still receives the attention of many people, and its intact has become an inevitable result.
Even, in the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang, was also entrusted by the imperial court to repair the Ming Tombs, which profoundly shows that the Ming Tombs were actively protected by the Qing government.
In modern times, the same is true, the father of the country, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in the first year of the Republic of China, led the officials of the Nanjing Provisional Government to visit the Ming Tomb of Filial Piety and made a declaration of sacrifice.
After that, Nanjing became the presidential palace, and under the influence of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and the Ming Tomb is not far from the presidential palace, the protection work also continues.
After the founding of New China, the protection of the Ming Tombs has reached an unprecedented height, in addition to the ground buildings damaged by the war, the Ming Tombs became the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 1961.
Not only that, in 2003, including the mausoleums of heroes around the Ming Tombs, such as changyuchun tombs and Li Wenzhong's tombs, were included in the World Heritage List, so that the protection work was more thorough.
Nowadays, the protection of the Ming Tombs has used various high-tech means, such as the use of big data to establish a monitoring platform, 24 hours a day to monitor the temperature, humidity and other multi-faceted monitoring of the Ming Tombs, to the greatest extent, to protect its integrity.
In summary, the reason why the Ming Tombs can be stolen by no one in the ups and downs of more than 600 years is because of its special geographical location, and clever anti-theft measures, as well as the coincidence of the changes of the times, these three points are indispensable, so that people who want to play the idea of Ming Xiaoling in history have to give up, and the Ming Tombs are still well preserved.