According to the ancient tradition, it is important that people should go into the earth after death. In ancient times, there were not so many burial methods we have now, and most of the burial methods were earth burials. Moreover, the ancients attached great importance to the construction of mausoleums, and the people were like this, not to mention our emperors? The tombs of the emperors of the ancient dynasties are very spectacular, there are countless treasures, in order to prevent some people from stealing the jewels inside, they will specially arrange for the tomb keepers to guard the tombs.
But it stands to reason that after the abdication of the emperor, this system should cease to exist. Some people are very curious about why the tomb keepers did not leave the mausoleum to continue to work there, how did this system come down, and will someone take care of their food and clothing?
Ancient caretaker system
In ancient times, the continent experienced a total of twelve emperors, with a history of up to 296 years. In ancient times, all the emperors were buried in the imperial tomb after death, and in order to give the deceased emperor a good residence, a special mausoleum would be built. According to historical records, there are nine tombs of the Qing Dynasty alone.
These several palaces took more than 100 years to spend a lot of painstaking efforts on the Qing Dynasty, so the palace is huge not only can be buried here after the emperor dies, but also the concubines can be buried in it after they die.
Each imperial tomb will have many funerary items, and these funerary items are valuable treasures. Someone had stolen the imperial tomb before, so when it was built in the Qing Dynasty, it began to consider the safety of the imperial tomb. To this end, special personnel were specially hired to guard the imperial tomb, so a hierarchical imperial tomb management system was also derived.
There was even a special agency set up for this system to guard the imperial tombs, just like the Three Tombs Prime Minister's Affairs Yamen of the Imperial Tombs at that time; there were three departments composed of the East and West Tombs that guarded the Eastern and Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty.
According to the requirements of this system, each imperial tomb needs to be guarded by special personnel. This also requires a large number of caretakers, so can ordinary people become caretakers? The answer is no, because according to the requirements of the imperial tomb system, the conscripts must be the sons of the Eight Banners with distinguished status.
Moreover, ordinary Eight Flags disciples must go up to the Eight Flags of the Three Flags. Moreover, even if these tomb keepers meet the requirements, they must be carefully selected before they can stay, which shows the importance attached to the imperial tomb system in ancient times.
Because these people are the emperor's relatives in the eyes of the emperor and have the same blood relations, they will certainly not wantonly destroy the imperial tomb. But the task is boring, and it's terrifying to be with the deceased all the time. So being sent to see the imperial tomb was not a good errand. Many people were reluctant to guard the imperial tomb for these two reasons, and the rulers learned of this situation and decided to adopt a policy of encouragement.
Therefore, in the laws of the Qing Dynasty, it was stipulated that the people who guarded the imperial tomb must be given high treatment, as well as the official titles and corresponding salaries of no less than seven pins, as well as the houses and land allocated by the state. Therefore, there are many conscripts, up to more than three thousand at the highest time, and there are thousands of soldiers guarding the mausoleum alone. And gave the guards a high degree of power, no matter what status of the person is 500 meters away from the imperial tomb, the guards can kill him.
With the death of each generation of emperors, more and more people guarded the imperial tombs. Since they lived in a house next to the imperial tomb, over time this area became a village. But with the abdication of the last emperor, Fu Yi, the Qing Dynasty completely collapsed, this caretaker system also declined. So where are these caretakers?
Where do the tomb keepers go?
At the time of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China government issued a preferential condition for the abdication of the Qing Emperor, including provisions on the protection of the imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty, but promised to send republic of China guards to protect it. However, after Feng Yuxiang entered the capital, the original preferential conditions were modified to remove the guards protecting the tomb guards.
However, these loyal Three Banners disciples did not leave their posts because they were not protected, and they continued to guard the safety of the imperial tomb. But because the militia was removed, many greedy people began to covet the imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty, after all, there were valuable jewels in them. For example, at that time, Sun Dianying directly and forcibly led his troops into the Imperial Tomb of the Qing Dynasty and swept away all the valuable items in it.
Coupled with the existence of various factors of turmoil and insecurity during the Republic of China period, the people in all the cities were in a state of panic, and they were always in an environment of war and hunger. At that time, the loyal tomb keepers were no longer loyal, and in order to survive, they began to cooperate with the people outside and the outside to jointly search for treasures in the imperial tomb.
Because these people's theft and destruction of the imperial tomb led to the decline of the original magnificent imperial tomb, even if the tomb keepers had some rebellions, there were still many very sincere tomb keepers, who were willing to defend the imperial tomb they had been guarding with their lives when the imperial tomb was most dangerous. These loyal tomb keepers deserve our respect.
But with the development of time, the founding of New China was founded, and these tomb keepers were very afraid that the imperial tombs they had been guarding did not need them, but our government was very kind, and specially promulgated a policy for these loyal tomb keepers, and the government paid the salaries of the tomb keepers, so that they could continue to guard the imperial tombs that they had been guarding. This imperial tomb has also become a national key cultural relic.
However, the current imperial tomb is no longer the original imperial tomb, in order to restore the most authentic imperial tomb, the government specially paid for the establishment of a special imperial tomb cultural relics construction expert group, responsible for the survey and repair of these cultural relics, so that these decaying cultural relics can be revitalized.
Even though the Qing Dynasty has been destroyed for one hundred and eleven years, the guardians of the imperial tomb have always existed. But their duty is no longer to protect the safety of the imperial tomb, but to tell the story of the imperial tomb like the common people.
The Imperial Tomb is no longer the daunting place, and now the Imperial Tomb has gradually become a famous local tourist attraction, and many tourists have come to learn about the qing Dynasty Imperial Tombs and the stories of the tomb keepers. Let more people know the historical background of ancient culture.
In modern times, there is actually a profession of tomb keepers, but this profession has not been recognized by the public, and it is considered that doing such a profession is inferior. Let's not say that this itself is a prejudice, no profession is noble and inferior, no matter what kind of profession you are engaged in, as long as it does not violate the laws of society and abide by the order, it is a good profession.
From the perspective of the tomb keepers, whatever the purpose of engaging in this profession, perhaps it was originally for wealth, or perhaps for their own faith. No matter what the reason, as long as you do the work that your position should complete, it is worthy of respect.
epilogue
In history, there have been many thieves who have professionally stolen imperial tombs, which has also led to the loss of a large number of cultural relics on the mainland, which is very hateful. Since the promulgation of the guard system, there have been many fewer thefts, which has also made us realize the importance of tomb keepers to a country. They have always stuck to their posts, and have always loyally guarded the imperial tomb even in the period of dynastic gap, and this spirit is worth learning from each of us.
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