Most emperors in history were very cautious about the location of their tombs, fearing that tomb thieves would remember them, with one exception, Qin Shi Huang.
The location of his imperial tomb was not concealed, but it was not visited by tomb robbers for a long time.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, a person mentioned the location of the imperial tomb when criticizing Qin Shi Huang. Yun Daoyuan said that the tomb of Qin Shi Huang was built on Lishan Mountain.
The construction of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor took decades, such a large project, in ancient times everyone is not surprising, from the current scanning technology, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is indeed in Lishan, the ancients are true, which also confirms from the side, in ancient times, the location of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is not a secret.
However, it is such a public tomb, and the folk legend says how rich the funeral goods are, but greed like tomb robbers, have not entered the imperial tomb.
The reason is of course not because the tomb robbers are afraid of the majesty of Qin Shi Huang, but because the mercury in the imperial tomb, with the ability of the tomb thieves, can not cope at all.
Whether it is ancient history books or the results of scanning the mountain according to modern special instruments, it shows that the imperial tomb contains a large amount of mercury, so how much mercury is poured into this imperial tomb?
Experts have also made some rough measurements and said that looking at the pomegranate trees near Lishan Mountain shows how much mercury there is.
The State of Qin achieved great unification
Qin Shi Huang's great achievements in unifying the six kingdoms and creating the imperial system are familiar to most people. However, Qin Shi Huang's ability to unify the six kingdoms and become the first emperor of the ages is not the result of him alone, but the efforts of several generations.
During the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemony period, because of the outstanding ability of the King of Qin and the Duke of Jin Wen, he was once one of the Five Hegemons of Spring and Autumn, so the national strength of the State of Qin was once very strong, but after the Duke of Wen of Jin, the national strength of the State of Qin gradually declined, and it was once a weaker existence among several countries.
The opportunity to begin to become stronger originated from the Duke of Qin Xiao, who completed the Shang Martingale transformation method during the reign of this person.
The focus of the Shang Martingale Reform Law is on farmers and soldiers, and agricultural changes are conducive to appeasing the people, winning the hearts and minds of the people, and can increase the production of grain.
The change in the soldiers was conducive to improving the combat ability of the soldiers, and the food and grass and soldiers were available, which laid a solid foundation for the later conquest of the government and the smooth recovery of the six countries.
Duke Xiao was followed by his son King Huiwen, who continued to support the Shang martingale law politically and expanded the territory of the Qin Dynasty in military territory, and both Bashu and Hexi were owned by the Qin Dynasty during this period.
After that, King Wu was more dramatic, born with brute strength, no policy achievements, and no military achievements, but he used force to destroy Zhou Tianzi.
During the reign of King Xiang, the national strength of the Qin state had developed for several generations, and its military strength had been greatly enhanced, so King Xiang made an important military strategy, that is, the Battle of Changping.
In the Battle of Changping, the State of Qin and the State of Zhao defeated the State of Zhao in terms of logistical supplies and won the Battle of Changping. At that time, the State of Zhao was a country with the same strength as the State of Qin, and this defeat dealt a heavy blow to the State of Zhao and gave the State of Qin plenty of room for development.
After experiencing two kings with few great achievements and great failures, the State of Qin finally ushered in the reign of Qin Shi Huang, who did not grow up in the State of Qin when he was young, but grew up in the State of Zhao, and when he returned to the State of Qin, he was only 13 years old.
Although young, he was particularly talented in governing the country. For the people to rest and recuperate, increase the population of the Qin state, build water conservancy facilities, and facilitate agricultural irrigation.
After becoming pro-government at the age of 21, he integrated the resources of the Qin state, and after learning that the Qin state had the ability to dominate the world, he quickly promoted this plan. The recovery of the six countries naturally depends not on verbal lobbying, but on military hard power.
So Ying Zheng began the preliminary preparations for the war, selecting suitable generals, training the army, forging weapons, etc., these preparations were very detailed, and it took a total of eight years for Ying Zheng, and at the age of 29, Ying Zheng officially launched his plan to destroy the Six Kingdoms.
As can be seen from the ancient map, the Qin State is located in the territory on the west-west side of the Seven Kingdoms. South Korea is a weaker country among the seven countries, and its geographical location happens to be in the middle of the seven countries, in order to eliminate the obstacles on the road of "sweeping the liuhe", and the concept of first weak and then strong, Yingzheng put South Korea in the first place in the battle.
The strong strength of the State of Qin, coupled with the intelligence of the Zheng government, Korea was the first to be destroyed, and then used a dissociation scheme to destroy the State of Zhao. After the destruction of the state of Zhao, the north was unified.
After that, the Wei state went south, and although the Wei state sacrificed its cities to seek peace, the heart of the victorious government was never one or two cities, so under the strong attack, the Wei state was destroyed.
The successive victories greatly boosted the morale of the Qin army, and coupled with the proper command of the generals, the southern power of Chu was also destroyed, and the entire Yangtze River basin was included in the territory of the Qin state.
After that, the Yan and Qi states were destroyed one after another, and when Qin Shi Huang was 38 years old, he achieved great unification, and this conquest took a total of 9 years.
After the great unification, Qin Shi Huang issued many decrees, which are still considered to be ancient achievements, such as the unification of writing, unified weights and measures, rails, etc., which are more valuable than military unification.
Although the Qin Dynasty only existed for two lifetimes, relatively short-lived, the achievements of Qin Shi Huang were indelible, such as the concept of centralized bureaucratic structure, relatively perfect laws, a unified Qin Xiaoxiao script, and a unified currency that promoted the exchange of goods.
After the Han Dynasty replaced the Qin Dynasty, in addition to abolishing some strict laws, many others followed the system of the Qin Dynasty, and until the Qing Dynasty, the centralized concept of the Qin Dynasty was still being implemented.
Qin Shi Huang was also very satisfied with his achievements, although the people and literati at that time accused the Qin king of tyranny, such as the heavy problem of conscription brought about by the construction of the city wall, but the benefits brought by some of his political means could not be ignored, and the city wall did resist foreign invasions very well.
For his own merits, Qin Shi Huang's evaluation is: the merit is not in a moment, but in the autumn. Qin Shi Huang felt that what he did was of endless benefit to future generations, and throughout history, it was true.
When Qin Shi Huang got older, he began to seek immortality, but before Xu Fu could return, he died of Yingzheng. But he also made sufficient preparations in advance, that is, to build an underground kingdom and continue to rule after death.
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the continuation of his reign
The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is located in the Lishan Mountain in Xianyang, Xi'an, and is a ground-based building, and the entire Lishan Mountain is the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.
According to records, the interior of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was reproduced according to the structure of the capital Xianyang, which was intended to express the continued rule of the First Emperor after his death.
When Qin Shi Huang had not yet unified the six kingdoms, the construction of the imperial tomb had reached the preparatory stage. This stage was mainly in the site selection and design of the imperial tomb. After a series of investigations, the site of the imperial tomb was finally selected in Lishan.
Qin Shi Huang not only hoped to achieve his thousand-year hegemony on the ground, but also wanted to rule the underground kingdom after his death, so the internal design of the imperial tomb basically restored the structure of Xianyang.
From the beginning of the great unification to the year after the death of the First Emperor, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang entered a large-scale construction period, and by the time of Qin Shi Huang's death, the mausoleum had been basically completed.
After the death of Qin Shi Huang, the third stage of construction of the mausoleum began, that is, the final stage of rebuilding the mausoleum. The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang covers a very large area, so in the final restoration stage, it took a year.
This year's time does not mean that the restoration work has been completed, but because the voice of civil opposition is too loud, the project has been forced to stop.
At that time, the conscription was heavy, and Chen Sheng Wuguang chose to revolt because he did not arrive at his destination on time and thought of receiving severe punishment, and it was because of this uprising that the restoration of the imperial tomb was forced to stop.
Up to this moment, the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang has been built for a total of 38 years, and the pyramid, which is known as the greatest project in the world, has only been built for more than 20 years, and the time taken to build the imperial mausoleum is almost twice that of the pyramid.
According to historical records, during the construction of the imperial tomb, the resources consumed were immeasurable.
700,000 people were invested in manpower alone. In Li Bai's poems and in Yun Daoyuan's "Notes on the Classic of Water", there are records of this number.
It took so much manpower to imagine the enormity of this project. Compared with the current Xi'an, the urban area of Xi'an is not as large as the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, which is about twice as small as the imperial mausoleum.
The imperial tomb has a special structure, and mercury protects the imperial tomb
Through the mountain scan, it is known that the area of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is about 600,000 square meters, and the internal structure of the mausoleum is also built according to the city, divided into the inner city wall and the outer city wall, and the shape of the word "Hui" is used to circle the entire mausoleum.
Inside the city wall, there is the familiar Terracotta Army, which is now also a business card of Xi'an. The terracotta warriors were accidentally discovered in 1974 and subsequently subjected to protective excavations, and pits 1 and 2 are now on display.
It is said that when the terracotta army was first pictured, the colors were bright and the expressions of the characters were very vivid, which shows that Qin Shi Huang attached great importance to this imperial tomb and the extremely high skills of craftsmen at that time.
A large number of terracotta warriors and horses guarded around the underground palace, like soldiers on the surface guarding the city, which also showed that Qin Shi Huang still wanted to rely on Yin soldiers to achieve his ideal rule underground.
According to the information obtained from excavations, more than 600 places of this kind of burial area of the terracotta army have been found in the entire imperial tomb, and many of them have not been found.
The terracotta army guards observed outside, which is the underground palace of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the core of the entire imperial mausoleum. This is a 76-meter-high, 350-meter-wide and 350-meter-long sealed mound in which Qin Shi Huang is buried, in addition to some gold and silver funerary goods and the like.
The entire tomb of Qin Shi Huang is very luxurious, and various configurations are top-notch, such as using night pearls as star signs in the sky, using whale refining oil as lamp oil, and in order to better restore the mountain and river topography of Xianyang, the "river water" is also transported to the tomb.
This "river water" is not river water in the traditional sense, but a special river water replaced by mercury, which is still flowing today.
The fact that the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is wrapped under Lishan Mountain has not been a secret since ancient times, but because of the existence of mercury, no one dares to move it so far.
And according to records, the concentration of mercury in the imperial tomb is terrifyingly high, but according to the current level, it is impossible to know how much mercury is inside, but by detecting the mercury content of pomegranate trees around Lishan, it can be seen that the mercury content is still very high.
Mercury was a status symbol in ancient times, in ancient times, metallurgical technology was not developed, and the main use of mercury was to purify gold. This use is destined not to be something common to the masses.
And Qin Shi Huang, as the lord of the world, he wants mercury to be easily obtained, so the amount of mercury in the imperial tomb today may be far beyond people's imagination.
The mercury in the imperial tomb, in addition to being used as a decoration, has two other functions, one is anti-theft and the other is anti-embalming.
Every dynasty has tomb robbers who dig people's graves, doing everything they can for the funeral goods inside, and even ordinary people are not spared, let alone imperial tombs.
The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang poured mercury outside, mercury is highly toxic, and after volatilization, it can enter the human body through pores, causing irreversible Shanghai to the human body, and can be fatal in severe cases.
Such characteristics make tomb robbers daunting, after all, tomb robbers only seek wealth, not death.
Mercury is very volatile, bactericidal ability is also very strong, pouring it into the tomb, can control the number of bacteria in the tomb, so as to achieve the purpose of embalming, not only can protect the tomb, but also slow down the rate of decay of the body.
Although the amount of mercury in the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is difficult to determine, it can be monitored from another aspect, which is to observe the plants near the imperial mausoleum, that is, pomegranate trees.
Because in addition to pomegranate trees, other wild vegetation is difficult to survive, basically "no grass". By testing the pomegranate fruit, it can be known that the concentration of mercury in the pomegranate is far higher than normal and cannot be eaten by humans.
Based on the results of this experiment, experts speculated on the amount of mercury in the imperial tomb, which exceeded 100 tons.
Although the development of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor will greatly promote the progress of archaeological work and allow modern people to better understand the ancient style, but now the technology is not enough, and digging it out is also annihilation, so the best way to protect it should be not excavated.