If you ask: Which dynasty in ancient China can be called the most wealthy? The answer in most people's minds undoubtedly points to the Song Dynasty.
——The richness of the Song Dynasty has attracted worldwide attention. It accounts for a significant share of 60% to 80% of global GDP.
-- The financial abundance of the Song Dynasty government is staggering. During the period of Emperor Shenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the tax revenue was as high as an astonishing 160 million guan, and even in the southern corner of the southern part of the Yangtze River in the Southern Song Dynasty, the tax revenue reached 100 million guan.
——The wealth of the people of the Song Dynasty was also unprecedented. In the past, people only ate two meals to get by, but in the Song Dynasty, the people's living standards improved, and they were able to enjoy three meals. Even a vendor like Wu Dalang can own a house in the capital.
Therefore, the historian Huang Renyu praised the Song Dynasty in his book "The Great History of China": "The era of the Song Dynasty is like a bridge from ancient times to modernity. ”
However, despite the abundance of wealth in the Song Dynasty, its royal tombs were rather austere.
There were nine emperors in the Northern Song Dynasty, except for Song Huizong and Song Qinzong, who were taken away by the Jin people and imprisoned in Mobei, the remaining seven were buried in the land of Gongyi, Henan, together with the tomb of Zhao Hongyin, the father of Zhao Kuangyin, collectively known as the "Seven Emperors and Eight Tombs".
There were also nine emperors in the Southern Song Dynasty, six of whom were buried in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, so it was called the Six Tombs of the Song Dynasty.
Whether it is the imperial tombs of the Northern Song Dynasty or the Southern Song Dynasty, they all have a common characteristic, that is: simplicity. Since ancient times, there has never been an imperial tomb of any dynasty as simple and simple as the Song Dynasty.
The emperors of the Song Dynasty behaved quite casually when choosing the location of the mausoleum.
Take Zhao Kuangyin, the Taizu of the Song Dynasty, as an example, in the months before his death, he inspected Luoyang, Xijing, and when he passed through Gongxian on the way back, he pulled out an arrow and shot it in the northwest direction, and a stone horse was buried where the arrow fell. He told his ministers that this was his resting place after his death.
The architectural style of the imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty is also extremely simple.
Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the emperor's mausoleums have all been known for their large scale and exquisite design. In the case of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, 720,000 people were used to build it, and nearly 800,000 at the peak, which is almost eight times the number of people who built the Pyramid of Khufu. The entire construction process took 39 years, starting from the beginning of Qin Shi Huang's accession to the throne and remaining unfinished at the time of his death.
The imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty are small and exquisite, like small mounds. Such a scale, not to mention the mausoleums of Qin Shi Huang, Wu Zetian and others, even compared with the mausoleums of other princes and nobles, it pales in comparison.
There are also few valuable burial goods in the imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty.
As the old saying goes: "Wealth is something outside the body, which is not brought by life or death." However, in order to enjoy a luxurious life after death, ancient emperors often placed a large number of priceless funerary goods in their tombs. For example, the mausoleum of the Empress Dowager Cixi, with exquisite materials, fine workmanship, luxurious decoration, and countless funeral goods, can be called a huge treasure.
On the other hand, the imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty are almost difficult to find traces of valuable burial goods. Taking Zhao Kuangyin's Yongchang Mausoleum as an example, the most valuable burial goods are just a jade belt.
So, why were the imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty so simple?
This may be because the emperors of the Song Dynasty were more enlightened and sympathetic to the people. They did not want to waste money on the mausoleum, so they advocated the practice of thin burials. As a result, even tomb robbers dismiss it.
Of course, even if it is a thin burial, the imperial mausoleum of the Song Dynasty still has a certain scale. It's just that after the "Jingkang Change", the Jin people ransacked the Song Tomb and "took its coffin as a manger", and in the Yuan Dynasty, it was "ploughed into ruins".
Since then, the imperial tombs of the Song Dynasty have presented a dilapidated scene. Although they are now listed as national key cultural relics protection units, they are still open to all visitors free of charge. This is in stark contrast to the practice of other places where the imperial tombs are enclosed and sold at high prices.