" The First Imperial Tomb of the Ming Dynasty "
In 1997, when archaeological experts completed the exploration of Zhu Yuanzhang Ming Xiaoling Tomb , everyone was stunned.
The Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, known as the "First Imperial Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty", has no trace of being visited by tomb robbers.
You must know that Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is one of the three major landmark mausoleums among the tombs of emperors in China. Even Kangxi passed nearby and had to come to pay homage.
It goes without saying that everyone knows that there must be countless rare treasures buried in the tomb of , which is the dream object of tomb robbers.
What is the reason why such an imperial mausoleum, which is coveted by Chinese and foreign tomb robbers, is still well preserved after more than 600 years?
"Is Zhu Yuanzhang buried here?"
A generation of kings Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum is one of the most mysterious tombs among hundreds of emperors in China's past dynasties. It is also one of the largest existing imperial mausoleums in ancient my country. , and Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang , and Li Shimin Tomb are the three major milestones of Chinese imperial mausoleums.
However, it is such a mausoleum. It was not until the 1990s that archaeological experts officially determined that Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb is located in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum at the southern foot of Purple Mountain in Nanjing.
In the 1990s, in order to explore the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum with an area of more than 20,000 square meters, archaeological technicians carefully passed the magnetic detector again and again on tens of thousands of regular grid points composed of 1 meter square. , obtain the data fed back underground, and then carefully input it into the electronic computer terminal.
All exploration projects are very cumbersome, and the archaeologists have never stopped feeling uneasy. Before this, people often asked: "Is Zhu Yuanzhang buried here?"
Even experienced archaeological experts can only give answers like "probably", "possibly", and "maybe".
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang, who was still in his prime at that time, began to choose a burial place for himself soon after he became emperor.
In order to find the best location for the mausoleum, Zhu Yuanzhang also invited the top Feng Shui master at the time to go to the outskirts with the court officials and search according to the method of " Searching for Dragon Points", and finally found a place that made everyone happy. Everyone is amazed by the feng shui place Purple Mountain .
One day, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, Liu Ji and Tang He came to Purple Mountain. Zhu Yuanzhang asked the three of them to choose a place each, and write the place on a piece of paper and hide it in his sleeve. Then take them out and check them out at the same time. As a result, Xu, Liu and Tang chose exactly the same address, Dulong Fu Play Mount Everest , so Zhu Yuanzhang decided to place his mausoleum here.
The construction of the imperial mausoleum officially began in 1381. At that time, Queen Ma was already feeling a little unwell, and she died the next year. After that, Zhu Yuanzhang buried Queen Ma in the imperial mausoleum. Because her posthumous name (shì) was "Xiaoci" , the imperial mausoleum was also called the "Xiaoling Mausoleum".
Queen Ma was buried after that. More than ten years later, the crown prince Zhu Biao was buried in the east of Xiaoling. It was not until the death of 71-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang in 1398 that Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen who came to the throne buried him. They were sent to Xiaoling Mausoleum and buried together with Queen Ma who was waiting alone. They stayed with each other for more than 600 years.
However, it is also said that the tomb site Zhu Yuanzhang found for himself was not a . After he "died", coffins were taken out of the inner and outer city gates of Nanjing at the same time. There were 13 coffins in total, facing different directions. No one knew about Zhu Yuanzhang. Where was the final burial.
Although there are different opinions, in the next 600 years, people generally agreed that the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum at the southern foot of the Purple Mountain was the place where Zhu Yuanzhang was buried. Not only the emperors of the Ming Dynasty sent heavy troops to protect it, but even the Qing Dynasty ,When Kangxi passed by nearby, he would come here to worship.
In the 1990s, archaeological experts brought advanced detection instruments at the time to the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty to start exploration. It took them 6 years to master tens of thousands of accurate information through precision magnetic survey technology. After collecting the data and using electronic computers for digital analysis, they finally came to an accurate conclusion - Zhu Yuanzhang, who died more than 600 years ago, was indeed buried in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, thus unveiling the mystery of the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty.
The breathtaking mausoleum
According to historical records, in order to build the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, as many as 100,000 military workers were mobilized, which took 25 years, 1 million taels of silver, and covered an area of 1.7 million square meters. The red walls of the mausoleum are 22.5 kilometers long.
After the completion of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, there were many buildings on the ground including the East and West Wu Side Halls, the Divine Palace, and the Dongling Garden. Unfortunately, due to the war during the Xianfeng period, many of the ground buildings were destroyed. The top of the Ming Tower above the square city has been destroyed. It collapsed, and now only the wall remains, which has lost its original appearance.
After that, there were a lot of relocations and mounding of the Xiaoling Mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty, which did not stop until the beginning of liberation.
Many events in the past have changed the original shape of the buildings on the ground of Ming Xiaoling Tomb, and also covered it with a thick layer of disturbed soil. This resulted in part of the original above-ground remains becoming "underground cultural relics".
But even so, the historical significance of Xiaoling Tomb in the Ming Dynasty cannot be ignored. It not only represents the highest artistic achievement of royal architecture in the early Ming Dynasty, but also pioneered the royal mausoleum culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
From a spatial perspective, the layout of the entire Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is in the shape of the "Big Dipper" . In order to build a mausoleum here, Zhu Yuanzhang also forcibly moved the thousand-year-old Taiping Xingguo Zen Temple, which was originally located under Mount Everest. .
The layout of this kind of mausoleum just reflects the "divine right of kings" and "the unity of man and nature" ideas of Chinese emperors. It can be regarded as a product of the ingenious combination of man-made and nature. In addition to the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, the star chart settings in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang and many emperors' tombs also reflect this humanistic intention.
The Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty also inherited the old tradition of Chinese emperors' tombs being built on mountains, but it also changed the previous system of imperial mausoleums. For the first time, it imitated the layout of the emperor's palace in the front and back. "Bedding in the front and sleeping in the back" 's mausoleum system.
This new imperial mausoleum system provided norms and standards for the architectural form of more than 20 imperial mausoleums in the Ming and Qing dynasties over more than 500 years.
It must be mentioned that the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum has an eclectic and eclectic design of the winding mausoleum , which just shows Zhu Yuanzhang’s talent and strategy, as well as his informality and courage to innovate, which is quite profound and mysterious. feel.
The Shinto stone statues are tall, solemn, exquisite, thick, lifelike, and have distinctive carving characteristics. They represent the highest level of Chinese stone carving art from the late 14th century to the early 15th century.
In addition, the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty is located in an area with abundant rainfall in the south, which requires that the drainage system of the tomb must be very complete. The Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty not only has many ground-level buildings, but its drainage system is also very exquisite, which is harmonious, orderly and full of vitality when divided into building spaces.
All of the above, while people are amazed by this, they can't help but be curious about the rare treasures buried under the mausoleum for many years.
And in 1997, when archaeological experts conducted an exploration of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, they were surprised to find that this imperial tomb had no trace of tomb robbers at all.
How is this done?
Three major reasons
Archaeological experts believe that Ming Xiaoling Tomb has never been visited by tomb robbers. There may be three main reasons.
· The first reason is that the Ming Xiaoling Tomb was strong enough when it was built.
The Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty inherited the old style of imperial mausoleums in the past and was also built on the mountain. During the construction process of , craftsmen spent a lot of time and manpower to build the Xuan Palace by drilling into the mountain laterally and hollowing out the inside of the mountain it relied on.
Although this method is more time-consuming, it has advantages that those tombs dug straight up and down in the past did not have. The manual excavation method commonly used by tomb robbers will not work in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. It would be impossible to dig out the tomb without using a considerable amount of explosives.
During the construction, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum also used many strong boulders. The entire tomb was surrounded by boulders, and layers of fine sand and gravel were placed on and around it, as well as a huge amount of pebbles. Compared with the past, The common traditional quicksand tomb is more secure.
Even if the tomb robbers were really brave enough to use a sufficient amount of explosives to forcefully open a gap in the tomb, the quicksand and cobblestones would then "flow" down and block the hole that the tomb robbers finally opened. If the tomb robber is too impatient and enters the tomb before the quicksand flows down, then the cobblestones will block the hole and the person will suffocate inside.
· The second reason is because it has been protected by rulers of all ages .
This is mainly divided into two periods: the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty . First of all, during the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum was protected by dedicated Xiaoling Guards, with more than 5,600 people, making it a well-trained army.
Generally speaking, tomb robbers are just some desperate gangsters. Even if they have some means, in front of a complete army, such tomb robbers are simply not enough. Of course, the tomb robbers knew this very well and did not dare to approach the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, let alone take any chances here.
When the Qing army entered the pass and ended the rule of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Xiaoling Tomb not only was not violated by these outsiders, but was once again protected.
When the Qing army entered the Pass, the rulers at that time knew that as outsiders in the Pass, if they wanted to maintain the legitimacy of their rule, they had to respect the previous Ming Emperor's Tomb. They not only adopted a protective attitude, but also arranged special The tomb robbers with ill intentions were still not given a chance despite the manual supervision.
In order to win over the people, when Kangxi went to the south of the Yangtze River, he visited the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty five times, performed the nine-kowtow ceremony, and erected a stone tablet saying "Government of the Tang and Song Dynasties" , which shows that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to Ming Xiaoling's attention.
· The third reason is related to the geographical location of Ming Xiaoling Tomb.
Ming Xiaoling Tomb is located at the southern foot of Purple Mountain in Nanjing, not far from Nanjing City. Even if the tomb robbers are brave enough, they dare to meet all the above challenges, fight against the Xiaoling Guards guarding the imperial mausoleum, and use explosives to blow it up The news generated by these actions will quickly spread to Nanjing.
Since the two places are not far apart, even if the tomb robbers find a way to successfully open the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, before they can do anything next, reinforcements sent by Nanjing City will have arrived. By then, they will only face the challenge of It will be even more difficult. As long as the IQ is still online, tomb robbers will not easily come to challenge Ming Xiaoling Tomb.
In addition to these reasons, the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty is still well preserved. There may be some coincidences among them . For example, the city of Nanjing where it is located was completely destroyed after the feudal dynasty and the protective umbrella disappeared, and the Republic of China government was rebuilt. Nanjing, has been located in the political center and protected since ancient times.
Archaeological experts felt extremely relieved when they discovered that the Ming Xiaoling Tomb had not been invaded by tomb robbers.
Although they cannot conduct archaeological excavations with the current level of science and technology, the historical relics and rare treasures are well preserved. Sooner or later, when technology catches up, we will finally be able to completely crack the mystery. That day.
