The ancient imperial tombs in China, from the tombs in the Warring States Period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, have experienced more than 2,000 years of history and formed a complete and complex system. From the majestic Mausoleum of the First Qin Dynasty to the majestic Mausoleum of Gan Tang, from the seemingly endless Ming Tombs to the unfathomable tombs of the East and the West, these imperial tombs with their own characteristics of the times come down in one continuous line with their themes, forming and embodying the unique ancient mausoleum system in China.
The tomb was first called the Mausoleum, which began in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the fifteenth year of Zhao Suhou (335 BC), the mausoleum was first guarded, which was recorded in Records of the Historian Zhao. Since King Huiwen of Qin stipulated that "one should not call a tomb", tomb has become a special word for imperial tombs. According to "Ming Di in the Later Han Dynasty", Qin Shihuang "began to sleep on the Yu Ling side", that is, he moved the sleep in the ancestral hall to the mausoleum side. While inheriting this practice, the Western Han Dynasty also built an ancestral temple near the cemetery. This initially formed a system of building temples from the side of the mausoleum, that is, the mausoleum system combining the mausoleum with the bedroom, the cemetery with the ancestral hall.
The palace where the ancient monarchs and emperors lived in China was formerly called "Chao", that is, the so-called imperial court that handled political affairs; Later called "bedroom", that is, the place where the monarch eats and lives. The ancestral temple of the monarch is also divided into two parts. The former is a temple for ancestor worship; Then there is the bed, which is used to put the clothes and daily necessities of the ancestors. In the early Qin and Han dynasties, the mausoleum was separated from the ancestral hall and built on or next to it. At first, it was just a place for the daily life of the tomb owner's soul. With the development and change of the mausoleum system, the scale of the mausoleum has gradually expanded and become the main part of the ground building of the cemetery. The imperial tombs in China experienced the wind, frost, rain and snow in 2000, during which dynasties changed, so the tombs of different dynasties were constantly changing. This series of changes not only reflected the differences of civilization and culture, but also showed us the continuous progress and development of the ancient people's thoughts and technology in China.
Because Yan Di, Huangdi and Dayu were not "emperors" in the later sense, the authenticity of their tombs can only be a combination of myths and historical materials. In order to start the culture of China imperial tombs, we should also publicize the First Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, which is "the first emperor through the ages". Although the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang itself was not excavated, only because of the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors Pit, which was the first mausoleum of China emperors after the Qin and Han Dynasties and was known as the "eight wonders of the world". After the Han Dynasty, the feudal society in China lasted for more than two thousand years. Due to the relative development of feudal hereditary political system, the culture of imperial tombs has been flourishing. The tombs in the Qin dynasty were mainly fiefs, so people compared the mountains to the supreme ruler, and secretly called the death of the supreme ruler "the collapse of the mountains." The imperial tombs in the Qin Dynasty are unprecedented in scale. Cai Yong's "Arbitrary" contains: "Qin Shihuang's sleep began at the side of the tomb." The mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is located 5 kilometers east of Linchong County, Shaanxi Province. The plane of the mausoleum is a rectangle long from north to south and narrow from east to west, with double rammed earth walls inside and outside. The length of the interior wall is1300m from north to south and 578m from east to west. The external wall is 25 13 meters long from north to south and 974 meters long from east to west. There are doors on both sides. The mound is in the south half of the interior wall. Built with rammed earth, the bottom is square, each side is about 350 meters long, and the existing height is 43 meters (note: the original shape of the mound is not obvious due to years of collapse, so it is estimated to be an overlapping bucket shape). Graves were found in the east, west, north and south of the mound. Two painted bronze chariots were found in the western tunnel, each riding four bronze horses, each with a bronze imperial official's surge, which is about half of the real car, real horse and real person. The horses and chariots are well equipped and beautifully decorated. In the northern half of the interior wall, there is a large building complex site, which is the location of Qin Shihuang's sleeping hall.
From the ancient living sacrifice to the discovery of more than 100 stable burial pits and 17 tombs in the east of Qin Shihuang mausoleum. On the west side of the cemetery, 3 1 rare birds and animals burial pits, an arc-shaped stable burial pit and 6 1 small burial pits were found. 10 rides a large painted bronze chariot and horse. The wooden chariot and horse is located in the west of the underground palace, under the intact soil. Another large animal burial pit was found in the northern part of the first emperor's mausoleum, and armor pits and hundreds of figurines pits were found between the east and west walls ... We can see that people's thoughts at that time improved compared with the most primitive human sacrifices, but the concept of death has not changed much, and a large number of funerary objects are still used, hoping to enjoy all the privileges before death. The Han dynasty inherited the Qin system and still adopted the form of sealing land for tombs. The tombs in the Han dynasty are all bucket-shaped, small at the top and large at the bottom, very stable, and all of them are made of rammed earth. In the Han Dynasty, the five tombs of Chang, An, Yang, Ping and Mao also had a mausoleum, where rich people migrated.
The mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is the most famous one. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to build a mausoleum in the second year after he ascended the throne, which lasted for 53 years. According to historical records, at that time, one-third of the national tribute was used as the cost of building tombs and collecting funerary objects. The construction of the mausoleum is very luxurious. In order to prevent weeds from growing in the tomb soil, the sealed soil was specially shipped from other places and used after screening, heating and frying. Therefore, the tomb soil here is "as expensive as corn". The mausoleum is the largest of the Han tombs, and its shape is like a pyramid with the upper part cut off. According to the ritual system of the Western Han Dynasty, the emperor's tomb can cover an area of one hectare and the tomb is twelve feet high. On the top of the tomb, you can also build a hall to worship the sun. The mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was 20 feet high and its circumference was increased by 20 steps to show his achievements and talents. At this time, the shape of the mausoleum has not changed much. However, due to the prosperity of the Han Dynasty at that time, it was indeed unwise for Liang Wudi to build the Shouling for himself early, which was a waste of people and money. When Emperor Wu died and was buried in Maoling, the funerary objects in his tomb could not be put down, which fully reflected the luxury of the imperial mausoleum at that time. However, people were pleasantly surprised to find that the level of science and technology at that time was higher and improved than that of the Qin Dynasty, and the level of civilization was improved.
After the Han Dynasty, China experienced several drastic changes in ancient times, and it was not until the Tang Dynasty that the imperial tombs in China changed significantly. In order to prevent the recurrence of grave robbery and to show the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty began to build their tombs in the mountains, so there was a tomb shape of "born of mountains". Ganling in Tang Dynasty is the only female emperor Wu Zetian's burial place in the history of China Tang emperors Li Zhi, Gaozong and China, and the only husband and wife emperor's burial place in China and even in the world. The mausoleum is 80 kilometers away from Xi 'an, the ancient capital of central and western China, and lives in Liangshan. Three peaks soar into the sky with beautiful scenery. From a distance, it looks like a woman lying on her back, and is called "Sleeping Beauty". Ganling is built by using natural mountains, and the cemetery occupies the whole Liangshan. At an altitude of 1047.9 meters, the main peak is as high as the first, and the east-west south peak is like its milk. Stretching and winding, the momentum is grand, and people dare not stare.
Qin Ershi Hu Hai's Tomb is located in the south bank of Qujiangchi, Xi, Shaanxi Province, southeast of Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
The surrounding area of Ganling Cemetery is about 40 kilometers. The buildings in the park are modeled after Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty, and Miyagi, Imperial City and Waikuo City are in good order. When it was first built, ancestral halls, pavilions and pavilions in the palace were all over Shan Ye, and the buildings were magnificent. There are more than 20 large stone carvings 120 in the cemetery, such as huabiao, winged horse, ostrich, Wuzi brand, monument, stone lion and sixty-one Chen Fan statue, which are arranged neatly and orderly on both sides of Sima Road from Zhuquemen to Naitou Mountain. They are magnificent and are known as "the open-air exhibition hall of stone carving art in the prosperous Tang Dynasty". According to historical documents, Gong Xuan Palace in Ganling is very rich in connotation, and there are a lot of rare treasures buried with it, such as gold and silver, jewelry and jade, bronze and iron, glass, ceramics, silk, lacquerware, stone carving, food, murals, calligraphy and painting, Mo Bao and so on. The carving art in front of the tomb is even more daunting. Stone lions hold their heads high, their eyes wide open, and they are tall and majestic. Compared with the carving art of Han Dynasty, they are more exquisite and imposing. The murals unearthed in the tomb are even more exquisite and can be called the magnificent underground gallery in the Tang Dynasty. At this time, people learned from the situation that the tombs were sealed by soil during the Qin and Han Dynasties. After years of rain and snow erosion, it is undoubtedly wise to build the mausoleum on the mountain. Sculpture, painting, calligraphy and poetry reached unprecedented heights in the Tang Dynasty. The stone carving of foreign leaders in front of the tomb fully embodies the high blending of world culture and civilization at that time. The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty attracted countless people to come here and built the emperor's mausoleum.
Mausoleum architecture in Song Dynasty is more complicated. At first, the imperial tombs in the Northern Song Dynasty were crude, and no large tombs were built. Later, the mausoleum was built in the south, which was obviously insufficient compared with the majestic momentum of the Tang Dynasty. However, the mausoleum architecture in the Song Dynasty was not as masculine as it was then, and it was beautiful and elegant. From its stone carving art, it can be seen that the sculptors of Shishi and Shi Hu are delicate and graceful, and their knife skills are not as flashy as in the Tang Dynasty. From another aspect, we can also see the different cultural differences between tenderness in the south and heroism in the north.
During this period, it experienced the invasion of ethnic minorities, and the mausoleums in Jin Taizu and Yuan Taizu both showed the ethnic flavor different from that in the Central Plains. Jin Taizu Cemetery covers an area of 5. 1 hectare, with a building area of1.200m2.. It is divided into four parts: pilot space, Shinto space, Baoding and Ningshen Temple and underground palace. In the pilot space, visitors can visit the Jade Belt Bridge, the entrance hall and two magpie tables. In Shinto space, there are breast platforms, watchtowers and stone statues. The top of the treasure is towering, and the pine and cypress participate in the protection, just like the solemn atmosphere of the imperial mausoleum. Ningsi architecture is simple, vigorous and solemn, and it is a place for tourists to mourn. The underground palace is 9 meters deep and covers an area of about 750 square meters. It houses Jin Taizu's coffin and various sacrificial supplies. Jin Taizu Mausoleum is magnificent, mysterious and spectacular. It shows the magic of Jin-Yuan culture, and has the characteristics of great ethnic integration everywhere, enriching the culture of the Central Plains of China. It is an alternative minority civilization and the embodiment of minority wisdom.
The Ming Tombs are the most famous tombs in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Tombs are complex in structure and ingenious in design. From the starting point Xiamafang to the main entrance of Xiaoling, it consists of Xiamafang, Shenlie Mountain Monument, Forbidden Monument, Dajinmen, Monument Building (Sifang City), Shen Gong Shengde Monument, Waiyuhe Bridge, Shinto Stone Carvings (Stone Statues, Stone Columns) and so on. Compared with other imperial tombs in China, the contribution of Ming Tombs to the culture of imperial tombs in China is mainly reflected in the following aspects: First, the ancient philosophical thought of "harmony between man and nature" has been vividly reproduced in the layout of tombs. Although there are star maps in the tombs of Qin Shihuang and many emperors in previous dynasties, they all reflect this humanistic feeling. But different from the general emperors, Zhu Yuanzhang embodied this humanistic feeling through the design of his tomb pattern, thus realizing the perfect unity of the thought of harmony between man and nature in Taoist philosophy and the rule of Confucian feudal ethics.
The second is to create the imperial mausoleum palace system of "front facing and rear sleeping" and the mausoleum pattern of "front round and rear closing". The Ming Mausoleum inherited the system of "the mausoleum depends on the mountain" of the imperial mausoleum in China, but it changed the system that the imperial mausoleum integrates square, platform, square wall and upper and lower palaces since the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, and merged the upper and lower palaces into one, creating a new system of square city, Ming building, enjoying hall, round mountain, treasure city and rectangular mausoleum palace. In the layout of the mausoleum building, the basic pattern of "front and back circle" has been created; In terms of the architectural content of the mausoleum palace, it is the first time to imitate the pattern that the palace was divided into front and rear bedrooms before the emperor died, and establish the mausoleum palace system of "front and rear bedrooms". This pattern not only inherited the excellent elements in the shape of tombs in Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, but also created a new mausoleum system, which standardized the architectural shape of more than 20 imperial tombs in Ming and Qing Dynasties for more than 500 years, which was a milestone in the architectural history of imperial tombs in China. This imperial mausoleum is undoubtedly another breakthrough, showing us a brand-new look of another culture.
Thirdly, the unique Shinto design concept and exquisite Shinto stone carving art complement each other. Influenced by the Xiaoling Mausoleum, the Ming Tombs in Beijing adopted Shinto, with a total length of 7,000 meters from the stone archway to Changling, which is the most magnificent mausoleum complex in the world. And created the first generation emperor's mausoleum Shinto as a system for later generations (princes or succeeded emperors) to use Shinto.
Fourth, a large number of masonry structures are used, and there is a perfect drainage system. The Ming Tombs utilize natural water systems, and set up three major water systems from east to west, namely, the outer royal river, the inner royal river and the Baocheng royal river, which are connected in space through the imperial bridge, making the whole mausoleum area harmonious and perfect and full of vitality. It can be seen that the advanced technology of workers at that time is amazing now. This is not only a cultural heritage, but also a process of civilization spread.
The Qing dynasty inherited the Ming system, but in the mausoleum system, it adopted the architectural style of "Bao Cheng Bao Ding". The ceremonial architectural settings of tombs in the Qing Dynasty, such as the Monument Pavilion, the Stone Statue Health Hall, the Long 'en Hall (called Mao 'en Hall in the Ming Dynasty), and the Fangcheng Ming Building, are all developed according to the axis, forming an orderly spatial level. The arrangement of this axis is based on the long-term vision and the opposite view, not a straight axis with a fixed direction. The effect of "looking after before and after" and "looking back affectionately" is also related to the craftsmen of the Ming Tombs. Regarding the shape of the Ming building in Fangcheng, there was an intention to emphasize the image of the castle in the tomb before entering the customs, but after entering the customs, the design composition of the Ming tomb with Long 'en Hall and Ming building as the main buildings was accepted. Another example is that the stone statue students adopt two series of animals and civil and military officials, and each pair of stone statues adopts two kinds of standing and lying, which is also an imitation lighting system. Standing at the four corners to emphasize the status of "Shen Gong Shengde Monument Pavilion" is also a way to learn from the Shinto of the Ming Tombs.
However, it is worth noting that tombs in the Qing Dynasty also have the characteristics of changing times. For example, in the Qing dynasty, the emperor built a separate tomb and abolished the system of the queen's martyrdom. Relatively speaking, the number of tombs in Qing Dynasty increased. Another change is to reduce the size of the underground palace and increase the number of buildings on the ground. The top of the underground palace is smaller than that of the Ming Dynasty. The underground palace is a compound arch system with many halls and halls, which is simplified to north-south layout and gradually shallower buried. On the contrary, there are more and more buildings on the ground, such as bridges, pavilions and dragon and phoenix gates. On the shaft, and the length of the shaft is extended, the spider mountain is set in the middle of the shaft as an interval. Spider Mountain can not only be used as the "case mountain" in the mausoleum area, but also form a pause and turning point in the sacrificial route, changing feelings during the burial process. Although the scale of mausoleum building in Qing dynasty is smaller than that in Ming dynasty, the decoration quality is far more luxurious than that in Ming dynasty. For example, the Yuling underground palace in Qianlong covers an area of 372 square meters, all of which are made of blue and white stones. The inner wall, ticket top and door leaf are all carved with various Buddha statues, scriptures and decorative patterns, which are carefully carved, similar to a sculpture museum, and the sculptor alone spent more than 50 thousand workers. Another example is the Ding Dong Mausoleum of Empress Dowager Cixi, whose architectural decoration is more luxurious. Not only precious wood such as rosewood and nanmu are widely used as structural materials, but also fair-faced brick walls and brick carvings are widely used, and even gold is applied to brick carvings to create magnificent and gorgeous effects. By the Qing Dynasty, the layout of imperial tombs had reached a new level, drawing lessons from the previous dynasties and integrating the cultures of ethnic minorities and the Central Plains. The mausoleum of Qing Dynasty is undoubtedly a rare treasure in the art of China's mausoleum.
Exploring the ancient imperial tombs in China, because it brings people a lot of mystery, what brings me more is that it shines with the light of wisdom everywhere and exudes the breath of civilization, which makes people feel that studying each imperial tomb carefully is not so much a dialogue with emperors thousands of years ago as with intelligent humans thousands of years ago. Inheriting the Millennium culture is accompanied by the fire of civilization.