The ancients believed that there was still a soul after death, and they were very convinced. Therefore, people with conditions will find some guards in their ancestral graves, one is to protect the souls of ancestors, and the other is to prevent theft. Because the conditional family elders will bury the baby after burial. Those with slightly worse conditions will also set up ancestral tablets in their own homes.
Not only in ancient times, but also during the Republic of China, many local villages and towns set up ancestral temples to worship their ancestors. Although this phenomenon is superstitious for modern civilized society, it is this idea that makes people close and interrelated for the same blood relationship. Ordinary people are still like this, let alone hereditary dynasty rulers. I often see some video clips in some TV dramas of the Qing Dynasty. For example, a maid-in-waiting or eunuch who made a mistake was sent to guard the imperial tomb, and it was not a person who guarded the imperial tomb in ancient times, but a small department.
This department existed before the decline of the Qing Dynasty. The duty of these people is to guard the imperial tomb, not only to burn incense on time, but also to prevent theft. After all, the royal family buried a lot of precious utensils and gold and silver jewelry. Even in modern times, some ancient tombs are often excavated in many parts of our country. Thousands of years ago, due to the imperfect monitoring of some equipment, many tombs were stolen and historical relics were destroyed. Now, not only in the Qing Dynasty, but also in many excavated ancient tombs, there are grave keepers.