05 9 月 The Layout of Emperor Qin Shi Huang Tomb
The layout of Emperor Qin Shi Huang tomb sits to the west and faces east. The prominent feature of its design is that it is distributed around a core (i.e., the mausoleum mound), an axis (i.e., an east-west axis centered on the tomb mound stretching to the east and west, through the east and west gate entrance buildings and independent double entrance buildings on the inner and outer city walls), and three different levels (the inner level is the area within the inner city walls, the middle level is the area between the inner and outer city walls, and the external level is the area outside the exterior city walls).
The archaeological data indicate that of the three levels of the inner, middle, and outer areas of the Qin Shi Huang emperor’s tomb, the inner layer was the central area, which included the underground palace where the Qin emperor’s remains were laid to rest, the bedchamber where his soul lived, the resting hall was for emperor to rest and banquet, as well as the imperial chariots, the imperial stables, and the property storage house. The middle layer contains the places to store property, the armory, the palace stables, the acrobats and exotic animals for the entertainment of the emperor, and the food official house and official house. The outer layer is more extensive, containing the Terracotta Warriors in the east, hundreds of small stable pits that symbolize the palace stables, and large-scale property storage area and a rare bird garden in the north. On the west side of the outer city, there are also stone processing plants, brick kilns and cemeteries for people who build the emperor’s tomb. Strictly speaking, these three sites or relics on the west side of the outer city cannot be included in the category of the burial system or burial rites of the tomb area of the First Qin Emperor.
From the above three-layer layout, it is reasonable to assume that Emperor Qin Shi Huang tomb was a realistic model of the concept of “like a capital”, as it is called in Lv’s Spring and Autumn. The layout of the entire mausoleum is like a subtle map of the capital – a mausoleum made of clay, stone, wood, metal and other material materials, which achieves a very clear symbolic elaboration in many aspects encompassed by the concept of “just like the capital”. The tall mausoleum mound, which corresponds to the arcane underground palace, symbolizes the imperial palace where the emperor lived and its inviolable authority; the inner and outer walls surrounding the mound symbolize the palace city and the outer city; the large complex of bedchamber and other halls symbolizes the main bedroom for the emperor’s lifetime and the halls and chambers for rest and leisure used by the emperor during his life; and it is difficult to list all the other burial pits in the mausoleum area, all of which epitomize what the emperor enjoyed during his lifetime. In the 45.69 square kilometers of the mausoleum, the emperor and his ministers, based on their power over the human world, focus on the collection of rare treasures and craftsmen, and successfully built an underground kingdom belonging to the dead. The emperor who wants to live forever but failed will continue his immortal dream in the symbolic world
The mound is the earth covering the tomb chamber. Covering the tomb with the earth is a new burial system that emerged during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, that is, the “mound tomb system”, and the earthen mound is the main feature of this burial system. The tombs of King Huaiwen and King Wu of Qin were both covered by well-preserved earth, the shape of which was a four-sided cone with the spire cut off, commonly known as the overturned bucket shape. The original base of the tomb is about 2,000 meters in circumference, and its height varies from one observation point to another, but after more than 2,000 years of weathering, it is still tens of meters high at any one angle. The woods planted on it have become a unique feature.
The underground palace of the Qin Shi Huang tomb is located directly below the mound, as the core of the tomb building, is the place where the emperor’s remains, coffins and important burial artifacts are, which is commonly known as the underground palace. Historical Records – the creation of the underground palace has a vivid description: “buried Shi Huang …… with mercury as the main source of rivers and seas, the mechanism is imbued with astronomy on the top and geography on the bottom. Take the mermaid ointment as a candle, and it will burn forever.” Sima Qian’s account inspired the imagination of later generations to a large extent, and books such as The Old Han Yi, The Book of Han, The Water Classic, and The Three Qin Records also mentioned the Qin Mausoleum’s underground palace briefly, but most of them were attached to it and were not roughly out of Sima Qian’s description. Modern scholars have also explored and researched the area, depth, and structure of the underground palace of the Qin tombs, and have put forward some conjectures. The true state of the underground palace is yet to be clarified through further archaeological excavations and research.