Many people believe that the craftsmen who built the imperial tombs in ancient times were very miserable, because the emperor was afraid that his tombs would be stolen and would kill them to ensure safety. But this view is actually a misunderstanding of the ancient emperors.
In ancient times, those who won the hearts of the people won the world, and the large-scale ** of craftsmen would lead to the loss of people's hearts. In addition, the wisdom of the ancient craftsmen was able to keep themselves safe, so in most cases, they were able to walk out of the imperial tomb unharmed.
Historically, there have been cases where craftsmen who built imperial tombs have been killed, but such incidents are extremely rare, and only Qin Shi Huang and Genghis Khan have been documented. According to the "Historical Records of Qin Benji", after the death of Qin Shi Huang, his son Qin II Hu Hai, worried about the leakage of the secrets of the imperial tomb, ordered all those who participated in the construction of the imperial tomb and the burial of Qin Shi Huang to be closed in the underground palace, and these people eventually starved to death in the underground palace and became the funeral goods of Qin Shi Huang.
After the death of Genghis Khan Temujin, his sons Ögedei and Torre, in order to keep his burial place secret, carried out bloody ** on the Western Xia royal family and local civilians, and even the army escorting Genghis Khan's burial was killed.
Therefore, the mausoleum of Genghis Khan remains a mystery to this day. In history, only Qin Shi Huang and Genghis Khan dared to build the imperial tomb so unscrupulously.
This is mainly because Qin Shi Huang and Genghis Khan lived in a time when Confucianism was not embraced, and ancient emperors were mostly bound by Confucianism. After the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese emperors embraced Confucianism, believing that the indiscriminate killing of craftsmen who built imperial tombs was a cruel and inhumane act that would leave a bad name in history, so few emperors did so.
All dynasties and dynasties have special guards and armies to ensure the safety of the imperial tomb. Digging up the imperial tomb was regarded as a felony in ancient times, and it would even involve the nine clans. Therefore, the theft of imperial tombs in history often occurs in troubled times when dynasties alternate.
As a result, most of the craftsmen who built the Imperial Tomb were able to complete their tasks safely and receive their remuneration. Therefore, for the craftsmen who built the imperial tomb, they were not as miserable as everyone imagined.
In ancient times, the construction of royal tombs was an extremely important task, but at the same time it was fraught with risks. The craftsmen were well aware of the importance that the royal family attached to the secrecy of the mausoleum, so they carefully developed the anti-theft technology of the mausoleum.
In order to ensure the safety of the mausoleum, the craftsmen deliberately developed a technique that allows the gate of the underground palace to be closed from the outside, but not from the outside by hand. The core of this technique lies in the stone door of the underground palace, by making the upper and lower ends of the door shaft of the tomb door into a ball shape, a protruding groove is carved out of the same part of the door gap between the two stone doors, and there is also a groove in the stone floor not far from the door.
After the emperor was buried, the craftsman in charge of closing the gate of the underground palace would place a white marble bar on the ground and let it tilt slowly. When the stone door of the underground palace is closed, the white marble bar will roll along the spherical axis into the groove until finally the white marble bar will resist the stone door.
This ingenious design not only ensured the safety of the mausoleum, but also allowed the craftsmen to avoid the risk of being killed by the royal family.
New copywriting: At the entrance to the underground palace of the Imperial Mausoleum, ancient craftsmen carefully designed an anti-theft device for automatic doors and running stones. This device can automatically close the tomb door, and it is almost impossible for human beings to force it open from the outside, thus solving the problem of anti-theft of the imperial tomb.
The main reason for the craftsmen to develop this anti-theft technology is to protect their lives. As long as the door of the dungeon is firmly locked by this device, there is no need for the royal family to kill them again.
This craft of automatic doors and running stone reached its peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and almost all Ming and Qing imperial tombs adopted this method.
The story of Sun Dianying's thieves digging up Dongling fully demonstrates the magic of automatic doors and tap stones. Although Sun Dianying led a huge army of tomb robbers, and even used the ancient siege chariots, he was unable to open the stone gate of the Yuling underground palace of Emperor Qianlong.
Eventually, they could only be opened by means of explosives. This incident proves the power of the technology of automatic doors and tap stones, which can stick to their function even in the face of such a formidable opponent.
The wisdom and courage of Mr. Guo Moruo and Mr. Wu Han made the excavation of the Ming Ding Mausoleum possible. Although they encountered difficulties in not finding the entrance to the underground palace when they investigated the Ming Changling, they did not give up, but chose to start from the Ming Ding Mausoleum.
This excavation not only accumulated valuable experience for them, but also paved the way for their future excavation of the Ming Changling. Neither bandits like Sun Dianying nor modern archaeologists can stop their determination and wisdom.
When the archaeological team discovered the entrance to the underground palace of the Ming Ding Mausoleum, they encountered a big problem. It turned out that they encountered the same situation as Sun Dianying back then, that is, no matter how much manpower they had, they could not open the stone gate of the underground palace.
This means that unless they use Sun Dianying's original method of robbing the tomb and blow open the stone door with explosives, they will not be able to enter. However, archaeological excavations are different from tomb robbing, and the destruction of cultural relics is absolutely unacceptable.
As a result, the archaeological team was faced with a difficult choice, hoping to find a way to open the stone door without destroying the artifacts. In this case, Mr. Guo Moruo and Mr. Wu Han led the team to start searching for ancient books from the Ming and Qing dynasties, hoping to find answers from them.
After unremitting efforts, they finally found clues in Qing Dynasty documents, knowing that the stone door was an automatic door, and the back of the door was leaning on a running stone, and to open the tomb door from the outside, a tool called a nail key was used.
The "Nail Key" is an ancient method of opening the door of a tomb. It is to roll the steel wire into a hook, and then extend it through the crack of the door, cover the running stone, and forcefully lift the stone bar, so as to open the tomb door.
This method is well documented in the literature. It is said that the discovery of this method is due to Zhu Youzhen, the emperor of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty. In that year, Li Zicheng invaded the capital, and Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in Jingshan.
Li Zicheng expressed his admiration for Chongzhen and ordered his subordinates to bury Chongzhen and Empress Zhou in the tomb of Tian Guifei, whom he loved during his lifetime. However, the door of Tian Guifei's tomb had long been closed, and the people who buried Chongzhen could not open it.
They searched for skilled craftsmen among the people, and finally found a way to open the door of the tomb using the nail key. At that time, the literati who participated in the burial of Chongzhen recorded this method in the literature, which provided key help for modern archaeological teams to excavate the Ming Ding Mausoleum.
This ancient method, although seemingly simple, has played an important role in history, it is not only the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancients, but also an important way for us to understand ancient history.
According to the document, the archaeological team successfully opened the door of the Dingling Underground Palace using the nail key. In 1958, the Ming Ding Mausoleum was officially excavated, and the bodies of Zhu Yijun and the two queens of Mingshenzong were also made public.
However, due to the limited technology at that time, many of the excavated cultural relics were not properly preserved, and eventually either "died of seeing the light" due to the weathering of the excavation, or were destroyed as feudal remnants in the sixties and seventies, resulting in archaeological tragedies.
After realizing the tragedy of the Ming Ding Mausoleum, the state no longer allowed the continued excavation of other imperial tombs, and in the eighties, it issued a regulation that only the ancient tombs that had been stolen and excavated should be carried out by rescue and active excavation, and no new tombs should be actively excavated.
The automatic doors and the anti-theft technology of the running stone provided great security for the craftsmen who built the imperial tomb. It not only protects the imperial tomb from theft and excavation, but also protects the personal safety of the craftsmen.
In addition, ancient emperors were generally reluctant to bear notoriety, and imperial tombs were heavily guarded, so few emperors chose to assassinate the craftsmen who built them. Only a very small number of emperors, such as Qin Shi Huang and Genghis Khan, would have done such a thing.