Qin Shihuang holds a
central place in Chinese history for being the first emperor who
united the country. He is also well known for his part in the
construction of the spectacular Great Wall and his splendid
terracotta army.
To ensure his rule in
the afterlife, this emperor commanded more than 700,000 conscripts
from all parts of the country to build him a grand mausoleum as
luxurious as any of the palaces he had in mortal life. Legend says
that numerous treasures were placed in the tomb.
As time passed, no one
knew exactly what was put in the grand palace. Recently, Guo
Zhikun, a specialist in the history of the Qin (221 BC-206 BC) and
Han (206 BC-220 AD) dynasties, gave a press conference in Xi'an,
the capital city of west China's Shaanxi Province. He disclosed his academic
research results focusing on the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang,
making bold guesses about the mysterious tomb complex that
fascinates the whole world.
Guess 1: How
tall was the tomb mound?
According to Guo, the
mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang is actually composed of two
parts: the tomb mound, a hillock above the tomb, and the
underground palace, the chamber containing the emperor's
coffin.
Most historical records
indicate that the original tomb mound was 115 meters in height and
2,076 meters in girth. Exposed to the wind and sun for thousands of
years, the mound has been greatly weathered down. The current girth
is 1,390 meters, and the base of the mound covers an area of
120,750 square meters.
There has been a
decades-long argument about why the mound's height dropped so
sharply in recent years. Guo said that most people attributed it to
the erosion from wind and rain and to manmade changes. However,
another opinion has emerged recently. According to Duan Qingbo who
leads the archaeological team at the mausoleum, the height of 115
meters recorded in most historical documents was just a figure
copied down from the original blueprint. It is believed that the
construction was left unfinished due to a nationwide uprising of
peasants. After the emperor's corpse was placed in the chamber, the
tomb mound project began. Later, about half of the laborers were
transferred to the construction site of another palace building.
When the peasant army approached the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin
Shihuang, the second emperor of the dynasty, who had taken the
throne from his dead father, hastily organized the remaining
workers on the construction site to fight against the rebels. No
more soil were added onto the hillock later.
Guess 2: How
many gates does the underground palace have?
Opinions also differ on
how many gates the underground palace contains. Some said there
were two, one made of stone and the other of bronze. Others said
that there were six, because Emperor Qin Shihuang had always
considered the number "six" auspicious.
How many gates does the
underground palace have then? After reading through piles of
ancient documents, Guo Zhikun said that the exact number was
recorded clearly in Records of the Historian, a great
historical book written by Sima Qian. In it, the author wrote,
"When the emperor died, he was placed in the underground palace.
Then, the middle gate was closed and the outer gate was shut down.
All workmen were entombed. No one escaped."
Guo explained that the
emperor's coffin and all his burial articles were placed inside the
middle gate. When the palace was shut down, workmen were busy
working in it. Within seconds, however, they were entombed along
with the emperor and became burial sacrifices
themselves.
From Sima Qian's
description, Guo inferred that the underground palace had three
gates: an outer gate, a middle gate and an unmentioned inner gate.
In addition, in Sima Qian's record, the middle gate was "closed",
which meant it had two planks, and the outer gate was "shut down",
which meant it slide down vertically. Guo believed the middle door
was locked automatically once it was closed. It was designed
deliberately to prevent any breakthrough from inside or any
invasion from outside. Besides, Guo guessed the unmentioned inner
gate had the same mechanism as the middle one and the three gates
were located on a straight line.
Guess 3: How
many treasures lie buried?
The tomb of Emperor Qin
Shihuang was filled with fine vessels, precious stones and other
rarities according to Sima Qian's record. Liu Xiang, another famous
scholar before Sima Qian, wrote in one of his passages, "Since
antiquity, no one has ever been buried in such a luxurious manner
as Emperor Qin Shihuang."
All the sketchy but
intriguing words made us curious about the mysterious wealth buried
in the magnificent underground palace. In Records of the
Historian, one can find descriptions about a golden wild
goose, pearls and jade. But what else lies down there?
In the late 1980s, a
large bronze chariot equipped with life-size horses was unearthed
outside the west wall of the underground palace of Emperor Qin
Shihuang. These elaborately decorated burial articles fascinated
the world about the treasures hidden in the emperor's tomb
chamber.
"Emperor Qin Shihuang
was fond of music. He must have all kinds of musical instruments
buried with him," guessed Guo. Recently, a pit for sacrifices was
found between the inner wall and outer wall of the tomb complex.
Covering 600 square meters, the pit was 40 meters wide from east to
west and 15 meters long from north to south. Most of the articles
excavated were pottery figures of courtiers, musicians and
acrobats. In recent years, a variety of traditional Chinese musical
instruments, such as Bianzhong (bronze chimes), were
unearthed. Guo felt confident that the underground palace must have
a whole collection of musical instruments. Besides, Guo guessed
that there might be many valuable ancient books in addition to
treasures and jewels.
Guess 4: Does
the automatic-shooting crossbows function well?
Ancient Chinese tended
to bury treasures with them. Not surprisingly, tomb robbery was
once rampant throughout the country. To prevent outside invasions,
Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered a full range of precautions. It is
said that besides poisonous mercury, booby traps with automatically
ejected arrows were installed in the tomb chamber to deter would-be
robbers. Anyone who dared to break in would certainly die a violent
death.
However, all those
alleged lethal weapons have been buried under earth for thousands
of years. Would they still function adequately now? Most people
believe that the crossbows would still shoot arrows if they are
triggered. Guo also agreed so after he carefully studied ancient
smelting technology recorded in historical books.
In a modern test, a
coating of chromate was found on the surface of weapons excavated
along with the terracotta warriors. This coating served to make
bronze weapons rust-resistant. Thus, it is highly likely that the
automatic crossbows may function well even after thousands of
years.
Guo speculated that
these crossbows were the first automatic burglar-proof devices in
the world. "Craftsmen were ordered to fix up these crossbows in
such a way so that any thief breaking in would be shot." He quoted
a line in Records of the Historian to support his
prediction.
Guess 5: Is the
corpse of Emperor Qin Shihuang well preserved?
Although it is widely
believed that the underground palace has not been disturbed in past
years, some people hold the opinion that the emperor's body had
putrefied.
According to historical
records, the emperor died during an inspection tour. It was summer
so the body couldn't be kept for long. In fact, records state that
the body had started to stink even before it was carried back to
the capital.
In one of his works, Guo
pointed out that it is possible the emperor's corpse might be
relatively well preserved. He had three reasons supporting his
assumption. First, during the Qin era, it was common practice among
aristocrats to put mercury in their tombs to prevent corpses from
decaying. Second, when the emperor died, all prominent officials
were accompanying him, along with an imperial doctor with superb
medical skills who was summoned to his deathbed. Third, modern
tests on the soil of the tomb mound show unusually high
concentrations of mercury. Guo pointed out all these conditions
indicate the possibility of preservation for his body.
Guo: All the
guesses have to be testified by archeological
finds.
At the press conference,
Guo's new book, Guesses on the Underground Palace of
Qin Mausoleum, was introduced to the public. "When I wrote
this book, I consulted scores of famous archeologists via letters,
E-mails or face-to-face communications. They all gave me tremendous
help." Guo Zhikun said that his assumptions were based on the
results of previous research. If they turn out to be correct, the
credit should be given to all scholars engaged in this
field.
As technology advances,
maybe one day we can open the grand palace and discover all the
answers to these questions.
(China.org.cn by Chen
Xia, October 24, 2007)
