Maoling Site, the mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che
Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty. He had outstanding political achievements and created the most prosperous military period of the Han Dynasty. He also adopted Dong Zhongshu’s suggestion of deposing hundreds of schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone. It also opened up the largest territory of the Han Dynasty. He died in 87 BC at the age of 70. His temple name was Sejong and he was buried in Maoling.
Han Maoling is the tomb of Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. It is located in Maoling Village, Nanwei Township, northeast of Xingping City, 40 kilometers northwest of Xi'an City. It is now a national key cultural relic protection unit. It was built between 139 BC and 87 BC, which lasted 53 years. The mausoleum seal is in the shape of an overturned bucket, with an existing remaining height of 46.5 meters. The base of the tomb is 240 meters long. The cemetery is square in shape, with a side length of about 420 meters. To this day, the earthen palaces on the east, west and north sides still exist, and the tombs surrounding the mausoleum include the tombs of Mrs. Li, Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, Huo Guang, Jin Ri_ and others. It is the largest tomb of the emperors of the Han Dynasty, took the longest to build, and has the richest burial objects. It is called the Pyramid of China. Nine of the 11 emperors of the Western Han Dynasty are buried in Xianyang Yuan Mausoleum. The tombs are arranged from west to east, nearly a hundred miles long, and magnificent.
In the second year of the founding of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Che built Shouling here. Emperor Wu was buried here after his death in 87 BC. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che was a great and talented emperor who could be compared with Qin Shihuang in history. When he was in power, the Han Empire was at its peak. He adopted a grand strategy of rewarding farming, developing production, enriching the country and strengthening the army, and fighting against the Xiongnu. While strengthening centralization politically, it also implemented the government-run system of salt boiling, iron smelting, transportation and trade economically, built water conservancy, developed agriculture, and carried out foreign trade; it fought against the Xiongnu militarily and opened the road to the Western Regions. , firmly controlled the Hexi Corridor and reached Hainan in the south, basically forming the pattern of the living space of the Chinese nation, thus making the Han Empire stand in the east of the world with a unified, prosperous and powerful attitude. The Maoling Mausoleum is a magnificent building, and the burial objects inside the tomb are extremely luxurious and rich. Historically, it is said that money, property, birds, beasts, fish, turtles, cattle, horses, tigers, leopards, and poultry were all hidden away.
It is said that Emperor Wu’s gold-engraved jade clothes, jade box, jade staff, etc. were buried in the tomb. At that time, the cemetery also had a worship hall, a dormitory hall, and houses for palace maids and mausoleum keepers to live in. There were 5,000 people here to manage the cemetery, responsible for watering trees, sweeping, and other errands. Moreover, Maoling County was built in the southeast of Maoling. Many civil and military ministers and wealthy people moved here, with a population of more than 277,000.
There is a poem by Zhao Bingwen from the Jin Dynasty: No one can be seen by the Weishui Bridge, but there are unicorns rubbing the high tombs. The bones of eternal fame have turned into dust in Xianyang. His poems tell the historical scenes of Xianyang Plain. Traveling across the distance of time and space, through these desolate tombs on display, people seem to see the rise and fall of Xianyang Plain, hear the neighing of the horses of the owners of the ancient tombs, and read the wonderful chapters of Xianyang ancient tomb culture.
The Guanzhong Plain at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains starts from Baoji in the west and ends at Tongguan in the east. It is sandwiched between the Qinling Mountains and the Beishan Mountains in the north and south. It is one of the birthplaces of ancient civilization. The Wei River flows from west to east through the strip-shaped Guanzhong Plain, so it is also called the Wei River Plain. In ancient times, this area belonged to the Qin State and was about seven to eight hundred miles long, so it was also called Qinchuan of Eight Hundred Miles. During the Western Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties, Guanzhong was the richest place in the country, accounting for six-tenths of the country's wealth. The ancient capital of Xi'an is located on the south bank of the Wei River in the middle of this plain. Eight rivers, including the Feng River, Hu River, and Ba River, meander from the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, forming a scene of eight rivers surrounding Chang'an. Towering and high peaks such as Huashan Mountain, Lishan Mountain and Zhongnan Mountain belonging to the Qinling Mountains are listed in the south of the urban area. There are many mountains and mountains, and the clouds are steaming and the clouds are shining, forming a beautiful landscape.
Xianyang, located in the hinterland of Guanzhong and at the junction of Jingwei and Jingwei, is the main gathering place for the imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty. In the 214th year of the Western Han Dynasty, 11 emperors built 11 cemeteries, 9 of which were located on the Xianyang Plain. The most important of them were the Five Tombs, namely Gaozu Changling, Huidi Anling, Jingdi Yangling, and Wu Emperor Maoling. and Emperor Zhao's Pingling Tomb. At that time, these Wulings were all built and managed by mausoleums, so they were called Wulingyuan. In ancient poems, the descriptions of Wuling's young men quarreling over their heads and Wuling's fur horses being light and fat refer to the fowl-fighting and misdeeds of the dandy boys who lived in these tombs at that time.
Among the 11 imperial mausoleums in the Western Han Dynasty, the largest is the Maoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In Chinese history, only the Lishan Tomb of Qin Shihuang can compare with such a large-scale imperial mausoleum.
Maoling is located on the northeast plain of Xingping County, Shaanxi Province, and in the southeast of Nanwei Township. It is 12 kilometers away from Xingping County in the west and 15 kilometers away from Xianyang City in the east. It is far away from Jiujun Mountain to the north and Zhongnan Mountain to the south.
To the east and west is Wulingyuan, which stretches hundreds of miles. This place originally belonged to Mao Township in Huaili County during the Han Dynasty, so it was called Maoling. It is 46.5 meters high, 39.25 meters long from east to west at the top, and 40.60 meters wide from north to south. According to Guanzhong records: All Han tombs are 12 feet high and 120 feet square, but Maoling is 14 feet high and 140 feet square. The above is basically consistent with today's measurement figures. The total area is 56878.25 square meters, and the soil volume is 848592.92 cubic meters. The cemetery is surrounded by a square shape with a flat roof, small at the top and large at the bottom. It is shaped like an overturned bucket and looks solemn and steady.
Maoling Museum
The construction of Maoling began in 139 BC and was completed in 87 BC, which lasted 53 years. The Book of Jin·Suo Sui Chuan says: One year after the emperor of the Han Dynasty came to the throne, he built a mausoleum, and the world paid one-third of the tribute, one for the mountain temple, one for the guests, and one for the mountain mausoleum. In other words, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used one-third of the total national taxes to pay for the construction of the mausoleum and the collection of burial objects. When the mausoleum was built, more than 3,000 construction craftsmen and art masters were recruited from various places. The scale of the project is jaw-dropping. The Zi Palace of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had five coffins and two coffins. The five-layer coffin is placed on the coffin bed in the middle of the coffin room at the back of the tomb. The second half of the tomb is a coffin chamber, which has two floors. The inner layer is made of flat vertical wood stacked to form a door shape. There is a gap in the south, and the outer layer is Huang Chang Ti Cou. The wood used for the five coffins is catalpa, catalpa and nanmu. The three types of wood are hard and fine in texture, resistant to moisture and have strong antiseptic properties. Around Zi Palace, there are four xianmen, as well as a toilet and a building with a huangchang title. The function and purpose of the toilet is to hide the toilet and sit in it. The Book of Han·Huo Guangzhuan says: Sitting down means not sleeping properly, as it is a place where guests can be extended to the side. Simply put, the living room is a place where living people live and feast, and the items they considered most precious during their lifetime are buried together with the deceased in the tomb so that they can be enjoyed in the underworld. The title of Huangchang is made of the yellow heart of cypress wood, which causes the outside of the coffin to be tired, so it is called Huangchang. The wood materials are all inward-looking, so they are called title pieces. After the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Huangchang title piece was made. The surface was polished very smooth and it was quite labor-intensive. It was made of 15,880 Huangchang wood pieces that were 90 cm long, 10 cm high and 10 cm wide.
In 87 BC, after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty died, he was buried in the front hall of Weiyang Palace. According to the Xijing Miscellaneous Notes, when Han emperors died, they would wear a jade box with beaded ornaments. The box was shaped like armor and connected with gold threads. In the Zi Palace, Emperor Wu held a cicada jade in his mouth and wore a jade box with gold threads. The boxes are all engraved with images of dragons, phoenixes, fish and lins, which is known as the dragon jade box. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was tall and fat. The jade garment he wore was very large, with a total length of 1.88 meters. It was composed of about 2498 large and small jade pieces, and the gold wire used for the body weighed about 1100 grams.
The underground palace of Maoling is filled with a large number of rare treasures. Gong Yu's biography in the Han Dynasty says: Emperor Wu abandoned the world, and Huo Guang was dedicated to his work. He hid too much money and property, including birds, beasts, money, turtles, oxen, horses, tigers, leopards, and poultry. There were ninety things in them all, and he hid them all. The New Book of Tang·Yu Shinan Zhuan also records: Emperor Wu had been buried for a long time, and there was nothing left in the mausoleum. It can be seen from the above records that because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had been in power for a long time and was at the peak of economic prosperity, there were many burial objects. In addition to more than 190 kinds of burial objects, there were also live cattle and horses, tigers and leopards, fish and turtles, birds, etc. , were also buried together. According to other records, the king of Kangqu State presented the jade box and jade staff to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, as well as the 30 volumes of miscellaneous scriptures that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty read during his lifetime, which were placed in a gold box and buried in the mausoleum.