What will the most distinguished people in ancient times do after the death of the emperor? Generally speaking, the emperor and his relatives will be buried in the imperial tomb after their death.
When it comes to imperial tombs, most of us in China think of the Qin Mausoleum first. Wang Wei wrote in "Passing the Tomb of the First Qin Emperor": "The ancient tomb becomes Cangling, and the secluded palace is like a purple terrace. The stars are separated by seven in the morning, and Hehan Jiuquan opens. " Jewelry is the moon, mercury is the river, which shows the grandeur and luxury of the royal mausoleum.
Qin Huangling covers an area of about 6.5438+0.2 million square meters, which is equivalent to 654.38+0.80 mu of land. Many people will think that the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is the largest mausoleum in the world, but it is not.
There is an ancient tomb in Japan-Emperor Rende's Mausoleum, which covers an area of more than 480,000 square meters, nearly four times that of the Qin Mausoleum. It is the largest ancient tomb in Japan.
Mystery of tomb owner
The owner of Emperor Rende's mausoleum is uncertain. Because the mausoleum was built in the 5th century A.D., it is generally believed that the most likely owner of this mausoleum is the Yamato monarch who ruled Japan in the 4th century A.D.-16th generation emperor-Emperor Rende.
Who is Emperor Rende? To talk about this problem, we have to talk about Japanese mythology and the inheritance of the emperor from generation to generation.
In Japanese mythology, there was a father of the gods, Iyenaki, who wanted to wash away his filth on his way back from the country of death. In the process of washing your face, three gods were born, namely, the God in heaven, the life of Harle and the life of Susanu. When washing the left eye, Otsuka, the goddess of heaven born, was the sun goddess who ruled the kingdom of God-Gao Tianyuan, and was also the ancestor of the Japanese emperor.
The ancient Japanese myth book "Ancient Stories" * * records the titles of 33 emperors. It is difficult to determine that Emperor Jimmu was the first person to arrive in Emperor Chuai, and his ranking was 14. There have been related records in history since15th emperor Shen Ying. The16th emperor after Shen Ying was Emperor Rende.
After investigation and study, many experts agree that the first 14 emperors were fabricated to deify the emperors into descendants of the heavenly emperor, and later emperors are more likely to really exist in reality. It can almost be said that Emperor Rende was one of the earliest emperors in Japan.
During the reign of Emperor Rende, he vigorously developed agriculture, water conservancy and diplomacy, which made Japan, Yamato, prosper rapidly at that time. Today's Japanese will proudly call themselves "Yamato Nation", because Yamato under Emperor Rende is both the beginning and the prosperity of Japan.
Emperor Rende, with strong national strength and sufficient property, is qualified and capable of building such a high-standard mausoleum for himself. There is also an interesting cold knowledge about Emperor Rende: According to legend, Emperor Rende was born in 257 AD, died in 399 AD, and lived 140 years old.
If this is true, it can be said to be quite long. Also because of this unusual era, some Japanese experts questioned the authenticity of Emperor Rende. But this is all gossip, and everyone has different opinions.
Mausoleum of Emperor Rende
Rende Mausoleum is a common name for this kind of mausoleum. Its full name is "Kuzu Eryuan Zhong Ling". Maybe we will find this name complicated now, but complexity is also a feature of ancient Japanese names and places. Because the mainstream now thinks that the owner of this mausoleum is Emperor Rende, it is more convenient to call it Emperor Rende's Mausoleum.
Emperor Rende's Mausoleum is located in Daxian Town, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Because it is located in Daxian, the mausoleum of Emperor Rende is also called "Daxian Tomb".
Emperor Rende's Mausoleum is a typical Japanese tomb with a round front and a round back. It is 486 meters long, 249 meters in diameter and 305 meters wide, with a total area of over 480,000 square meters. Although counting the surrounding environment such as burial pits and cemeteries, the area of the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum is slightly better, but it is said that the mound seal is still the larger area of Rende Mausoleum.
You know, the sealed mound of the royal tomb and the small mound of the ordinary tomb are completely different in scale, and their "grave" can almost be regarded as a hill. Especially after the mound is covered with trees and plants, it looks like a mountain.
This is why some mausoleums have become tourist attractions. In addition to feeling the ancient tomb culture, you can also get the feeling of returning to nature for a moment in a quiet environment. But in Japan, out of respect for the emperor, Emperor Rende's mausoleum is almost never open to the outside world.
The most amazing thing is that this "mountain" is really artificially piled up bit by bit, which is called the "Gong Yu" mountain in Japan. Like other imperial tombs, Emperor Rende's mausoleum looks huge in appearance, but there are also amazing quantities and quality of "household goods" and funerary objects inside. Generally, there are stone chambers in ancient tombs to place coffins, instead of burying coffins directly in the ground.
According to special standards, there will be various buckets in the tomb (mainly plain pottery terracotta figures, with various forms such as human, animal and object), as if these models can replace the physical objects and make the tomb owner show his supreme position in the underworld.
The tomb owner's articles should be placed in the tomb as far as possible, so that the tomb owner can have a comfortable life in line with the old habits after his death. Other rare treasures should also be put in, so that the owner of the tomb will not look shabby in the underworld, or lift his head because his financial resources are not as good as others.
However, the archaeological exploration of Emperor Rende's mausoleum is still not completely clear, but many high-standard tombs and funerary objects can be found around it.
A non-existent grave robber
I don't know if anyone found the blind spot: no grave robbers came to rob the tomb? The mausoleum of Emperor Rende is so big, is it true that no one knows?
In China, we do have many novels and other literary works related to grave robbery. But that doesn't mean it's easy to rob a tomb. Not to mention that it is difficult for many archaeologists to work out a comprehensive tomb development plan and how non-professional grave robbers should act.
Take Qin tombs and Egyptian pyramids as examples. Just thinking about what protective measures a monarch can take for his home after death is enough to make timid grave robbers retreat without fighting and go home in a daring defeat.
Moreover, Japan has its own unique national conditions. For the Japanese, the emperor is a descendant of God. Disrespect for the emperor is equivalent to disrespect for God. This kind of cause and effect is unbearable for ordinary people. How dare anyone steal the emperor's tomb?
However, although grave robbery will not appear in the mausoleum of Emperor Rende because of the fear of the Japanese, scientific and reasonable exploration is still possible. In order to determine the real owner of Emperor Rende's Mausoleum, in 20 18, the Palace Office in charge of Japanese royal affairs announced that it would conduct excavation research on Emperor Rende's Mausoleum together with Sakai City of Osaka Prefecture, and then the archaeological work was fully carried out.
Generally speaking, the ancients really attached great importance to the world after death, and the most distinguished people in a country were no exception. No matter from the outside or from archaeological discoveries, the auspicious feathers in Emperor Rende's mausoleum reveal the amazing smell of money in this mausoleum. I don't know what great discoveries Japan will make in the study of Emperor Rende's Mausoleum, but let's wait and see.