Since ancient times, an emperor will definitely do one thing after becoming emperor, and that is to build a mausoleum. Although emperors also want to live forever, no emperor has achieved this through the ages, so they still build mausoleums peacefully, hoping to live more comfortably after death, so building mausoleums has become a must-do. matter.
In Chinese history, the Ming Dynasty went through 16 emperors and lasted for 276 years. After Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, basically all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were buried in the capital, so they There are now the Ming Tombs. Except for Zhu Yuanzhang who was buried in Nanjing, Zhu Yunwen's whereabouts are unknown and Zhu Qiyu was not recognized as emperor, the tombs of the remaining thirteen emperors are all in the Ming Tombs.
Although the thirteen tombs are all mausoleums, there are still differences. It is not the difference in the emperor's burial objects, but that one of the thirteen tombs has been excavated. This is The tomb of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Wanli was the emperor of the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Why didn't he excavate other tombs instead of digging only Emperor Wanli's Dingling Tomb?
In fact, what Guo Moruo and some archaeological experts wanted to excavate most at first was Zhu Di's Changling Tomb, in order to determine whether there was a "Yongle Dadian" in the Changling Tomb. There were originally copies of the encyclopedia "Yongle Dadian", but due to the war and the policies of successive emperors during the Qing Dynasty, most of the encyclopedia disappeared, and the remaining 800 volumes were scattered around the world. Today There is only one way to find the complete book, which is to excavate the tomb of Emperor Yongle. The "Yongle Dadian" is likely to be buried underground with the emperor.
However, the project of surveying Changling did not go well at all. The experts could not start at will, so they decided to find a smaller mausoleum to practice their skills. In addition, Emperor Wanli had been in power for 48 years, and the tomb was preserved in it. There may also be more historical materials, so we began to excavate Dingling. However, according to the level of technological development at that time, although many cultural relics were excavated, there was no way to preserve them, leaving many rare treasures irreparably damaged.
This excavation gave archaeological experts a clear idea, that is, they will not actively excavate the tombs of emperors from now on. Therefore, among the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty, only the tomb of Emperor Wanli has been excavated