"Han Tang Dynasty"! As the second unified empire in Chinese history that lasted more than 200 years, the Tang Empire left a strong mark in Chinese history. As the first emperor of the Tang Empire, Li Yuan's contribution was indispensable. Although Li Yuan's reputation was not as loud as that of Li Shimin, Wu Zetian, Li Longji, and other emperors who founded the tang dynasty, Li Yuan's contributions to the institutional construction of the Tang Empire during his reign laid a solid foundation for the rule of Zhenguan and the arrival of the Kaiyuan dynasty.
However, Li Yuan's mausoleum can be called "personality" in the imperial tombs of the Tang Empire. Among the Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Empire in Guanzhong, Li Yuan was one of the few who learned how to build the tombs of the Han Dynasty emperors and piled up the soil into tombs, while the tombs of most of the emperors of the Tang Empire were tombs on the mountain.
So, as the founding emperor of the Tang Empire, why did Li Yuan's mausoleum pile up into a mausoleum?
Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of Tang (566 – 25 June 635)
First, Li Yuan was the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and during his reign, the Tang Dynasty had just been established, and the construction of the Tang Dynasty's imperial tombs did not form a fixed norm.
Since most of the imperial tombs of the Han Dynasty were the tombs of the Fengtu Emperor, Li Yuan said in his will that his cemetery system imitated the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the cemetery system was simple. This laid the groundwork for Li Yuan's dedication to the tomb of Fengtu Chengling.
According to the Book of Rites, the earliest mausoleums in ancient times left no traces on the ground. The tombs of the Shang Dynasty kings excavated at the Yin Ruins in Anyang did not have a mound of earth. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in order to facilitate the younger generations to identify the location of the ancestral cemetery, the descendants piled up a hillside-like mound or planted trees on the ancestral burial chamber as a sign of the ancestral cemetery.
With the increasing number of sealed soils, the ancient imperial court made strict regulations on the size and specifications of the sealed soils. The size of the sealed soil became a direct symbol of the status of the owner of the mausoleum, according to the Eastern Han Dynasty book "White Tiger Tong": Tianzi Tomb Gao Sanyu. The tree is pine; the princes are half-wise, the tree is cypress; the doctor is eight feet, the tree is luan; the soldier is four feet, the tree is locust; the people have no grave, and the tree is willow. What class a person's status was in before he died, the tomb sealing soil after his death must meet the corresponding specifications.
Above_ Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms
After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, the first emperor who created the great unification and hegemony of China built his own 10,000-year mausoleum on Lishan Mountain and piled up a huge mound of sealed earth. After Liu Bang established the Han Empire, whether it was the Western Han Or Eastern Han Dynasty, successive emperors of the Han Empire built mausoleums for themselves around Chang'an or Luoyang.
Although the Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties differed in the size of the imperial tombs, the Western Han and Eastern Han imperial tombs had a common feature - sealing the mounds into tombs (except for the Tombs of the Han Emperors). During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the imperial tombs of various countries were piled up into tombs for sealing soil, and until Yang Jian established the Sui Dynasty in 581 AD, the tombs of Yang Jian and Yang Guang were also sealed into tombs.
Before Li Yuan claimed to be emperor and established the Tang Dynasty, except for the Han Emperor Liu Heng's Baling Tomb, the tombs of the other emperors were all sealed and piled up into tombs. Under such circumstances, Li Yuan, as the founding emperor, did not form a fixed regulation in the Tomb of the Tang Emperor and wrote it into the canonical system, and could only put forward the idea of imitating the Qin and Han systems and sealing the land as a mausoleum in the will. Since the Tang Empire had just been established and was in ruins to be rebuilt, Li Yuan, who was well aware of the profound lessons of the fall of the Sui Dynasty, also mentioned in his testament that "the cemetery system should be simple." ”
Li Shimin (李李) (28 January 598 – 10 July 649) of the Tang Dynasty, was a native of Chengji, Longxi (present-day Qin'an County, Gansu).
Second, the outbreak of the Xuanwumen Rebellion caused Li Yuan to lose power, and two months after the coup, Li Yuan abdicated as the Emperor Taishang and lived in a reclusive position, not asking about political affairs. With the relaxation of the relationship between Li Yuan and Li Shimin, after Li Yuan's death, in order to show the filial piety to the world for Li Yuan, emperor Li Shimin of Tang Taizong built a mausoleum for Li Yuan in accordance with Li Yuan's will and modeled on the specifications of the original mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han Guangwu.
Behind the construction of Li Yuan's mausoleum is the father-son contradiction that is difficult for Emperor Taizong li Shimin to give up--the power game between Li Shimin and Li Yuan before and after the xuanwumen revolution.
After Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, He made Li Jiancheng crown prince and Li Shimin the King of Qin. Li Jiancheng and his father Li Yuan handled the affairs of the country in Chang'an, and Li Shimin, the King of Qin, became the de facto leader of the Tang Empire's unification war, leading the Tang army to achieve brilliant victories in annihilating the Xue Rengao clique, liu Wuzhou clique, Wang Shichong, and Dou Jiande clique.
Especially in the famous Battle of Tiger Prison Pass, Li Shimin, with his outstanding military ability, defeated Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande's 100,000 troops with 3,500 cavalry, laying a solid foundation for the Tang Empire to control the Central Plains. After the Battle of Tiger Prison Pass, Li Shimin returned to Chang'an, where he was welcomed by the people, and Li Yuan named Li Shimin a "General of Heavenly Strategy", and his strength gradually threatened the position of the crown prince Li Jiancheng.
Above_ Xuanwumen coup d'état
However, as the strength of Li Shimin's Qin palace increased, Li Yuan felt that Li Shimin was threatening his imperial power, so Li Yuan adopted a superficial balance and secretly supported Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji's strategy of suppressing Li Shimin and weakening the power of the Qin royal palace. Eventually, the Xuanwumen Revolution was triggered.
On the surface, the contradiction of the change of Xuanwumen is the contradiction between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng. But in fact, the contradiction between the change of Xuanwu Gate was already a contradiction between Li Shimin's Qin palace and the imperial power represented by Li Yuan. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he adopted a policy of reconciliation under the heavens, pardoning Wei Zheng and other princelings, and the relationship between Li Yuan and Li Shimin gradually eased.
From 629 to 630, Li Shimin sent an army of 100,000 to destroy the Tang Dynasty's northern enemy, the Eastern Turk Khaganate. Li Shimin washed away the shame of Li Yuan's early cooperation with the Turks with practical actions, and Li Yuan was very happy in his heart. According to historical records, at the banquet celebrating the Tang army's elimination of the Eastern Turks, Li Yuan played the pipa, Li Shimin danced to help the fun, the father and son were happy and harmonious, and the contradictions between Li Yuan and Li Shimin brought about by the power dispute of Xuanwumen became a thing of the past with the tang army's victory in eliminating the Eastern Turks.
Above_ East and West Turks
In 635, Li Yuan died. How to bury the Emperor? This became the primary problem faced by Li Shimin's subjects? According to his father's will, Li Shi's imperial tomb should be modeled on the imperial tomb of the Han Dynasty, and the han dynasty imperial mausoleum began to be built after the emperor ascended the throne, usually more than 10 years to complete. Liu Che's Mao Mausoleum took more than 50 years to complete, and its cost was huge, which the newly established Tang Dynasty could not afford.
However, Li Yuan did not build a mausoleum for himself before his death, and if he reduced the mausoleum according to Li Yuan's will, it would make Li Shimin bear the insult of filial piety, which Li Shimin, who was working hard to rule, did not want to see. After all, Li Shimin forced Li Yuan to surrender power during the Xuanwumen Rebellion, and after Li Yuan's death, Li Shimin had to build a mausoleum in accordance with his father's will to reflect his filial piety to his father. However, if the mausoleum was built in strict accordance with Li Yuan's will, Li Shimin would have completed the project completed by the Han Dynasty in 10 years within a few months, which was impossible at that time.
The Tomb of Tang Xianling is the mausoleum of Emperor Gaozu of Tang (566-635 AD) and Empress Dowager Taimu of the Dou clan
Is there a way to build a mausoleum in a few months and build a mausoleum in accordance with the father's will, without reducing the specifications of the best of both worlds? At the critical moment when Li Shimin was at a loss, Fang Xuanling, the prime minister, suggested that Li Shimin build a mausoleum for Li Yuan according to the standards of the guangwu emperor Liu Xiuyuan's mausoleum. Li Shimin chose a site in the northeast of sanyuan county in today's Xianyang City, imitating the specifications of the mausoleum of Liu Xiuyuan, the Emperor of Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, and built a dedicated mausoleum for Li Yuan.
The Xianling Cemetery sits north and faces south, and the height of the sealing soil of the mausoleum is similar to that of Liu Xiu's original mausoleum, but the shape of the sealing soil imitates the sealing soil of the Western Han Emperor's mausoleum, which is covered with bucket-shaped rammed earth.
A few months after the xianling was repaired, Li Yuan and Empress Taimu buried the xianling together, and Li Shimin handed over to the world a "filial piety answer sheet" that convinced posterity.
Author: Zhenguan Correction/Editor: Lilith
Resources:
[1] Old Book of Tang, New Book of Tang
[2] "The Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Dynasty in Guanzhong", Li Haolin, Electronic Industry Press
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author