The ancient emperors and empresses did not die together. How were they buried together in the same tomb?

In ancient times, there were many tombs with joint burials, and many of them were emperors and their queens or concubines buried together. Many people may understand joint burial to mean that two people are buried together in the same mound. But if this is the case, two people must die together, or the person buried later must have their grave dug and put in. . But this is still very strange. Could it be said that the ancient imperial tombs were not sealed after the burial, and they were buried together after both of them were dead? 1. How were the emperors and empresses buried together?

This is generally done, that is, the emperor was buried while he was still alive When he came to the throne, he began to build a mausoleum, and several coffin beds were preset in his mausoleum. In the future, he would designate several favored concubines or queens to be buried with him. Under normal circumstances, the concubines or queens who died before the emperor must have been buried in these places, and the tomb doors can still be opened at this time. Once the emperor dies and is buried in the mausoleum, the door of the mausoleum will be sealed and will not be opened again.

Of course, the emperor’s tomb is very large. There must be more than just this underground palace, and there must be other underground palaces. When the time comes, the concubines or queens who die later will be buried in these underground palaces, although they are not the same as the emperor. One tomb, but in the same mausoleum, it can be considered a joint burial. And there are some empress dowagers with high status. The emperor who succeeds may be the empress dowager's biological son, or to show filial piety, they may even build a separate mausoleum for the empress dowager.

Of course, this is the case for most ancient dynasties. Another special one is the Yuan Dynasty. Since the Yuan Dynasty adopted the Mongolian grassland burial method, the burial location is completely confidential. Therefore, in this case, the emperor died first, and it was impossible for the queen to be buried with the emperor, because after the emperor was buried, his tomb site became top secret, and there was no way to know where the emperor was buried. Therefore, it was impossible for the queen to be buried with the emperor at this time, and there were a lot of queens in the Yuan Dynasty.

Therefore, in ancient China, emperors and empresses were buried together in the above-mentioned ways, often in the same mausoleum but in different vaults. 2. Several different types of joint burial situations

In ancient imperial tombs, there were many ways of whether the emperor and his queen were buried together. Some were buried together in the same underground palace, some were buried in the same tomb in different caves, and some were buried in later periods. The emperors were buried together in the underground palace. In short, it was different in each historical period. Let me focus on how the emperors and queens of the Qing Dynasty were buried in the underground palace.

The queen who died after the emperor.

The Qing Dynasty had a unified standard for whether the emperor and the empress should be buried together in the same underground palace, which was "humble and immovable", that is, the empress who died before the emperor could be buried in the underground palace of the emperor's mausoleum. The empress after the emperor can never be buried in the underground palace of the emperor's mausoleum. The empress' mausoleum can only be built separately next to the emperor's mausoleum. For example, the famous Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, who was the concubine of Huang Taiji, should be buried in the Zhaoling Mausoleum in Shenyang. However, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang was buried outside the Fengshui Wall of the Dongling Tomb, named "Zhaoxiling" because she was too humble to be respected. . There is also the first empress mausoleum in the Qing Dynasty - Xiaodong Mausoleum, which is the mausoleum of Empress Xiaohuizhang of Emperor Shunzhi. Let's take a look at what the memorial from the officials of the Ministry of Rites to Emperor Kangxi said: "In ancient times, emperors and empresses were not buried together. When designing the mausoleum, we decided to name it according to its location. Today, the mausoleum of Queen Xiaohuizhang is located to the east of Xiaoling Mausoleum. There is no need to name the mausoleum separately. I respectfully drafted the words "Xiaodong Mausoleum" and ordered it to be approved by the Marquis." We can clearly understand the mausoleum system of the Qing Dynasty, because the Xiaoling Mausoleum has been buried with Emperor Shunzhi, and the underground palace is closed and will not be opened again, which is the so-called humble and immovable. Therefore, a separate Queen's Mausoleum was built on the east side of Xiaoling Mausoleum and named Xiaodong Mausoleum. The same was true for the later Empress Dowager Cixi Ding Dongling.

The empress who died before the emperor.

In the Qing Dynasty, empresses who died before the emperor were buried in the emperor's underground palace and were buried with the emperor. But there was an exception, the famous Queen Nala. It was said that her hair was broken for no reason during the tour. Emperor Qianlong was furious, but he did not abolish her title of queen. However, after her death, she was buried in the underground palace of Emperor Chunhui, and she was not There are no sacred tablets for enjoying worship, and there is no record in official historical materials. The answer was finally found in the "Yizhi of the Mausoleum" written by the officials guarding the mausoleum. This was also one of the unsolved cases of the Qing Dynasty.

Let us also take Qianlong as an example. Emperor Qianlong buried two empresses and three imperial concubines in Yuling Underground Palace. These people all died before Emperor Qianlong and were buried in Yuling Underground Palace one after another. Queen Xiaoxian was the first. For a person who was buried in the Yuling Underground Palace, Emperor Qianlong personally sent the queen's coffin to be buried in the underground palace. After that, the stone door must not be closed, but it would not work without closing the door, so the wooden door was used to temporarily seal the entrance to the underground palace to avoid leaking the earth's atmosphere. This wooden door cannot be opened without the emperor's special order. In the future, other imperial concubines were buried in the underground palace one after another in this way. After Emperor Qianlong died and was buried in the underground palace, the four stone doors in the underground palace were closed, and the entrance to the underground palace tunnel was completely sealed. Underground palace.

To sum up, in the Qing Dynasty, the queens and concubines of the harem had to meet three conditions if they wanted to be buried in the emperor’s underground palace. First, they must die before the emperor, which is the most important. Second, they must be buried before their death. She is someone the emperor particularly likes. Third, she must be of a certain rank, at least a noble concubine. Usually they are imperial concubines. In fact, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty first buried his queen in the underground palace of Jingling. In the 20th year of Kangxi's reign, empresses Xiaochengren and Xiaozhaoren were buried together in the newly completed Jingling underground palace. As the questioner asked, those who were buried first were not sealed, but temporarily sealed. Only after the emperor was buried, the underground palace was completely sealed. 3. In ancient times, there were several pairs of emperors and empresses who were buried together in the same cave.

In the Tang Dynasty and later, the eldest son of Empress Wende was buried in Zhaoling, and no separate mausoleum was built. Therefore, the construction of the Emperor's Mausoleum is the construction of the Queen's Mausoleum. The empress died in front of the emperor, the empress was buried in the mausoleum, and the emperor was buried together after his death. The only exception is Wu Zetian. At that time, the ministers believed that Gaozong had been buried for a long time and Empress Wu should not disturb Gaozong, but Zhongzong still opened the Qianling Mausoleum and buried Empress Wu inside.

Later, there was a system. If the queen died before the emperor, she would be buried with the emperor. If the queen died after the emperor, a separate mausoleum would be built to show her humility. This was true in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties.