Thursday, February 05, 2009

Building power afterlife

There is a saying:
No matter how strong, how powerful and how talented you are,
you can never beat this thing:
DEATH.

By knowing this fact, the first Emperor of China, Shi HuangDi decided to find way to keep his life immortal.

But at the same time, he also start building his Mausoleum,
at the age of 13~~!!

13 wei~~!!
What were you doing when you were 13?


Just finish UPSR, going to start new life in secondary school?
Still playing game, watching cartoon and munching sweet?

At the age of 13:
Shi HuangDi already started planning and building his grave.
Yue Fei has already defeated the Jin soldiers and return with victory.

People were so matured and contributed to the society since so small in those days.

Shi HuangDi built a terracotta city, hoping that those soldiers can assist him to conquer the world afterlife.


He hired craftman to mould so many soldiers with different faces and facial expression.
But some believed that he actually mould the soldiers alive.
Meaning, putting cement or earth on the soldiers and cover them directly.
If not how to get so many types of different faces?
Well, nobody will knock the terracotta to find out what is inside, so it remains as a rumour and mysterious.


Those days, people are so intelligent, not only good in art, but also astrology, geographical, medicine and fortune-telling.

Shi Huangdi even knew how to use mercury to build his tomb!
It is believed that there are many many jewelry and treasures inside Shi Huangdi's tomb.
But nobody dare to open his tomb, because he has filled his tomb with mercury.
If people open up his tomb, the mercury will react with the oxygen and melt everything away.


Wow~~!
That's brilliant!
First of all, how did he know that mercury got this property?
How the people inject the mercury into his tomb and seal it without letting the oxygen react with the mercury? Or without letting the mercury diffuse out from the tomb?

Not only Shi HuangDi.
Actually all the emperors in China (including those kingdoms before China was formed), planned and built their tomb since many many years ago before they turned old.


I went to Ming tomb few years ago.
This tomb belongs to an Emperor, who played and get drunk everyday,
until people didn't know what to write to praise him on his gravestone.

(All the Emperors' gravestone will have words on it to praise what he has done during his lifetime, what has he contributed to the country and bla bla bla.... )

Thus, his tomb is the only tomb with no word on the gravestone at all.
Chinese called it "no word stone"
Takkan people write there: this Emperor only know how to enjoy his alcohol and woman everyday. Right?

So, when I enter the tomb, I got a shock of my life.
I didn't know that coffin can be so big~~~!

Taller than a human!!!
Another two shorter coffins beside were the West Empress and East Empress
(Mandarin: 东宫娘娘 and 西宫娘娘).
As every emperor will have two empresses.
Each in charge of one female palace, which are the east palace and west palace.

The coffin is so huge because it was being layered with jewelry, jades, crystals and all sorts of treasures, then only lie the body of the emperor on top of all these things.

So, imagine how rich the emperor was!!

See the candle in front of the chair or not?
This candle is being lighted for at least 300 years since the day the emperor being buried inside this tomb.
The fire never put off.
The candle never finish burnt.
Until the day archeologist open the first hole of this tomb, then only the candle was being put off!

Amazing amazing amazing!
How the emperor can design in such a way that the candle can light up for so long?

Well, there are more shocking stories about emperors' tomb...
But by having such a great tomb, will it help to reduce their sin?

How do you want to design your own grave?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not and never going to design my own grave unless one wants to kill him/herself...I prefer if throw in the sea, save funeral cost mah...I heard the moulded soldiers were made to keep the emperor in the tomb some how...it's a rumour la...

Anonymous said...

because they hate the emperor or sth...

Lee said...

Hi MiChi, I can see you interested in all these. Good for you. Me too.
And the Tibetan book of living and dead. I have always been interested in the Tibetan scrolls and their form of Religion.

I read about how long, long time ago a young White man from the middle East came to study Religion with them.
When that faded scroll was discovered, it then mysteriously disappeared.

And Jesus was 23 when, "HE went up to the mountains...". The Bible says HE went into the 'Wilderness'.

You stay easy and have a beautiful Sunday, Lee.

Anonymous said...

early happy valentine's, t'cher

plusmy said...

I hate to tell ppl this way, but i got inform...

I m not quite sure where u get d info...

1st Shi HuangDi when he was 13, he still got hostage by another state warlord (it was kind of culture to exchange oldest son as hostage to prevent war against each other)

2nd I m not sure if he foreseen his death as he was died during his summer cruising (his ministers having difficulty to hide his dead), so they used a lot death fish as dummy.

3rd As he was still alive he was busying constructing a huge building called 阿房宫, which took more than 3 months to burn down!!! (according to a book call 史记 "The Records of the Grand Historian" said)

4th Ya it is myth saying the huge tomb contain high content of mercury. lol mercury will not melt "everything", unless the "everything" is pure gold!!!

Ya in the old day, ppl do get ready for their own death. No so distance ago, ppl buy coffin to put in their house to just in case...u see in the old day, when every things is so labor, u do need to get thing done b4 hand!!!

Sorri such a lengthy words, if u find annoying, remove it. ;p

Perky said...

Hmm... very interesting stuff indeed. I've always been amazed with ancient history & the great things they accomplished.

But I liked your last paragraph the best: But by having such a great tomb, will it help to reduce their sin?

MiChi said...

Haunting Angel:
Ya, I prefer cremate too...
Interesting fact.

Uncle Lee:
Hey, nice sharing!

Plusmy:
Thanks for sharing.
There are lots of version of story about Shi Huangdi. I knew about the "Shi Shu". In facts, some of the facts in the book are yet to be proven.

That's just a layman term of saying that it melts "everything", tak-kan I explain the chemistry reaction of mercury here. And it might not be just mercury in the tomb, can be the compound of mercury. You can refer to Discovery Channel which reported about this before.

You mean Egyptian also got labour problem that's why they have to start building pyramid long time ago? I believe there is more about it. And it is a fact that Emperors start planning their tomb since many many years before they die. Not only because of labour, it was because of good planning for the most suitable tomb that they desire.

Why I wrote this post? Not so much of about the facts ya.

MiChi said...

Mercury might oxide the treasures which the archeologists wanted to preserved.

I was watching a documetary on this and the reason the Chinese government wouldn't open the tomb was because they didn't have the technology. But one of the Chinese archeologists said that it was because of chinese superstitions about spirits escaping.

MiChi said...

Perky:
yalor...

Anonymous said...

Waah! I am impressed on the photos you posted!

foongpc said...

This is very interesting! I also wonder how come last time people are so smart? Are humans getting stupider? Cannot be what, I noticed children nowadays are smarter than me last time when I was their age! Haha!

A lot of unsolved puzzles like how they build the terra cotta with so many different faces, how to make the candle light for so many years, and how to inject the mercury without reacting with oxygen?

It's the same with questions like how they build the pyramids? No such technology existed last time! So were humans aided by aliens from outer space last
time?

Anyway, I won't want to visit the terra cotta city alone - they said it's haunted and a woman went crazy after visiting that place last time!

As for burial spots, I only know that in yin feng shui, the direction of your tomb will affect your future generations!! So powerful!