History can't bear to look at the complete collection

Chapter 84 The Inhuman Moment 3
Zhu Yuanzhang's method of death for the concubine buried with him
In ancient times, there was a cruel and barbaric system, that is, burial with living people.

After the Qin and Han Dynasties, living people were not used in the burial of emperors, but wooden and pottery figurines were often used instead.In the Ming Dynasty, sacrificial burials appeared again. According to the "Da Ming Hui Dian", Zhu Yuanzhang had more than 40 concubines "alive" to be buried.In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's practice of burying living people had already been carried out. As early as after the death of his second son, King Zhu of Qin, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered two princesses to be buried.

In 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness and was buried with more than 40 concubines. Many of these concubines also gave birth to children for Zhu Yuanzhang.The names of many people can be verified one by one: Tianli, Zhaojing's concubine Hu's, Cheng Mu's noble concubine Sun's, etc.For the buried concubines, the cunning court rewarded them spiritually.The concubines and concubines buried in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty all got a "niche" set up in the Xiaoling Mausoleum Hall for future generations to worship.

There are many theories about how these concubines died, and there are two most common ones.One is hanging: when they were buried, the courtiers and eunuchs summoned them to a courtyard to have a banquet together.After the banquet, introduce a hall.Small wooden beds are placed in the hall in advance, and nooses are fastened on the beams of the hall.The concubines knew that the time of death had come, and the sound of crying reverberated the hall.These beautiful concubines climbed onto the wooden bed tremblingly, and some even needed help to climb up.They put their heads into the noose, and the eunuchs and courtiers tightened the rope, moved the wooden bed, and hanged them one by one, which was extremely cruel.

The other is to inject mercury into their blood vessels.It took less than a minute for the mercury to enter the body, and all the concubines died of poisoning.But to outsiders, they are still the same as living people, but they are just asleep.

When Ming Chengzu Zhu Di died, there were more than 30 concubines buried.It was not until the first month of the eighth year of Tianshun (1464) that Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty said before his death: "I cannot bear to employ people to be buried. This matter will be stopped by myself, and future generations will not do it again." The system of concubine burial was abolished.

Although there is no need to be buried with living people, luxurious funeral objects are indispensable.In Cixi's mausoleum, but the jewels "filling in the blanks" in her coffin are worth 223 million taels of silver, not to mention others.Cixi's mausoleum is magnificently built. Although the scale is the same as that of the Eastern Empress Dowager Ci'an, there are some hidden caves inside. The decoration cost of Cixi's mausoleum and the total value of the funerary objects are as high as hundreds of millions of taels of silver, which can be called the highest in the Qing Dynasty.

In the "Notes of Ai Yuexuan" written by Li Lianying, there are detailed records of the types, quantities, locations and values ​​of Cixi's funeral objects.It looks jaw-dropping.

In Cixi's coffin, the bottom is covered with a 7-inch thick gold silk bead brocade mattress, which is decorated with countless priceless treasures, inlaid with 12604 large and small pearls, 85 precious stones, and 203 white jade.On top of the brocade mattress is a silk mattress embroidered with lotus flowers, and 2400 pearls are spread on the silk mattress.

Empress Dowager Cixi's body was covered with a gold-woven Dharani sutra quilt. The quilt was made of bright yellow satin twisted with gold, and 2.5 words of Dharani scriptures were woven on it.Not only that, there are 820 pearls inlaid on this surface.After being robbed of the tomb, all these pearls were driven away by the tomb robbers, and the quilt was discarded on the ground. In 1979, people re-entered Cixi's Mausoleum and found that there were actually 6000 pearls inside the quilt. Pearls are very valuable.

The clothes on Cixi's body are also unambiguous. The phoenix crown on his head is inlaid with a pearl gem weighing four taels, which is as big as an egg and is probably worth more than 1000 million taels of silver.The luminous pearl contained in Cixi's mouth is even more valuable. According to rumors, at night, the light emitted by this luminous pearl can illuminate a hundred steps, which is very rare.

Cixi wears three court beads around her neck, two of which are pearls and one of which is a ruby.The Buddha statues placed in the mausoleum are all made of jade and gold. After the mausoleum and coffin are placed, people find that there is still a gap, so they directly pour jewelry into it to fill the vacant space. These are worth about 3 million taels of silver .

Although Cixi did not ask living people to be buried with her, all of her funeral objects were obtained by exploiting living people. Therefore, the ancient emperors and dignitaries' burial system were actually exploiting the blood and sweat of the working people.

(End of this chapter)