Emperor's Mausoleum

Author: Gao Yiyang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The mausoleums of Chinese emperors are an integral part of ancient Chinese politics, economy, and culture. They are the inevitable product of the combination of the emperor's absolute power and their beliefs about life and death, as well as the crystallization of science, technology, and art from various historical eras. Generation after generation of emperors used their supreme power to build one underground palace after another, seeking eternal life in the afterlife. They heard people chant "Long live the emperor" every day and endlessly searched for the elixir of immortality, yet none could escape the laws of life or the rise and fall of dynasties. Death continued to occur, the mausoleums were still being constructed, and tomb raiders never ceased their activities. The occupiers of the tombs turned into dry bones, some even exposed to the wilds, with no one witnessing the miracle of eternal life. Only the spirit and labor of the builders endured.