Qin Shihuang’s magnificent projects created eternal miracles

Look, the expressions of these Qin soldiers are vivid and have no similarities. They are either kneeling or standing; look, the horse is running with its head held high; look, the rows are neat, rigorous, and The majestic queue, strolling by the pit of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, makes you feel as if you have traveled to the ancient battlefield two thousand years ago. Amidst the neighing of the horses, you can feel the bravery of the Qin soldiers in the north wind! What an eternal miracle this is! The creator of this miracle is still Qin Shihuang. He did many things that shocked the past and shined in the present.

However, the great projects related to the great figure Qin Shihuang are not only the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum in Shaanxi, but also the majestic Great Wall, the majestic Afang Palace, and the Ling Canal that still stands two thousand years later. Behind them, what shines is Qin Shihuang's talent and vision for the world and the future.

Open up territory and build the Great Wall

The Xiongnu, one of the nomadic peoples living in the north, have long been active between the mountains in the south and Lake Baikal in the north, becoming a powerful force in the north of nomads. They often went deep into the Central Plains to harass and plunder. After Qin unified the country, the Xiongnu still posed a great threat to Qin.

In order to remove the threat from the Xiongnu, Qin Shihuang sent General Meng Tian to conquer Hetao in 218 BC. Three years later, Mengtian regained the vast area north and south of Hetao, established forty-four counties in this area, and reestablished Jiuyuan County. In 213 BC, the Qin Dynasty connected the Great Walls of Qin, Zhao and Yan in the past and built the Great Wall from Lintao in the west to Jieshi in Liaodong. This Great Wall played an important role in resisting Xiongnu harassment and ensuring the stability of production and life for the people in the mainland. The Great Wall was not only used for defense, Meng Tian also improved it into a strategic location for offense. The Great Wall can be said to be a huge military defense project rarely seen in human history.

The Great Wall

Moreover, in 211 BC, Qin Shihuang immigrated more than 30,000 households to Beihe and Yuzhong to cultivate fields and open up frontiers. In 214 BC, Qin Shihuang sent another 500,000 troops south to pacify Baiyue. He established Guilin, Xiangjun, Nanhai and other counties and sent relegated people to defend them. He also sent General Meng Tian across the river to seize the area around Gaoque, Yangshan and Beifu, and built forts to drive away the Rong Di.

After the wars against the Xiongnu and Yue people, the number of county-level buildings in the Qin Dynasty reached 40. The territory of the Qin Dynasty was unprecedentedly vast, reaching the sea in the east and Lintao in the west. "Nanhubei, Beichuan, Yinshan and Liaodong" became the most powerful country in the world at that time. Since then, the territory of the Chinese Empire has expanded step by step on this basis. Qin Shihuang's talents and the foundation he laid for future generations are reflected in Chinese history.

The No. 1 Palace in the World: Afang Palace

After Qin Shihuang unified the world, he ordered 120,000 wealthy people from the Six Kingdoms of Guandong to be moved to Xianyang, mainly wealthy people from Qi and Chu. He also decided to re-plan Xianyang City on the basis of Xianyang Palace, that is, to re-plan according to Tiansheng Tuxik to distinguish the "divine world" and the "human world". First, he transformed the Xianyang Palace to correspond with the Purple Palace where the Emperor of Heaven lived. He compared the Wei River flowing through Xianyang to the "Milky Way" in the sky, and built a cross-river bridge on the Wei River to symbolize the "Altair", that is, "the Wei River runs through the capital, like the Han Dynasty, crossing the bridge to the south, to The Dharma appears as the Altair”. Later, Qin Shihuang changed the newly built "Xin Palace" to "Ji Palace", corresponding to the "Tiangong Palace" of the Emperor of Heaven.

Other important palaces, pools, treasuries and other major architectural facilities in Xianyang seem to have their corresponding stars in the sky. For example, the "Lanchi Palace" in the eastern suburbs and the "Lanchi Palace" in the palace face the "Five Cars" and "Xianchi" in the sky; the "Yichun Garden" and "Shanglin Garden" on the south bank correspond to Ansu's " Tianyuan Garden"; Xianyang's treasury includes Su Kui's "Tianfu", Su Wei's "Tian Yuan" and "Tian Yu". Various imperial control methods of emperors in various cities, such as "Xing", "Pavilion", etc.

In 212 BC, nine years after Qin Shihuang unified the world, considering the large population of the country's capital Xianyang and the previous king's palace being too narrow, Qin Shihuang decided to build a new palace as a new political center. He heard that the emperor's capital was located between the two cities of Feng and Gao in the west, so he built the palace in Shanglin Garden south of the Weishui River. This shows that the Qin Dynasty's national strength and development in all aspects at that time were enough to support the construction of such a huge project, rather than regardless of the life and death of the people. According to historical records, Xianyang was very prosperous at that time. The constant flow of carriages and horses and busy commercial fleets gathered in the streets and alleys, obviously the business was very developed. This shows the strength of the Qin Empire.

For the new palace, Qin Shihuang also requested that it correspond to the celestial phenomena. First, he ordered people to build a front hall in Acheng, which was 500 steps long from east to west and 50 feet wide from north to south. The palace can accommodate 10,000 people, and a 50-foot-high banner can be erected below. There are overpasses around it, leading from the palace to Nanshan. Build a gate at the top of Nanshan Mountain as a sign. An overpass was built to cross the Weishui River from Afang and connect with Xianyang to symbolize the North Star and Tinglu Star in the sky crossing the Milky Way to Yingxing. Because it was built in Afang Palace, people called it "Afang Palace".

Yao Yuan's "Afang Palace Picture"

Afang Palace contains two buildings, one is the front hall building and the other is the "Shangtiantai" building. Its front office covers an area of ??about 800 acres, equivalent to the area of ??90 standard football fields. At the end of Qin Dynasty, only the foundation of the front hall was built in Epang Palace. However, just because of its huge ruins, it is enough to be called "the first palace in the world".

According to historical records, Afang Palace includes a building roof for worshiping gods and an altar for worshiping land, which is in the same vein as the pre-Qin emperors expressed their reverence for the gods by offering sacrifices to heaven and earth.

The same was true for the emperors after the Qin Dynasty. This is because although the emperor's power on earth is supreme, they must obey the will of God and heed the warnings of God's will.

Today, the only grand palace visible in the world is the Forbidden City in Beijing. So, how grand is the Epang Palace that was never built in Qin Shihuang’s blueprint?

World Wonder: Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin

The ancients valued both "life" and "death" and believed that people would go to the underworld after death. Therefore, consider "death" as "life". Qin Shihuang was no exception. While building Afang Palace, he also built a mausoleum for himself in Lishan, Shaanxi. When Qin died, the Epang Palace was not completed, but the Lishan Tomb was finally completed and became a miracle in the world.

It is recorded that the tomb was dug to the depth of three springs, and then copper water was poured into it to fill the gaps and the outer coffin was placed. Palaces and temples were also built and official ranks were set up. Rare items, treasures and stones were then brought in and filled. The river and sea in the mausoleum are made of mercury and are poured and transported by machines. The top wall has astronomical images and the bottom is geographical graphics; the torches made of salamander oil will not go out for a long time. However, so far, the world has never seen it, and many of the secrets in the tomb remain unknown.

In addition, there are huge underground drainage ditches around the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. The bottom is tamped with 17-meter-thick, strong waterproof gypsum mud, and the upper part is tamped with 84-meter-wide loess. The scale is unimaginable. In the "Three Spring Crossings" recorded in 2001, "three" is actually a rough number. In fact, it should mean that during the construction process, water was flooded, so a drainage channel was built, which just blocked the penetration of groundwater from high to low, effectively protecting the tomb from being flooded.

Shizi, Qin Shihuang also ordered craftsmen to make bows and arrows controlled by the authorities, so that any grave digger could shoot him to death as soon as he got close.

Four bronze horses and a bronze carriage unearthed from the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. The Mongolian horses at that time were smaller than the modern dragon horses.

There are also a large number of burial pits and tombs of different shapes and connotations scattered around the Qin Mausoleum. More than 400 of them have been discovered, including the Terracotta Warriors and Horses pit, which is currently listed as one of the "Eight Wonders of the World". According to the order of excavation, it is divided into pit No. 1, pit 2 and pit 3. The three pits are arranged according to the shape of the finished product. 8,000 pottery figurines, more than 100 chariots, more than 400 pottery horses, and tens of thousands of weapons formed a tight ancient military formation with a total area of ??more than 20,000 square meters and a total area of ??more than 50,000 square meters. Its majestic momentum shows the glory of the former Qin Empire. So, what kind of spirit should the unknown Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang contain?

Guizhou Lingqu

"The six kings are one and the same from all over the world." After Qin Shihuang annexed the six kingdoms and pacified the Central Plains, he immediately attacked the Xiongnu in the north and pacified Baiyue in the south. In order to conquer Lingnan as soon as possible, Qin Shihuang ordered the excavation of Lingqu. Lingqu is located in today's Xing'an, Guangxi.

Ling Canal

The main body of the Ling Canal project includes the ring embankment, the north-south canal, the Qin embankment, and the Doumen canal. It is complete and exquisite, with clever design, connecting three rivers and five ridges, and connecting the water transportation of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River. With sufficient supplies, the Qin army showed its strength on the Baiyue battlefield and swept thousands of troops. In 214 BC, the year when the Lingqu Canal was opened to navigation, Qin Bing conquered Lingnan and formally incorporated Lingnan into the territory of the Qin Dynasty, further expanding its territory.

Since then, Lingqu has played an extremely important role in strengthening political, economic, and cultural exchanges between the north and the south, and it was opened to navigation in 2217. Despite the flooding, it still stands and still functions. Take a look at the Three Gorges Dam. It was only built ten years ago and is already experiencing frequent problems. This question naturally makes us curious.

When the dam was repaired in the 1980s, people found the answer. It turns out that some sections of the Lingqu canal have steep beaches, fast currents, and shallow water, making navigation difficult. In order to solve this problem, the ancients set up steep slopes in places where the water flow was relatively fast or the canal water was relatively shallow, divided the canal into several sections, installed gates, and opened the gate between the two sections to raise and lower the water levels in the two sections to the same level. Facilitates ship navigation. At most, Lingqu had 36 steep gates, so it was also called "Douhe". No wonder Lingqu is known as "the pearl of ancient water conservancy architecture in the world" and "Doumen is the father of the world's ship locks".

Qin Shihuang, who shouldered the mission of heaven and created the political unification of China, left one miracle after another for future generations, and even more than two thousand years later, we are still benefiting from it.

Today, while we are proud of the Chinese civilization, how can we not admire this glorious founder?