Qin Shihuang made history and wrote it. Today, stories and legends about him are still circulating.

For a long time, we could only look for legends in history books, and it was not until the discovery of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum that he became more real. If you have been to Xi, you must have seen the splendor of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses. They are only part of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.

It is worth mentioning that the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang has not been completely excavated until now. As for the reason, it is not because people dare not disturb Qin Shihuang's sleep now, but because there are too many mysteries and unsolved mysteries in Qin Shihuang's mausoleum.

Some objects in the underground palace will soon turn into powder after excavation, which is undoubtedly a huge loss for people, so it is better to let them sleep quietly in the underground palace until they are sure to be well preserved.

During the excavation of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum, many things surprised archaeologists, such as the integrity and vastness of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum, the complexity of its structure, and the oil lamp in Qin Mausoleum, which was still on at the moment when the underground palace was opened.

It has been more than two thousand years since the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was built. Are these oil lamps really immortal for thousands of years?

It is better to hit a headless fly than to find an answer with a question. History books simply explain this problem, saying that the fuel in the oil lamp is Jiao Ren oil, but American scholars have come to the conclusion that its fuel is more precious than Jiao Ren oil.

So what is it, and whether the American research is convincing, let's take a look.

The ancients paid attention to things like death, that is to say, they believed that there would be another world after death, so they were already planning for what would happen after their death.

Although Qin Shihuang made great achievements praised by later generations, he failed to see through life and death after all. When Qin Shihuang 13 first ascended the throne, he began to build his own cemetery.

Strange to say, Qin Shihuang was in power in Xianyang, but the mausoleum he chose for himself was in Lishan Mountain, which is far away from Xianyang, which is obviously puzzling.

For this problem, the great geographer Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty gave his own explanation, namely:

It means that Qin Shihuang chose this place because Mount Li has an excellent geographical location, with more gold inside and more jade outside, which is why Qin Shihuang chose to build a mausoleum on Mount Li.

Obviously, although there is some truth in this statement, it is not comprehensive after all, and some scholars have pointed out another possibility, that is, Qin Shihuang chose Mount Li because of the constraints of the ritual system at that time.

Qin Shihuang's ancestral grave is located in Zhiyang, west of Lintong County. Ancient etiquette pays attention to facing west, which means that it is more etiquette for these people to choose Qin Shihuang's mausoleum in the east of the city.

The mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was built for 39 years. When Qin Shihuang died, he was still unfinished. This was basically completed more than a year after Qin Ershi acceded to the throne.

Later, although the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum was repeatedly stolen after the war, fortunately, most of the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum was still intact.

The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is the largest imperial mausoleum in the world with the strangest structure and the richest connotation. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a luxurious underground palace.

Since 1962, archaeologists have conducted the first comprehensive survey of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. According to the investigation, archaeologists drew a plan of the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. Preliminary planning shows that the cemetery area has reached 56.25 square kilometers, causing great sensation.

12 years later, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum were discovered. After half a year, the first archaeological team officially entered Qin Shihuang Mausoleum. Since then, the protection and research work of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum has been gradually carried out.

In the process of excavation, an incredible thing happened. When the local palace opened, the oil lamp was still on. The mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor has been sleeping for more than two thousand years. Why is the oil lamp still on? Is there really an ever-burning lamp?

In order to solve this mystery, scholars have spared no effort, and a passage recorded by Sima Qian in Historical Records has attracted everyone's attention. The content is like this:

Especially in the last sentence, it seems to tell the reason why the oil lamp of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum never goes out, pointing out that the fuel of the oil lamp is mermaid cream.

The mermaid is Jiao Ren. It is said that Qin Shihuang killed a lot of Jiao Ren before his death, refined it into combustible oil and became the fuel in the ever-burning lamp.

However, the mermaid is a legendary marine species. There is still no evidence that mermaids really exist, so Sima Qian's records are not convincing.

With the continuous development of science and technology and in-depth research, experts and scholars at home and abroad have compared the fuel in the oil lamp for many times, and finally determined that the oil in the oil lamp is not mermaid cream, but the oil extracted from whales, which was extremely precious at that time.

Can whale oil burn for thousands of years? Obviously, this is still puzzling.

They believe that the oil lamp of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum is still on when people enter the afterlife. There are two possibilities:

First, whale oil is doped with yellow phosphorus, which is a substance that can stop and slow down the burning of objects. Adding yellow phosphorus into oil can prolong the combustion time of oil.

Secondly, the wick of the oil lamp is doped with white phosphorus with very low ignition point. In a closed underground, white phosphorus will not spontaneously ignite, but after opening the underground, a large amount of air will enter and may spontaneously ignite.

This almost solved the possible reason why the oil lamp in the underground palace never went out, that is, the oil lamp in Qin Shihuang's mausoleum did not burn for thousands of years. After the underground palace was closed, the oil still mixed with yellow phosphorus was extinguished due to lack of air. However, the local palace was opened, and after the air entered, the white phosphorus spontaneously ignited, and then the oil lamp was ignited, which made the archaeologists who went in later see that the oil lamp was still burning.

Although the oil lamp can't burn for a thousand years, it can burn by itself after a thousand years. Isn't this a great miracle? We have to admire the wisdom of our ancients.

References: Historical Records, Notes on Water Mirror, Hanshu, etc.

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