This king’s tomb was said to be lavish and ahead of its time.
The cluster of tombs of the Han Luong kings is located in the Chinese national landscape complex of Dang Son Vinh Thanh mountain range in Ha Nam province. In particular, Luu Vu (also known as King Luong Hieu, grandson of Emperor Luu Bang of the Han Dynasty, also known as King Luong) was buried on Mount Mangdang, 150m high.
When entering this scenic spot, you will immediately see a series of famous people in Chinese history such as Confucius, Tran Thinh, Luu Bang, Luu Ngo …
The gate of King Luong’s tomb in the scenic area.
Three underground palaces were unearthed, which are the tombs of King Luong, his wife and son Luu Mai. Luu Mai’s tomb is located opposite the tomb of King Luong. After King Liang died, he divided the kingdom of Liang into five parts for his five sons. Liu Mai was his eldest son, but died 7 years later. His tomb is only 383m2 wide, far behind his father’s tomb. There are two reasons for this: Children cannot surpass their father, and money is not abundant.
The entrance to Luu Mai Tomb.
Although the money is not equal to his father, Luu Mai’s grave is like King Luong leaning on the mountain. In the tombs of the Han people, it takes a lot of money and manpower to dig the whole mountain to make a crypt. Since succeeding, Liu Mai has begun to build his own mausoleum. Although his tomb is small, it is still very complete, with a wide entrance, corridor, main hall, storeroom, storage room, bathroom, toilet and drainage system.
What’s even more shocking is that when excavating the tomb, it was discovered that Luu Ma was buried in a jade-plated suit, which is now included in the collection of the Henan Provincial Museum.
Painting on the wall in Luu Mai’s tomb.
The image of a banquet in Luu Mai’s grave.
Luu Mai’s grave is located on the mountainside, 2.3km from the tomb of King Luong. King Luong’s tomb has an area of over 600m2, it is said that his assets are countless, jewels and ivory are full of treasures. Some rumors say that the tomb of King Liang was stolen by Cao Cao, taking away a lot of gold and silver, enough for Cao Cao to feed his army for 3 years.
The entrance to King Luong’s tomb.
In the summer of 144 BC, King Luong suddenly died, so the tomb was not completely completed. The workers cut a groove in the entrance corridor to support a large number of burial items. Although there were many rooms that were not completely completed, showing the haste at the time of King Luong’s death, the drainage system inside the tomb was built perfectly.
Drainage system.
The first thing to do in the restoration of the tomb is to repair the drainage system. The drainage in the catacombs is very important, because if this problem is not solved, it is difficult to rebuild and easy to cause great damage.
The comforts of King Liang’s tomb were lavish beyond those of an ordinary Emperor’s tomb. Especially the toilet like today, it was built of stone, with a seat, on the back wall there was a water pipe like to flush the toilet. There is even a left armrest that is convenient for getting up when going to the toilet.
The toilet has a seat.
This toilet is estimated to be more than 2000 years old and is considered the earliest toilet with a flushing system in China, perhaps the world’s earliest.
In King Luong’s tomb there is an ice cellar, where people store vegetables, fruits, and ice cubes. It’s hard to imagine, the ancient Chinese viewed death as reincarnation and they prepared everything just like for the living.
An ice cellar is like a refrigerator.
King Luong had people cut down mountains and dig into crypts, which was really a project of a not-so-simple scale in the olden days. From the excavated anti-theft stones, one can see that King Luong displayed extravagance through the construction of his mausoleum. Each stone blocking the path in the tomb weighs more than 1 ton, in total there are more than 3,000 stones, each of which is engraved with a number. The craftsmen blocked the tomb’s door in order, and then gradually retreated outside.
The blocks of stone weigh tons.
The burial of the living was not common in the Han Dynasty. Craftsmen can come back alive. This represents the progress of society. The excavators said that King Luong’s tomb is the largest stone tomb found in the country. The grandeur of King Luong’s tomb also partly shows that the construction work was really difficult at that time.