Why did the ancients place lanterns in their tombs?

The lamp represents a continuation of life, the lamp goes out and people go, so the place of the everlasting lamp in the tomb is people's nostalgia and remembrance of the deceased, hoping that they will never leave and stay in the world forever, and the everlasting lamp also carries a good wish.

I think that placing some permanent lamps in the tomb should have some special meanings on the one hand. On the other hand, it is to deplete the oxygen in the tomb to prevent malicious thieves from robbing the tomb.

Ancient people were more superstitious. It is believed that after death, people will exist in another form, that is, ghosts. They will treat the tomb as their own house. How can there be no lamps in a room, and the living have no way to enter the tomb and light them every day.

As a result, a kind of everlasting lamp was made that could burn in the tomb for a long time. In fact, this is more about comforting the living. Let the living think that he is still with them, so that the family does not become ill or kill themselves due to excessive grief.

Moreover, in the long river of history, there are many people who are due to some diseases, causing fake death and then resurrecting or even crawling out of the grave, although this is only a minority, or rumors, but people still hope that the dead can be revived.

And people who are worried about recovery will not be able to understand their situation immediately in the dark coffin, and miss the best opportunity to climb out of the grave, so it is necessary to put an everlasting lamp in the tomb, which can illuminate the surrounding environment and give the resuscitated person some life.

It's just that they don't know that lighting the lantern festival and consuming the only oxygen in the tomb will shorten the time for the resuscitated person to survive in the tomb.

In some works on the theme of tomb robbing, we can often see such a scene: "When the tomb robbers enter the cemetery, they will find that there are oil lamps burning inside, which looks very strange. "In fact, this is the so-called ever-bright lamp, it not only exists in ** and film and television works, archaeologists have also found ever-bright lamps in the process of excavating ancient tombs, but they have long been extinguished.

According to the records in Sima Qian's "Historical Records", many ever-bright lamps were placed in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, but now it has not been turned on, whether it is really as Sima Qian said, no one knows now. In addition, in the tomb of the Ming Dynasty eunuch Hong Bao, experts found a large vat, and after research, it was learned that it was the legendary Changming lantern. So the question is, why did the ancients like to place ever-bright lanterns in their tombs?

Regarding this question, most people believe that in ancient China, due to the underdevelopment of science and technology, people had superstitious thoughts about death as life. According to the ancients, people will continue to live underground after death, especially those emperors who are powerful in the world, and if they want to enjoy the glory and wealth after death, they will use a lot of manpower and financial resources to build a luxurious cemetery for themselves as a residence after death, calling it "Yin House".

After that, a huge amount of funerary goods will be placed in the tomb, including gold, silver, jewelry, jade, calligraphy and paintings, each of which is priceless. In addition, he also hoped that the residence after death would be as bright as the palace before his death, so he ordered someone to build a permanent lantern. If you analyze carefully, the wisdom of the ancients is not inferior to that of modern people, and is it just a superstition that they placed the ever-bright lamp?

The answer is no. There is only one real reason, and that is to prevent the cemetery from being stolen, why do you say that?

As we all know, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and cemeteries with burial goods will be remembered by tomb thieves. In order to be able to obtain the gold and silver treasures in the tomb, tomb robbers did everything they could, such as Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period, set up a special tomb robbery agency, and set up the position of a gold school captain, the purpose is to excavate the burial goods in the tomb to feed the army. Since there is such a disgraceful industry as tomb robbing, various anti-theft measures will appear, such as setting up mechanisms, carving spells, and secret burials.

Although the ancients did not know what oxygen was, they knew that without air people could not breathe. Because of this, they used up the air (oxygen) in the tomb by lighting the lamp in the tomb before it was closed. After a while, the lantern is extinguished, and at this time, the oxygen in the tomb is basically depleted, and if there are tomb robbers who venture in, it is likely that they will be hung up directly due to lack of oxygen, so that the cemetery will not be stolen.

Over time, tomb robbers became smarter, and before entering the cemetery, they would light torches to test the air inside before deciding whether to enter. Therefore, as long as it is not an inexperienced tomb robber, the anti-theft function of the ever-bright lamp will fail, which may not have been thought of by the ancients.

Ever-bright lamp, as the name suggests, is a lamp that never burns out.

The earliest lanterns were lit on Chinese New Year's Eve. Legend has it that on Chinese New Year's Eve, the ghost gate was opened, and all the ghosts who had been held for a whole year were released on this day. Because these ghosts have been tormented by hell for a long time, they will inevitably be brought to the world when they are released.

So the people lit the lanterns and used the light to deter these evil spirits.

So why is it that the lantern used as an eternal lamp to ward off evil spirits is used in ancient tombs on a large scale?

In ancient times, it was believed that death was just a way to another world, so the ancients also hoped that the lights would be lit up all day long in the other world. Just as Qin Shi Huang used terracotta figurines to replace a million troops in the underworld to fight for himself, the ever-bright lantern was widely used in ancient tombs as people's spiritual sustenance.

It is rumored that in the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, precious gems and jade are used as mountains and rivers, mercury is poured into lakes and rivers, and there are everlasting lamps that illuminate the entire tomb, and even now there is a saying that those everlasting lamps have not been extinguished until now.

Can the everlasting light really last a long time? Our junior high school chemistry knowledge has already taught us that oxygen is a necessary condition for fire combustion without considering fuel.

The lantern is not simply a candle, it has a special double-layer container, which has been filled with lamp oil and water. The role of water is to lower the temperature of the lamp oil, allowing it to burn for a longer period of time.

The traditional tomb is a fully enclosed burial structure, and after the burial chamber is completed, it will be covered with a thick sealing mound. Although there is some residual oxygen in the burial chamber, some of it burrows into the gaps of the loose soil, and the other part gradually decreases due to the burning of the fire in the underground palace and the oxidation of the burial goods.

I believe that when many people watch some films that explore documentaries or tomb robbing, they often see that after the ancient tomb is opened, some fire sources are put into the tomb, and if it is extinguished, the tomb cannot be lowered. This is because of the lack of oxygen in the tombs, the fire cannot burn.

Therefore, the lantern lit in the tomb will be extinguished due to lack of oxygen after a period of time, so the lantern will not be "bright".

Is the everlasting lamp a thing to protect the tomb? Will the lantern be lit again if an outsider forcibly turns on the tomb? I don't know when it was spread, saying that the ever-bright lantern is the "caretaker" artifact of the tomb owner, and even many film and television dramas have staged a "fantasy" scene:

When the tomb robbers entered the ancient tomb, the lanterns on both sides of the tomb road "whirred" as if they were equipped with sensors.

This is simply a scene designed for film and television effects, and it is impossible to do so in reality.

Although we now extinguish the flame of the lighter, we can still get it back to burning in a matter of seconds because it still retains a source of ignition and will rekindle when exposed to oxygen. And we said earlier that the lantern burns for a period of time and is extinguished due to lack of oxygen, and after hundreds or even thousands of years, unless it is given an open flame, it will always be dim.

It is a traditional custom that once lit, it cannot be blown out until the oil runs out or the candle goes out on its own.

The kings attached great importance to the mausoleum, and they believed that the mausoleum, as a residence after death, should also be as brightly lit as the palace during their lifetime, so the king's ancient tomb would be placed with lanterns.

Everbright lamps are lamps made from animal fat and can burn for a long time. The purpose of placing the lantern in the tomb is to pray for the blessing of future generations, hoping to bless the future generations with safety and a bright future.

The lantern refers to a type of lantern that is lit in traditional Chinese customs. The everlasting lamp in the ancient tomb is to say that no matter how long the ancient tomb has passed, there is an everlasting lamp that will never go out, and the ancients believed that when people die, they go to another world, and life will never end.

The ever-bright lantern is also known as the continuous lantern, that is, the lamp that shines day and night in front of the Buddha statue. In Chinese history, the purpose of placing lanterns in ancient tombs is to place their good expectations for future generations, hoping that their future generations will be smart, healthy and safe.

It is just a folk custom and has no influence on future generations.

Once the lantern is lit, it cannot be blown out until the oil runs out and the candle finally extinguishes itself, which is an ancient traditional custom. Lanterns were also placed in the tombs of Chinese kings, hoping to be as brilliant as their palaces.

In China, legend has it that on Chinese New Year's Eve, because the gods went to heaven, the ghosts and gods came out to look for food, especially those such as the fish, the dragon, and the like. If the lights are blown out and the sky and the earth are not seen in the dark, it will catch people with its voice, especially when children cry in the middle of the night and the elderly cough, and their lives will not be saved.

Specific structure:

A kind of ever-bright lamp is a double-layer structure, in which a container is filled with lamp oil, the wick is soaked in vinegar, and the outer layer is filled with water to cool the lamp oil; This is a great invention, because the oil consumed by the oil lamp is not mainly ignited, but volatilized by heating, the wick soaked in vinegar can not only keep the temperature low, but the water outside the oil jar can also effectively prevent the oil temperature from rising, but Changming is the ideal wish after all.

In the excavation of Dingling in Beijing, there is a celadon vat in the main hall of the mausoleum, which contains wax lamp oil and a wick, which is the ever-bright lamp, but apparently this lamp was extinguished not long after the mausoleum was closed, because the closed mausoleum lacked the oxygen needed for combustion.

In some of the ** about tomb robbery, it is often mentioned that the eternal lamps in the ancient tombs, they will not be extinguished in the ancient tombs for thousands of years, if once people enter the tomb, they will be extinguished soon, and the current science and technology cannot explain it. **After all**, many of them are exaggerated, but in real archaeological discoveries, many ancient tombs do have the existence of everlasting lights.

The lantern is a double-layer structure, with a container filled with oil, the wick is soaked in vinegar, and the outer layer is filled with water to cool the oil. This is a great invention, because the oil consumed by the oil lamp is not mainly ignited, but volatilized by heat, and the wick soaked in vinegar can not only keep the temperature cold, but the water outside the oil jar can also effectively prevent the oil temperature from rising.

According to historical records, there is an ever-bright lamp in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, and whether the lantern in the tomb of the Qin Emperor is still burning is estimated to be known only on the day it is dug up. Objectively speaking, it is impossible for the lantern to be bright, it is just a wish of the ancients. Once the cemetery is sealed, there will be less and less oxygen inside, and even if there is enough fuel, it will be extinguished due to lack of oxygen.

As a wise ancient, it is difficult to understand that the lantern will be extinguished due to lack of oxygen? Of course not! There are two reasons why the ancients placed lanterns in their tombs.

First, it is a status symbol.

Since ancient times, the Chinese have a tradition of treating death as life, and the mausoleum after death is also called the Yin House, and the king attaches great importance to the mausoleum as a residence after death. They also hope to be as bright as the palace in their lifetime, which also represents the glory of their lifetime, so there is also an everlasting lamp.

2. Prevent the theft of the mausoleum.

Not to mention the emperor's mausoleum, even after the death of those rich princes and landlords, there are many tempting funeral goods in the cemetery, which will also be remembered by the "Touching Gold Captain". In order to prevent theft of the mausoleum, various mechanisms were set up, and ever-bright lanterns were also placed. After the mausoleum is sealed, the lanterns will continue to burn until the oxygen inside is almost completely depleted, at which point they will go out.

Because of this, if there are not very knowledgeable tomb robbers who rob tombs, even if they are lucky enough to escape the mechanisms in those tombs, they will die due to lack of oxygen. But if they come across those experienced captains who touch gold, they will throw the animals into the tomb to see if there is a lack of oxygen and poison gas.

Therefore, in some film and television works about tomb robbers, after the tomb robbers enter the tomb, they will grab their necks with their hands, and the expression on their faces is terrible. This is not because of the evil spirit, but because of the lack of oxygen in the tomb, the tomb robbers cannot breathe and even hallucinate.

It is fish oil made of sharks in the sea, and this oil is very resistant to burning and very economical

...... with human oil or the oil of a coquette

In the countryside, there are many things that are inherited by the predecessors, and they cannot be specifically verified, but they have been used as a custom, and the death of the old man in the countryside is also a little particular about it here, but it is not an oil lamp under the coffin, but when the old man has not been put into the coffin after his death, an oil lamp will be lit in front of the wooden bed temporarily placed in the hall, that is, in the direction where the soles of the old man's feet are opposite.

And this oil lamp can not be extinguished until the old man enters the coffin, and someone will regularly add kerosene to it to keep the light bright, so what are the sayings and particulars of this oil lamp?

Saying 1: This lamp is the "everlasting lamp", representing the soul of the deceased, there are folk rumors, after death, people will go to a place called the underworld, where it is dark and dark, and this lamp is for the deceased to illuminate the lamp to the underworld, help them find the way, so that the ghosts will not stay at home, bringing unlucky things to the family.

Saying 2: Accompany the filial piety keeper. After the death of rural people, filial piety needs to be carried out in front of the deceased, and if there is no lamp, it is pitch black, which is easy to increase the psychological burden of the filial piety keeper, so that they are worried and afraid, and with this oil lamp, there is light, and it can also reduce the psychological burden of the filial piety keeper.

In addition, in the past, there were many rodent infestations, so if this lamp is lit, the smell of kerosene after burning can mask the odor, so as to achieve the purpose of driving away rats, cockroaches, etc., and ensure that the deceased is neat and tidy.

Myth 4: Implication for posterity. In some places, the person who lit the lamp was also very particular, and it must be the son or grandson of the deceased, which means that there are successors who will make great merit and great achievements.