Cold knowledge: what is the difference between a grave, a tomb, a mound and a mausoleum?

Ancient people often used the two words "grave" together, but in fact, "grave" and "tomb" are two completely different specifications, "grave" literally means a small mound of earth on the ground. The word "grave" literally means a small mound of earth on a flat surface, so you can imagine that a grave is used to bury ordinary people.

Ancient coffins were very expensive, most peasant families could not afford to buy a coffin, so after the death of the body is wrapped with straw mats and other items, and then dug a pit to fill the earth to bury, because most ancient people are buried in their own land after death, and seldom go to set up a monument, may be erected a plaque on the end of it.

While the graves look very simple, they were a standard way of burial for ancient civilians.

When a family grows, it will carry out the relocation of the grave and then the son's burial, and this is when the tomb is used, with many landowning families having their own cemetery area.

Tomb

Compared with the grave, the tomb is obviously a level higher, because the surface of the tomb is flat, and there is a stone tablet to record the name and life of the deceased, and those who are in a position to do so will also use stone to build a small platform. If the grave is aimed at ordinary people, then those who are able to enjoy the tomb after their deaths are basically the elite of society, such as officials, businessmen, and scholars, who not only have the money to do this, but also have the money to pay for it. Not only do they have the money to do this, but they also want their tombs to be preserved.

Because the tomb is reinforced, in the absence of natural disasters, wars and family decline, the tomb is able to be preserved for thousands of years, for example, in the Martyrs' Mausoleum, martyrs are buried using the tomb, under good protection, the text on the tomb are able to be preserved for a hundred years can be clearly seen.

But the tomb is often a small-scale appearance, the use of stone to build a platform is already a high specification, if there is a similar statue, pavilion and other items, it has been separated from the scope of the tomb, belonging to the mound.

The Mound

The Mound is equivalent to the mound, which literally means a tall grave, but in actuality, the specifications of the Mound are very much higher than the Tomb, because the people that the Mound is aimed at are already princes and noblemen, dignitaries, princes, lords and celebrities, among which the more famous ones are the Bully Mound, where Xiang Yu is buried, and Huo Zhaodong, where Huo Zhaodong is buried.

While Huo Zaiwei's burial site is called Huo Zaiwei tomb, but this is partial to the modern name, in the ancient books, Huo Zaiwei mound is so recorded: "mound like Qilian Mountain", where not only meters high stone monument, there are also stone platforms, staircases, etc., specifications are very high, it can be seen that at that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty on the Huo Zaiwei's attention to be able to the mound's Specifications buried, almost reached the peak of the ancient common people, because even the descendants of princes and nobles, but also do not necessarily have the qualifications to use the mound.

Besides that, the most famous of the mounds is the clothes and crown mound, which was mostly prepared for generals, who would set up a clothes and crown mound for him after his body could not be retrieved after dying in battle. For example, Jiang Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, his body was thrown into the wilderness by the Wei army after he died in battle, and it could not be retrieved, so they could only set up a clothes and crown mound for him with the clothes that were used for him during his lifetime as a way of honoring his memory.

Lings

Lings are mostly found in the ancient royal gardens of China, which can be seen that the mausoleum is the highest level of burial of the dead in ancient times, in the period of feudal society, only the members of the royal family can enjoy, and the mausoleum also has two major characteristics, one is the size of the large, one is the aggregation of the degree of high.

The scale of the mausoleum in the most representative is the mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang, just accompanied by the pit of the terracotta warriors and horses is known as the world miracle, because of the technical reasons, the mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang has not been fully developed, and who does not know what kind of wonderful buried people inside.

And in terms of scale, the imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty are the most obvious, the two imperial tombs not only buried a large number of emperors, there are even specialized security teams to guard, visible specifications, in order to express the respect for the soldiers who died in the war, our country has built a lot of martyrs' mausoleums around the country, they will be buried with the highest specifications.

So why does mausoleum represent the highest standard? The earliest source of the word "mausoleum" is "fu" and "dawdle" evolved, literally meaning climbing high mountains, the depth of the symbolism of climbing high mountains, ascending to the heavenly realm, to complete the transformation from man to god, the ancient emperor was also called the emperor of heaven, the emperor of the world, the emperor of the world. In ancient times, the emperor was also called the son of heaven, so after death, he would ascend to heaven, hence the use of the word ling.

At the same time, the word "mausoleum" itself also has the meaning of high mountains, and in China's feng shui, high mountains also have another meaning: the dragon vein, the members of the royal family buried in the dragon vein can be a blessing to the dynasty's continued development.

The four types of mausoleums correspond to the four different status of the deceased, and also show the status of the deceased.

For example, a person who was originally a great official during his life, but was removed from all official positions before his death, so his death mostly ended in a grave or tomb, but there were also officials and generals who were posthumously appointed to their official positions after their deaths and buried in a mound, in other words, the form of burial represented a kind of recognition of the deceased.

Ancient society's grass-roots level was very obvious and insurmountable, not only in life, but also after death, for example, Xiang Yu, the king, who did not ascend to the throne but was recognized by Sima Qian as a fierce general, could only be buried in the form of a mound after his death, because at that time the Han Dynasty was established, and Xiang Yu naturally could not be compared with Liu Bang.

In addition to the surface form, mausoleums, mounds, tombs and graves of the biggest difference, or in the size of the chamber or palace.

Ancient rich people or dignitaries, has not been satisfied with the scale of digging pits and filling the earth, they will build a chamber for the dead, large chambers in all directions, simply than the villa is still grand, which not only prevents the coffin of the chamber, and a large number of placement of treasures and burial chamber, especially under the imperial tombs, the large dungeon can be used directly to live.