INCORPORATING ALL FOR ONE: THE FIRST EMPEROR'S TOMB MOUND

The towering earthen mound standing at the center of the First Emperor of Qin, Qin Shihuangdi's (259–210 b.c.e.) Lishan necropolis at present-day Lintong in Xi'an, Shaanxi province was arguably the single greatest burial marker in ancient China. For centuries, this gigantic unopened monument has sparked curiosity and aroused interest among people regarding its nature. Without physically damaging the target, in 2001–2003 Chinese archaeologists used a new geophysical remote sensor to scan the surface of the mound, digitally probed into its inner structure, and detected a nine-stepped wall that bounds an aboveground burial shaft stretching down deep into the ground. This novel structure begs the following questions: what are the basic elements of this tomb mound, how do they work together within a coherent plan, and why was it made? Based on previous scholarship, this article conducts a more thorough analysis of the tomb mound and compares it with the excavated Eastern Zhou royal tombs of the Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Chu, Han, Yan, and Zhongshan states. The results demonstrate that rather than following a single model of a single state, the Lishan tomb mound incorporated almost all the major features of its Eastern Zhou predecessors, including but not limited to the external tumulus, the internal stepped wall or terrace, simulated galleries, and the freestanding ritual halls. This article argues that by creatively incorporating all the provincial ingredients into one imperial unity, the complex tomb mound unified multiple funerary practices of China. What's more, the tomb mound, most likely constructed after Qin's political unification of China in 221 b.c.e., perfectly embodies the new notion of empire and the political ambition of the First Emperor who strove throughout his life for becoming the “first” in Chinese history by merging all the past traditions. 秦始皇帝（公元前 259–210 年）的高大封土矗立於陝西省西安市臨潼區秦驪山陵園的中心，可稱為中國古代最大的墓表建筑。若干世紀以來，這座未曾發掘的封土激發了人們對其性質的好奇和興趣。2001–2003 年，在不破壞封土的情況下，中國考古學家使用一種新型的地球物理遙感器掃描了封土表面，以數字化方式深入其內部結構，結果探測到一座高達九層的封土圍墻，環繞形成一個地上的墓坑，墓坑垂直深入地表之下。這個嶄新的結構提出了一系列問題：這座封土的基本元素為何？這些元素如何統一於一個整體方案之中？緣何要建造這座封土？ 在吸收前賢學術成果的基礎上，本文對這座封土做了更為徹底的分析，并將其和已經發掘的東周時期秦、魏、趙、齊、楚、韓、燕和中山諸國的王陵加以比較。研究結果顯示驪山封土并非遵循一國或一陵的舊例，而是囊括了東周眾多先例幾乎全部的主要特征，包括（但不限於）外部墳塚、內部階梯式圍墻或高臺、模擬迴廊、獨立享堂等。本文試圖論證：這座複雜的封土融合了各種地方元素，統一了中國多樣的喪葬習俗。而且，這座封土很可能建於秦始皇統一六國之後，因此完美地體現了帝國的新觀念和秦始皇的政治雄心：終其一生，他努力地通過并兼所有過去的舊傳統來成就中國歷史上的前無古人（“始”）。