Ancient Chinese emperors used living people for burial, how long could the people in the tombs live? May be beyond your expectations.

In ancient feudal China, power was the most important thing for the emperors, even after they had left the world. Because of this, they developed the so-called living sati system, and many emperors in Chinese history would have many living people used for burial after their death.

Many emperors would choose some candidate he wanted to be buried with before he died, even if it was his once favorite concubine so that she would be buried with him. This policy was undoubtedly cruel, so how long could those who were buried alive live in the tomb?

The time a person buried with him can survive in the tomb.

For people, oxygen, water, and food are the most important, one cannot be without the other, but in these three, oxygen is occupying the first.The tombs of ancient Chinese emperors were completely closed, and to be able to keep the remains alive for a longer period, they needed to be completely isolated from the air. Therefore, the survival time of those who were used for burial can be imagined.

If you do not consider oxygen, in the case of a long period without food and water, a person can live about a week, but in a completely closed tomb, there is not enough oxygen for people to breathe. Therefore, without the addition of oxygen, the person in the tomb may not live more than three days.

In addition to these, also consider the size of the tomb, if the tomb is large enough, then the air left can still let people live a few more days. If the tomb is too small, perhaps only one day of life, or even less than a day, these people will be suffocated alive in the tomb because there is no oxygen.

The number of people buried in the tomb also needs to be considered, assuming that the number of people buried in a tomb is too many, those people will die quickly because of lack of oxygen. After all, the tomb is completely closed, and the remaining oxygen is not enough for the long-term use of multiple people.

Of course, if the number of people buried with them in the tomb is not so large, then they may still be able to live a little longer. But these people will end up dead, it's just a matter of time.

In ancient China, the soldiers who guarded the tombs could hear the cries for help, scolding, and moans of pain at first. But as time passed, these sounds gradually weakened until they disappeared completely.

In addition to this, people being locked in a darkened tomb can create tremendous psychological stress, which also accelerates the death of the living in the tomb. Not only that, but archaeologists had also found that in these now-discovered ancient tombs, many of the bones of the accompanying burial victims have more or less scars on them. According to expert speculation, probably those people wanted to buy a longer time for themselves and kill each other, not hesitating to feed on each other's flesh and blood.

Although the ancient Chinese emperors' tombs would have food for sacrifice, there were many traps inside. It was not easy for the buried people to eat the food for sacrifice, but they were more likely to let themselves die early. In the end, they could only wait for death in fear.

Even if they managed to escape, the tomb is usually surrounded by heavy guards, want to escape from the hands of the guards can be said to be more difficult, the final result or to be put into the tomb as a burial object.

They may have struggled and tried to escape. But in the context of the time, they were destined to be buried like gold, silver, and jewels, and could not be changed.

The origin of live burial in ancient China

This type of burial with a living person sounds too brutal, but in fact, this system lasted for a long time in ancient China. Many emperors at that time wanted to live forever and to do so, they would take many so-called "immortal pills". These pills would not only not live long, but some of them would be detrimental to their lives.

Although they later gave up eating the "elixir", these emperors still believed that people would have an afterlife. These people even thought they would be emperors in another time and space, so they decided to bring something to put in their coffins so that they could continue to enjoy life in the other world.

According to Chinese history, burials can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty. At that time, slave owners at first chose to use gold, silver, jewelry, and some pork and mutton as their burial goods, but later slave owners began to intensify, thinking that they were too lonely to leave alone and needed some people to accompany them on the road.

They usually chose some palace maids who were not worth mentioning in their eyes to do their burial, and of course, they also chose to spend money to buy some common people to accompany them, which was too cruel.

By the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period in China, this type of sacrifice to the living was already commonplace. After the death of King Helu of Wu's daughter, the king of Wu was so sad that he felt his daughter should not leave this world alone. So, he arrested many commoners in the streets to be buried for his daughter.

This gruesome form of burial did not begin to change until the Qin Dynasty in China. Although Qin Shi Huang was recognized as a tyrant, he did not choose to use living people for burial in this regard but chose to use ceramic figurines as his burial goods.

This system of burial with living people seems to have disappeared during the Qin Dynasty, however, in the later dynasties of China, the practice of burial with living people reappeared.

During the Han and Tang dynasties in China, there were also live burials, although they were very few compared to other dynasties. After all, the emperors at that time were deeply influenced by Confucianism, so they pursued benevolent government and could not accept such a brutal way of burial.

But in the Yuan and Ming dynasties of China, the culture of using living people for burial reached its peak. At that time, this sati system was not only prevalent among the royal family, but they even encouraged other princes and nobles to be buried in this way as well. Since they were nomadic people, the idea of slavery was deeply rooted.

In the eyes of these people, slaves had no status and were ready to be sacrificed. In China during the Yuan Dynasty, the hierarchy was so strict that ordinary people were divided into many classes, and because the administrators at that time were nomads, they considered the Mongols to be the noblest race, while others could be used as objects for martyrdom.

The ancient Chinese emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was no exception. According to normal logic, it was not easy for him to become the emperor, and one would think that he would be able to appreciate the hardships of the people and would not adopt such a cruel approach, but the truth was a shock.

After the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, who used to accompany the burial of the consort as high as 46, he chose these consorts are very young and beautiful, it can be imagined that he even wanted to continue to enjoy after death. People can often see in TV dramas, in ancient times after the death of the emperor, the consorts kneeled in front of the emperor's room and cried out. Perhaps it is for the sake of the person who has been with him for many years and cries, perhaps for their doomed tragic end and cry.

Summary of the above content.

You can imagine what kind of life the common people lived in the feudal era of China, and certain emperors made the common people pay for their lives to satisfy their selfish desires.

The good thing is that this cruel system was eventually eliminated by history, in the final analysis, is that this unreasonable system touched the bottom line of ordinary people. In the eyes of those faint-hearted emperors, they only have their glory and wealth, without regard for the lives of the people.

People's awareness of human rights began to awaken, and each person should be an independent individual rather than a subordinate to others.

The end of the feudal era in China meant that the shackles in people's hearts were broken, and this inhumane way of martyrdom was eventually discarded by history.