After more than two years, the archaeological team of Epang Palace, which was set up by the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology of Xi 'an, conducted a "carpet" comprehensive archaeological exploration of the existing ruins of the front hall of Epang Palace in Qin Dynasty, and found no remains of the palace buildings in Qin Dynasty, let alone those burned by fire. Accordingly, the Epang Palace archaeological team proposed that Epang Palace was not built, but only a "half-finished" project; The incident of "burning Epang Palace" does not exist either.
Epang Palace is only the foundation site of the front hall
Epang Palace site is located in the south of Weihe River, 13 kilometers west of Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, and faces Xianyang City in Qin Dou across the Weihe River. According to Liu Qingzhu, director of the Institute of Archaeology of China Academy of Social Sciences, since October 22, the archaeological team has excavated an area of 3, square meters and explored an area of 35, square meters.
In the process of exploration, archaeologists have not spared the ruins that have been covered by villages at present. In addition to the cement floor and brick floor, intensive exploration has been carried out in the flower pond, in the sheepfold, next to the toilet and in the open space between houses, and only the remains of the wall in Qin Dynasty have been found. Its collapsed deposits contain a large number of tiles and tiles of Qin and Han dynasties, but no relics of palace buildings in Qin dynasty, such as temple sites, open columns, corridors, drainage facilities, etc., have been found, nor have tiles, an indispensable building material in Qin dynasty. Therefore, archaeologists believe that the Epang Palace project only completed the construction of the foundation site of the Qiandian building and part of the palace wall, but the part above the foundation site of the palace building was not built in time.
Xiang Yu should have burned the Xianyang Palace
At the same time, during the archaeological exploration of the whole Epang Palace site, archaeologists did not find a trace that was burned by fire at that time. Liu Qingzhu introduced that the legendary Epang Palace was actually set on fire by Xiang Yu, and it was not recorded in Historical Records. On the contrary, there is a record in Historical Records that Xiang Yu set fire to the palace building in Xianyang, Qin Dou. Previously, archaeologists found traces of the palace building sites burned by fire during the archaeological excavation of the first, second and third palaces in Xianyang, Qin Dou. From this point of view, Xiang Yu should have burned Xianyang Palace or other Qin palaces in Qin Dou at that time.
Liu Qingzhu said that according to the literature, it can also be judged that Epang Palace was not built. First of all, according to Records of the First Qin Shihuang, the Epang Palace lasted at most four years from the beginning of construction to the end of shutdown, and the actual construction time was much shorter. Just looking at the 54,-square-meter pedestal of Qiandian, a building of this scale like Epang Palace was impossible to complete at that time. Secondly, from the literature, there is no clear record that Epang Palace has been built. According to records, all the political activities from the late Qin Shihuang to Qin Ershi and then to Zi Ying, the king of Qin, were in Xianyang Palace or Wangyi Palace, but they had nothing to do with Epang Palace, which is consistent with the latest archaeological findings.