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[[underlined]] Chapter VI. [[/underlined]] 106. closure. Companies of peasants to grow food for their support, as well as troops to guard them and the tomb, were likewise settled there permanently. It is stated that 10,000 families were thus drafted for residence at the tombs of Han Kao-tzŭ and Han Wu Ti, and 5000 families at those of each of the other members of the line. This practice of compulsory settlement at imperial mausolea led to great hardship and suffering, and was later replaced by that of stationing there bodies of soldiers, relieved from time to time. The construction of the mausoleum of a Han emperor was supposed to begin during the year following his accession, the enormous work being performed by forced labor. To some nearby town was assigned the duty of protecting the imperial tomb from bodies of plunderers too strong to be dealt with by the regular tomb-guards. For not only were the vast treasures buried with deceased Han rulers a constant temptation to spoilers; [[superscript]](82) [[/superscript]] but it was believed that harm or outrage committed upon ------------------------- [[superscript]] (82) [[/superscript]] It is stated that under the Han Dynasty there was regularly laid aside throughout an emperor's reign, to be buried with him at his death, one-third of the total revenue of the Chinese empire. --------------------------------- the remains of departed emperors would cause their spirits to abandon their tombs and so deprive their descendants of their protecting care. [[superscript]] (83) [[/superscript]] ------------------------- [[superscript]] (83) [[/superscript]] The psychology involved in this idea recalls that underlying the Roman custom of [[underlined]]Evocatio [[/underlined]]---the ritual "calling forth" of the gods of a besieged city in order to deprive the latter of their divine protection. --------------------------------- In spite of all precautions, however, it befell in nearly every instance that Chinese imperial tombs were broken open and looted soon after the fall of they dynasty to which they belonged. This was the result not of cupidity alone but also of the wish to deprive the fallen line of that aid from its ancestral spirits through which it might regain its lost
