关键词: 秦始皇陵, 大海, 水银, 海池, 海洋文化

Abstract: The mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is designed with mercury as the sea,which reflects the emperor's yearning for the ocean,and can be regarded as one of the symbols of the achievements of ocean exploration and early oceanography at that time. The Emperor made many trips to the seashore,fought with the gods of the sea in his dreams and killed giant fish with a crossbow,and after that his life came to an end. Even when being transported to the tomb in the Li Mountains,his corpse was mingled with “Bao Yu”(whole marinated fish). Qin Shi Huang's interest in ocean originated from his ambition to expand the boundary eastward onto the sea,but later on due to royal alchemists '(mostly from east provinces) deception,he began to consider ocean as a place for eternal life,which could also explain the “mercury sea” in his mausoleum. The “Sea Pond” in the Qin palace garden and the elements of the marine culture in the Emperor Qin Shi Huang's underground palace could help better understand the history of Chinese oceanography.

Key words: the Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum, sea, mercury, sea pond, marine culture