For 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 Archaeology for Cultural Relics Protection of Xi City, conducted a "carpet" comprehensive archaeological exploration of the existing site of the front hall of Epang Palace in Qin Dynasty, and found no architectural remains of the palace in Qin Dynasty, let alone those that had been burned. Accordingly, the Epang Palace archaeological team proposed that Epang Palace was not built, but only a "semi-finished" project; The incident of "burning Epang Palace" does not exist either.
Epang Palace is only built on the pedestal of the front hall.
Afanggong site is located on the south bank of Weihe River at the west of Xi 'an City 13km in Shaanxi Province, facing Xianyang City in Qin Dou across the Weihe River. According to Liu Qingzhu, director of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, since June 2002, the archaeological team has excavated an area of 3,000 square meters and an area of 35,000 square meters.
In the process of exploration, archaeologists have not let go of 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 open spaces of flower ponds, sheepfolds, toilets and houses, and only the remains of the city walls of the Qin Dynasty have been found. Its collapsed deposits contain a large number of bricks and tiles from the Qin and Han Dynasties, but there are no relics of palace buildings in the Qin Dynasty, such as temple ruins, colonnades, cloisters and drainage facilities. Tiles, an indispensable building material in Qin dynasty, have not been found either. Therefore, archaeologists believe that the Epang Palace project only completed the construction of the Qian Dian building base and part of the palace wall, but the part above the palace building base was not completed in time.
Xiang Yu should burn down Xianyang Palace.
At the same time, in the process of archaeological exploration of the whole Epang Palace site, archaeologists did not find any traces of being burned at that time. Liu Qingzhu introduced that the legendary Epang Palace was actually set on fire by Xiang Yu, which was not recorded in the history books. On the contrary, it is recorded in Historical Records that Xiang Yu set fire to the palace building in Xianyang, Qin Dou. Previously, archaeologists discovered traces of burnt palace buildings during archaeological excavations of the first, second and third palaces in Xianyang, Qin Dou. From this perspective, Xiang Yu should have burned down Xianyang Palace or other Qin palaces in Qin Dou.
Liu Qingzhu said that according to the literature, it can also be judged that Epang Palace was not built. First of all, according to the records of the first Qin Shihuang, 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 540,000-square-meter pedestal of Qianfeng, it was impossible to complete a building of this scale like Epang Palace at that time. Secondly, from the literature, there is no clear record that Epang Palace has been built. According to records, from the late Qin Shihuang to Qin Ershi, and then to Zi Ying, the king of Qin, all political activities were in Xianyang Palace or Wangyi Palace, but they had nothing to do with Epang Palace, which is consistent with the latest archaeological findings. (