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The Royal Tombs of the Ming Dynasty - the general name given to the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) - lies of the foot of Dayu Mountain, Shisanling Region, Chang Ping County. The tombs are located about 44 kilometres to the north of Beijing. They arc scattered over a basin approximately 40 square kilometres in area, screened by mountains on three sides and open to the Beijing plain in the south. The road leading to the tombs is guarded by the Tiger hill on the left and the Dragon hill on the right. It was a forbidden ground except for those who were officially in charge of its upkeep. It was not allowed to cultivate land, cut wood or to take stones from here. No one could enter it on horseback, even the emperor himself had to dismount at the gate.
The road leading to the tombs was opened up in 1979 with the increase in the number of Chinese and foreign visitors. Along the road, we'll find the Memorial Arch, the Big red Gate, the Tablet house, the stone animals and statues and the Ming tombs reservoir. This road was known as Shendao, meaning "the way of the spirit." The body of the dead was carried over the route at funeral ceremony. It is 7 kilometres long, from the memorial arch to the gate of the main tomb.
The memorial arch, built of white marble, was erected in 1540. It is 14 metres high and 28.86 metres wide, and has 5 arches supported by 6 pillars with beautiful bas-relief carvings of lions, dragons and lotus flowers. double lintels link the six pillars. The roofing is made of round marble tiles, with upturned comers. "the way of the spirit" used to pass beneath the memorial arch.
The Big red Gate was built in 1426. it used to have three huge wooden doom. the central opening was occupied by the deceased emperor alone, and living ministers and imperial family members had to use one of the side openings when they came to pay homage to the deceased emperors.
About 457 metres from the Big red Gate stands the Tablet house built in 1435. A marble column, known as "huabiao", stands at each corner of the Tablet house. A huge tablet, 7 metres high, stands in the middle of the house on the back of a tortoise. The front side bears an inscription by the fourth ming emperor. On the reverse side is an inscription carved during Qing emperor Qianlong's reign (1736-1795). It described the reconstruction of the Ming tombs in 1785 and commented on the rules and styles of the Ming tombs.
Stone animals and statues are found at the entrance to imperial tombs from the Han dynasty onwards, but none of the group is as famous as that of the Ming tombs. The avenue starts with two columns, called "wangzhu" in chinese, one on each side. They are hexagonal, carved with a cloud design, and the top is shaped like a round cylinder. The animals are lions, "xiezhi" was a mythical beast of the feline family, said to be able to distinguish right and wrong. Gilin was a sort of imaginary animal with a scaly body, a cow's tail, deer's hooves and horns on its head. With "the Way of the Spirit" turning slightly, the statues appear : two military officers wearing sabers, two civilian officials and two ministers of merit. Six statues on each side and twelve in all. These animals and statues all date from the 15th century. It is interesting to compare them with those at the tomb of the first Ming emperor in Nanjing, which are scarcely any older and yet much less fine. They were all meant to serve the dead in the next world.
On the right is the Ming tombs reservoir, one of the 17 large and medium-sized reservoirs built in beijing in the last 50 years. The 627-metre-long and 29 metre-high dam was built in less than five months in 1958. The late chairman man, the late premier Zhou Enlai and other leading members of the chinese government came to join in its construction. During construction, 400, 000 volunteers including workers, farmers, business people, students, soldiers, government cadres, foreign diplomats and foreign friends were involved in the project. The reservoir's total area is 300 hectares (750 acres). the project cost 16 million yuan (US$ 1.935 million). It provides water for irrigation in the Beijing area and works the turbines of a hydro-electric power station. it can generate 1.2 billion kilowatt each year. In beijing area, there are altogether 83 reservoirs with a total capacity of 9.27 billion cubic metres of water.
On the left at the foot of the hill stands the underground palace of Ding Ling amidst pines and cypresses. Ding Ling is the tomb of emperor Wanli, the 13th Ming emperor. He was born in 1563, and was chosen and named crown prince when he was six years old. He ascended the throne at the age of 10 and ruled for 48 years until he died in 1620.
Ding Ling (tomb of security) is the only one of the Ming tombs excavated so far. Excavation work took more than two years from 1956 to 1958. Emperor Wanli had two wives. The first wife empress Xiaeduan died only a few months before his death. The second wife empress Xiaojing died in 1612, eight years before and was buried in a nearby tomb reserved for imperial concubines. The first wife had no son while the second wife had one. He succeeded emperor Wanli and died 29 days after his succession. He left the throne to his son. As Xiaojing was the second wife, she was not entitled to the privilege of sharing the emperor's tomb. When her grandson became emperor, she was promoted to the rank of empress dowager, and it was decided that her body be moved into the tomb.
Buildings on the ground consist of Treasure City, Grand Mansion, Lingen Hall, two ground auxiliary halls, Lingen Gate, Ling Gate, Shenbo Oven, Dinvine Wardrobe, Divine Stock, Slaughter Pavilion and Wailuo City etc. At present, the Treasure City and Grand Mansion of the Ding Ling have been preserved fairly well.
The Grand Mansion is not only gallant and splendid, but also does not have a piece of wood and a nail. The rafters, brackets and inscribed board of the upper and lower caves are all inlaid with white stone sculptures and painted with colorful pictures which look like wood structure.
The underground palace is 27 meters deep with a total floor space of 1,195 square meters. It consists of five chambers : the antechamber, the central chamber, the rear chamber and two annex chambers on both sides of the central chamber. There are seven stone gates in the five halls. The stone gates of the front, middle and back halls were most finely done with sculptured white marble. Every stone gate has two leaves, each of which is 3.3 m high and 1.8 m broad and weighs about 4 tons. On every facade of leaf, 81 nipple like nails and decorative beast head holding knocker in the mouth are sculptured.
All of these chambers were built of stones, without using a single beam or column. The back hall, the biggest one in the underground palace, is also called labyrinth room, which is the main part of the Underground Palace. It is 9.5 m high, 9.1 m broad and 30.1 m long, paved with polished piebald stones. On the front of the coffin platform, inner and outer coffins are laid with the Emperor Zhuyijun in the middle and two Queens, Xiaoduan and Xiaojing on two sides respectively. Beside the coffins, there were also 26 red-lacquered wooden boxes containing 3,000 or so pieces of precious funeral objects. Among the unearthed items, a gold crown and a phoenix crown are the most amazing. The gold crown was woven with very fine gold filaments and has two dragons playing with a pearl on the top. The beautiful phoenix crown was for the empress only at grand ceremonies or big occasions. One of them was inlaid with over 5, 000 pearls of different sizes and more than 100 pieces of valuable gems. Today tourists can see these precious antiques in the exhibition halls of Ding Ling.
Exhibition Room : The excavated articles of Ding Ling are 3000 odd in total which include a great number of gold, silver, jade, China wares. Textiles, crowns, belts and ornaments of emperor and queens, tin wares, posthumous tittle books and posthumous treasures etc.
Gold Crown : It was made of extremely thin gold threads, on which two dragons playing with pearl are inlaid, a skilful master piece with vivid posture. It is the first discovery among excavated articles in China.
Phoenix Crowns : Four Phoenix Crowns were excavated, on each of which 5 thousand odd pearls and 1 thousand odd precious stones have been inlaid. Phenix Crown was worn by queen on ceremonial occasions.
Dragon Gown : It was worn by Emperor Zhuyijun on grand ceremonial occasions, on which 12 dragon designs were embroidered.
Hundred Son Clothes were worn by Queen Xiaojing, on which double dragon longevity character was embroidered. All around the clothes, designs of pine, bamboo, plum, stone, peach, pear, banana, ganoderma, glossy and different flowers and grasses and picture of hundred sons were embroidered, vivid and lively, remarkably true to life. | | History | |
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Yongle moved the capital to beijing in early 15th century. Along with the construction of the imperial palace, he chose this valley to build his tomb. His successors followed his example and had their tombs built here, except one who was dethroned and buried in the western suburb. Out of the sixteen emperors, thirteen lie here with their empresses and concubines. The site was chosen with the greatest care, with geomancy. It refers to the superstition that the location of one's ancestors' graves influences one's fortune taken into account. The geomancers claim to be able to tell whether a particular site and its surroundings are auspicious.
Construction of the tomb and the underground palace started in 1584 when emperor Wanli was only 22 years old. Eighteen years and 8 million taels of silver (250,000 kilos of silver) were spent on it. The bricks were brought from Shandong province, the stone from the nearby district of Fangshan, and the wood from the southern provinces.
In 1644 when the Ming dynasty collapsed, the buildings were damaged in a peasant uprising and were not restored until the reign of Qing emperor Gianlong. They were burned down again at the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1956, a decision was made by the chinese government to open up the tomb. It was the first time that an imperial tomb was excavated in china in a scientific way. Ding Ling is now a museum made up of three sections : the underground palace and two exhibition rooms. The objects on display are mostly originals. the trip to the ming tombs certainly gives us a better understanding of the ming dynasty art, the tomb structure and the emperor's extravagance in building the tomb. | | More pictures | |
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Mings Tombs
The Ming Tombs refer to the funeral sites of 13 emperors
of the Ming Dynasty, after its capital was moved to
Beijing.
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