Xianling

Obvious Mausoleum

synonym

Xianling (Mausoleum of Ming clan Zhu Youmin) generally refers to Xianling (Mausoleum of Ming clan Zhu Youmin)

The Xiangling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty

）Located on Chunde mountain, 5km northeast of Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, it was built in 1519, the 14th year of Zhengde of Ming Dynasty, and completed in 1566, the 45th year of Jiajing of Ming Dynasty. It took 47 years to complete. It is the joint Tomb of emperor gongruixian, father of emperor Jiajing of Ming Shizong, and empress cixiaoxian, mother of emperor cixiaoxian.

Obviously, the mausoleum is the only Ming Dynasty mausoleum in six provinces of central and southern China, covering an area of 183.13 hectares, which is the largest single mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty mausoleum. Its unique layout and architectural techniques play a connecting role in the Ming Dynasty mausoleum rule system. In particular, the mausoleum structure of "one mausoleum and two tombs" is unique in the mausoleums of successive emperors.

In January 1988, Mingxian mausoleum was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit by the State Council. On November 30, 2000, it was listed in the world heritage list by UNESCO as a part of the Royal Mausoleum of Ming and Qing Dynasties. In April 2008, Xianling was approved as a national AAAA scenic spot by the National Tourism Administration.

Historical evolution

Zhu Youhong, the fourth son of Zhu Jianshen, died on June 17, 1519. Zhu Houli, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was given the posthumous title of "Xian". He selected a good place in Songlin mountain and regulated the cemetery according to the prince. He was buried on the third day of April the next year. In March of the 16th year of Zhengde (1521), Zhu Houli was welcomed to Beijing to join the Datong, which is the name of emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty. After the throne, Zhu Houmin established his own system of inheritors, regardless of the opposition of the court officials, and pursued his biological father Zhu Youmin as emperor; in June of the same year, he was honored as "Xing Xian emperor".

In March of the third year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1524), he was also honored as "Xian emperor". In July, he was honored as "Huang Kao Gong Mu Xian emperor" in Guande hall, the East Room of Fengxian hall.

In September of the fifth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1526), "Fengan Gong Mu offered the Emperor God to the world Temple"; in September of the 17th year of Jiajing (1538), "Ruizong" was the title of the temple; in the 27th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1548), the Emperor God was offered to the temple. After Zhu youmi was worshipped as emperor, the original Xingxian tomb was upgraded and rebuilt according to the regulations of imperial mausoleum.

In April 1523, the tomb of King Xingxian was covered with black tiles and replaced with yellow glazed tiles, and shenlu bridge was built.

In March 1524, the tomb was officially renamed Xianling.

In the first month of the year following the fourth year of Jiajing (1525) of Ming Dynasty, Gu Lin, the left servant of the Ministry of industry, was appointed to supervise the construction of the new Xuangong according to the "plan" of Zhu Houfu, and connected the old and new Baocheng with a tall brick platform called "Yaotai", forming an unprecedented special pattern in the Ming imperial mausoleum.

In December 1527, Zhu Houfu ordered the construction of Xianling mausoleum, such as the seven mausoleums of Tianshou mountain, to repair Baocheng and Baoding, rebuild Xiangdian, add Fangcheng minglou, Ruigong Shengde stele tower, dahongmen, and set up lookout pillars and 12 pairs of stone statues on both sides of the sacred road in front of Longfeng gate.

In February of the 10th year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1531), Zhu Houfu granted Songlin mountain the title of "Chunde mountain" and erected a monument to build a pavilion. In December 1538, Zhu Houfu's biological mother, Empress Dowager Zhang Shenghuang, died of illness. Zhu Houfu went to Tianshou mountain in Changping, Beijing, and made a bid to move Xianling to the north at the foot of Dayu mountain in the southwest of Changling. He ordered Guo Xun, Marquis of Wuding, and Jiang Yao, Minister of the Ministry of industry, to build a new mausoleum, and "wanted to welcome huangkaozi palace to move here.".

In March of the 18th year of Jiajing reign of Ming Dynasty (1539), Zhu Houfu returned to Beijing after a tour to the south. In April, he inspected the mausoleum of Dayu mountain. After comparing with the Fengshui situation of Xianling, he found that "the valley is desolate, and it is not as perfect as pure virtue mountain"; he decided to use the previous discussion, "fengci drives Nanyu". In May of the same year, Emperor Shizong sent Marquis Cui yuan of Jingshan to escort his mother's coffin to Nanhe. In July, he was buried with Zhu Youhe in Xinxuan palace of Xianling.

In the 21th year of Jiajing reign of Ming Dynasty (1542), Jingzhou Zuowei was changed into Xianling Wei, which was filled by more than 1200 people, such as Zhengjun Li maocai. In September, he ordered the construction of Xianling kuan'en hall, and sent Huang Jin, the eunuch of the palace, to work with Lu Jie, the right servant of governor Huguang.

In April of the 33rd year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1554), he ordered to rebuild the hall of enjoyment, that is, the hall of yan'en, which is "like the jingling system", with Lu Xun, the right Minister of the Ministry of work, as well as the right censor and governor of the capital.

In July of the 35th year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1556), the imperial edict was issued to repair the left corner gate, the access road, the imperial bridge and the wall of the second red gate of Xianling.

In September 1559, the extension project of Xianling was completed.

In September 1566 of the 45th year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Shouzhi, the left Minister of the Ministry of industry, was sent to rebuild the kuan'en hall. The construction of Xianling was finally completed.

At the end of Ming Dynasty, Xianling was destroyed. According to tan Qian's Guoyan, in December of 1642, Li Zicheng went to Chengtian The wooden structure of the ground buildings was partially destroyed.

In the Qing Dynasty, Xianling was protected under the intervention of local officials. There is a stone tablet of Xianfeng Period in Xianling, which records the notice of local officials asking the village to protect Xianling.

During the period of the Republic of China, Xianling mausoleum was deserted and turned into cultivated land. The nearby mountain people believed the rumor that the stone statues were resurrected at night and ate crops, and destroyed some of them.

During the Anti Japanese War, Japanese invaders occupied Zhongxiang and stole some stone carvings from Xianling.

geographical environment

Location context

The mausoleum is located on Chunde mountain, 5km northeast of Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, between 31 ° 12 ′ 20 ″ - 31 ° 13 ′ 00 ″ N and 112 ° 37 ′ 50 ″ - 112 ° 38 ′ 09 ″ E. The surrounding area of the mausoleum is 183.13 hectares. The whole mausoleum is feudal with two cities. The perimeter of wailuo city is more than 3600 meters, winding up and down in the mountains.

Climatic characteristics

Zhongxiang City is located in the north subtropical monsoon climate zone, with four distinct seasons, rain and heat sharing, sufficient sunshine, abundant rainfall, long frost free period, mild climate and other characteristics. It is located in the East-West climate transition zone of Hubei Province (112 ° E), close to the North-South climate transition zone (31 ° n). It alternates between cold and warm in spring. The temperature rises slowly in early spring, and the cold in spring recedes later In autumn, there are alternate autumn drought and overcast rain, and sometimes autumn cold comes earlier; in winter, there is less rain and snow, and the severe cold period is short, and there are many disastrous weather such as drought, waterlogging, tornado and so on.

Design layout

General points

The planning of the mausoleum covers an area of 183.13 hectares, of which the mausoleum covers 52 hectares. In this vast area, all the mountains, water systems, trees and vegetation are taken as the elements of the mausoleum for unified layout and arrangement.

The natural hills at the back of the mausoleum are Zushan, which is the support of the mausoleum; the mountains on both sides are used as the protection, the buildings are arranged in the middle platform, and the Jiuqu river meanders between them; the hills in front are Pingshan. Surrounded by mountains, the Fengshui pattern of "front rosefinch, back Xuanwu, left Qinglong, right Baihu" is formed, which embodies the principle of "mausoleum system is commensurate with landscape".

Most of the foundations of the buildings in the mausoleum are made of xumizuo style stone carving platforms with concise and exquisite patterns. Most of the gate stones are decorated with white jade with dragon pattern.

Specific settings

Outside the mausoleum, Luocheng is built according to the mountain, winding and undulating, with a circumference of 3438 meters and a depth of 1656 meters. There are two mausoleum gates. The new and old gates are built with bricks and stones. In front of the gate, there is a stele of horse standing on the left and right. The inscriptions on the stele are written by Yan Song. The Shinto paved with stone slabs inside the gate reaches to the inner city. Through the Yueyu bridge in the old red gate, there is a tall stele Pavilion of Ruigong Shengde in the middle of the Shinto, with a square plane and an area of 344 square meters In the center of the stele stands a stele without words. 63 meters behind the stele Pavilion is a Royal Bridge. The bridge is the main tomb decoration building in the mausoleum area. Facing the stele is a Han white jade pillar with a height of 12 meters. Under the stele is a square xumizuo with a hexagonal body and a two-layer waist cloud plate supporting a cylindrical cloud dragon relief.

The main gate of the inner city is yan'en gate, which is three rooms wide, followed by yan'en hall, which is five rooms wide, with only the temple base; on both sides of yan'en gate, there are still glazed Qionghua and shuanglongbi.

The tomb city is divided into two rings of walls, with Yaotai in the middle. The plane shape is like dumbbell. Around the wall are battlements and panshou Sanshui carved with white marble. The diameter of the front city is 112-125 meters, and the wall height is 5 meters. The diameter of the back city is 103 meters, and the wall height is 5.5 meters. The Ming tower is square in plane, with a stele of "gongruixian emperor's Mausoleum" built in the building. On both sides are the Kuang Zhi made for the king of Xingxian in Zhengde period. Before the city platform, stone carving * five sets of tables and columns were set up, each with one column.

Cultural relics

Cultural relics protection

After the founding of new China, the protection of the mausoleum has been strengthened.

In 1958, it was listed in the first batch of "cultural relics protection units in Hubei Province".

In 1988, it was listed as "national key cultural relics protection unit".

Since 1994, Ming Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Xian Ling