Huang Di Mausoleum

Huang Di Mausoleum

Huangdi mausoleum is the mausoleum of Huangdi in Xuanyuan, which is recorded in historical records

It is located in chengbeiqiao mountain, Huangling County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province.

The mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, known as the "bridge mausoleum" in ancient times, was a place where emperors and celebrities of all dynasties offered sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor. In history, the earliest sacrifice to the Yellow Emperor was held in 422 B.C. in the third year of emperor linggong of Qin Dynasty

. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty led 180000 troops to offer sacrifices to the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in the first year of Yuanfeng (110 BC), Qiaoshan has always been the place where national sacrifices were held in successive dynasties

All kinds of cultural relics from the Han Dynasty to the present are preserved

. The "cypress planted by the Yellow Emperor" in front of the mausoleum is more than 5000 years ago. It is said that it was planted by the Yellow Emperor himself and is the oldest cypress in the world.

In March 1961, the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was announced by the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, which was designated as "No.1 ancient tomb"

. In 2006, the Qing Ming Festival Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor ceremony (Yellow Emperor Mausoleum ceremony) was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. In August 2014, Huangdi mausoleum was listed in the world cultural heritage project.

geographical environment

Qiaoshan, where the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is located, is one thousand meters north of Huangling County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province. Ziwuling runs from north to south, with Zi in the north and Wu in the south, so it is called Ziwuling. Qiaoshan covers a total area of 566.7 hectares. The mountain is thick and majestic. JuShui circulates on three sides

. The mountain is densely forested, covering an area of 89.1 hectares. There are more than 81600 ancient cypresses, of which more than 30000 are more than one thousand years old. It is the oldest, largest and best preserved group of ancient cypresses in China.

"Taiping Huanyu Ji" written by the music history of Song Dynasty states: "Qiaoshan," the book of mountains and seas says: "pugu water source, its mountain, water flow, so called Qiaoshan." According to the summary of history reading Fang Yu written by Gu Zuyu of the Qing Dynasty, "JuShui reaches the north of the county and passes through the mountains, because it is named after a bridge."

Juhe river passes through Qiaoshan in a U-shape from west to East. Looking down from the mountain, there is a river in the East and a river in the west, just like water passing through the bottom of the mountain. Therefore, the mountain is named Qiaoshan, and the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is named Qiaoling because of the mountain.

On July 11, 1992, people's Daily published an article entitled "Fengshui axis of Huangdi mausoleum". The article said: "Fengshui axis of Huangdi mausoleum is from the main ridge of Qiaoshan to Huangdi mausoleum, and forms a line with the peak of Yintai mountain. All kinds of buildings in Huangdi mausoleum area are built on this axis, and the direction of mausoleum is just on this line.". In other words, the orientation of the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is different from that of the later emperors, which is due north and South (facing north and South) or due west and East (facing west and East). According to geography, the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor faces southeast with its back to northwest, which is completely consistent with the orientation of Qiaoshan, Ziwuling and Kunlun Mountain, which is known as the dragon vein Man Dongnan ".

Historical evolution

Volume I of historical records, the first chapter of the five emperors' annals, states: "the Yellow Emperor collapsed and buried in the bridge mountain.".

In ancient times, Qiaoshan was the residence of Ji ǎ o family, which was called Zhuoshan; in the Yellow Emperor's era, it was called "Xuanyuan hill" or "Xuanyuan platform", so the Yellow Emperor got the name "Xuanyuan". The palace in the Yellow Emperor's city was located here, and later evolved into Qiaoshan.

After the Yellow Emperor united with Yan Emperor to defeat Chiyou, the leader of the Chinese tribal alliance became the common leader of the world, which made the Chinese nation step into the era of civilization from the barbarian era. The great achievements of the Yellow Emperor were naturally respected and worshipped by later generations. After the death of the Yellow Emperor, in order to express the nostalgia for this cultural ancestor, people set up tombs as mausoleums and temples to offer sacrifices in Qiaoshan. In the thousands of years after the death of the Yellow Emperor, the activities of offering sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor never stopped. In Yu, Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Yellow Emperor was worshipped as an ancestor, except in some periods when he was regarded as a "God" and "emperor".

After Qin Shihuang wiped out the six countries and unified the world, he stipulated that all the tombs of the emperor were called "mausoleums" and the common people's tombs were called "tombs". In the Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that there must be a "Temple" beside the emperor's mausoleum. At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, issued an imperial edict to the whole world - "I pay great attention to the ancestral temple and offer sacrifices.". The "Xuanyuan Temple" was built at the Western foot of the bridge

. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty offered sacrifices to the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor

And Shi Ji, Vol.2 18, Fengchan Shu No.6

"In the winter of the coming year, Shangyi said," the ancients first mobilized their troops and then granted Zen. " Then he went to the north to inspect Shuofang, and killed more than 100000 soldiers. He also sacrificed to the Yellow Emperor Zhongqiao mountain, and released his soldiers. " In the winter of the first year of Yuanfeng (110 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty led 100000 troops to the north to visit Shuofang. When they returned, they made a special trip to Qiaoshan to offer sacrifices to the tomb of the Yellow Emperor. This is the first record of the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in official history.

Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the attention of the emperors of various dynasties, the tombs have been enlarged.

In 770, the fifth year of emperor zongdali of Tang Dynasty, Zang Xilang, the festival envoy of Wenfang, wrote: "there is a Yellow Emperor Mausoleum in Fangzhou. Please buy a temple and enjoy the sacrifice at four o'clock. It is listed in the sacrificial ceremony". With the approval of emperor Daizong, the Tang Dynasty started a two-year large-scale renovation activity in Qiaoling, building the Yellow Emperor Temple and planting 1140 cypress trees. Since then, offering sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor has been upgraded to a national ceremony, and Qiaoling has become the only official place for offering sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor. This not only helps to standardize the ritual, but also plays an objective role in strengthening political rule and cultural identity.

After the wars in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the tombs of the former emperors, including the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, had appeared the situation of "being unable to help cutting wood". The "destruction" of sacrificial buildings makes normal sacrificial activities impossible. Therefore, as soon as Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, he issued two imperial edicts in the first year of Jianlong and the beginning of Qiande, stipulating that the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor and the mausoleums of Yan Emperor, Gao Xin, Tang Yao, Yu Shun and Xia Yu "each had five families in charge of the mausoleum, and the ancestral temple of the spring and Autumn period had an ethereal prison" and that those who destroyed it had to repair it. In the second year of Kaibao, due to the erosion of the Juhe River year after year, cliff collapses and water collapses often occurred at the West foot of the bridge, threatening the survival of the temple. Local officials wrote to the imperial court, and song Taizu issued a decree to move Xuanyuan temple from the West foot of the bridge to the Yellow Emperor's palace at the east foot of the bridge, which is the present site.

In 1061, Zhao Zhen, Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, ordered local officials of Fangzhou (now Huangling County) to mobilize the common people to plant more than 1400 cypresses. At the same time, three families were transferred to exempt all taxes, and special care and planting of cypresses were carried out in Qiaoshan. This is the earliest existing official document on the protection of the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor.

In the second year of the reign of emperor Ding of the Yuan Dynasty (1325), Emperor Ding of the Yuan Dynasty issued an imperial edict to protect the mausoleum Temple of the Yellow Emperor, and engraved the imperial edict stele of banning felling trees in the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, which recorded that emperor Ding of the yuan Dynasty issued the imperial edict of protecting Xuanyuan temple buildings, banning felling trees in the mausoleum of the bridge, exempting the local taxes and commercial taxes of the temples and temples, and aggravating the punishment of the government on those who damaged the mausoleum. It is also the only existing Yuan Dynasty inscription on the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in China, and is a precious material for the study of the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in the song and Yuan Dynasties

. From the year of Huizong to the year of Zhengyuan (1341), Huizong decreed to rebuild Baosheng palace, which was destroyed by fire on the west side of Xuanyuan temple.

In the Ming Dynasty, the mausoleum of Huangdi in Qiaoshan was listed as a national sacrifice, and the sacrifice was never interrupted.

In 1370, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang made a decree to offer sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor and repair the mausoleum Temple of the Yellow Emperor. At the same time, two five grade mausoleum protection officials were set up in Xuanyuan temple. Later, the county magistrate took up the post. This practice was followed by later generations, and the county magistrate and mausoleum protecting official became the system. Zhu Yuanzhang not only arranged for the ministers to come to worship the Yellow Emperor on his behalf, but also promoted the local administrative level. Most of the county magistrates in the Ming Dynasty were of seven grades. Because the county magistrates in the central part of the country had to concurrently serve as the mausoleum protection officials of the Huangling mausoleum, they were treated as five grades. In the seventh year of Hongwu (1374), a sitting statue of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan was built; in the forty second year of Jiajing (1563), Emperor Shizong Zhu Houfu repaired the Xuanyuan temple; in the autumn of the first year of Qiqi (1621), Emperor Xizong Zhu Youxiao renovated the mausoleum Temple of the Yellow Emperor; in the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636), the magistrate of Central County rebuilt the mausoleum Temple of the Yellow Emperor. In the Ming Dynasty, there were 21 Zhuwen steles.

In 1646, Emperor Shunzhi ordered envoys to offer sacrifices to the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, and the mausoleum Temple of the Yellow Emperor was repaired for the first time in the Qing Dynasty. Since then, Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Yongzheng, Emperor Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing and Emperor Daoguang successively sent people to the mausoleum of Huangdi in Qiaoshan for more than 30 sacrificial activities and nine major repairs. Among them, it was repaired three times in Kangxi, twice in Yongzheng, once in Qianlong, once in Jiaqing and twice in Daoguang. The Qing Dynasty followed the system of the Ming Dynasty, and the sacrifice to the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was generally a big sacrifice in three years. Most of the sacrifices were given by the emperors, and the ceremony was more grand and grand. In addition to regular sacrifice, special sacrifice was also added when the emperor ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager's birthday, floods and droughts, grain harvest and border disasters were eliminated. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, Bi Yuan, governor of Shaanxi Province, inscribed a stele in front of the mausoleum, which is called "ancient Xuanyuan Mausoleum of Huangdi bridge". Since then, the name of Qiaoling has become even more famous.

After the founding of the Republic of China, in March of the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Dr. Sun Yat Sen appointed senior officials to sacrifice the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, and wrote a memorial essay in person, praising "five thousand years since the founding of the people's Republic of China, Shenzhou Xuanyuan has been passed down from ancient times, creating a guide car, calming the chaos of Chiyou, and world civilization, only I was the first.",

Chinese PinYin : Huang Di Ling