Dongling Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty

Dongling Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty

Located in the south of Zijin Mountain, Xuanwu District, Nanjing City, to the east of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Ming Dongling mausoleum is the mausoleum of Zhu Biao, the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang (Prince Yiwen and Emperor xingzongkang). The overall layout is similar to Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, but the scale is smaller.

The eastern Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is composed of mausoleum wall, Mausoleum gate, front door of the hall, hall of enjoyment and the top of the pagoda. The main buildings are distributed along a north-south axis. There are many sites such as the base site of the front door, drainage facilities and platform of the hall. The garden wall in the front of the mausoleum is in the shape of a turtle back, which is the only layout of the mausoleum known in China.

Historical evolution

In August of 1391, the 24th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty, Zhu Biao, the eldest son of Zhu Yuanzhang, visited Shaanxi Province. After returning to the imperial court, he fell ill.

In April 1392, the 25th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty, Zhu Biao died. Before his death, Zhu Biao, the owner of Dongling tomb, was appointed the crown prince by Zhu Yuanzhang. He once presided over some administrative affairs, and was buried in the east of Xiaoling tomb in August of the same year.

After Zhu Biao died of illness, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Biao's son, as his grandson to take over his throne.

In 1398, after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne and was named Jianwen. When Jianwen was in power, he respected his father Zhu Biao as emperor Xiaokang, and the temple name was Xingzong.

In the fourth year of Jianwen (1402), Zhu Di persecuted Zhu Biao and his descendants cruelly for the sake of his rule. At the same time, he abolished the title of emperor Jianwen and Zhu Biao's imperial title and temple title, and restored the title of Zhu Biao's Mausoleum as Prince Yiwen's mausoleum. Since then, the political status of Dongling has been declining, and then gradually disappeared. After Zhu Di's death, during Zhengde, Wanli and Chongzhen years, many ministers proposed to restore the historical status of Jianwen emperor and Zhu Biao. However, due to the special political background, this requirement of respecting historical facts has not been realized. It was not until Qianlong of Qing Dynasty that Jianwen emperor and Zhu Biao regained their historical status.

Since April 1999, cultural relics archaeologists have successively explored and discovered the Qianmen site, drainage facilities and the platform site of the gate hall in the east of the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. In order to protect the imperial mausoleum more than 600 years ago, Zhongshan Mausoleum administration decided to build the Ming Dongling ruins park here. Since 2000, the eastern Ming mausoleum excavated in the southern foot of Zhongshan Mountain in Nanjing has become the first imperial mausoleum site park in Nanjing. The construction project of Ming Dongling site park is mainly to protect such precious cultural relics as Shinto, Mausoleum gate, front door of Xiangdian, Danlong, Xiangdian, dormitory garden, drainage facilities and Baoding. The environmental renovation projects of Shinto, lingmen, Xiangdian Qianmen and other remains have been completed and opened to the public.

architectural composition

According to the archaeological investigation, there are no separate stone inscriptions of Shinto and Royal Bridge in the eastern Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty, which indicates that the eastern mausoleum and the Xiaoling Mausoleum share the same main Shinto. This layout of Xiaoling created a system in which the Shinto of the first emperor's mausoleum was shared by later generations and inherited by the Ming Tombs in Beijing.

The gate of the eastern Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty is a palace gate building with a single eaves on the top of the mountain. It is covered with green glazed tiles. It was originally a three hole gate, but now only has a building base. The front door of the hall is a three Bay, single eaves and top building, which is also covered with green glazed tiles. The scale is the same as that of most Prince tombs in the Ming Dynasty. The hall of enjoyment is the largest building in the Dongling mausoleum. It is speculated that it is a building on the top of the mountain with a five bay interval, and it is covered with yellow glazed tiles (it is speculated that many yellow glazed tiles were found in the Dongling site, which can only be seen in the Emperor's Mausoleum). The eastern Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is different from the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. It is not as big as the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, so the underground palace of the prince has not been excavated.

Historical status

From Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, Zhu Biao won the title of emperor three times. In this sense, the eastern Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty has the historical status of "imperial mausoleum", although Zhu Biao's mausoleum building is actually a crown prince mausoleum system, such as the lack of Ming tower and square city in the mausoleum, the main building uses green glazed tiles and so on. Some experts suggest that the eastern Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty should be called the 19th Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, which is quite reasonable in terms of its historical status.

Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty

Address: east side of Ming Xiaoling scenic spot, Xuanwu District, Nanjing (near Zixia Lake)

Longitude: 118.83843

Latitude: 32.048585

Tel: 025-84431174

Chinese PinYin : Ming Dong Ling