Mausoleum scenic spot

Located in Songlin mountain in the eastern suburb of Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, the mausoleum is a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is the joint burial tomb of emperor gonghexian, the father of emperor Jiajing of Ming Dynasty, and Empress Dowager Zhangsheng, the mother of emperor Jiajing of Ming Dynasty. It is the most distinctive Mausoleum in China's thousands of years of history. Xianling mausoleum was built in 1519 and 1566. It took 47 years to complete. Its surrounding area is 183.13 hectares. The whole mausoleum has two feudal cities, Wailuo city is more than 3600 meters long, 6 meters high and 1.8 meters thick, with red walls and yellow tiles, resplendent gold and jade, winding up and down in the mountains and hills. It is the most complete isolated city wall in the mausoleum of emperors of all dynasties in China. The mausoleum is composed of inner and outer Luo city, front and back Baocheng, Fangcheng minglou, lengsi hall, lingenmen, Shenchu, Linghu, Junhu, shengongjian, Gongde stele tower and Xincheng Red Gate, old red gate, more than 30 large-scale buildings, such as inner and outer Mingtang, Jiuqu Yuhe, dragon shaped Shinto, etc., are the treasures of ancient architectural art in China. They are ingenious in layout design, flying dragons and flying phoenix in the building platform, exquisite in craft relief, and rare in the world. The peculiarity of Xianling is mainly due to the unique case of double tombs in one mausoleum formed by the transformation of royal tombs into imperial tombs. Zhu Youmin, the owner of Xianling tomb, was the king of Xingxian before his death. After his death, he was buried in Songlin mountain. Wuzong died in Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty. Because he had no children, Empress Dowager cishou and Yang Tinghe, the first assistant scholar, complied with the ancestral precept of "brother died and brother died", and ordered "Zhu Houmin, the eldest son of Xingxian king", to succeed the emperor. The title was Jiajing, and later Zhu houfen was a self-supporting system. He used force to quell the three-year dispute over "imperial examination". During this period, 17 people died in tingzhang, and more than 115 officials were jailed, deprived of salaries, exiled, and dismissed. Thus, he completed his own Zhaomu system. This important event is called the "great etiquette" dispute in history. After that, Zhu Houfu, the emperor of Jiajing, worshipped his father as the emperor of Gonghe offering sacrifices, and changed the royal tomb into an imperial mausoleum, and started a large-scale reconstruction and expansion project, which was not completed until the death of Jiajing. The Xianling mausoleum is highly valued by the national heritage experts for its unique environment, exquisite layout, grand architectural scale, rich underground treasures and precious historical value. In 1988, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit. In March 1999, the National Bureau of cultural relics took it as the only Imperial Mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty and applied to the United Nations World Heritage Committee The World Cultural Heritage Committee of UNESCO has voted to list the obvious mausoleum in Zhongxiang City of Hubei Province as a world cultural heritage project. In 2000, the mausoleum was listed in the world heritage list according to the cultural heritage selection criteria C (I) (III) (VI); the World Heritage Committee evaluated that the Royal Mausoleum of Ming and Qing Dynasties was carefully selected according to the geomantic omen theory, and a large number of buildings were skillfully placed underground. It is the product of human changing nature, reflects the traditional architectural and decorative ideas, and explains the world outlook and power outlook of feudal China lasting for more than 500 years. After inspecting Xianling, UN expert Mr. Jean Louis lucsen was very surprised. He called Xianling "the magic and obvious mausoleum". He felt "incredible" about wailuo City, which has been in good condition for 115 years. At the same time, the protection and maintenance work of Xianling is fully affirmed.

Mausoleum scenic spot

The mausoleum is located in Chunde mountain, 7.5 kilometers northeast of Zhongxiang City. It is the joint Tomb of emperor gongruixian, father of emperor Jiajing of Ming Shizong, and his mother, Empress Dowager Zhangsheng. In January 1988, it was announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit by the State Council. On November 30, 2000, it was approved by UNESCO to be listed in the world heritage list.

brief introduction

Xianling was built in 1519, the 14th year of Zhengde in Ming Dynasty, and completed in 1559, the 38th year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty. Surrounding area of Xianling Mausoleum

13 hectares. The whole cemetery has two feudal cities. Wailuo city is 3600 meters in circumference, with red walls and yellow tiles. It is resplendent and resplendent, winding up and down among the mountains. The mausoleum is composed of more than 30 large-scale buildings. According to the mountain terrace, there are Chunde mountain stele, Chiyu stele, waimingtang stele, Xiama stele, new red gate, old red gate, yubeilou, Wangzhu, shixiangsheng, lingxingmen, Jiuqu Yuhe, neimingtang stele, lengenmen stele gate, shuangzhumen stele gate, Fangcheng stele, qianhoubaocheng stele, etc Building is a masterpiece of combining architectural art and environmental aesthetics. Xianling mausoleum is the product of the important historical event "grand ceremony" in the early Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty. Its unique layout and architectural techniques play a connecting role in the regulation of Ming mausoleum. In the mausoleum architecture, the Golden Vase shaped wailuo City, the nine winding Yuhe River, the dragon scale Shinto, the glass screen wall of Qionghua Double Dragons and the inner and outer Mingtang are the only isolated examples. In particular, the mausoleum structure of "one mausoleum and two tombs" is unique to the mausoleums of the emperors of the past dynasties. The two secret underground palaces, which are dumbbell shaped and connected by the Yaotai, are mysterious and unpredictable. It is obvious that the original architecture and environmental features of the mausoleum are well preserved, the building scale is grand, the mausoleum structure is unique, and the cultural connotation is rich, so it can be called the bright pearl of Chinese imperial mausoleum.

historical information

Among the mausoleums of Ming Dynasty, the former and the latter two cities are unique. The formation of the two cities before and after Xianling is closely related to the change of their masters' identity. Qianbao City, built in 1520, was built when Zhu Youmin built the king's tomb according to the rules of vassal after his death. Houbao city was built in 1539, the 18th year of Jiajing period. It was a new palace built when Zhu Youying was buried with his wife after he was worshipped as emperor. The two cities are connected by a long platform called "Yaotai", which is dumbbell shaped. At the same time, due to the strengthening of imperial power and the improvement of patriarchal system, great changes have taken place in the system between the old and new underground palaces. The new underground palace, namely Houbao City, changes the oblong shape of the former seven mausoleums, namely Chang, Xian, Jing, Yu, Mao, Tai and Kang, into a round shape. This is the turning point of the later five mausoleums, namely Yong, Zhao, Ding, Qing and De, which is an important symbol of the link between the preceding and the following.

As an independent mausoleum area, Xianling mausoleum is surrounded by wailuo City, which is 6 meters high, 1.8 meters wide and 3500 meters long, in the shape of "Jingping". It is opposite to the wall of the mausoleum area and is called wailuo city and neiluo city respectively. The architecture of the Xianling mausoleum imitates the system of the seven Mausoleums in Tianshou mountain. The seven mausoleums only have the walls of the mausoleum area, and each mausoleum has no separate wailuo city. It is only the mausoleum with the strict defense walls built around the mausoleum area in Tianshou mountain. The mausoleum is the only mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty that retains the specific practice of shenlu Longlin road as a whole. The middle is paved with stone slabs, which is called "Dragon Ridge", the two sides are filled with pebbles, which is called "dragon scale", and the outer side is wrapped with Yazi stone, which is called "dragon scale road", with a total length of 1360 meters. This method not only meets the functional requirements of the mausoleum building, but also is economical and feasible, which fully shows the wisdom of the ancients.

Xianling mausoleum is the only mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty that retains the specific practice of shenlu Longlin road as a whole. The middle is paved with stone slabs, which is called "Dragon Ridge", the two sides are filled with pebbles, which is called "dragon scale", and the outer side is wrapped with Yazi stone, which is called "dragon scale road", with a total length of 1360 meters. This method not only meets the functional requirements of the mausoleum building, but also is economical and feasible, which fully shows the wisdom of the ancients. The glass screen walls on both sides of the lenen gate are in the shape of eight characters, which is an isolated example of the mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. From the existing wall, it is in the form of glazed imitation wood, with tile eaves on the upper part, glazed imitation wood components under the eaves, xumizuo on the lower part, Qionghua pattern on the front and Shuanglong pattern on the back of the flower heart. Its workmanship is very exquisite. After Xianling, when Shizong built Yongling for himself, he built a wailuo city outside the wall of the mausoleum area, which was imitated by the later Dingling mausoleum, forming a unique imperial mausoleum system. Therefore, it can be said that the wailuo city of Xianling is the forerunner of Yongling and Dingling, which is also an important feature of Xianling.

The number of stele pavilions in Xianling is far more than that of two stele pavilions in Tianshou mountain. From the time when Chunde mountain stele was granted by imperial edict, nine stone steles have been found or recorded, such as Shanqu stele, Ruigong Shengde stele, jiruiwen stele, Chunde mountain jigaowen stele, plus zunshiji stele, Yuci stele, Yuci stele, Yuci stele and minglou stele. Except for the stele with zunshiji stele built in Lingen hall, there are stele pavilions (towers), which are far from comparable to other tombs in Ming Dynasty.

The purpose of emperor Jing's building more stele pavilions in Xianling can be roughly identified from the name of the stele. In addition to the Shanqu stele, which mainly records the management content of the land and the number of buildings in the mausoleum area, it is the work of emperor Jiajing himself and his subordinates (such as Yan Song) to praise Zhu Youmin's merits. It is only for the purpose of private relatives to rectify the name of the emperor who has never been in the imperial palace.

The Jiuqu Yuhe river is nearly 2000 meters long and of masonry structure. It is a drainage facility in Xianling area. Although every mausoleum in Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the drainage and flood discharge in the mausoleum area, and excavated or used natural rivers to form imperial ditches, the Jiuqu River of Xianling was significantly different from the former seven mausoleums because of its perfect drainage system and perfect geomantic theory, which became an important feature of Xianling cultural relics.

Mingtang is an important concept in Fengshui theory. It originally meant that the mausoleum area should be divided into open spaces. The inner Mingtang, which is close to the core - "cave", should not be too wide, but can "store wind and gather gas"; the outer Mingtang, which is close to the periphery, should be wide but not narrow, in order to achieve long-term development.

In the planning and layout of Xianling mausoleum, two large pools are designed at the location of Yuming hall

Chinese PinYin : Ming Xian Ling Jing Qu