What are the Ming Tombs?
The Ming Tombs are located at the foot of Tianshou Mountain in the north of Changping District, Beijing. It is about 50 kilometers away from Beijing, and it takes about 40 minutes to drive northbound along Badaling Expressway. In the Ming Dynasty, on the road to the north of Shahe, there was a seven-hole stone "Chaozong Bridge". In the town east, there is a magnificent "Gonghua City". This city used to be the palace where Emperor Jiajing rested during the sacrifice in the mausoleum, and now only the ruins are left. The Ming Tombs are located in a small basin surrounded by mountains on the east, west and north. The mountains are beautiful and the scenery is pleasant. Warlocks in the Ming Dynasty thought it was a "Feng Shui" resort and an excellent "auspicious land". Therefore, it was chosen as the "eternal life domain" for the construction of imperial tombs by the Ming Dynasty. The cemetery was built in 1409 ~ 1644, with a history of more than 300 ~ 500 years. Covering an area of 40 square kilometers, the mausoleum is the largest existing royal mausoleum group in China and even in the world. As a part of the ancient culture of China, the natural landscapes of the Ming Tombs and Mausoleums complement each other, forming a tourist attraction with beautiful scenery and profound cultural connotations.
The Ming Tombs are the general name of the royal tombs of 13 emperors after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing. There are Changling (Chengzu), Xianling (Renzong), Jingling (Xuanzong), Yuling (Yingzong), Maoling (Xianzong), Tailing (Xiaozong), Kangling (Wuzong) and Yongling (Sejong) in turn. The scenic spots that have been opened are Changling, Dingling, Zhaoling and Lu Shen.
The Ming Tombs are one of the best preserved imperial tombs in China. Moreover, the building is magnificent, the system is complete, and it has high historical relics value. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), in order to protect this cultural relic, the government began to carry out maintenance from the early days of liberation, and protected the Ming Tombs as a national key cultural relic. 1957, the Beijing municipal government announced the Ming Tombs as the first batch of key ancient cultural relics protection units in Beijing. 196 1 year, the Ming Tombs were announced as national key cultural relics protection units. 1982, the State Council announced Badaling-Ming Tombs Scenic Area as one of the 44 key scenic spots in China. 199 1 year, the Ming Tombs were identified by the National Tourism Administration as one of the "Forty Best Tourist Attractions in China". 1992, the Ming Tombs were rated as "the world's most well-preserved tombs with the largest number of buried emperors" by the Beijing Tourism World's Most Selected Committee.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, made Nanjing his capital and was buried in Zhongshan, Nanjing after his death, known as the "Ming Mausoleum" in history. The second emperor, Zhu Yunwen (his uncle Judy), sent troops to Nanjing in the name of "Jingnan" (to relieve the danger for the emperor). His whereabouts are unknown. Some people say it is a monk, but his whereabouts are unknown (this is an unsolved case in the history of the Ming Dynasty), so there is no mausoleum. Zhu Qiyu, the seventh emperor, was captured by Walla because of his younger brother Yingzong, and was granted the throne at the will of the Queen Mother and ministers. Later, Yingzong was put back, and under the planning of his cronies, he carried out a "change to seize the door." The restoration of the British Sect once again proclaimed himself emperor. After Zhu Qiyu was killed, Yingzong refused to recognize him as the emperor and destroyed the mausoleum built in Tianshou Mountain area. He was buried as a "king" in Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs of Beijing. In this way, two of the sixteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty were buried elsewhere, one was unaccounted for, and the other thirteen were buried in Tianshou Mountain, so they were called the "Ming Tombs".
The Ming Tombs is a natural mountainous area with specifications. Its mountain range belongs to Taihang Remnant Vein, which connects Juyongguan in the west, huanghua town in the north and Changping in the south. It is not only the barrier of the mausoleum, but also the north screen of the capital. Taihang Mountain starts from Zezhou and winds thousands of miles north to Juyongguan. Feng Wan leans back to Panqu and rises to the east as Tianshou Mountain (formerly known as Huang Tu Mountain). The mountain is towering and straight, majestic and broad, and the main force is strong. Gu, a famous scholar in the late Ming Dynasty, once wrote a poem describing the superior situation here: "The mountains are coming from the south, and the momentum is like a dragon, and the dragon leaps and leaps;" East toe in Lulong, west ridge in Taihang; Sitting on the yellow flower in the back (referring to huanghua town), facing the Shenjing; There is an old house called Kangjiazhuang. It can accommodate millions of people and suddenly open. This beautiful natural landscape was regarded as a treasure trove of geomantic omen by feudal rulers.
The Ming Tombs are both a unified whole and an independent unit with similar specifications. Each mausoleum is built in front of a mountain. The distance between the two tombs is at least half a kilometer and at most eight kilometers. Except for Siling, which is located in the southwest corner, the others are fan-shaped and located around Changling (see figure). Under the guidance of China's traditional geomantic theory, from site selection to planning and design, the Ming Tombs attached great importance to the harmonious unity of mausoleum architecture and natural landscape vegetation, and pursued the perfect realm of "heaven and earth" to reflect the philosophical view of "harmony between man and nature". The Ming Tombs, as an outstanding representative of China's ancient tombs, showed the rich connotation of China's traditional culture.
The layout of this mausoleum built on the mountain has also been appreciated by foreign experts. For example, Joseph Needham, a famous British historian, said: The Mausoleum is a great achievement in China's architectural form, and its overall pattern may be the greatest example of the combination of the whole building and landscape art. He rated the Ming Tombs as "the greatest masterpiece". His experience is that "you can enjoy the scenery of the whole valley from the gatehouse and meditate on its solemn scene on an organic plane, in which all the buildings are integrated with the scenery, and a person's wisdom is well expressed through the skills of architects and builders." British urban planner Edmund Bacon also spoke highly of the artistic achievements of the Ming Tombs. He believes that "the most magnificent' moving' example in architecture is Ming Taizu Mausoleum." He pointed out that the layout of the mausoleum building built on the mountain was "so magnificent that the whole valley volume was used to commemorate the dead king." They vividly describe the organic combination of the architecture of the Ming Tombs and the natural landscape.
In 2003, the Ming Tombs were listed on the World Heritage List. Evaluation of World Heritage Committee: According to the theory of geomantic omen, imperial tombs of the ming and qing dynasties has carefully selected sites and skillfully placed a large number of buildings underground. It is the product of human's transformation of nature, which embodies the traditional architectural and decorative ideas, and interprets the world outlook and power view of feudal China that lasted for more than 500 years.