Why was the mausoleum of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang built outside the Feng Shui Wall of the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty?
Around the Qingdong Mausoleum area, a 20-kilometer-long "Feng Shui Wall" tightly surrounds the tombs of more than 150 people, large and small, giving people the impression of being inseparable from life to death. . However, only the Zhaoxi Mausoleum was built outside the Feng Shui Wall. The terrain around the Zhaoxi Mausoleum was flat and open, without the back tents of other empresses or surrounding mountains, making it seem a bit empty and lonely. Buried in this Zhaoxi Mausoleum is the famous Queen Xiaozhuang Wen.
Schematic diagram of the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty
Kangxi’s grandmother, Queen Xiaozhuangwen, was the concubine of Emperor Taizong Huang Taiji, the second emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the biological mother of Emperor Shunzhi Fulin. , the grandmother of Kangxi Emperor Xuan Ye. After the death of Huang Taiji, his son Fulin ascended the throne and was revered as the empress dowager. She is a famous empress dowager and empress dowager in Chinese history. She nurtured and assisted the Shunzhi and Kangxi monarchs throughout her life. She was an outstanding female politician in the early Qing Dynasty. She died at the age of 75.
Xiaozhuang played by Siqin Gaowa
Queen Xiaozhuangwen (1613-1688)
Xiaozhuang was the senior among all the people buried in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty The highest person, and one who is respected by future generations, why is he buried outside the gate of the royal cemetery? There is a saying in unofficial history that "the Empress Dowager married" Dorgon. Xiaozhuang felt sorry for her ex-husband Huang Taiji, who had no face to see her in the underground, so she did not want to be sent back to Shenyang to be buried with Huang Taiji after her death, so she asked her grandson Kangxi to She was buried in Dongling; there is also a legend that Xiaozhuang lost the face of the Aixinjueluo family by marrying Dorgon, so she was buried alone outside the gate and Fengshui wall of the mausoleum to punish her to the royal family for generations. The descendants guard the gate; there is also the folk saying that "the site of the mausoleum was determined in a dream". No matter unofficial history, legends or folk sayings are actually not credible, what is the real reason?
Shaoxiling Mausoleum
According to the traditional burial system, the queen must be buried with the emperor regardless of whether she dies before or after the emperor. According to historical records, Xiaozhuang once told Emperor Kangxi before his death: "Emperor Taizong Wen's Zi Palace has been enshrined for a long time. Don't touch it lightly for me. If you leave the tomb area, it will be a waste of time for the people. I love your emperor very much." As for you, if you can't bear to go far away and choose a home in Jilin near Xiaoling, I will have no regrets!" Whether he didn't want to touch Zhaoling, go to the Northeast to waste money and people, or he loved his children and grandchildren, it was reasonable. Kangxi had always been very fond of his grandmother. He was filial and couldn't bear to disobey his grandmother, but he didn't want to destroy the ancestral system too much. He just built a temporary enshrinement hall next to Dongling (temporarily placed somewhere before burial, called "temporary"), which lasted for thirty-eight years until the Yongzheng Dynasty. Only then did we decide to bury him officially.
The remnant stele of Zhaoxi Mausoleum
The Xiaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Shunzhi was built under the main peak of Changrui Mountain. It occupies a supreme position in the cemetery, and Xiaozhuang was Shunzhi’s biological mother. She was buried anywhere in the mausoleum, and her status was lower than that of Xiaoling, which was not commensurate with her seniority. Secondly, Xiaozhuang was the empress of Emperor Taizong Huang Taiji. Although she was buried in the Changrui Mountain area of Zunhua, she was still in the same system as the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Huang Taiji in Shenyang and was located to the west of Zhaoling. Therefore, the name of Empress Xiaozhuang’s mausoleum was It's called Zhaoxiling. This fully shows that Zhaoxiling and Qingdong Tombs are two different systems and cannot be confused, so they can only be buried outside the Dongling area to show the difference.
In addition, whether the emperor or the princes visited the tomb, they always started with the tomb of the highest-ranking tomb owner. Xiaozhuang has the highest seniority among all the people buried in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, when visiting the mausoleum, he must start from the Zhaoxi Mausoleum first. The Dahongmen is the main entrance of the mausoleum area and is the place where people who visit the mausoleum must pass. Xiling is on the side of Dahongmen, so it provides great convenience for visiting the mausoleum. It not only embodies the idea of "filial piety" and etiquette, but also avoids the trouble of detouring back and forth; in the Qing Dynasty, the left side was regarded as the place of honor. The Zhaoxi Mausoleum was built on the left side of Dahongmen, which reflects the respect and admiration her descendants had for her; and judging from the topography of the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty, there was always a risk of flooding on the right side, so the Zhaoxi Mausoleum was built on the east side of Dahongmen. Side is also a matter of course.
Zhaoxi Mausoleum Long'en Hall Site
No matter what, Xiaozhuang's burial in the Qingdong Tomb and some architectural deviations have caused damage to traditional etiquette to a certain extent, but From the above aspects, burying Queen Xiaozhuang outside the Dongling Tomb area is the best choice after comprehensive consideration of various reasons.