Which of the Ming Tombs was the first to be excavated?

It is Dingling. According to the relevant documents that have been declassified, the "request report" for the excavation of the Ming Emperor's tomb was not Dingling at all, but Zhu Di's Changling. According to published information, there was actually no special document for the excavation of Dingling, but a "Request for Instructions on the Excavation of Ming Changling Tomb". Changling is the joint burial tomb of Zhu Di and Queen Renxiaowen Xu (the daughter of the founding hero Xu Da, the former Princess Yan). The entire construction took 7 years. In the 22nd year of Yongle (1422), Zhu Di died of illness on his way back from the Northern Expedition in Inner Mongolia. He was buried in Changling in December of that year, and the underground palace was permanently sealed. By 1956, Zhu Di, who had been lying quietly in the underground palace for 534 years, seemed to be doomed and was discovered by red-headed documents. However, things happened to change. At that time, Xia Nai, who was a member of the Changling Excavation Committee, was responsible for the specific technical guidance of the excavation, so he asked his student Zhao Qichang, who later became the director of the Capital Museum, to conduct preliminary research. It was snowing heavily when I went to Changling. Zhao Qichang took the scout Zhao Tonghai around Changling for two or three days, but no clues could be found. After reporting to Xia Nai and Wu Han, the deputy mayor of Beijing who first proposed the excavation of Changling, and others, after several discussions, it was decided to try excavation of the tomb of Zhu Di's eldest son, Zhu Gaochi, to accumulate experience before excavation of Changling. Zhu Gaochi was a late bloomer. Unlike his descendants Zhu Yijun and other young emperors, he did not inherit the throne until he was 47 years old, and his reign was named Hongxi. Probably because he had no imperial mandate, he died after only 10 months as emperor. The posthumous temple was named Renzong, and the treasure place was named Xianling. Since his reign was too short, his mausoleum could not be too large. It was simplified from the regulations of Changling and only had basic buildings. It can be said to be a "streamlined version" of Changling. The terrain in front of Xianling Baocheng was narrow. At that time, in order to ensure that the dragon veins were not broken and the feng shui was not harmed, the Ming'en Palace was reduced in size. The mausoleum palace was divided into two courtyards at the front and back due to the hills. Therefore, when you travel to the Ming Tombs now, you will find that compared with Lao Tzu's Changling Tomb, it is really too shabby. In the past, "Changping Landscape Records" only called the Yuan Mountain where the Xian Tomb is located "Tugang". It can be seen that The site selection for the Xianling Mausoleum was hasty or not rigorous at that time. Just when the archaeologists were preparing to excavate the Xianling Tomb, Wu Han and Xia Nai changed their minds. He believed that the dedication of the mausoleum was of little significance. Even if the dedication of the mausoleum was opened, it would not bring much valuable reference to the excavation of Changling. Wu first proposed to try to excavate the Yongling Tomb of Emperor Jiajing, but Xia Ding strongly opposed it on the grounds that this It is no different from digging the Changling Tomb; when trying to excavate the Siling Tomb of the late emperor Zhu Youjian, Wu Han found it boring because it was too small and was rebuilt from the tomb of a concubine. Later, Wu and Xia turned their attention to Dingling.