What are the development characteristics of Chinese imperial tombs?

Mausoleum architecture, as an important and special architectural group in ancient architecture, has always played a very key role in archaeological excavations. Due to man-made factors such as wars or natural disasters, ancient buildings on land are often destroyed for various reasons, thus hindering people's research on original materials. At the same time, the mausoleums as underground buildings have been fortunately preserved because of their year-round "isolation". Even though the so-called "nine out of ten tombs" have found relatively complete tombs, they are very few. Its historical research value is absolutely precious.

According to research, the early tombs in my country had neither earth seals nor mounds, nor trees or signs. From about the Zhou Dynasty, earth-enclosed tombs began to appear on tombs. By the Warring States Period, mound-style tombs were generally popular. In feudal society, the size and height of the tomb were used to show the rank of the tomb owner. The king was the head of a country, and his tomb must be the tallest. Its tall shape is like a mountain mausoleum, and mausoleum has a noble meaning. Therefore, after the middle period of the Warring States Period, the tombs of kings began to be called "mausoleum".

According to records in ritual books, in addition to mausoleums, there were also “beds” built in the imperial cemeteries. The “beds” were set up for the souls of the deceased to eat, drink and live in. At that time, people believed that the souls of the deceased were in the tombs. In the tomb. The "temple" used for ancestor worship and ceremonies was located nearby outside the cemetery, not in the garden.

According to archaeological data, this mausoleum system of "sleep" on the side of the mausoleum and "temple" next to the "sleep" has been implemented at least since the middle of the Warring States Period. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming made a major reform of the etiquette system and established a mausoleum system with worship and sacrifice as the main content. It was necessary for the emperor to lead the ministers and hundreds of officials and county officials to hold grand "Shangling Ceremony" and "Drinking Ceremony". Therefore, the nature of "bed" at this time was different from the nature of "bed" during the Warring States Period, and the function of "bed" changed from the original It was used as a place for the tomb owner's soul to live in daily life and was used for worship and sacrifice. Later, the temple grounds near the cemetery were gradually replaced by the "Ancestral Temple".

There are three main forms of imperial tombs in their development process:

The first one is called "Fangshang". This is an early form of tomb sealing. The specific method is to dig a pit and build a stone tomb, and use layers of loess to build a bucket-shaped tomb. The reason why the tombs at this time are square is because they were square in the Qin and Han Dynasties. It’s related to expensiveness. It is believed that the emperor is the master of the earth. According to the saying that the sky is round and the earth is square, it is square. The Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin in Lintong, Shaanxi and the Mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty in the western suburbs of Xi'an both belong to the "Fangshang". It is said that the First Emperor of Qin personally participated in the design of the Mausoleum, which means that he will always dominate the four directions. The Song Dynasty Tomb in Gong County, Henan Province also has a square earthen platform with an overturned bucket shape.

The second type is to use the mountain as a mausoleum. It makes use of the terrain and uses the mountain peaks as the tombs of the mausoleums. Large-scale land sealing like the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is not only labor-intensive, but also unsafe. Using a mountain as a mausoleum can save manpower and use the majestic mountain situation to reflect the emperor's supreme authority and grandeur. It can also prevent illegal excavation. The imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty adopted this form from the beginning. The Zhaoling Mausoleum where Li Shimin is buried uses the Jiujun Mountain in Liquan County, Shaanxi Province as the tomb. A cave was dug into the mountainside as the Xuan Palace. It is 230 meters deep from the access road to the tomb chamber. Five stone gates are placed in the front and back, which are very strong.

The third type is Baocheng Baoding. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the "square top" sealing method was popular in imperial tombs. In the Tang Dynasty, "mountains were used as mausoleums". In the Northern Song Dynasty, the old Qin and Han system was restored. In the Yuan Dynasty, no mausoleums were built. Another major reform was made to the mausoleum system during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. First of all, the shape of the mausoleum was changed from square to circular from the Qin, Han and Song Dynasties; secondly, the lower palace building for the daily life of the emperor's soul in the Qin, Han and Song Dynasty mausoleums was eliminated, and the upper palace building for worship and sacrifice was retained and expanded. It further highlights the ritual of visiting the mausoleum three times a year; again, the walls of the cemetery were changed from square to rectangular in the Tang and Song Dynasties. The cemetery is divided into three courtyards from south to north: the first courtyard consists of the stele pavilion, the divine chef, the divine chef The second courtyard is the sacrificial hall and the auxiliary hall; the third courtyard is the place where the late emperor was buried, and is equipped with an archway, five altars, a square city tower and a treasure city roof.

First of all, through the analysis of the discovered tombs, we can see that the tombs of the Tang Dynasty were undoubtedly an important turning point in the architectural complex of ancient Chinese mausoleums. The mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty began to pursue the idea of ​​"cutting mountains into caves and mountains into mausoleums", especially the Qianling Mausoleum. Qianling Mausoleum is located on Liangshan Mountain in Qianxian County. It is divided into three peaks, with the north peak in the middle. The main peak is surrounded by a sacred wall with a pair of door lions. Among them, the turret building is also quite distinctive. There are realistic images arranged on the Shinto, and various statues are lifelike. After that, there are two famous stone steles outside the Zhuque Gate. On the left is the "Seven Festival Stele" by Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty and Li Zhi, and on the right is the "Wordless Stele" of the Empress Wu Zetian. Among them, the "Wordless Stele" of the Empress Wu Zetian has triggered countless Human associations. In the southeast of Qianling Mausoleum, there are a group of tombs with accompanying burials, including the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai, the tomb of Princess Yongtai, the tomb of Prince Yi, etc. Although these tombs are small in scale, they all have high archaeological value.

The mausoleums before the Tang Dynasty were quite different from those in the Tang Dynasty. In ancient times, people did not pay attention to tombs. This may be related to the relatively low level of production development at that time. Later, in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, with the recent discovery of some Shang Dynasty sites, it is generally believed that the tombs of the Shang Dynasty could not afford graves, but Only sacrificial buildings were built on the tomb. The tombs of the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty generally maintained the same style, tending to build large-scale tombs. Tens of thousands of people were often employed in one tomb for several years. For example, the Changling Tomb of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty had as many as 50,000 households. The Maoling of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had 60,000 households. Another characteristic of these tombs is that the earth is packed into square vertebrae and the upper part is removed, which is the so-called "square earth". The largest square earth is about 20 meters high.

Among these many mausoleums, the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is undoubtedly the masterpiece. As the saying goes, "dig the ground to make a cave and pile the earth to make a mausoleum." The Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang can be called an unprecedented and magnificent work among mausoleums.

According to "Historical Records": "Qin Shihuang ascended the throne of Qin when he was thirteen years old (246 BC). Shortly after he ascended the throne, he began to build a mausoleum in Lishan. After unifying the world, seven more people were recruited from all over the country. More than 100,000 people participated in the construction. It was not completed until the death of Qin Shihuang at the age of 50 (in 210 BC). It continued for two years during the reign of Qin II, which took nearly 40 years. It is really a huge project. " Judging from the tomb sites discovered so far, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses undoubtedly have the greatest research value. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit is the burial pit of Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum, located 1,500 meters east of the Qin Mausoleum. Three of them have been discovered so far, arranged in a Z-shaped pattern from west to east, and 8,000 ceramic terracotta warriors and horses that simulate the size of humans and horses have been unearthed. Judging from the shape and structure of each pit and the equipment of the terracotta warriors and horses, pit No. 1 symbolizes the main force composed of infantry and chariots. Pit No. 2 is a mixed force composed of infantry, cavalry and chariots. Pit No. 3 is the leader of the first pit. Military command posts in Pit No. 2 and Pit No. 2.

In the history of the development of Chinese mausoleum architecture, the Ming Tombs are also a group of mausoleums that must be mentioned. It mainly follows some characteristics of the tombs of the Tang Dynasty. The mausoleums are built together, paying attention to Feng Shui and the environment. Each mausoleum is facing a mountain peak, with special emphasis on the leading part and sequence processing. The buildings are neat and symmetrical, and the shape is rigorous. Therefore, they are quite representative. The Ming Tombs is a mountainous area with natural specifications. The mountain belongs to the remnants of the Taihang Mountains and connects to Juyong in the west, Huanghua Town in the north, and Changping Prefecture in the south. It is not only a barrier to the mausoleums, but also the northern screen of the capital. Gu Yanwu, a famous scholar from the late Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem to describe the superior situation here: "The mountains come from the south, and they are as powerful as a dragon flying; Lulong sits on the east toe, and rides Taihang on the west spine; Huanghua sits on the back hill (referring to Huanghua Town). Facing Shenjing in the front, there is the Wannian Mansion in the middle, called Kangjiazhuang, which can accommodate millions of people and is suddenly open to the public. "As the first architectural complex of the Ming Tombs, the Shinto consists of a stone archway, a large red gate, and a stele tower. , Shi Xiangsheng, Dragon and Phoenix Gate, etc., majestically guarding the gate of the Ming Tombs. Judging from the Dingling Tombs that have been excavated so far, the internal structure of the Ming Tombs is still quite complete. The front hall, middle hall, back hall, and left and right side halls have a total area of ​​1,195 square meters. In terms of its scale, it is among the tombs of emperors. It is also one of the best.

2. The structural characteristics of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum as an imperial mausoleum.

The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and Queen Ma. It is located at 118 degrees 51 minutes east diameter and 32 degrees 4 minutes north latitude. It is located in Zijin, the eastern suburbs of Nanjing. Located at the foot of Dulong Fuwan Mount Everest at the southern foot of the mountain (also known as Zhongshan Mountain), it is an important scenery in the Zhongshan Cemetery Scenic Area in Nanjing. The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum was built in the 14th year of Hongwu (1381). Queen Ma died the following year and was buried in this mausoleum. Because Queen Ma was given the posthumous title "Xiaoci", the mausoleum was named "Xiaoling". In the thirty-first year of Hongwu (1398), Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness and the underground palace was used to bury him together with Queen Ma. 46 concubines and more than 10 palace residents were buried. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the Xiaoling Guard was established, with 5,600 soldiers participating in guarding the cemetery. In the eleventh year of Yongle (1413), the "Stele of Divine Merits and Virtues of Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty" was built. Therefore, the entire Xiaoling construction project took more than 30 years to complete. The Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is 2.62 kilometers deep from the starting point of Xiamafang to Baocheng where Xuan Palace is located. At that time, 100,000 pine trees were planted in the Xiaoling Mausoleum and thousands of deer were raised. A shrine supervisor was set up inside to be responsible for regular maintenance and sacrifices. At the same time, Xiaoling Guards were set up outside to protect the mausoleum. The Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty faces south, and the route of the Ye Tomb is from south to north. Judging from the shape of the mausoleum, it can be divided into two parts. We can follow the Yeling Route to appreciate the elegance of this world cultural heritage.

The first part is Shinto. From the starting point of Xiamafang to the main entrance of Xiaoling, including Xiamafang, Shenlie Mountain Monument, Forbidden Covenant Monument, Golden Gate, Monument Tower (Sifang City), Shenggong Shengde Monument, Waiyuhe Bridge, Shinto Stone Carvings (Stone Statue Group, Stone Pillar) . Among them, Xiamafang is a two-column cupola-style stone archway, about 5 meters wide and 7.8 meters high. It faces east and west. The cross section of the columns is an oblique square. The front, back and outside of the two columns are surrounded by arsenic stones. The ends of the columns are decorated with cloud plates. The cloud jar has a carved catalpa frame on the inside and is embedded in the large forehead square. On the front and back of the square are engraved six large characters in regular script: "Officials of all departments dismount". Xiamafang is about 755 meters northwest from the Golden Gate. It is the guiding part of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and is located at the forefront of the Shinto. Its construction period was about 1400. In 1980, when Nanjing Zhongshan Garden Management Bureau was repairing Xiamafang, they dug out the broken pillar foundation of Xiamafang from the Nanjing-Hangzhou Highway and re-erected Xiamafang at a place displaced nearly 20 meters to the north. Therefore, the Xiamafang that people see now is no longer its original location. On the northeast side of the original Xiamafang, there are two later stone steles, one is the Shenlie Mountain Stele and the other is the Forbidden Covenant Stele. In the tenth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1531), Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty ordered that Zijin Mountain be changed to Shenlie Mountain, and a monument of "Shenlie Mountain" be erected on the northeast side of the original Xiamafang. The stele originally had a stone pavilion, but the stele and the four stone pillar foundations still exist. The forehead of the stele is engraved with the seal character "Imperial Edict", the body of the stele is engraved with the three characters "Shenlie Mountain", the east side is engraved with the 13 characters "Xinmaoqiu September Jidan" in the tenth year of Jiajing (1531), and the west side is engraved with " Nanjing Ministry of Industry Minister He Zhao minister Zhang Yuli" 15 words. The monument is vertical, facing south, 4 meters high, 1.46 meters wide and 0.73 meters thick. The Forbidden Covenant Monument is juxtaposed with the Shenlie Mountain Monument, located to the east of it. In the 14th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1641), Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict to erect the "Forbidden Covenant Monument" in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, reaffirming the protection of the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty and strictly prohibiting damage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum. Dragon Veins, violators will be severely punished. The monument is horizontal, facing north and south. The body of the monument is only 1.41 meters high, 5.21 meters wide, and 0.43 meters thick. The forehead of the monument is 0.40 meters high, 5.31 meters wide, and 0.52 meters thick. The base of the monument is 0.65 meters high, 5.52 meters wide, and 0.74 meters thick. . The Golden Gate was originally the main gate of the cemetery. It faces south and is a three-hole coupon gate. It is about 26.66 meters wide from east to west, 8 meters deep and about 5 meters high. The top structure was destroyed. According to Kangxi's "Jianning Prefecture Chronicles", there were 22.5 kilometers of red walls on both sides of the Golden Gate that surrounded the entire cemetery. Now the walls no longer exist.

The stele tower is located 70 meters north of Kinmen. The two were originally connected, but were later cut off by the road leading to Sun Yat-sen Cemetery, forming a "concave" shape. Therefore, if people want to go from Dajinmen to the stele tower, they must first get off the road and then climb up the slope to see the "Da Ming Xiaoling Divine Merits and Holy Deeds" erected by Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty in the third year of Yongle (1405), placed in the stele tower. monument". The inscription was written by Zhu Di himself and records Zhu Yuanzhang's life deeds. It is inscribed in regular script and is 746 characters long. It is the largest inscription in the Ming Dynasty near Nanjing.

The stele tower is square in shape, with gates on each side. It was originally built with yellow tiles and double eaves. There are stone dragon heads at the four corners of the wall, and the cornices drip with water. Unfortunately, the top structure has been destroyed, but the surrounding walls still exist, shaped like a fortress, so it is also commonly known as the "Sifang City". .

The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum has three river crossings. After crossing the Waiyu River Bridge, you can enter the Shinto. The Shinto is laid out in twists and turns according to the mountains. The total length is 865 meters, which can be divided into two sections. One section is 615 meters long and is oriented northwest. The terrain is slightly undulating and the direction changes frequently. There are 12 pairs of 24 mythical beasts of 6 types on both sides, all facing each other, two lying and two standing, in order. They are lions, geese, unicorns, camels, elephants, and horses. Each row is 16 feet and 2 feet apart, and each pair is 8 feet and 5 inches apart. The Shinto bypasses the southern foot of Meihua Mountain, turns north, and ends at Lingxing Gate. It is 250 meters long and has two stone pillars, as white as jade, carved with cloud and dragon patterns. Following them are four pairs of stone figures, namely civil servants and military generals. There are two pairs in each pair. The generals are wearing armors and holding golden statues in their hands, which are one foot and three feet high. The civil servants are wearing court crowns and holding court tablets in their hands, which are one foot and two feet high.

After walking the Shinto, you will enter the second part of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, which is the main building part of the mausoleum. This part starts from Lingxing Gate to Baoding, including Lingxing Gate, Neiyu River and Jinshui Bridge, Wenwu Square Gate, Special Announcement Monument, Imperial Stele Pavilion, Stele Hall, Xiangdian, Yuhe River in front of Baocheng and Shengxian Bridge (big stone Bridge), Fangcheng, Minglou, Baocheng, Baoding, etc. The square city is the last part of the ground-level construction of Xiaoling Mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty. It is built with large stone strips on the outside, an arch in the middle, and a circular arched tunnel in the middle. There are 34 steps going up. The bottoms on both sides are shaped like xumizuo. Exiting the tunnel, directly north is the south wall of Baocheng, on which is inscribed in regular script "This mountain is the tomb of Taizu Ming Dynasty". There are two roads on the left and right in the front wall of Baocheng, leading directly to the Minglou on the top of the square city. Baocheng is located at the very back of the mausoleum, where Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum is located. It is a lofty hill with a diameter of 325-400 meters and a circumference of about 1,000 meters. The raised part in the middle of Baocheng is the tomb, called "Baoding". Scientific exploration has proved that there is a mysterious palace built inside, and it has never been excavated.

The main building of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is located at the southern foot of Purple Mountain. It is arranged on the north-south longitudinal axis from Lingxing Gate to Fangcheng. It looks solemn, square, balanced and coordinated, in line with the feudal monarchy and the Theocratic thought. But it was this part of the building that suffered the most serious damage. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Xiaoling Mausoleum was damaged to varying degrees. Most of the wooden structures on the ground were destroyed in the battle between the Qing Army and the Taiping Army in 1853. For example: Lingxing Gate originally had five gates, but now it only has six large stone pillar foundations. There were originally five Yuhe Bridges, but now there are only three, and they were not built in the Ming Dynasty. There were originally five civil and military gates, three large and two small, but now there is only one. It was built after the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. Traces of the original door brackets can still be seen on the left and right sides of the door. After passing the Wenwu Square Gate, it turned out to be the middle gate, and there are also five square gates. There are two sacred silk stoves inside the gate, 30 verandas on the left and right, and two imperial kitchens outside the gate. On the left is the slaughtering pavilion and on the right is the palace of costumes. The emperor is This dressing room was used for memorial service, but it has been destroyed now and converted into a stele pavilion. In the middle is the "Stele of Zhilong Tang and Song Dynasties" inscribed by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty when he visited the mausoleum in the south. Later, Qianlong visited the south twice, and on the east and west sides Write poems and erect monuments. The Xiang Hall of Xiaoling was originally very large, called Xiaoling Hall, with nine east-west couplets, five north-south couplets, and 45 rooms on each side. Currently, only more than 60 large stone pillar foundations can be seen, which were probably destroyed in the early Qing Dynasty. The poet Qu Dajun's "Record of a Visit to the Xiaoling Mausoleum" records that when he visited the mausoleum, he saw "a herding horse (referring to the Manchu soldiers) cutting the pillars of the palace, with golden dragon scales and claws on the pillars, half-desired to destroy them. The minister Dajun gave him a lot of money "Wei Shixiao's "Record of a Visit to the Xiaoling Mausoleum" also said: "There are six out of thirty pillars, and about two feet to the ground were all damaged by swords, or two-thirds of the pillars were broken off. Horse food, sheep herding, and vegetable gardening were all outside the palace. "During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's Jiangnan camp was located in Xiaoling Guards. The area around Xiaoling Mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty was a battlefield, and the palace was completely destroyed and the walls collapsed. . During the restoration in the twelfth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1873), only three buildings were built to guard the mausoleum. The scale was reduced and the old appearance was lost. Only the portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang was enshrined in the palace. For another example, the Ming Tower above Fangcheng was destroyed by the war in the third year of Xianfeng Period in the Qing Dynasty. The top has collapsed and now only the wall remains.

3. The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum’s inheritance and development of Chinese imperial tomb culture.

Compared with other imperial tombs in China, Ming Xiaoling Tomb is one of the largest existing imperial tombs in ancient my country. The mausoleum site of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum is 76 meters high and has a base diameter of 495 to 515 meters. Although it is the largest mausoleum among Chinese emperors, we can't see the Shinto on the surface.

Why the Shinto of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is curved has to do with the fact that the tomb of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is directly opposite the Meihua Mountain. Meihua Mountain was called Sunlinggang in ancient times and is where the tomb of Sun Quan, the Great Emperor of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, is located. It is said that when Zhu Yuanzhang used "one hundred thousand military workers" to build the mausoleum, some people advocated moving Meihua Mountain to straighten the Shinto. But Zhu Yuanzhang admired Sun Quan as a good man and kept Sun Quan's tomb so that Sun Quan could guard the gate for him. In this way, the Ming Xiaoling Shinto became crooked. On the one hand, this shows Zhu Yuanzhang's great talent and strategy, his informality in doing things, and his courage to innovate. At the same time, it also adds a profound and wonderful feeling to the tomb's Shinto. The curvature of the Xiaoling Shinto is certainly related to the Tomb of Sun Quan on Meihua Mountain opposite the Xiaoling Mausoleum, but it is more about taking advantage of the terrain to create the "Big Dipper" tomb pattern to reflect the design concept of "Unity of Nature and Man". The designer appropriately arranges stone sculptures at the end of each line of sight to control each section of space. The stone beasts squat or stand, and their postures change alternately. Together with the distant trees on the Cangshan Mountain, they create a solemn atmosphere that makes people easily enveloped. In the atmosphere of the mausoleum. It can be said that without the existence of the winding Shinto, the "Big Dipper" theory of Ming Xiaoling Tomb would never be established. The Shinto stone elephants of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum are tall, solemn and lifelike, with distinctive themes, shapes and carving techniques. They represent the highest level of my country's stone carving art from the late 14th century to the early 15th century. For example, the stone elephant is 3.47 meters high, 4.21 meters long, and 2.16 meters wide, and the stone used weighs more than 80 tons; the white stone pillar is 6.25 meters high; and the "Stele of Divine Merits and Saint Virtue" is 8.78 meters high. The stone carvings are thick and simple in shape, with round and smooth lines, but the details are exquisitely carved, artistically achieving a creative effect of integrating the overall grandeur with the local delicacy.

Fourth, the system of using Shinto in the mausoleum of the first emperor as a Shinto system for future descendants (eldest son or successor emperor) was created. Within the Xiaoling Tomb area, there is the Dongling Tomb of Crown Prince Zhu Biao to the east, which is only 60 meters away. Archaeological exploration shows that Dongling does not have its own separate Shinto, river and river bridge, but uses a Shinto and river bridge in conjunction with Xiaoling. This system was later used by the Ming Tombs. Influenced by the Xiaoling Tombs, the Ming Tombs in Beijing used a Shinto, with a total length of 7,000 meters from the stone archway to Changling, making it the most magnificent mausoleum complex in the world.

The fifth is the extensive use of masonry structures and a complete drainage system. There are many ground-level buildings in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, and the designers mainly highlighted the Golden Gate, the Stele Tower, the Xiaoling Hall, the Square City, and the Ming Tower. These large single buildings generally use bricks and stones, with stone xumizuo as the foundation, the middle wall is stacked with huge stones or bricks as the vault, and the eaves are made of stone. The top of the building is covered with different glaze colors according to the hierarchy. Glazed tile components. In ancient Chinese architecture, the transformation of wooden structures into masonry structures began in the Ming Dynasty, specifically from the construction of palace walls and mausoleums in Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty. Bricks were used to raise the arches, which led to the emergence of beamless palace architecture. This was a major development in my country's building materials and construction technology, and thus established the basic style of architectural techniques for imperial mausoleums in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The widespread use of this kind of building material gave Ming Xiaoling Tombs considerable fire protection capabilities. At the same time, the drainage system and architectural space division of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum achieved harmony and order. There is abundant rain in the south, so the drainage system of the imperial tombs must be improved without damaging the feng shui of the entire tomb area. The Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty made use of the natural water system to set up three water systems from east to west: the Outer Yuhe River, the Inner Yuhe River and the Baocheng Yuhe River. They were connected spatially through the imperial bridges, making the entire mausoleum area harmonious, perfect and full of vitality. .

Fourth, we must further strengthen the protection of the "original form" of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.

In March 1961, the Ming Xiaoling Tomb was announced by the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In November 2000, the Ming Ming Tombs (Zhongxiang, Hubei), the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty (Zunhua, Hebei), and the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty (Yixian, Hebei) among the "Royal Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" in China were included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO. . At 23:56 on July 3, 2003, Beijing time (17:56 on July 3, Paris time), good news came from the 27th World Heritage Conference. "Nanjing Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum" has been listed as a world cultural heritage. The expansion project of "Royal Mausoleums of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" was successfully approved by the conference and included in the "World Heritage List".

As a world cultural heritage, the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty has broken through the spatial concept of Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum in people's minds. It is a cultural relic with Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum as the main body, covering an area of ​​about 297 hectares, and its protection area reaches 31 square kilometers. , its content can be divided into three parts, the first part is the Ming Xiaoling Tomb, the second part is the Ming Dong Tomb, and the third part is the tomb of the Ming hero. According to archaeological surveys, the site of the Dongling Tomb of Ming Prince Zhu Biao is located about 60 meters east of the east wall of Xiaoling Mausoleum, adjacent to Xiaoling Mausoleum. Now it serves as a heritage park and has become an integral part of Xiaoling Tomb. According to historical records, in the Ming Dynasty, the entire Zijin Mountain (Zhongshan) was within the scope of the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Huanbiao's "Ming Xiaoling Tomb Chronicles" says: "In the shadow of Zhongshan, more than ten people of Ming Dynasty were buried with them." In this area, especially in the west and north of Zhongshan, there are ten Ming Dynasty heroes who conquered the world with Zhu Yuanzhang. Several founding heroes are buried with them in their tombs. These tombs are another important part of the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. They play an important role in protecting Zhu Yuanzhang's Xiaoling Mausoleum. According to records in "Kangxi Jiangning Prefecture" and Hu Xianghan's "Jinling Scenic Spots", these tombs of the heroes are: the tomb of Zhongshan King Xu Da, the tomb of Kaiping King Chang Yuchun, the tomb of Qiyang King Li Wenzhong, the tomb of Dongou King Tanghe, and the tomb of Wan Guo The tomb of Gong Qiucheng, the tomb of Jiang Guogong Wu Liang, the tomb of Hai Guogong Wu Zhen, the tomb of Teng Guo Gong Gu Shi, the tomb of Xu Guogong Wang Zhi, the tomb of Yanshan Marquis Sun Xingzu, the tomb of Anlu Marquis Wu Fu, the tomb of Runan Hou Mei Sizu, etc. Some of these tombs of meritorious officials are well preserved, such as Xu Da's tomb, Li Wenzhong's tomb, Chang Yuchun's tomb, etc. The environment has been effectively renovated and open to tourists; but some need further renovation, and some tombs have not even been discovered yet. It's just recorded in history books.