The scale and layout of the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty
The Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty have a large-scale and complete system of ancient buildings. In the mausoleum area with a radius of 200 miles and an area of 800 square kilometers, there is the largest artificial ancient pine forest in North China. Since the mausoleum was built, the Qing Dynasty planted tens of thousands of pine trees at the foot of Yongning Mountain, along the Yishui River, and inside and outside the mausoleum. There are 15,000 ancient pines and more than 200,000 green pines and young cypresses.
There are more than a thousand palace buildings and more than a hundred ancient buildings and ancient sculptures in the mausoleum area. Each mausoleum strictly follows the royal mausoleum construction system of the Qing Dynasty. The emperor's mausoleum, queen's mausoleum, and prince's mausoleum are all covered with yellow glazed tiles, and the concubines, princesses, and elder brother's gardens are all covered with green glazed tiles. These different architectural shapes show Different landscapes and styles.
There are 14 mausoleums in the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty and 4 imperial mausoleums: Tailing (Emperor Yongzheng), Changling (Emperor Jiaqing), Muling (Emperor Daoguang), and Chongling (Emperor Guangxu); There are 3 Hou Tombs: Taidong Tomb, Changxi Tomb, and Mudong Tomb; 3 concubine mausoleums, and 4 other mausoleums (Huai Wang Mausoleum, Princess Mausoleum, Agee Mausoleum, Prince Mausoleum, etc.). There are 4 emperors, 9 queens, 56 concubines, princes, princesses and more than 70 people buried there. Architectural shape The Tailing Tomb of Emperor Shizong of the Qing Dynasty is located in the center of the mausoleum area in the Western Qing Dynasty. It is the earliest and largest mausoleum in the Western Qing Dynasty. The remaining tombs are distributed on the east and west sides. The Qing Tai Mausoleum is the first mausoleum of the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty, where Emperor Yongzheng, Empress Xiaojingxian and Imperial Concubine Dunsu are buried. Located under the main peak of Yongning Mountain, it was built in the eighth year of Yongzheng reign (1730). The Shinto of Tailing is paved with three layers of huge bricks, with more than 40 large and small buildings distributed from south to north. The first building is a coupled-arch five-hole bridge entering the mausoleum area. There are three tall stone archways in the north of the bridge. These three stone squares are all in the form of five rooms, six pillars and eleven floors. They are built of blue and white stone and are engraved with images of mountains, water, flowers, grass, animals and so on. They are regarded as representative examples of the architectural art of the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty. work.
The Tailing Tomb of the Qing Dynasty is the main building of the Xiling Tomb, with a large scale and a complete system. The Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty are centered on the Tailing Tomb, and the other tombs are distributed on its east and west sides. The regulations are basically the same as the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty. After crossing a five-hole bridge with arches and entering the mausoleum area, there are three exquisite and tall stone archways in front of it and a Shinto Road more than ten meters wide and five miles long that runs through the entire mausoleum area. A series of buildings and stone carvings were built in sequence, such as the stone archway, Dahongmen, Gufu Hall, Shengde Shengong Stele Tower, seven-hole stone arch bridge, stone statues, Longen Gate, Longen Hall, Fangcheng Minglou and Baoding. Long'en Hall is beautifully built and has five rooms in width and three rooms in depth. It has double eaves and a yellow tile roof, and the wooden structure is connected with mortise and tenon. The bright pillars are wrapped with gold and powder, there are spiral paintings on the top of the palace, the beams and beams are decorated with gold threads, and the center of the beams are painted with "unity of the country" and "illumination of the universe". The colors are harmonious and the palace is magnificent. The structure of the mausoleum area, the introduction picture of the scenic spot, Dahongmen Dahongmen is the main entrance to the Qing Tai Mausoleum. Its architectural form is the top of the verandah, with a width of 34.8 meters, a depth of 11.35 meters, and a height of 13.3 meters. There are thick and tall Feng Shui walls on both sides of Dahongmen extending east to west, 21 kilometers long, containing the mausoleum buildings scattered in the vast hilly fertile fields. The Shengde Shengong Stele Tower is the main building that records the emperor's life achievements. It is commonly known as the Big Stele Tower. The building is 26.05 meters high. It has doors on all sides and follows the top of the Jiuji Xieshan Mountain. There are two tall Pinqituo stone steles in the building. The great achievements of the emperor during his lifetime are engraved in both Chinese and Chinese characters. The stele tower is located in the middle of the square of 94 meters by 94 meters, with a 12-meter-high ornate watch at each corner. Stone statues Stone statues refer to the five pairs of exquisite stone statues installed on both sides of the mausoleum shrine, namely civil servants, military generals, horses, elephants, and lions. Among the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty, only the Tailing and Changling mausoleums have stone statues. Dragon Wind Gate Dragon Phoenix Gate is one of the Shinto gate-style buildings. It has six columns, three doors, four walls and three roofs. The whole body is inlaid with yellow and green glazed components, and the center of the wall is a pattern of mandarin ducks and lotus flowers. The Xiaobei Tower is also called the Yihao Stele Pavilion. It is a pavilion-style building where the Yihao Stele is placed. It has doors on all sides and is a double-circuit hilltop. There are dragon and clam steles in the building. The temple name of Emperor Yongzheng is engraved on the top of the stele. , overflow number and emblem number. Chaofang and Banfang Chaofang and Banfang are located in front of Longen Gate.
Among them, the East Chaofang is the place where milk tea and melons and fruits are prepared for sacrifices, also known as the tea dining room; the West Chaofang is the place where pasta and snacks are prepared for sacrifices, also known as the Chow Room; the squad room is where the officers and soldiers guarding the tomb are on duty. Longen Gate Longen Gate is the boundary and portal between the front and rear parts of the mausoleum. It is five rooms wide and two rooms deep. The buildings in front of Longen Gate are located in the middle of the Shinto and in the squares on both sides of the Shinto. The palace-style buildings behind Longen Gate are surrounded by a wide and tall vermilion wall, forming a two-story courtyard with a rigorous structure. The first courtyard upon entering Longen Gate is a courtyard covered with bricks and stones. There are five buildings of different sizes, neatly arranged in the middle of the square and on the east and west sides. The two short buildings in the front are silk incinerators. , to the north are the East and West Side Halls, and to the north is Long'en Hall, which is one of the main buildings in the mausoleum area. Long'en Hall Long'en Hall, also known as Xiang Hall, is the main place for memorial ceremonies in the mausoleum. The whole building is built on a huge white marble base, with double eaves and nine ridges on the mountain-style roof, covered with yellow glazed tiles. It is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. There are three Nuan Pavilions in the hall. The middle Nuan Pavilion is equipped with a shrine to enshrine the tablets of the emperor and empress. The ground is paved with "gold bricks", still maintaining the original style. Fangcheng and Minglou Fangcheng is a square castle-like building in front of Baoding, with a length and width of 20.55 meters and a height of 15.4 meters. There is a bright tower built on the square city, and a stone tablet is erected in the bright tower. Behind the bright tower is the top of the underground palace where the emperor is buried. Architectural shape Buried in the Taidong Mausoleum are Emperor Yongzheng's concubine Xi and Emperor Qianlong's biological mother, Empress Xiaoshengxian. Taitung Tomb is located in Dongzheng Valley, about 1 km northeast of the Taitung Mausoleum of Emperor Yongzheng. Taidong Tomb is the largest of the three empress tombs in the Western Qing Dynasty. In September of the first year of Qianlong (1736), Prince Honghao of Heng, who was in charge of the Tailing project, and Haiwang, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, asked Emperor Qianlong for instructions: after Emperor Yongzheng was buried in the underground palace of Tailing, whether to reserve a place for the empress dowager. . Emperor Qianlong was unable to make the decision, so he turned to the Empress Dowager for instructions. The Empress Dowager sent an edict: "After Emperor Sejong Xian enshrined the underground palace, he would always be in silence. If he resumes his tour in the future, he would be uneasy with the meaning of respect and inferiority. What's more, we have completed the Zhaoxi Tomb and Xiaodong Tomb. The constitution can be followed, and there is no need to reserve space for the Tailing Underground Palace. "In compliance with the empress dowager's decree, Emperor Qianlong built the Taidong Tomb for the empress dowager in Dongzhengyu in the second year of Qianlong's reign (1737), and about the eighth year of Qianlong's reign (1743). Built.
The main buildings from south to north are: a three-hole arch bridge, an east and west horse sign, 5 east and west rooms, 3 east and west rooms, and a 5-room Longen Gate. There are five furnaces in the east and west, five auxiliary halls in the east and west, and a main hall with double eaves and five rooms. There are three mausoleum gates, five stone offerings, a square city, a bright tower, a treasure city, and a treasure top. Under the treasure roof is the underground palace. On the left side in front of the mausoleum is the Divine Kitchen Storehouse. There is a well pavilion outside the library. Structure of the Mausoleum Area Introduction Picture of Attractions Long'en Hall There are bronze deer and bronze cranes on the platform of Long'en Hall. Zhaoxi Tomb and Xiaodong Tomb, which were built before Taitung Tomb, only have a pair of copper furnaces on the platform of Long'en Hall. The Taitung Tomb also has a pair of bronze deer and a pair of bronze cranes. Obviously, this is modeled on the system of imperial mausoleums, and it is the first system of installing bronze deer and bronze cranes in the queen's mausoleum. Each queen's tomb built later was changed to a bronze deer and a bronze crane, which became custom-made. Underground Palace Taitung Tomb Underground Palace also has scriptures and Buddha statues engraved on it. Taitung Tomb was built 6 years earlier than Yuling Tomb. This shows that the first person to carve scriptures and Buddha statues in the underground palace was not Yuling but Taitung Tomb. Qing palace archives also record that the floor of the underground palace of Taitung Tomb was paved with gold bricks instead of strips of stone. The specific regulations of the Taitung Tomb underground palace and the contents of Buddhist scriptures and statues need to be further studied and verified because the underground palace has not yet been opened and the files are incomplete. Temporarily missing architectural form Changling Mausoleum of Emperor Renzong of the Qing Dynasty is the mausoleum of Emperor Jiaqing and Queen Xiaoshurui of the Xitarasi family. It is located 2 miles west of Tailing Mausoleum and is connected to Tailing Tomb by a Shinto. It is the only mausoleum in the Western Tombs that has a Shinto connected to the main mausoleum. . The architectural form and layout of Changling is basically the same as that of Tailing, and its luxury and magnificence are no less than that of Tailing. The large pillars of Long'en Hall are covered with gold and decorated with clouds and dragons. The ground is paved with precious piebald stones. The yellow ashlar slabs have purple patterns, which is unique. Changling has the last stele pavilion of holy virtues and divine merits built in the Qing Dynasty. After that, no stele pavilion of holy virtues and divine merits was built in any tomb of the Qing emperors.
In the first year of Jiaqing (1796), Renzong Aixinjueluo Yongyan came to the throne. He followed his father Emperor Qianlong's system of building separate mausoleums in the Dongling and Xiling boundaries in the order of Zhaomu. The mausoleum site was selected 500 meters west of the mausoleum. Construction began that year and was completed in the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803). After the completion of the project, the mausoleum was named "Chanling". This is the second emperor's mausoleum built in the Western Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty. Also built and completed at the same time was the Changfei Garden Bedroom, the garden dormitory for Emperor Jiaqing’s 17 concubines.
Emperor Renzong Jiaqing and Empress Xiao Shurui are buried in Changling. It is located on the west side of Tailing. It was built in the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803). The architectural form is similar to Tailing and the scale is parallel. When Qianlong passed the throne to Emperor Jiaqing, he chose a mausoleum site one kilometer south-southwest of Tailing. From the Shinto in the front to the treasure city at the end, everything is available, but the treasure city in Changling is taller than Tailing. The Long'en Hall in Changling is very unique. The floor is paved with precious yellow piebald stones. The yellow square slate has natural and elegant purple patterns. It is known as the "jewel in the hall". The echo stone and echo wall in Changxiling, the mausoleum of Emperor Jiaqing's empress, have a wonderful echo effect, comparable to the echo wall in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. To the west of the Changling Mausoleum are the Changxi Mausoleum and the Changfei Garden Bedroom, where Empress Xiaoherui and her concubines are buried respectively. Empress Xiaoherui, the second queen of Emperor Jiaqing, is buried in Changxi Mausoleum. Changxi Mausoleum was built from 1851 to the second year of Xianfeng (1853).
The Changxi Mausoleum is not as magnificent as the Taidong Mausoleum of Empress Xiaoshengxian (the biological mother of Emperor Qianlong). The buildings inside Longsi Gate are higher than the other from front to back. The mausoleum wall is round in front and back, which means "the sky is round and the place is round". In front of the Baoding Platform, the seventh stone slab on the Shinto is an echo stone. When you stand on it and speak, you can hear a loud echo no matter how loud or loud your voice is.
The composition of the Changxi Mausoleum’s echo stone and echo wall is a new creation of Qing Dynasty architects who applied acoustic principles to mausoleum architecture. The Luoguo wall is semicircular, and the wavelength of the sound wave is smaller than the radius of the wall. The sound waves are continuously reflected along the wall in the shape of a bundle. People standing at both ends of the wall can hear each other's voices.
The structure of Changxi Mausoleum is similar to that of Muling Mausoleum. A round tomb is built directly on a square platform. There is no square city tower. Although the building regulations are simple, it has its own special features: First, the caisson in Longen Hall is painted with Danfeng. Spreading its wings, other tombs have three lotuses lined with water waves pattern with 18 golden dots; second, there is a Yudai River between the back of Long En Hall and the three gates, with three span bridges on the river, and the middle one has a railing. The two on the left and right are flat bridges without railings; the third is a square wall in front of the three gates, and the north wall behind the three gates is arc-shaped, cut into the straight wall of the three gates. The round dome is erected in front of the north arc wall, and the altar is erected in the middle door of the three doors. The arc-shaped wall produces a unique echo phenomenon of echo walls and echo stones, which is a unique example of Chinese mausoleum architecture. Architectural shape The Muling Mausoleum of Emperor Xuanzong of the Qing Dynasty is located in Longquan Valley, 15 kilometers west of Changling Mausoleum of the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty. The mausoleum is very special and different from other imperial mausoleums. It is the unique work of Emperor Daoguang. The Muling Mausoleum is characterized by its small scale, with no square city, bright tower, large stele pavilion, stone elephant sacrifice and other buildings. However, its engineering weight is stronger than that of the Tai and Chang Tombs. The entire fence is made of bricks ground to seams and dry grouting, making the wall flush and strong. The construction technology of Long'en Hall is exquisite. The main hall is entirely made of golden nanmu. It is not decorated with oil paint and maintains the original color of the wood. When you open the door of the hall, the aroma of nanmu will come out.
At first, Daoguang’s mausoleum was located in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty. In line with Daoguang’s pursuit of frugality, the mausoleum eliminated the two-pillar gate, the tiled roof of the underground palace, the engraved scriptures, and the Buddha statues. The main hall, stele pavilion, The size of the stone statue was also smaller. It was completed in the seventh year of Daoguang's reign (1827), and Empress Xiaomucheng was buried. Unexpectedly, a year later it was discovered that one foot and seven inches of water had leaked into the underground palace. In anger, the entire mausoleum was razed to the ground. Emperor Daoguang ignored the Qianlong Emperor's order to build the mausoleum at the Western Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty. The design of this mausoleum is more deliberately simple, with only 27 buildings and an area of 45.6 acres, which is nearly 80 acres smaller than the Tailing Mausoleum. But in fact, it is "frugal" on the outside and "luxurious" on the inside. The materials used are exquisite. The walls are made of ground bricks with joints and dry grouting to the top. They are not painted with red or hung ash. This has changed the traditional rough gray bricks on the upper body and painted with red mortar. The practice of placing the lower shoulders dryly, coupled with the experience of two constructions and one demolition, made Daoguang's mausoleum cost more than any other mausoleum in Xiling.
The underground palace is an arched stone structure building with a total length of 63.19 meters, an area of 349.95 square meters, and a space of 2170.61 cubic meters. The golden coupon in the underground palace is the largest of the nine coupons. It is the main building of the underground palace. It is tall and spacious. The top of the coupon and the sea are all made of blue and white stone structure. The top of each stone door is equipped with a copper pipe fan weighing more than ten tons, which can not only support the huge stone on the door, but also enable the huge and heavy stone door with a height of 3.52 meters to be opened and closed freely. There is also a whole piece of blue and white stone carvings on the stone door. On the eight stone doors of the completed Shimen Tower, there is a vivid statue of Bodhisattva in relief. The standing statue of Bodhisattva is 1.99 meters high, with a solemn look and majestic momentum. The Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty are a museum of traditional Chinese culture and art. Among the four imperial mausoleums, except for the Chongling underground palace, which was stolen, all are well preserved. The main hall of nanmu, the echo wall of Changxi Mausoleum, the copper beams and iron pillars of Chongling Mausoleum, etc. are the most complete preserved treasures among the Qing Mausoleum buildings. 432 ancient buildings and thousands of sculptures and paintings show from different aspects the major developments and changes in the architectural art style of Chinese mausoleums and royal religious beliefs from the 1730s to the early 20th century.
The Western Qing Tombs use a large number of physical images and written historical materials to display the major developments and changes in the architectural art style and royal religious beliefs of Chinese mausoleums from the 1830s to the early 20th century from different aspects, and have a great influence on ancient Chinese mausoleums. It has made important contributions to the innovation and development of architectural art and has irreplaceable historical, artistic, scientific and appreciation value for the mausoleum buildings of all generations before the Qing Dynasty. The buildings of the four mausoleums affiliated with the imperial mausoleums of the Western Qing Dynasty reflect the evolution of the Qing Dynasty from its prosperity to its decline, both in scale and shape. The complete and magnificent scale of the Tailing and Changling mausoleums reflects the glory of the Qing Dynasty in its heyday, as well as the reduction of Muling buildings (the first mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty to remove the Shengde Shengong monument tower, stone statues, Minglou, Baocheng, etc.) , the reduction of the size of Chongling Mausoleum truly records the historical trajectory of the Qing Dynasty from strength to decline, from feudal society to semi-feudal and semi-colonial. The fates of Emperor Guangxu and Zhenji, figures from the late Qing Dynasty who were buried in the Chongling Mausoleum of the Western Qing Dynasty and its Ji Garden, also record the history of Empress Dowager Cixi dominating the court, losing power, humiliating the country, and bringing disaster to the country and the people. The palace project of the last emperor Aisin Gioro Boyi was terminated due to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, which is a physical example of the end of China's thousands of years of feudal history. In terms of preservation status, the Qingxi Mausoleum is one of the most well-preserved mausoleums among the mausoleum complex in China.
World Heritage Committee evaluation: The royal tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were carefully sited according to Feng Shui theory, and a large number of buildings were cleverly placed underground. It is the product of human beings changing nature, embodies traditional architectural and decorative ideas, and explains the world view and power view of feudal China that lasted for more than 500 years.