Secret: Why does Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum look like Beidou? What's so elegant about this?

The Ming Tombs are located at the foot of Mount Qomolangma, the southern foot of Zhongshan in the east of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. It is the mausoleum of Zhu Yuanzhang (1368 ~ 1644), the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and Ma Shi, the empress. The Ming Mausoleum was built in the 14th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (138 1), and Ma Huanghou died of illness and was buried in this Mausoleum the following year. Because of Ma Huanghou's filial piety, the mausoleum was named Xiaoling Mausoleum. In the thirty-first year of Hongwu (1398), Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness and was buried with Ma Huanghou in the underground palace. The Ming Mausoleum is one of the largest royal tombs in ancient China, with a history of more than 600 years.

After vicissitudes of life, the wooden structure of many buildings in the Ming tombs no longer exists, but all their architectural remains are intact in their original places, and their spatial layout is intact, and the natural landscape where cultural remains are located has not been destroyed. The main buildings and stone carvings in Lingqu, Fangcheng, Minglou, Baocheng and Baoding, including Xiamafang, Dajinmen, Shengde Monument, Shinto Road and Stone Statue Road, are all architectural remains of the Ming Dynasty. The unique design concept, system pattern, architectural scale and artistic achievements of the Ming Tombs in the development of China Mausoleum have deeply influenced the mausoleum construction of later generations. Today, imperial tombs of the ming and qing dynasties, which is distributed in Beijing, Hubei, Hebei and other provinces and cities, is built according to the regulations and patterns of the Ming Tombs. In this sense, the Ming Tombs are worthy of being a masterpiece of genius, and they are the comprehensive achievements of the highly mature period of China culture. It created a new system for Ming and Qing tombs.

The Ming Tombs were officially started in the 14th year of Hongwu (138 1) and completed in the 3rd year of Yongle (1405), which lasted for 25 years. Mobilized 654.38+million military industry, consumed a lot of manpower and material resources, and the scale was huge. At that time, from Chaoyangmen (now Zhongshan Gate) to Xiaolingwei and then to the west and north of the mausoleum, 45 imperial walls were built, and more than 5,000 soldiers guarded the mausoleum. At that time, pavilions in the cemetery were connected; Smoke in the temple, pine and cypress in the forest, deer in a thousand miles. Luming Literature in this period, the momentum is extraordinary. Due to repeated fires, there are only 6 kinds of Shenshan Monument, Xiama Monument, Dajinmen, Sifang City and Shende Monument, 24 kinds of Shinto stone beasts, lions, camels, unicorns, horses and elephants, 2 Shinto stone pillars and 4 civil servants and military commanders.

The Ming tombs have a beautiful environment. The surrounding mountains are undulating, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the human and natural landscape is natural. The cemetery is large in scale and rigorous in pattern. Xiaoling Building is 2.62 kilometers deep from Xiamafang to Baocheng. The main building of the mausoleum is surrounded by the red wall of that year, with a circumference of 2.25 kilometers. If you look down from the air, you can see that there is a Beidou layout in the Ming Tombs! Some people say that this is Zhu Yuanzhang's ingenuity, deliberately trying to break the routine to show his imperial spirit of not doing things according to the routine and tradition. It is also said that this is to deepen and prolong Shinto and facilitate the deployment of man and beast. It is also said that when Zhu Yuanzhang was building the Xiaoling Mausoleum, it was suggested that Sunling Hill (now Meihua Mountain) opposite the Xiaoling Mausoleum be dug up to make the mausoleum straight. Zhu Yuanzhang thought Sun Quan was a hero, which made Sun Quan, the emperor of Soochow, more heroic in guarding the mausoleum.

Recently, someone explained why Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum looks like Beidou from the perspective of geomantic omen. As early as when Zhu Yuanzhang was the general of peasant army uprising, he wrote a poem full of vitality: the sky is a tent and the ground is a blanket, and the sun, the moon and the stars sleep with me. I dare not stretch my legs at night for fear of crossing mountains and mountains. This reflects Zhu Yuanzhang's ambition. As the founding emperor, since Zhu Yuanzhang tried his best to choose the site to build a mausoleum, he will certainly be more careful in the design of the mausoleum. In the tombs of ancient emperors, the heavenly palace, celestial phenomena and stars were used in order to achieve the effect of harmony between man and nature and the return of soul to Beidou. Zhu Yuanzhang especially admired astronomical phenomena, so he designed his tomb in the shape of the Big Dipper before his death. The spoon head is a guiding Shinto part around Meihua Mountain, and the handle is a mausoleum building part arranged in a straight line in the north direction. The seven stars on the spoon head and handle are Sifang city, Shinto lookout column and Qi in turn. From the plane, the arrangement trend of the seven stars in Xiaoling is the same as that in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Liao Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty.

The back hill of the Ming Mausoleum is also home to many heroes who founded the Ming Dynasty, including the famous tomb of King Xu in Zhongshan and Chang Yuchun, king of Kaiping. It is rumored that when Zhu Yuanzhang built the Ming Tombs, he said that he lived alone in the sunshine of Zhongshan, and the heroes were buried with Yin Shan. Therefore, Purple Mountain Cinema has 1 1 a hero's tomb. It's like the stars facing the Big Dipper. According to Feng Shui, Zhu Yuanzhang kept Sun Quan's tomb, not only because Sun Quan was a hero, just like in the simple legend, but because Sun Linggang in Meihua Mountain, where Sun Quan's tomb was located, was a recent case in ancient geomorphology, and in layman's terms, it was like a coffee table. In this way, the Ming tombs are backed by Zhongshan, forming an auspicious pattern of remembering things from the back, green dragons in the east, white tigers in the west, Xuanwu (a combination of turtles and snakes) in the north and Suzaku in the south. Perhaps, Zhu Yuanzhang was satisfied.

In July, 2003, at the 27th World Heritage Conference, the Ming Tombs, as an expansion project of imperial tombs of the ming and qing dynasties, were listed in the World Heritage List and became a member of the World Heritage. The World Heritage Committee commented on the Ming Tombs in this way: imperial tombs of the ming and qing dynasties carefully chose the site according to the theory of geomantic omen, and cleverly put 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.