Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history established by the Manchus.In the late Ming Dynasty, the Manchus rose up in the Northeast and established political power. The tombs of several emperors and ancestors were built in Liaoning Province today, collectively called "Three Tombs in the Early Qing Dynasty" or "Three Tombs in Shengjing". After entering the customs in 1644, there were a total of 10 emperors. Except for the last emperor Xuantong, the tombs of the other nine emperors were built in Zunhua County and Yi County, Hebei Province.Because the two mausoleums are more than 100 kilometers away from the capital, they are called "Eastern Tomb of Qing Dynasty" and "Western Tomb of Qing Dynasty".

Among the three tombs in the early Qing Dynasty, the Zhaoling Tomb of Huang Taiji is located in the northern suburb of Shenyang City, the Fuling Mausoleum of Nurhachi is located in the eastern suburb of Shenyang City, and the Yongling Tomb of the Yuanzu of the Qing Dynasty is located in Xinbin County.These three mausoleums have been added and repaired several times, but still retain their original style.They are different from the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty and the Western Tombs of the Qing Dynasty. Although they have inherited and absorbed the traditional style and techniques of our country in architecture, they have combined the natural features of the mausoleum area with the castle-like architectural layout of the Northeast as a whole. It is also different from the Ming and Qing official buildings, forming a unique style.

The mausoleum areas are all backed by mountains and facing rivers, surrounded by lush forests, majestic, quiet and solemn, with pleasant scenery.The size and structure of the three tombs are slightly different, but the overall shape is the same.They all sit north to south, with a rectangular plane and surrounded by brick walls.Fuling and Zhaoling cover an area of ​​nearly 200,000 square meters, while Yongling is smaller, only 12,000 square meters.The cemetery consists of three parts: the front yard, Fangcheng and Baocheng.In the middle of the south wall of the front yard is the Zhenghong Gate, with a hard top of yellow glazed tiles, three rooms wide.There are stone lions, stone archways, stone Huabiao and dismounting steles on both sides of the gate.Inside the door, there is a brick-paved approach, with Huabiao and Shixiangsheng on both sides.The stone images of Zhaoling Mausoleum are arranged in a trapezoidal shape, using the illusion of perspective to increase the sense of length.A stele pavilion is built at the end of the approach, and a "monument of divine merit and virtue" is erected inside.On the east and west sides of the courtyard, there are tea dining room, class room, washing machine room and animal saving pavilion.Fangcheng is in the style of a castle, with turrets at the four corners, the Longen Gate in the middle of the south wall, and a gatehouse with double eaves and yellow glazed tiles on the top of the mountain.In the middle of Fangcheng is the Longen Hall, which is three rooms wide.There are side halls on both sides, and there are stone pillar gates and stone five offerings at the back of the hall.In the middle of the north wall is the coupon gate, on which a Minglou with double eaves is built on the top of Xieshan Mountain, and a stele with the posthumous title of the emperor's temple is erected inside.The plane of Baocheng is circular, and the underground palace is under the top of Baocheng in the middle of Baocheng.

The Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty are located at the southern foot of Changrui Mountain in Malanyu, northwest of Zunhua County, Hebei Province.The entire mausoleum is divided into two parts: the front circle and the back dragon.The front circle is the cemetery building area, covering an area of ​​48 square kilometers.Houlong is a green area surrounded by mountains.There are five imperial mausoleums, four imperial mausoleums and five concubine mausoleums in the mausoleum area.Outside the mausoleum area, there are also garden dormitories for princes, crown princes, and princesses. More than 160 people including emperors, empresses, concubines, kings, and princesses were buried.The layout is centered on Xiaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Shunzhi, Jingling Mausoleum of Emperor Kangxi and Huiling Mausoleum of Emperor Mu Zong in the east, Yuling Mausoleum of Emperor Qianlong of Emperor Gaozong and Ding Mausoleum of Emperor Wenzong Xianfeng in the west.The Western Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty is located at the foot of Yongning Mountain in the west of Yi County, Hebei Province.The mausoleum area covers an area of ​​225 square kilometers. There are four imperial mausoleums, five empress mausoleums, three concubine mausoleums, and four palace dorms for kings and princesses. A total of 76 people including emperors, empresses, concubines, kings and princesses were buried.The layout is centered on Tailing Mausoleum of Sejong Yongzheng, Changling Mausoleum of Renzong Jiaqing in the west, Muling Mausoleum of Emperor Xianzong Daoguang, and Chongling Mausoleum of Dezong Guangxu in the east.Its distribution is not as neat and concentrated as that of Dongling, and there are small roads between the tombs.Most of the buildings are well preserved, with a total of more than a thousand rooms.

Most of the past dynasties in our country practiced the burial system of "the son is buried with the father, and the ancestors continue". From the late Shang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the tombs of emperors were relatively concentrated in one area.However, the imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty were divided into two mausoleum areas, the east and the west, contrary to the previous dynasties.The site of the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty was personally selected by Emperor Shunzhi when he was hunting. In the second year of Kangxi (1663 A.D.), Xiaoling Mausoleum (Figure 14) was built for Emperor Shunzhi at the foot of Changrui Mountain.Later, Emperor Kangxi was buried in the east of Xiaoling Mausoleum according to the Zhaomu system in which the son was buried with his father. After Yongzheng, another mausoleum was built in Yi County.According to some documents, he tampered with Kangxi's last edict and inherited the throne by improper means. Feeling guilty, he didn't want to be buried next to his father, so he found various excuses to choose another mausoleum site.However, Emperor Qianlong, his son, still chose Dongling as the site, and stipulated that in the future, father and son would not be buried in the same place, and the mausoleum would be built in the East and West Tombs alternately.In fact, his grandson Emperor Daoguang did not do the same.This Zhaomu system, which had lasted for thousands of years, began to be broken.

The Qing Dynasty changed the system of the Ming Dynasty, and each emperor's mausoleum was usually built with a queen's mausoleum and a concubine's garden. The shape and structure are basically the same as the emperor's mausoleum, but the specifications are different.The mausoleums of emperors and empresses are covered with yellow glazed tiles, while the dorms of concubines and kings are covered with green glazed tiles, and the scale is also small.

The layout and regulations of the Eastern Tomb and the Western Tomb are imitated by the Ming Tombs. They are both facing mountains and rivers, facing south, and the mausoleum area is divided into two parts, the front and the back.In the front are the mausoleum gate and the general Shinto of the mausoleum area, as well as the branch gods of each mausoleum, and the back is the cemetery.In addition, there are palaces and lama temples in the mausoleum area, which are the places where the royal family lived and worshiped Buddha when offering sacrifices to the mausoleum.During the reign of Emperor Guangxu in Xiling Mausoleum, a narrow-gauge railway was built from Gaobeidian to Lianggezhuang, which was specially used for the visit of emperors and empresses to the mausoleum.

Various buildings are arranged on the main Shinto path of the mausoleum gate.From front to back: Stone Archway, Dahongmen, Dabeilou, Shixiangsheng, Longfengmen, Shenlu Bridge, and Shinto Stele Pavilion.The pavement of the Shinto road is built with strips of stone and huge bricks, divided into three lanes on the left, middle and right, and the southern end is the Dahongmen.The Dongling Shinto is about five kilometers long, and the Xiling Shinto is about 2.5 kilometers long.Dahongmen is the gate of the main mausoleum and also the gate of the mausoleum area. It is built of masonry and has a single eaves and hip roof.The stone archway in front of the gate is a stone structure building with five gates, six columns and single eaves.There is a one-way five-hole bridge in front of Xiling Stone Archway, which is beautiful in shape.On the east side of the gate, there is a dressing hall, which was the place where people who sacrificed to the tomb changed their clothes at that time.Facing it is the Stele of Shengde and Shengong with double eaves and nine ridges. Inside the building stand two tall stone steles. The body of the stele is carved from a single huge stone, weighing tens of thousands of catties.On the stele, the life achievements of the emperor of the main tomb are inscribed in two languages, Manchu and Han.There is a Chinese watch erected in each of the four corners outside the monument.Shinto bypasses "Yingbi Mountain" (Xiling is called Spider Mountain), and then to the north is Longfengmen, Shenlu Bridge with three roads and three holes (below the bridge is Yudai River, also known as Longxugou) and Shinto Stele Pavilion.There are stone elephants standing on both sides of the Shinto between the stele tower and the Dragon and Phoenix Gate. There are 18 pairs of Shinto in the Eastern Mausoleum (including xiezhi, horse, elephant, 狻猊 [suanni sour mud], kylin, civil servants, and generals), and there are 18 pairs of Shinto in the Western Mausoleum. five pairs.The Dragon and Phoenix Gate has three rooms and six columns on the third floor, decorated with dragon and phoenix patterns with colored glazed bricks and tiles.In the Shinto Stele Pavilion at the north end, there is a stone stele engraved with the emperor's temple name and posthumous title in Manchu, Han, and Mongolian.To the east of the stele are the God's Kitchen and the Provincial Animal Pavilion.Jingling, Yuling, Dingling in the Eastern Tomb and Changling in the Western Tomb, the organizational system of each branch of Shinto is roughly the same as this, but on a smaller scale.

The mausoleum is surrounded by red walls, and the interior is divided into two parts, the front and the back, separated by a palace wall, symbolizing the front and rear sleeping.The main entrance of the front court is the Long En Gate, and the two sides are court rooms and class rooms.In the middle is the Longen Hall, with side halls on both sides, and the glazed flower gate at the back.Longen's facade is five rooms wide, with a single eaves resting on the top of the mountain.The Long En Hall is the place where sacrificial activities are held. It is built on a huge base made of white marble, with a platform in front, displaying bronze tripods, deer, and cranes, surrounded by white marble railings.The main hall is five rooms wide and three rooms deep, with double eaves resting on the top of the mountain.There are supporting halls on both sides.The Longen Hall in Daoguang Muling is unique. The beams are all made of nanmu, and each ceiling is carved with a dragon. The doors, windows, beams, and birds are also carved with dragons and panlongs. The original color creates an aura of "a gathering of thousands of dragons and a fragrant mouth".The Long En Hall of Empress Cixi Dingdong Mausoleum is the most splendid building in the Qing Mausoleum.The front railings are carved with auspicious patterns of dragons and phoenixes, and the stones are carved with dragons and phoenixes. The dragon is below and the phoenix is ​​above. It is vivid and vivid, which can be called a masterpiece.The walls are ground bricks and carved, the beams and columns are all made of huanghuali wood, and the 64 columns in the hall are carved with half-dimensional golden dragons coiled on them.The dougong, beams, painted ceilings and carved bricks are all pasted with gold, and the whole body is resplendent and resplendent, which has never been seen in other mausoleums and palaces.The back bedroom includes Fangcheng, Baocheng and underground palace.Fangcheng is square in plane, and built on it is the Minglou with double eaves and the top of Xieshan, which is the tallest building in the whole mausoleum.Inside the building stands a stele with the name of the emperor's temple and mausoleum engraved in Manchu, Han and Mongolian languages.In front of the building, there are five stone offerings.In the middle of Baocheng is Baoding, and the lower part is where the underground palace is located.Muling in Xiling did not build Minglou and Fangcheng.

Qianlong's Yuling Underground Palace was once robbed.The underground palace is very large, with a depth of 54 meters and a total area of ​​more than 300 square meters.It is an arch structure, all made of white marble.The front and rear are divided into three chambers (named Ming Coupon, Chuan Coupon, and Jin Coupon from front to back), with four stone gates in total. There is a tomb passage in front, and the plane is in the shape of a main character.The eaves rafters, tile ridges and kissing beasts are carved on the gate tower.Each stone gate is embossed with a statue of a Bodhisattva.On both sides of the first gate, seated statues of the Four Heavenly Kings are embossed. Buddha statues, scriptures and patterns related to Buddhism are carved on the inner wall and the top of the tomb. Buddhist scriptures are also carved on the four walls of the sarcophagus bed.The scriptures are engraved in Sanskrit and Tibetan, with a total of 647 characters in Sanskrit and more than 29,000 characters in Tibetan.The scriptures are well-organized, with smooth lines, various changes, and clear primary and secondary, which fully reflect the high level of carving technology in the Qing Dynasty.

The cemetery construction in the Qing Dynasty used a lot of labor and materials, and the amount of silver consumed was so large that it was difficult to win.The "golden bricks" used were all fired in Suzhou, Jiangsu, and the rectangular city bricks with clear pulp were fired in Linqing, Shandong.Beijing Liulichang has an imperial kiln dedicated to firing glazed tiles.Most of the blue and white stones are produced in Fangshan County and Changping County in Beijing, and many huge quarries have been left so far.Most of the wood is collected from Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places in the south.The firing, mining, and transportation of these materials require tens of millions of people to work hard and even sacrifice their lives. In the Qing Dynasty, a whole set of institutions was set up to strictly manage the mausoleum area.There is a mausoleum guard minister in the mausoleum area, who is also the garrison general. The candidates are selected from the nearby clan, princes and ministers, proposed by the clan mansion, and approved by the emperor.Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of War, Customs Defense, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Industry, and other yamen for undertaking affairs.The Yamen of the Ministry of War is in charge of the Eight Banners soldiers and the Green Battalion soldiers, and is responsible for the defense and protection of the mausoleum area.The Guanfang Yamen is responsible for handling the procedures for personnel entering the mausoleum area.The yamen of the Ministry of Rites is responsible for the etiquette arrangements for offering sacrifices to the mausoleum and visiting the mausoleum.The Yamen of the Ministry of Industry is responsible for project maintenance.The yamen in charge of affairs is responsible for conveying the mission downwards.Branch offices are set up in each imperial tomb.There are thousands of management, security and miscellaneous personnel in the entire mausoleum area. Wars were frequent at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. A large number of treasures buried in the tombs of the Qing Dynasty aroused the covetousness of warlords and bandits. In 1928, Ma Futian, head of the Feng Dynasty warlord Yue Zhaolin's subordinates, led his troops to occupy Malanyu and planned to steal treasures from Tangling.Under the banner of suppressing bandits, the reactionary warlord Sun Dianying, who was stationed not far away, ordered Tan Wenjiang, the commander of the Eighth Division, to lead his troops to drive Ma Futian away and stationed in Dongling.In the name of conducting military exercises, Sun Dianying personally commanded to drive away the guards of the tomb and cut off the communication. In the middle of the night, he used explosives to blow up the underground palaces of Qianlong Yuling Mausoleum and Cixi Dongling Mausoleum, and robbed most of the buried treasures in the mausoleum. Immediately set off and flee.Later, the local ruffians entered the underground palace to search for the remaining treasures, which resulted in the looting of the two tombs and heavy losses.After the Dongling tomb robbery case was exposed, it caused a sensation both at home and abroad.Puyi, who lived in Tianjin, called Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan many times, demanding that the first offender, Sun Dianying, be severely punished.Since Sun Dianying had bribed the stolen treasures to key officials of the government to get away with it, the case was dismissed hastily. In 1938, some unscrupulous villagers plotted and robbed the tombs of Emperor Guangxu and his favorite concubine Zhenfei in Xiling. In addition to the theft of the underground palace, most of the imperial treasures such as gold and silver utensils that existed in the two tombs were also stolen.Tang Zhidao, the warlord who was stationed in Luanzhou at that time, cut down more than 900 ancient cypresses in Dongling for more than 200 years. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dongxi Mausoleum was announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit, and a cultural relic preservation office was established to be responsible for daily protection and management.Most of the buildings have been gradually restored and are now open to the outside world, becoming a tourist attraction for Chinese and foreign tourists.