Spending the early summer at the Ming Tomb; searching for stories about the Ming Dynasty --III

After having covered the Stone Elephant Road and Wengzhong Road, you will approach the main buildings of the Ming Tomb. The palace of the Ming Tomb was built according to the layout of the imperial palace in which the emperor had lived before his death. The models of “The front designed for dealing with national affairs and the back for rest and residence” and “Three courtyards arranged from the front to the back” were applied. Today, let’s enter the Palace Area of the Ming Tomb to see what the tomb of an ancient emperor is like and what features the buildings of the tomb have.

The route for walking into the Ming Tomb: The Palace Area of the Ming Tomb

The first stop: Civilian and Military Archway
By walking (up a slope) northward about 200 meters away from Jinshui Bridge, you will arrive at the formal gate to the main buildings of the Ming Tomb, named Civilian and Military Archway, consisting of five doors (three big and two small ones), the top of which is covered with yellow glazed tiles. The archway was destroyed during the reign of emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, and it was changed into a formal gate when it was renovated during the reign of emperor Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty. In 1998, its original system was restored, and the walls on both sides of the palace gate were protected with a top added to them. Below the eastern wall outside the gate, there is a stele engraved with a special public notice of protecting the Ming Tomb in the language of such six countries as Japan, Germany, Italy, UK, France and Russia. This stele was set up jointly by the head of the Administration of Westernization in Liangjiang and the governor of Jiangning in the first year during the reign of emperor Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1909).

The second stop: Stele Hall
Through the Civilian and Military Archway, you can enter a stele hall built in the 8th year during the reign of emperor Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1869). At the center of the hall stand 5 tall stone steles. The one in the middle is the most conspicuous, on which four Chinese characters are written, meaning that the merits of the First Emperor of the Ming Dynasty excel that of emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty and emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty. They were inscribed by emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty in 1699 (the 38th year during his reign) during his third visit to the Ming Tomb. There is a seat under this stele. On both sides of the stele, there are two vertical steles, engraved with two poems inscribed by emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty during his visit to the Ming Tomb. On the western stele in the hall, there is a superscription by Cao Yin, grandfather of Cao Xueqin, the author of The Dream of the Red Chamber (a famous literary masterpiece in China). In the courtyard behind the Stele Hall, there were originally two Shenbo Stoves, with one located in the east and the other in the west. However, only their foundations have been left behind. They were rebuilt on their original site in 2006 according to the style of the Shenbo Stoves at the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty in Beijing.

The third stop: Sacrificial Hall
The Sacrificial Hall is located 55 meters north of the Stele Hall. There is a 1.6-meter-wide imperial road made of huge stones from the formal gate to the Sacrificial Hall. Originally named Xiaoling Hall, Sacrificial Hall is a main building of the Ming Tomb. It was built in the 16th year during the reign of emperor Hongwu (1383). What we can see now is the Sacrificial Hall rebuilt in the 12th year during the reign of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty. The hall includes three rooms with a depth of 7 meters. Its scale is much smaller than that of the former Xiaoling Hall. There are three battlements in front of and behind the hall respectively. The central part of the central battlement is called “Bi”. The upper, central and lower part of Bi is “Two dragons frolicking with a pearl”, “The sun shining over rivers and mountains” and “A sky horse galloping in air” respectively , all of which are relief patterns.

The fourth stop: Square City
After you have gone through the inner red gate and across the big stone bridge, a big building made of big bar-shaped stones will be unfolded before your eyes. This is called Square City. Its front is 16.25 meters high and its back is 13 meters high. There is a wall shaped like the Chinese character “八” on its eastern and western side. At the center of the Square City, there is a tall arched gate. In the arched gate, there is a deep and long tunnel, consisting of 54 stone-steps. Outside the tunnel there are two groups of stone- steps, one on the left and the other on the right. After having mounted the Square City from the north, you will arrive at the Ming Tower.

The fifth stop: the Ming Tower
The Ming Tower is popularly called “The toilet table for Empress Ma”. There are 3 arched gates in its south, and there is an arched gate in its east, west and north respectively. The floor in the tower is made of quadrels. The Ming Tower had a top originally, which was destroyed in a war in the late Qing Dynasty, with only four walls left behind. In 2008, the Administration of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum protected the Ming Tower by adding a top to it, thus having not only resurrected its magnificent vigor in those years, but also effectively prevented the tower from being eroded by rainwater. The Square City and the Ming Tower were innovative buildings of the Ming Dynasty, because there were no such buildings for tombs of emperors before the Ming Dynasty. A tall Square City and a tall Ming Tower were built in front of the Treasure Dome. In addition, there is a quiet and deep tunnel between them. In this way, not only has the atmosphere become more sublime and solemn, but also the unparalleled stateliness of the emperor has been displayed.

The sixth stop: Treasure Dome
Behind the Square City is the Treasure Dome. Seven regular Chinese characters were engraved horizontally on the front of the stone wall, meaning “The Tomb of the First Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is Located in this Hill”. According to a legend, these Chinese characters were engraved in the early Republic of China, so as to answer the questions of tourists. The Treasure City is a quasi-circular hillock, with a diameter of about 325 to 400 meters, with brick-walls around it. With bar-shaped stones as their foundation, the walls were built according to the topography of the hill, with a height of about 7 meters, and with the thickness of the top of walls being 2.1 meters. On the Treasure Dome are towering trees. The underground palace of The First Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and Empress Ma is located under this Treasure Dome. As conjectured by experts, according to the scale of the buildings of the tomb above the ground, this underground palace is certainly bigger than “Dingling Tomb” (the tomb for emperor Wanli) unearthed in The Thirteen Tombs in Changping, Beijing. However, for this reason or that, the underground palace has not yet been unearthed. Once unearthed, it will certainly become another wonder.