The Ming Dynasty was the last Han Chinese ruling feudal dynasty in China, and one of the dynasties that left the most historical relics and stories. When it comes to the imperial tombs of the Ming dynasty, we first recall the Thirteen Ming Tombs, where thirteen of the sixteen Ming emperors are buried, in addition to the filial tombs of Ming's great ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing, the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunhuang is unknown without a tomb, and Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qi Yu ascended to the throne after the Tumulus Change, and was later deposed in the Gate of Capture Change, and was buried separately in Jinshan in the western suburbs of Beijing after his death. But in fact, in addition to these fifteen imperial tombs, the Ming Dynasty also had four imperial tombs, including the Ming Ancestral Mausoleum, the Ming Imperial Mausoleum, the Ming Eastern Mausoleum, and the Obvious Mausoleum, so the Ming Dynasty was sixteen emperors and nineteen imperial tombs.
Today we will talk about the Ming Emperor's tomb, since it is the only imperial tomb in the Ming dynasty called the imperial tomb, buried the emperor it, in fact it is not, then the Ming Emperor's tomb buried who are it?
The Ming imperial tomb has at least two "firsts" among the Ming imperial tombs: the first imperial tomb built in the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial tomb with the largest number of stone carvings in the Ming Dynasty.
So where exactly is this Ming imperial tomb located? And who was the owner of the tomb? When was it built? Why was it built before the Ming ancestral tomb?
On a somewhat gloomy morning, I took the No. 10 bus to the Ming Imperial Tombs, 7 kilometers south of Fengyang County. Yes, the Ming Imperial Tombs are located in Fengyang County, Anhui Province, the hometown of Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.
Tickets are 50 yuan, a bit expensive. The Ming Zhongdu Imperial Forbidden City and the stone carvings of the Imperial Tombs are the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units, this one actually includes two Ming Dynasty monuments, the ruins of the Ming Zhongdu City and the stone carvings of the Ming Imperial Tombs.
Ming imperial tomb is not big, is a line, walk to the head about six or seven hundred meters, in order for the main gate, the divine path stone carving, two pavilions, the imperial city main hall site and the imperial tomb mound.
The biggest attraction of the Ming Emperor's Tomb is the stone carvings, which are the largest number of stone carvings on both sides of the sacred path among all the tombs of the Ming emperors.
In order, there are 2 pairs of Qilin, 8 pairs of stone lions, 2 pairs of pillars, 6 pairs of horse-riders, 4 pairs of stone tigers, 2 pairs of civil servants, 4 pairs of stone sheep, 2 pairs of military generals and 2 pairs of chamberlains, totaling 32 pairs.
This is a comparison table of the stone carvings of the Ming imperial tombs in the Drum Tower of the Ming Central City, which shows the scale of the stone carvings of the Ming imperial tombs.
Note the pairs of horse-controlling figures, which are images rarely found in other Ming Dynasty imperial tombs, and are also relatively rare images in the stone carvings of the Shinto path through the ages.
Most of the stone carvings in the Ming imperial tombs are ancient and have survived more than 600 years of weathering.
However, because of more recent damage, there are a few modern newly built or partially restored stone carvings hidden inside most of the quaint ones, but the indiscriminate craftsmanship is always evident at a glance.
So when was the Ming Emperor's tomb actually built? The tomb of the Ming emperor was built in 1366 and completed in 1379. In the second year of Hongwu, the name Yingling was recommended, and later the name was changed to Huangling.
The Ming Dynasty was officially established in 1368, which means that Zhu Yuanzhang had already built the Ming Imperial Tombs in his hometown before the Ming Dynasty was established.
Zhu Yuanzhang's parents died in April of the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1344), and the funeral was extremely simple because of the family's poverty. In 1366, Zhu Yuanzhang was crowned the king of Wu and immediately ordered his late minister Wang Wen to repair his parents' mausoleum in his hometown. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for Zhu Yuanzhang to be called "filial son emperor".
Therefore, the tomb called Ming Emperor's Tomb was actually built by Zhu Yuanzhang for his parents and brother and sister-in-law, and it was only 20 years after Zhu Yuanzhang unified the world that he built the Ming Ancestor's Tomb in Xuyi, Jiangsu Province in 1386, which became the second imperial tomb of the Ming Dynasty.
In the past, there are two pavilions of monuments, the east is a monument without words and the west is a monument of the imperial tomb.
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang thought his empire was the result of his parents' good deeds, which could not be expressed in words, and his parents, who were farmers, had nothing amazing to write about in their lifetime. Perhaps there is also some imitation of Wu Zetian's wordless monument.
Next to the wordless monument, there is a dragon spring well, which is the source of drinking water for the tomb guardians.
The 6.87-meter-high imperial tomb monument on the west side is engraved with an inscription written by Zhu Yuanzhang in 1105 characters, mainly describing Zhu Yuanzhang's humble life, his life as a monk, his military career, and the process of taking over the Great Ming Dynasty.
This tablet is one of the best in the imperial tomb. It is an inscription written by a founding emperor, as a filial son, for his peasant parents who had no year and no throne.
The pavilion used to be the ruins of the main hall of the imperial tomb, but the site has become a grassy area except for the scattered stone parts, so you can only imagine the grandeur of the site from this picture.
The bottom of the central axis of the imperial tomb is the mausoleum, which is a large mound of earth, in front of the newly repaired stone five for, so when you look at the Ming imperial tomb, you will find that in fact only stone carvings and two pavilions worth seeing, there is nothing else.
If you just go back and forth, about half an hour or so is enough, if you take pictures, it is best to control within an hour, why? Because the 10 buses from the city to the Ming Emperor's tomb is a half hour trip.
The Ming dynasty had sixteen emperors, a total of 276 years, built the Ming Emperor's mausoleum, Ming ancestral mausoleum, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Ming East Mausoleum, Ming Jingtai Mausoleum, obvious Mausoleum, Ming Thirteen Mausoleum and other nineteen imperial tombs, located in Fengyang, Anhui, Xuyi, Jiangsu, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Beijing and Hubei Zhongxiang five places, plus the Ming Thirteen Mausoleum is only open to the public Dingling, Changling and Zhaoling, so to walk through the Ming dynasty imperial tombs, is not really an easy task, there are The first thing you need to do is to go through the 19 imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty.
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