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| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
 Dagong gate (Red in the middle) and Spirit way of the Ming tombs (behind the gate). | |
| Location | Beijing andNanjing,China |
| Criteria | Cultural: i, ii, iii, iv, vi |
| Reference | 1004 |
| Inscription | 2000 (24thSession) |
| Extensions | 2003; 2004 |
| Website | http://www.mingtombs.com/ |
| Coordinates | 40°15′12″N116°13′3″E / 40.25333°N 116.21750°E /40.25333; 116.21750 |
TheMing tombs are a collection of mausoleums built by the emperors of theMing dynasty of China. The first Ming emperor's tomb is located near his capitalNanjing. However, the majority of the Ming tombs are located in a cluster nearBeijing and collectively known as theThirteen Tombs of the Ming dynasty (Chinese:明十三陵;pinyin:Míng Shísān Líng;lit. 'Ming Thirteen Mausoleums'). They are located within the suburbanChangping District of Beijing Municipality, 42 kilometers (26 mi) north-northwest of Beijing's city center. The site, on the southern slope ofTianshou Mountain (originally Huangtu Mountain), was chosen based on the principles offeng shui by the third Ming emperor, theYongle Emperor. After the construction of the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) in 1420, the Yongle Emperor selected his burial site and created his ownmausoleum. The subsequent emperors placed their tombs in the same valley.
From the Yongle Emperor onwards, thirteen Ming emperors were buried in the same area. TheXiaoling Mausoleum of the first Ming emperor, theHongwu Emperor, is located near his capital Nanjing; the second emperor, theJianwen Emperor, was overthrown by the Yongle Emperor and disappeared, without a known tomb. The "temporary" emperor, theJingtai Emperor, was also not buried here, as theTianshun Emperor had denied him an imperial burial; instead, the Jingtai Emperor was buried west ofBeijing.[1] The last emperor buried at the location wasChongzhen, the last of his dynasty, who committed suicide by hanging on April 25, 1644. He was buried in his concubine Consort Tian's tomb, which was later declared as an imperial mausoleumSiling by the emperor of the short-livedShun dynasty,Li Zicheng, with a much smaller scale compared to the other imperial mausoleums built for Ming emperors.
During the Ming dynasty, the tombs were off limits to commoners, but in 1644Li Zicheng's army ransacked and burned many of the tombs before advancing to and subsequently capturing Beijing in April of that year.
In 1725, theYongzheng Emperor bestowed the hereditary title of marquis on a descendant of theMing imperial family, Zhu Zhilian, who received a salary from the Qing government and whose duty was to perform rituals at the Ming tombs. He was posthumously promoted toMarquis of Extended Grace in 1750 by theQianlong Emperor, and the title passed on through twelve generations of Ming descendants until the end of the Qing dynasty.
Presently, the Ming tombs are designated as one of the components of the World Heritage Site, theImperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which also includes a number of other locations near Beijing and in Nanjing, Hebei, Hubei, Liaoning province.
The siting of the Ming dynasty imperial tombs was carefully chosen according toFeng Shui (geomancy) principles. According to these, bad spirits and evil winds descending from the North must be deflected; therefore, an arc-shaped valley area at the foot of theJundu Mountains, north of Beijing, was selected. This 40 km2 (15 sq mi) area—enclosed by the mountains in a pristine, quiet valley full of dark earth, tranquil water and other necessities as per Feng Shui—would become thenecropolis of the Ming dynasty.
A 7-kilometer (4 mi) road named the "Spirit Way" (pinyin:Shéndào) leads into the complex, lined with statues of guardian animals and officials, with a front gate consisting of a three-arches, painted red, and called the "Great Red Gate". The Spirit Way, or Sacred Way, starts with a huge stone memorial archway lying at the front of the area. Constructed in 1540, during the Ming dynasty, this archway is one of the biggest stone archways in China today.
Further in, the Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion can be seen; inside, there is a 50-ton stone statue of aBixi carrying a memorial tablet. Four white marbleHuabiao (pillars of glory) are positioned at each corner of the stele pavilion. At the top of each pillar is a mythical beast. Each side of the road is flanked by two pillars whose surfaces are carved with the cloud design, and tops are shaped like a rounded cylinder. They are of a traditional design, and were originally beacons to guide the soul of the deceased, The road leads to 18 pairs of stone statues of mythical animals, which are all sculpted from whole stones and larger than life size, leading to a three-arched gate known as the Dragon and Phoenix Gate.
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At present, only three tombs are open to the public:
There have been no excavations since 1989, but plans for new archeological research and further opening of tombs have circulated.
The Ming tombs were listed as aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site in August 2003. They were listed along with other tombs under the "Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" designation.
The imperial tombs are in chronological order and list the individuals buried:
The Ming emperors not buried in one of the Thirteen Tombs are:Hongwu Emperor,Zhu Biao, Emperor Kang,Jianwen Emperor,Jingtai Emperor, andZhu Youyuan, Emperor Xian.
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