Ming Tombs

Located 50 kilometers northwest of Beijing City, the Ming Tombs are the mausoleums of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Originally built in 1409 in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty for the burial of emperors, from Emperor Yongle (buried in Chang Tomb) to the last Ming Emperor, Chongzhen, it has thirteen emperors' tombs, seven concubine tombs, and one eunuch tomb.

Situated on Tianshou Mountain, it has an area of more than 120 square kilometers. Thirteen imperial tombs built in the foothills on three sides, east, west, and north, form a large cemetery of magnificent mausoleum buildings.

The layout and style of all thirteen mausoleums are very similar, but vary in size, as well as in complexity of their structures. The names of thirteen mausoleums are Chang Ling (tomb of the Yongle emperor), Ding Ling (Tomb of Emperor Wanli), Zhao Ling (Tomb of Emperor Longqing), Yong Ling (Tomb of Emperor Jiajing), Xian Ling (Tomb of Emperor Hongxi), Qing Ling (Tomb of Emperor Taichang), Mao Ling (Tomb of Emperor Chenghua), Kang Ling (Tomb of Emperor Zhengde), Jing Ling (Tomb of Emperor Xuande), Tai Ling (Tomb of Emperor Hongzhi), De Ling (Tomb of Emperor Tianqi), Yu Ling (Tomb of Emperor Yingzong) and Si Ling (Tomb of Emperor Chongzhen). Only Changling Tomb, Dingling Tomb, and Zaoling Tomb are open to the public.

Ming Tomb Quick Fact

• Location: Shisanling Town, Changping District, Beijing
• Opening Hours: 8:00 to 17:30 in high season; 8:30 to 17:00 in low season
• Transportation: Take Bus 143 from Deshengmen Station to Madian Bridge South Station. Then transfer to Bus 872 and get off at Qikong Bridge Station. Walk 600 meters and you will reach the Ming Tombs. It takes about 90 minutes and costs CNY11.
• Ticket Price:

Changlin Tomb

Located on the south side of the main peak of the Tianshou Mountains, Changling Tomb, as the chief of the Ming Tombs, is the largest in scale, housing Zhu Di (Emperor Yongle, the fourth son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang) and his empress. The Changling Mausoleum's buildings take up an area of 120,000 square meters, and the total internal area of the main building is 1,956 square meters.

Changling consists of three connected courtyards, and the most worthy of a visit is the second courtyard, named Ling'en Hall. It is the only building that is made of phoebe wood. The ceiling of the hall is colorfully painted and supported by sixteen solid camphor posts. The floor was decorated with gold bricks.

Emperor Wanli's Tomb is the only one of the 13 Ming Tombs excavated so far. Excavation work started in 1956 and finished in 1958. The excavation work unearthed many historical relics, which are now on display in the Dingling Museum. The Dingling Museum was opened to the public in 1959. It has an underground Palace and two exhibition rooms. One presents the process of the excavation, and the other displays the treasure unearthed in the underground palace.

Emperor Wanli had two wives. The first wife, Empress Xiaoduan, had no son; she died only several months before his death, and she was entitled to share the mausoleum with the emperor. The second wife, Empress Xiaojing, who gave birth to the only son of the emperor, died in 1612, eight years before the emperor's death, and was buried only as an imperial concubine in a nearby tomb.

The only son of the second wife succeeded the throne but died within a month after his succession. He left the throne to his son. After the grandson became the emperor, he decided to promote his grandmother to the rank of Empress Dowager so that she could share the Tomb with Emperor Wanli. This is the reason that Emperor Wanli shares his tomb with two wives.

Please follow me to the two sketch maps of the Ming Tombs. This map gives us a panoramic view of the whole 13 Ming Tombs, while the other shows the Underground Palace of Emperor Wanli's Tomb.

Dingling means the Tomb of Certainty; it is Emperor Wanli's Tomb. The other Soul Towers reveal the location of the other tombs. The Gate of Dingling and the Soul Tower are shown on the sketch map. In front of the Soul Tower are two exhibition halls, one on each side. Underneath the Soul Tower is the 27-metre deep Underground Palace.

The Underground Palace is composed of five joint halls in the front, middle, back, left， and right, respectively. All are built from marble. After the completion of the Underground Palace, the emperor Wanli held a grand feast in it to celebrate its completion. Thirty-eight years later, Emperor Wanli died; he and two queens were buried together.

Dingling Tomb

Ding Ling is the tomb of Emperor Zhi Yijun (Emperor Wanli) with his two empresses. It is underground, about 27 meters deep. Emperor Wanli occupied the throne for 48 years, the longest period among the sixteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

With an area of 182,000 square meters, Dingling is the only tomb fully excavated. The entire tomb is made of stone. The Stone Bridge, Soul Tower, Baocheng, and the Underground Hall are the main features of its architecture.

The Soul Tower is the symbol of Ding Tomb, and it forms the entrance to the underground chambers. The yellow glazed tiles, archway, rafters, eaves, and columns were all sculptured from stone and colorfully painted.

The building is divided into three sections consisting of five halls: the front hall, the middle hall, the rear hall, and the left and right halls. The front hall is the entrance. The other four halls have a white marble coffin bed and floor made of gold bricks.

The coffins of Emperor Wanli and his two empresses are in the rear hall, which is the biggest part of the tomb. There are lots of precious items displayed in the coffins, especially the gold imperial crown, which is one of the rarest treasures in the world.

The Gate of Ling En means the Gate to Paradise. In the second courtyard of Emperor Yongle's Tomb, you'll find the Ling En Palace, which is the most imposing building in the mausoleum area. The palace stands on a 3.2 metres high, three-storeyed marble foundation, with white marble steps leading to the palace hall and surrounded by white marble balustrades.

The palace is 61 metres in width and 29 metres in depth, total area is 1956 square meters. 60 gold filigree Nanmu columns support the whole palace, which matches the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City for its grandeur. This Nanmu Palace is the largest among buildings of wooden structure that has stood for over 500 years of wind and rain without the slightest tilt or deformation.

In the 3rd courtyard is the inner red gate and the Soul Tower (Ming Lou), the Soul Tower is situated on the 10 metre high Baochen, which is a walled city. Behind Ming Lou is Baoding, which is a long-shaped structure over 1 Km in circumference. Under the center of Baoding is the Underground Palace where Zhu Di, the Emperor Yongle, was buried.

Zhu Di was the 3rd emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and he built this tomb when the capital was moved to Beijing. Emperor Yongle's Tomb is the largest, earliest, and best preserved among the 13 mausoleums.

Zhu Yijun, the emperor Ming Shenzong, built Dingling for himself. He ascended the throne at nine with the title Wanli and reigned for 48 years. He is the 13th emperor who reigned the longest in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yijun personally chose the site and was involved in the planning and construction of his mausoleum.

In 1584, the 21-year-old emperor Wanli decided on the site of Dingling and assembled thousands of workers, civilians, and troops to take part in its construction. The workforce on the construction site was more than 30,000 each day.

Normally, no emperor would build a tomb bigger than his ancestors'. However, the scale, materials used, and workmanship exceeded Yongling in many aspects. The construction of Emperor Wanli's Tomb took 56 years to complete. About 250 tons of silver were used in construction. This corresponded to two years of state revenue.

The Sacred Way

The Sacred Way is the main road to the thirteen mausoleums. In Chinese, Sacred Way means 'the Road Leading to Heaven'. There are 12 human figures, 24 animals (lion, camel, elephant, dragon, phoenix, and other powerful animals) standing on both sides of the road.

At the southern end of the mausoleum area is a large memorial archway called Pailou. Built in 1540, it is now a monumental construction, built of white marble with five arches. Six rectangular pillars support it with beautiful bas-relief carvings (lions, dragons, lotus flowers). It is 14 metres high and 28.86 metres wide.

One kilometre north of the archway is the main gate of the mausoleum, the main gate of the palace called the Great Red Gate. Two tablets used to be placed on both sides of the gate, which said: "Dignitaries, officials, and other persons arriving here must dismount from their horses."

The central entrance was reserved for the body of the dead emperor; the living emperor had to use the left entrance when he came to pay homage to his ancestors. One more kilometre north of the main gate of the palace is a stele pavilion, on the back of the stele marble resume of Zhu Di, the emperor of Chenzu of the Ming Dynasty, and on the upper front was engraved characters. "Stele of Divine Merit and Sacred Virtue, Changling, Great Ming". The stele is carried on a marble tortoise, which, according to Chinese Legend, is the Son of a Dragon, which the emperor called himself.

Around the Pavilion are four Ornamental Pillars built with the same mythical beast on the tops, which face either inward or outward, which means hoping the emperor would not cling to the palace or forget to return to the Palace to handle state affairs.

Going inward from the stele Pavilion is the 3.5 Km long Sacred Way, which means the road leading to Heaven. The emperor, known as the Son of Heaven, went through the sacred road to the sacrificial altar to converse with Heaven during his reign. Naturally, after his death, he would also go through the Sacred Way back to heaven.

Alongside theSacred Wayare 18 pairs of marble figures lined up in antithesis, these marble figures, sculptured from whole stones, were erected over 500 years ago, the traditional way of putting over marble figures as guard of honour in front of the mausoleum began in the Han Dynasty which signified the dignity of the emperor, symbolising the good fortune and warding off evil influence.

This Sacred Way starts with two hexagonal columns called Wang Zhu on either side, they are carved with a cloud design. Their tops are shaped like a rounded cylinder.

Following this are on each side are lions, xie zhi (a mythical beast of feline family, with a mane and a horn on its head), camels, elephants, Qilin (a kind of imaginary animal with a scaly body, a cow's tail, deer's hooves and, horns on its head), horses. All six animals have two kneeling, two standing, 12 animals on each side, and 24 animals in all. They were supposed to change guards at midnight.

A slight turn of the Sacred Way leads to the human statues. Even this slight turn conforms with the principle of Feng Shui (winds of heaven and the waters of earth). On each side stand two generals, two civil officials, and two "retired" government officials, 6 on each side, and 12 in all. They are larger-than-life-size human statues.

The avenue of stone animals and statues ends at Ling Xing Gate, better known as the Dragon and Phoenix Gate. The Sacred Way goes on beyond the Dragon and Phoenix Gate towards the chief tomb-Changling, Emperor Yongle's tomb.

Zhaoling Tomb

With an area of 35,000 square meters, Zhao Tomb consists of Ling'en Gate, Ling'en Hall, Fangcheng, Bright Tower, and Baoding. Emperor Longqing and his three empresses were buried there.

Architecture of the Ming Tombs

In the early 14th century, the Yuan dynasty ruled China. Being of Mongol heritage, these foreign rulers never enjoyed legitimacy in the eyes of the Confucian elite. By 1356, their dynasty was in disarray, seething with rebellion from a combination of natural and administrative calamities.

By 1359, they had lost the important southern city of Nanjing to an upstart rebel leader named Zhu Yuanzhang, a young man of peasant origins. In a series of swift campaigns, the rebels overran most of southern China and pressed at the gates of Beijing. By 1368, it too had fallen, and the rebel leader declared the founding of a new Chinese dynasty: the Ming, which in Chinese means "bright".

The Ming enjoyed the advantages of their native Chinese origin. The dynastic founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, adopted the reign name Hongwu and set about creating an efficient (if ruthless) administration that eventually incorporated all the modern provinces except Xinjiang. When he died in 1398, power passed to his grandson and successor, Zhu Jianwen (1399-1402).

Like his grandfather, Zhu Jianwen ruled from Nanjing, a prosperous trading city and capital of the Ming empire. As a southerner descended from southerners, Zhu Jianwen probably felt comfortable in Nanjing as he assumed power at age 21.

However, ruling from the south was inherently problematic. Although the military might of the Ming was concentrated along the northern frontier, the government was based in the south. Because of the difficulty communicating over long distances, the government reluctantly gave the northern generals the authority to act independently of Nanjing.

One of these generals, Zhu Di, was a direct descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming founder. He was an ambitious man, well aware of his royal ancestry. Taking advantage of his army's distance from Nanjing, he created an independent power base in the north and stirred up a rebel army. When the army was ready, he rose against his nephew, the Emperor, and plunged China into a civil war between north and south that lasted for five years.

Zhu Di marched south with his armies and captured Nanjing, unseating his rival. Instead of declaring Nanjing the capital, he decided to move north where he could directly oversee the frontier armies, thereby preventing the same sort of insurrection that had enabled his rise to power.

Soon, his advisers located an auspicious site in the northern plains, which would one day become Beijing. Up to a million laborers worked to create the new capital, finishing it in five years.

Zhu Di was very conscious of his mortality and greatly concerned himself with finding a proper and auspicious burial site. His father, the first Emperor, had set up an imperial tomb in Nanjing, but Zhu Di felt it was better if he and his successors were to be buried near the new capital.

The decision to move to a new tomb site was not taken lightly. The Emperor consulted masters of feng-shui, the Chinese discipline of geomancy, in search of a flat area in the midst of a ring of mountains.

An ideal site would have rivers flowing in the south and ample sunlight from that direction. There was much wrangling over the proper place, but the Emperor finally decided on a spot about forty kilometers northwest of Beijing. Here, in the shadow of a mountain called "Heavenly Longevity," he and his 12 successors were buried in imperial splendor.

Why were only 13 emperors buried in the Ming Tomb?

The Ming Tombs house the burial sites for 13 of the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Construction of the Tombs began under the third Emperor, Zhu Di. Why are only 13 of the 16 emperors buried here? Take a few minutes to read the fascinating story.

The first emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, who founded the Ming Dynasty, made Nanjing the capital, and as a result, he was buried in Nanjing after his death. The mausoleum of the first Ming Emperor and his empress is not as impressive as those located near Beijing. It is still worth a visit.

The second emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang's grandson, had no known mausoleum. He was overthrown by the third Emperor but later again tried to subvert his uncle, the Prince of Yan ( the fourth son of the first emperor).

He was met with strong counterattacks and was ousted, and no one knows the whereabouts of his remains. His uncle became the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty and moved the capital to Beijing.

The seventh emperor, Jingtai, was buried in the Hill of Gold, the western suburb of Beijing. Why was his mausoleum built on the Hill of Gold? This is the story.

When the Sixth Emperor, Yingzong, was in his 14th year of reign, Mongols from the north invaded the country. Yingzong personally led the expedition to conquer the Mongols. He was persuaded to lead the expedition by his palace advisors.

The advice was very ill-conceived from this group of eminent eunuchs who waged a very poor campaign against the Mongols' invasion. Unfortunately, Yinzong was captured by those Mongols in 1450, and his brother took over the throne.

Several years later, Yingzong was set free by the Mongols and managed to return to Beijing in 1457. When he returned, he found his throne had been seized by his brother. Coincidentally, his brother soon became very sick. Yingzong took advantage of his sickness and overthrew him and proclaimed himself the emperor.

His brother, Emperor Jingtai, subsequently died. Yingzong refused to honour him with an imperial burial. That is why Emperor Jingtai was only buried as a prince in the Hill of Gold.

Components of an Imperial Tomb

An imperial tomb (especially the Ming Tombs) is made up of 8 parts:

1. The tablets that require all to dismount from their horses

2. The Great Red Gate

3. The Stele Pavilion

4. The Sacred Way avenue of stone animals and statues

5. The Gate on the Threshold of Stars, also called the Gate of Dragon and Phoenix

6. The SoulTower. It is the essential part of the whole tomb. Usually, it is a double-roofed pavilion in which a marble tortoise is kept. On the back of the tortoise is an inscribed stele about the dead emperor.

7. The tumulus itself, which includes the Underground Palace where the dead emperor was kept.

8. The buildings where sacrifices were prepared and offered.

History of the Ming Tomb

Inscriptions on tortoise shells showed that the Chinese word for tombs had the same meaning as the word "nothing," which means burying underground and being void.

Confucius considered it necessary to earth up and build a tomb as a sign for the coming generations to pay tributes to their ancestors. Since then, tombs have been used for burial, with their sizes differing according to their rank of the dead. The tomb of the emperor was the largest and most sumptuous. It was a mausoleum.

Although Beijing has been the capital city for five dynasties, the tombs of the Ming emperors are the only ones in modern Beijing. The tombs of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) are in north eastern China, and those of the Qing emperors (1644-1911) are 125 Km away from Beijing. The Tombs of the Jin emperors were destroyed at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The tombs of the Yuan emperors didn't survive either.

Yuan emperors didn't have any mausoleums. The reason was quite simple: Yuan Emperors were all nomads from the Mongolian Steppe. They held the belief that they should return to earth after death, because earth was where they had come from. They simply placed the dead inside a hollowed Nanmu tree, which was then buried under the grassland. Soon, it would be difficult to find any traces of the tomb.

The Ming Emperors were Han Chinese who believed in the existence of an afterworld, where the dead would live a life similar to that of the living. Ming emperors had grand mausoleums built for themselves. The mausoleums had become a big building which has a square walled city called Baochen in the front and a precious top called Baoding in the back.

The Mausoleum area is composed of 13 tombs for the Ming emperors, each of which was built between a hill and a stream. The site was chosen with the greatest care, taking the feng shui (heavenly wind and earthly water) into account.

Before moving the capital to Beijing, Ming Chengzu, Zhu Di, sent people to Beijing to select proper site for mausoleum, they spent three years travelling around Beijing and through figuring out the intention of the emperor, considered that the small basin at the foot of Huang Tu Hill, 10 Km north of Changping Town, with an area of 40 square kilometre, was ideal site of geomantic omen.

Zhu Di himself inspected the site and found the place was broad in space, screened by hills, having deep, clear water, slow flows, and thick earth. In the north lies the Juyongguan Pass, and in the south is Changping City.

An army could be stationed here to guard the mausoleums and defend Beijing. The geomancers suggested that from a geomantic point of view, the site was rare and ideal. Zhu Di was satisfied and ordered the construction of the Mausoleum. He renamed Huang Tu Hill, the Hill of Heavenly Longevity.