Dingling Tomb

Dingling is the tomb of Ming emperor Zhu Yijun, and his two empresses were buried together with him in Dingling. Zhu Yijun was the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty whose reign title is Wanli. He was born in 1563, and died in 1620 at the age of 58. He was chosen as the Crown Prince at age of 6, and at the age of 10 he came to the throne. He ruled China for 48 years, from 1573 to 1620.

Dingling was built in 1584 when emperor Zhu Yijun was only 22 years old. The construction took 6 years and was completed in 1590. In 1644, Dingling was ransacked and damaged  by Li zicheng’s uprising army, as well as the early Qing troops. During the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong restored the tomb. But in 1914 the tomb was burnt down again. That’s why today we can only see the marble terrace of the Gate of Eminent Favor and the Hall of Eminent Favor.

Emperor Zhu Yijun died in 1620, and then he was buried together with his tow wives, Empress Xiao Duan and Empress Xiao Jing. The first wife, Xiao Duan, had no son and she died in 1620, only a few months before the emperor’s death, Before the burial ceremony was done, Emperor Zhu Yijun died. The second wife, Xiao Jing, was originally a palace maid for Emperor Zhu Yijun’s mother. After she gave birth to a son for the empeor in 1582, she was promoted as an imperial concubine. She died in 1612, eight years earlier than the emperor. But beijing an imperial concubine at that time, she was buried in a nearby tomb for imperial concubines. In 1620, Emperor Zhu Yijun died, and then her son came to the throne. But unfortunately, her son died only 29 days after his enthronement. So her grandson succeeded the throne and became the 15th Emperor of the Ming dynasty. He grant to his grandmother the title of Empress Dowager and ordered to move her conffin from the imperial conc ubine’s tomb into the same tomb with his deceased grandfather Zhu Yijun in Dingling.

Dingling is the only tomb that was excavated among the thirteen tombs of the Ming dynasty so far. The excavation work of Dingling started in May 1956, and was completed in 1958. In 1956, an archaeological team came to Dingling for the excavation work. Some decayed bricks at the southwest side of the surrounding wall outside the Soul Tower offered a very important clue for the tomb’s excavation work. From there they found the traces of words on the wall, “the gate of leading tunnel” showing that there had been an archway. According to this very important clue, the archeological workers began to dig the first exploration trench from this point. Two month later, a brick-wall tunnel appeared which ran zigzag to the back of the mound. This tunnel was considered as the secon d tunnel. Later, at the end of the second tunnel, a stone tablet was un covered as the second tunnel. Later at the end of the second tnnel, a stone tablet was uncovered with an inscription on it ” from this stone 160 feet further and 35 feet deep to the Diamond Wall”. Then they dug up the third tunnel and finally found the Diamond Hall, the entrance to the Underground Palace.

The Under ground palace is 27 meters deep with 5 chambers inside. The five chambers are: the ante chamber, the central chamber, the rear chamber and two annex chambers.

Diamod Wall

The diamond wall actually is the sealing wall to the Underground tomb. It means that the wall is very hard and solid, and it is as hard as a diamond to keep it from decaying.

Front Chamber

In front of the chamber, there is a white marble door. The door slab is made of a whole piece of white marble, 3.3 meters high, 1.7 meters wide, and 4 tons in weight. In order to make the heavy door easy to open and close, people made the door slab 40 centimeters thick at the hinges, but tapers off toward the middle, which is only 20 centimeters in thickness. What they did was based on a mechanical principle to reduce the pressure on the pivots. It was in this way that such a heavy door could be opened easily. A bronze crossbeam, 10 tons in weight, was installed on the gate, just to ensure that the two heavy doors would stand there steadily.

Self-Acting Stone

The “Self-Acting Stone” is a stone slab leaning against the marble door from inside. In front of the marble door there is a square hole for putting the lower end of the stone slab, while the upper end of the stone slab was leaning against the back of the door, so the marble door could not be opened from the outside. There is a line of words written on the stone slab in the front chamber, which reads: The self-acting stones of seven gates in the Underground palace are not tested yet.” That’s why we cal the stone slab “self-acting stone”.

Middle Chamber

There are three marble thrones placed in the middle chamber for emperor Wanli and his two empresses. The two marble thrones in the front were for the two wives and the rear one was for the emperor. We identify the thrones according to the carving. The two thrones carved with phoenix design on the back of the throne, and a phoenix head carved on the arms of the throne were for the two empresses. The rear one with the carving of dragon design on the back, and the dragonhead on the arms was for the emperor. A set of five glazed pottery altarpieces is placed in each marble throne. The blue-and-white porcelain jar is called the Ever Lasting Lamp. Before people left the undergound tomb, they lit up the Ever Lasting Lamp, but the light went out naturally after the oxygen ran out.

Rear Chamber

In the rear chamber people can see a coffin-platform located in the center with three coffins placed on it. The coffin in the middle is the coffin of Emperor Wanli. The other two coffins on each side are for his two wives. There are also 26 wooden boxes, containing the precious funeral objects placed on the coffin-platform. Surround each coffin, there are some large pieces of uncut jade stone, because the ancient people believed that jade could preserve the body and prevent it from decaying. In the center of the coffin-platform there is a square hole, which is called Gold-Well. Originally the Gold-Wall should be filled with yellow clay just to show the sacred connection between the coffin and the earth. This kind of burial is called Gold Well and Jade Burial which was considered the highest burial in ancient China. The coffins and boxes we see today are all reproductions, the original ones have already decayed.

The Left and Right Annex Chamber

The two annex chambers are the same in size and in pattern. Each chamber has coffin-platform with a Gold-Well in the middle but with no coffin in it. Why the two annex chambers are empty is like this:

Firstly, Emperor Zhu Yijun and his two wives were buried at the same time, so the newly enthroned emperor would have to bear the heavy burden of the funeral ceremonies for the three important persons, and then the burial was done hurriedly.

Secondly, it was almost the end of the Ming dynasty. The national situation was unstable and shaky. So the emperor didn’t want to stay away from the imperial palace for long, then the burial was done in a hurry.

Thirdly, it was the rainy season because the emperor died in July. It was very hard for people to prevent the raining water from going down into the underground tomb, so people just opened the front passage. They found that there were two doorways to the annex chamber from the middle chamber, so they wanted to put the two empersses’ coffins through the doorways in the center chamber, . But unfortunately, the doorways to the annex chambers were too narrow to pass for the coffins, and then they had to leave the three coffins and the 26 wooden boxes in the rear chamber. That is the reason why the three coffins are all in the rear chamber, leaving the annex chambers empty.

 

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Author: AmoyTrip.com--Dingling Tomb
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