In July 2003, the 27th UNESCO World Heritage Conference held in Paris decided that the Ming Tombs in Beijing and Nanjing were officially listed in the World Heritage List. The Ming Tombs are the general name of the Ming Tombs after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing. They are located at the southern foot of Tianshou Mountain in the north of Changping District, Beijing, with a mausoleum area of more than 40 square kilometers. There are Tianshou Mountain in the north, Mangshan Mountain in the east, Dayu Mountain and Huyu Mountain in the west, Hanbaoshan Mountain, Changping Houshan Mountain, Longshan Mountain and Hushan Mountain in the south, Bijia Mountain in the northwest, Taishan Mountain in the southeast, Changshou Mountain in the southwest and surrounded by mountains. In the meantime, several streams flow from northwest to southeast, winding among them, making the mountains and rivers in the mausoleum area set each other off. The Ming Tombs lasted 235 years from the construction of Changling in the seventh year of Yongle (1409) to the first year of Shunzhi (1644). The tombs of thirteen emperors are as follows: 1. Changling is the main mausoleum of the Ming Tombs, located at the foot of Tianshou Mountain, where Judy, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was buried. Known as "Taizong Wen", the year number is Yongle. He reigned for 22 years and was buried with Queen Xu. Second, the fairy is located on the west side of Tianshou Mountain, and its place name is Huangshan Mountain, where Zhu Gaochi, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was buried. Emperor Hong Xidi, reigning at 1, was buried with Queen Zhang. 3. Jingling is located on the east side of Tianshou Mountain, with the place name of Heishan, where Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was buried. Xuanzong, named Xuande, reigned in 10 and was buried with Queen Sun Shi. Four, Yuling is in the northwest of Xianling, the place name is Shimen Mountain, and Yingzong Zhu Qizhen is buried here. Yingzong has two titles: Orthodox and Tianshun, ***22 years. Empress Qian and Zhou were buried together. 5. The mausoleum is located in the west of Yuling, and its place name is Jubaoshan, where Zhu Jianshen, the xian zong, was buried. Xian zong was sealed into Chenghua and reigned for 23 years. Empress Wang, Ji and Shao were buried together. Six, Tailing is in the northwest of Maoling, the place name is Shijiashan (also known as Bijiashan), and Wang is buried here. Filial piety, Hongzhi, 18 reigned and was buried with Queen Zhang. Seven, Kangling in the southwest of Tailing, the place name Jinling Mountain (also known as Lotus Mountain), was buried in Zhu Houzhao. In the year of Wu Zongnian, he was in office 16 and was buried with Empress Xia. Eight, Yongling is located in the southeast of Jingling, formerly known as Eighteen Mausoleums, and later renamed Yang Cuiling, where Sejong Zhu Hou was buried. Sejong was named Jiajing and reigned for 45 years. Empresses Chen, Fang and Du were buried together. Nine, Zhaoling is in the southwest of Changling, the place name is Dayu Mountain, and Mu Zong Zhu Zaiyu is buried. Qin Long's Mu Zong reigned for six years. Empresses Li, Chen and Li were buried together. Ten, Dingling is located in the northeast of Zhaoling, the place name is Dayu Mountain, and the God of Zhu Yijun is buried. Wanli of the first year of Shintoism reigned for 48 years. Empress Wang and Wang were buried together. Eleven, Qing tomb in the northwest of xianling, the place name Huang Erling, was buried with Guangzong Zhu Changluo. Guangzong was made too common. He was emperor for only 1 month, and his empresses Guo, Wang and Liu were buried together. Twelve, Deling is located in the east of Yongling, the place name is Tanziyu, and the first emperor Zhu Youxiao was buried. Emperor Xizong reigned for 7 years in the year of the Apocalypse and was buried with Empress Zhang. Thirteen, Si Ling is in the southwest of Zhaoling, and the place name is Jinping Mountain, where Si Zong Zhu Youjian is buried. Chongzhen, the first year of four cases, 17. Siling was originally the tomb of his imperial concubine Tian. After the Qing army entered the customs, it was converted into the tomb of the emperor, and Empress Zhou and Tian Guifei were buried together. Feudal dynasties in China attached great importance to cemetery architecture, and the Ming Dynasty was no exception. Before Cheng Zu moved to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, he began to build a royal cemetery. To build a mausoleum, of course, we must choose a treasure trove of geomantic omen. In the sixth year of Yongle (1408), Zhao, the minister of rites, was sent to hire Liao, a well-known feng shui descendant from Jiangxi at that time, to go to Peiping to choose tombs. First, they visited the Xishan area in Beiping. Because Xiangshan Mountain and Tanzhe Temple in Xishan Mountain are famous places of geomantic omen, the emperors of Jin Dynasty and many dignitaries of Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties were also buried here. However, their exploration found that the Xishan area did not have an ideal place that met the requirements of Jiangxi school of geomantic omen, either with incomplete shape or too small scale. So, they turned their eyes to the north and looked for it in the mountains north of Peiping. Finally, they found and determined that Huangtu Mountain in the northeast of Changping County (Changping County was under the rule of the old county in Changping District in Ming Dynasty) was the best place to build tombs. In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), Judy moved to Beiping. He personally inspected the mountain auspicious soil selected by Zhao, Liao and others and expressed great satisfaction. However, he thought Huang Tushan's name was indecent, so he changed his name to Tianshou Mountain. In the same year, acupuncture was officially implemented. In the 11th year of Yongle (14 13), Xuangong was completed and named Changling. Changling is located in the center of the Ming Tombs, and it is also the largest imperial tomb. Each mausoleum in the Ming Tombs contains three building modules: Shinto, Mausoleum Palace and Gong Xuan. Shinto is the leading part of the mausoleum building. Except for the four tombs, all the tombs in the Ming Tombs have Shinto. The Shinto building in Changling is the largest, with a total length of 7.3 kilometers. Other Shinto buildings are directly or indirectly separated by the Shinto of Changling, so this Shinto is also the general Shinto of the Ming Tombs. On the deep and winding Shinto of Changling, there are stone archway, Ma Xia monument, Zhaochengmen (Dahongmen) tomb, Shen Gong Shengde Monument Pavilion, Stone Statue Shou, Lingxingmen and other buildings from south to north, which have been well preserved so far. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shengde Monument Pavilion, Zhaocheng Gate (Dahongmen) and Longfeng Gate of the Mausoleum were also repaired. When people visit the Ming Tombs, the first thing they see is the stone archway standing outside Changling. The whole archway is on the 1 1 floor, with five doors and six columns, symmetrical structure and elegant appearance. It is 28.86 meters wide, and the highest archway in the middle is 14 meters high. The archway is made of pure white marble, with lifelike unicorns and lions carved above the pillars, and soft and elegant moiré carved on the forehead. Zhao Chengmen (Dahongmen) of the mausoleum is the main entrance of the mausoleum. The gate is divided into three holes, and a stone tablet next to it is engraved with eight big characters: "I will dismount here." The left and right sides of the gate are connected by a fence about 40 kilometers long, enclosing the whole cemetery. Today, most of these walls have collapsed, and only some broken walls can be seen. Entering Dahongmen, the road to Changling is Shinto. The first building on Shinto Road is the Shen Gong Shengde Monument Pavilion. The pavilion is square, with red walls and yellow tiles and thick walls with double eaves. There is a tall stone tablet in the pavilion with more than 3500 words on it. There are four white marble watches outside the pavilion, which were called "Optimus Prime" by the Ming Dynasty. The column is engraved with Yunlong, and the top animal crouches, facing north and south. The head facing north is called "Wang" and the head facing south is called "Wang". North across the pavilion, followed by 18 pairs of stone man and beast. Shi Min can be divided into three types: distinguished ministers, civil servants and military attaché s, and six pairs of * * *, indicating that the emperor should dominate everything as before. Stone beasts are lion, lion, elephant, unicorn, horse, *** 12 pairs in turn. Lions and horses guard the mausoleum. Camels, elephants, unicorns and horses are all mounts. There is also a white marble archway in the north of the stone statue group, called Lingxingmen, also called Longfeng Gate. The archway is a three-door and six-column building with a fireball in the middle of each door, so it is also called the "flame archway". There are two stone bridges behind the stone archway, one with seven holes and the other with five holes. The terrain here is low, and the streams in the cemetery meet here to cross the bridge. Standing on the bridge, you can see the rippling Ming Tombs Reservoir built by 1958. Walk across the stone bridge and you can enter the gate of the Long Mausoleum. The mausoleum of Changling has three courtyards. The first building in the courtyard used to be the mausoleum gate, the sacred library, the sacred kitchen and the pavilion. There are three holes in Lingmen, with yellow glazed tiles on the top and a wall on the left. The monument in the pavilion was originally blank. When the Ming Tombs were rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, this monument was used to engrave the seal of the emperor shunzhi and the poems of Emperor Qianlong. The vault and the chef no longer exist. Second, into the courtyard, there are pleasure halls, temples, sacred silk stoves and other buildings. Enjoy the temple is also called the temple of grace. Well, it means to sacrifice the grave to give thanks and blessings. The temple is huge and magnificent, with a total area of 65,438+0,956 square meters. It is the largest palace among the existing ancient buildings in China, second only to the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. Its outstanding feature is that the wood used is extremely precious, and the columns, beams, purlins, rafters and eaves are all nanmu. In particular, the 60 nanmu columns supporting the main hall are rare in the world, and the four largest ones in the middle are1.17m in diameter. At that time, it took five or six years for each huge piece of wood to be cut down and transported into the cemetery, which shows its high cost and difficult engineering. The main buildings entering the Third Hospital are Baocheng and Minglou. The lower wall is square, so it is also called Fangcheng. The tomb surrounded by city walls is Baoding. Changling is like a hill. According to Minghui Hall, its diameter is 10 1 foot 8, which is nearly 340 meters, and it is more than two miles to walk around it. You can climb the Ming building from the passage below Baocheng. Ming buildings are also square, with doors open on all sides and stone tablets standing inside. Most of the Ming-style buildings in the Ming Tombs have been preserved, because they are masonry structures and built on the treasure city, which is very strong. Gong Xuan is Judy's burial place, located under Baoding. Because it is buried deep underground, it can't be excavated, and the literature records are very brief. So far, people don't know the secret. Fortunately, in 1956 and 1957, the department of cultural relics and archaeology excavated the Xuan Palace of Dingling in the Ming Tombs, and then found out the general structure of the Xuan Palace in the Ming Tombs: this Xuan Palace consists of five halls: front, back, left, middle and right. The front hall, also known as the past hall, has no furnishings; There are emperors, queens and sacrificial vessels in the middle hall; There is an official bed in the left hall and the right hall; The back hall is the main room, and in the middle is the official bed for the emperor and the back coffin. Each hall is connected by a tunnel and separated by a stone door made of a whole piece of white marble. The total area of Xuangong is 1 195 square meters, the highest point of the back hall is 9.5 meters, and the highest points of other halls are also above 7 meters. The gold and silver utensils, jade, porcelain and silk unearthed in the Xuan Palace are very precious. The architectural pattern of other 12 mausoleums is similar to that of Changling Mausoleum, and they all contain three building modules: Shinto, Mausoleum Palace and Gong Xuan. Except for the four tombs, each mausoleum is connected with the Shinto of Changling, just like a big tree. Changling is the trunk, and each mausoleum is a branch. Master and slave are completely different, closely related and independent, forming a spectacular cemetery system. In addition, the mausoleum and the mountains and rivers set each other off, with running water in front, sand mountains on the wings and dragons on the back. The two are integrated with each other to form a sacred, eternal, noble, solemn, solemn and energetic commemorative atmosphere. In short, as Li Xianghai, an official of the United Nations Heritage Committee and an expert of the International Council of Monuments and Sites, said after the investigation and evaluation, the Ming Tombs are a model of royal tombs in China and an excellent model of ancient architecture in China. The Ming Tombs have elegant natural environment, large scale, complete system, outstanding overall architecture and unique style. Tombs have always been integrated into a perfect and harmonious whole, breaking through the pattern that tombs in the Tang and Song Dynasties did not pay attention to unity and integration, and developed into a brand-new mausoleum building. It is a masterpiece of China architectural art in China in the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, and it is the highest representative of mausoleum planning and construction. Its architectural style and modeling influenced the following hundreds of years.