World Cultural Heritage: Mausoleum of the Ming and Qing Emperor (6)

Eastern Qing Tombs

The Eastern Qing Tombs is located in the foot southern Mount Changrui, which is the part Yanshan Mountain in northeastern Hebei Province, and enjoys favorable natural conditions. From when the Xiaoling Tomb was established in 1661, the first imperial mausoleum where Emperor Shunzhi was buried, to the Putuoyu Dingdongling Tomb in 1908 where the Empress Cixi rests, it took 247 years to complete the 15 tombs of the Eastern Qing Tombs. With the Qing Dynasty becoming weak and declining, the construction of the Eastern Qing Tombs also underwent the same development process.

According to traditional Feng Shui theory in China, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty selected their grave sites on beautiful landscapes to achieve the image that man is an integral part of nature. The Eastern Qing Tombs is the best embodiment of this idea. The mountain in the east tombs looks like a coiled dragon facing to the west and the mountain in the west looks like a white tiger facing to the east. Mount Changrui looks like a green protective screen while Mount Jinxing looks like an overturned bell facing to the south. The Yingbi Mountain looks mellow and full, lying between Mount Changrui and Mount Jinxing. The Xiangshan Mountain and Yandun Mountain confront each other, lying across the south of the imperial mausoleums, guarding the mountain mouth. The Malan River and the Xida River flow cheerfully and the layout surrounded by mountains looks vast and broad. The natural landscapes surround and bow to the imperial mausoleums. It is really an unusual place.

The 15 tombs in the Eastern Qing Tombs are designed and arranged in accordance with traditional concept and order. The Xiaoling Tomb where Emperor Shunzhi rests is located on the central axis linking southern Mount Jinxing and northern Mount Changrui, which is a supreme place. The other tombs are arranged on both sides of the Xiaoling Tomb according to their positions in the family hierarchy, with the left being the Jingling Tomb of the Emperor Kangxi and then the Huiling Tomb of Emperor Tongzhi while the right being the Yuling Tomb of Emperor Qianlong and then the Dingling Tomb of Emperor Xianfeng. The layout emphasizes the moral principles of respecting the elderly. Meanwhile, the tombs where the empresses and imperial concubines rest were established beside the contemporary emperors, showing their principal and subordinate relationships. In addition, the divine roads to the empresses' tombs are connected with that of the contemporary emperors' tombs and that of the emperors' tombs are connected with that of the Xiaoling Tomb, forming a huge branching system. The relationships between them are obvious, expressing their dream of hoping their country to thrive and prosper forever.

The tombs in the Eastern Qing Tombs are strictly arranged following the principle of "the mausoleums matching the surrounding mountains and rivers." In this regard, the Xiaoling Tomb of the Emperor Shunzhi can be called a model.

With Mount Jinxing as the front mountain, Mount Yingbi as the screening mountain, and Mount Changrui as the back mountain, the Xiaoling Tomb is located at the intersection of the three mountains. As the distance between Mount Jinxing and Mount Changrui is over eight kilometers, the designers specially devised a six-kilometer-long divine road which is exclusive to the coffins and memorial tablets to highlight the two mountains and form an imposing manner. Dozens of buildings from the memorial stone archway which is the landmark to the entrance of the top of the mausoleums are linked together and divided into three sections according to the shapes of the mountain. The first section is from the memorial stone archway to the screen mountain which is around 1.5 kilometers long. The section has a large memorial stone archway and a towering stone tablet pavilion, which is a square pavilion with stone tablets singing the praises of the emperors, matching the straight Mount Jinxing and flat screening mountain. The second section is from the screening mountain to the Five-arched Bridge which is around 3.5 kilometers long. The section has stone human and beast statues, the Dragon-Phoenix Gate which is composed of three stone carved Pailous and four colored glaze walls, and flat and low buildings including the One-arched Bridge, Seven-arched Bridge and Five-arched Bridge, coordinated together with the surrounding flat topography. The third is from the Five-arched Bridge to the top of the mountain which is about one kilometer long.

The section has the main ceremonial buildings including a tablet pavilion which is a square pavilion with stone tablets engraved with the empresses' posthumous titles, the Long'en Gate which is the front door of the mausoleums, the Long'en Hall where grand sacrificial activities were held, the fortress-like square shape tower built by laying bricks, the Minglou Tower built on the square shape tower with erected tombstones and a hung horizontal inscribed board, the top of the mausoleums and the walls surrounding the top. These buildings become higher and higher from south to north, following the landscape of Mount Changrui and the hills on either side of the imperial mausoleums. These buildings were designed and arranged in accordance with the Feng Shui theory, and their size, height, distance and density designed based on certain scale. The natural landscapes are also included in the scenery of the mausoleums to be as setoffs, achieving special artistic effects and giving people a good visual impression and a strong artistic feeling of "tall but not precipitous, low but not humble, scattered but not hollow, dense but not suffocative" and "moving in the static."