If foreigners come to learn Chinese in China, they may hear about that there are many mysterious mausoleums remained from the ancient times in China. At the junction of the Badaling Great Wall mountainous area and the plain, it lays thirteen mausoleums of the emperors in Ming Dynasty with curved lines. They are the so-called “Ming Tombs”.
All of the thirteen tombs have the same starting point, that is, the sacred route in the plain center. It starts from an ancient memorial archway with five doors, six columns and eleven floors. It is regarded as the largest stone architecture in China. Then, it comes 24 stone animals and 12 statues of Weng Zhong .
Since the 14th century, Ming Dynasty began to take Beijing as the capital. Among the 13 mausoleums, Changling is the largest which is the mausoleum of Yongle Emperor and Emperess Xu. Those who study Chinese in China should know is that the main architecture Lingen Hall is as large as Taihe Hall in the Imperial Palace, with a total area of 1956 square meters.
However, this hall has one aspect is more prominent than Taihe Hall. All of its columns, beams, purlins and rafters are built with a kind of wood named “nan mu”, including the 32 giant pillars in the hall. When you study Mandarin in China, you may be told that only the underground palace of Dingling among the thirteen mausoleums is explored.
Dingling is the mausoleum of Wanlu Emperor in Ming Dynasty and his two emperesses. However, most of the underground architecture no longer exists. The underground palace is about 27 meters from the ground with a total area of 1195 square meters. All of the five spacious palaces are stone structure without one beam or column.
In this underground palace, more than 3,000 pieces of funerary objects have been unearthed, including golden crowns, golden pots and other priceless relics. One thing that the learners who learn Chinese in China should know is that the arrangement and layout of the Ming Toms is a significant creation. Before that, the tombs were built separately. But the special arranging way of the Ming Tombs made it grander.
The Ming Tombs are made up of thirteen mausoleums of the emperors in Ming Dynasty. It is not only grand and spacious but also a significant creation of the tombs structure.