Anyone familiar with the history of the Song Dynasty knows a legend about Zhao Kuangyin's mausoleum: Zhao Kuangyin wanted to move the capital to Luoyang very much, but was stopped by his younger brother Zhao Guangyi and his ministers, and he was very sad. He returned to Kaifeng from Luoyang and passed through Gongyi to pay homage to his father buried here, which made him even more sad. So, he boarded the platform, facing the west, and wanted to bow. His officials said, "I can't live in Xijing, but I will be buried here when I die!" "With a bow and an arrow, the whistling arrow flies to the northwest, and the place where the arrow falls is Yongchang Mausoleum in Zhao Kuangyin, Song Taizu today.
Along with this legend, many court magicians of Yin and Yang families also found many reasons to be buried here, describing Gongyi as the best place in the world. Different from the site selection of emperors' tombs in previous dynasties, the concept of geomantic omen in emperors' tombs in the Northern Song Dynasty is indeed deformed and peculiar. The Book of Repairing and Quarrying in Yongding Mausoleum summarizes the geomantic basis of Song Ling's site selection. It means: Gongxian is a place where wind and rain meet and yin and yang meet, and the center of heaven and earth has always been the place where emperors live. The dangerous peak of Songshan Mountain is the central pillar of heaven and earth. At the top of the underground palace in Song Ling, such a map was drawn.
Sun Xianzhou, a cultural relic expert who has been engaged in Song Ling research for a long time, said: The site selection of the Imperial Tomb in the Northern Song Dynasty is based on the theories of "five-star interests, surnames", "attractive terrain" and "mountains and rivers". The location of the mausoleum and the use of the terrain have two characteristics. First, it is different from the tombs of emperors in past dynasties. These tombs are either condescending or facing the mountains and rivers. On the contrary, Song Ling faces Songshan and backs to the Luoshui River. The emperor's central axis of the mausoleum area and the mausoleum is a few seconds. The natural terrain of each mausoleum is high in the south and low in the north, with the east dome hanging down in the west. The mausoleum platform is at the lowest place, which is contrary to the tradition that the base sites of ancient buildings in China are gradually increasing and the main buildings are placed in the highest position.
The ground has restored the most complete tomb of Renzong Zhao Zhenyong. The reporter walked into the first mountain gate known as Quetai and found that it was different from the habits of worshippers in tombs of past dynasties. This first mountain gate is the highest point of the whole mausoleum, with steps down, followed by the second mountain gate like a platform, and then the third mountain gate South Shenmen, until the lowest point of the mausoleum, which is Song Renzong's mausoleum.
The abnormal practice of Feng Shui concept in the Northern Song Dynasty completely subverted China's traditional architectural concept and was called "the only isolated case" in the history of world architecture by ancient architectural experts.
Different points in Hou Di
"Why is Queen Liu's tomb not next to her husband's?" One kilometer away from the northwest corner of Yongding Mausoleum in Zhenzong, Zhao Heng, is the tomb of his queen Liu E. What puzzles the reporter is that this queen, who had been listening to politics for a while during the reign of Zhenzong Renzong, was not buried with her husband. Sun Xianzhou explained: This is also the difference between the organizational system of Song Ling and the tombs of past dynasties.
One of its characteristics is that empresses adopt shallow burial system, all of which are buried outside the imperial tomb and not in the same cave as the emperor. The queen's organizational system is similar to that of the mausoleum, but on a smaller scale. Other concubines are buried behind the mausoleum.
It's not only the difference between the emperor and the queen, but also the practice of building a tomb as soon as the emperor acceded to the throne. The emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty did not build a tomb before his death, but he had to be buried within seven months after his death. According to historical records, the burial of the Emperor in the Northern Song Dynasty was carried out according to the "Zhou Li", that is, the site selection, mausoleum building and burial were completed within seven months from the date of Emperor Yan's death. From the funeral period to the tomb management in the later period, there are specialized institutions, both permanent and temporary. For example, the Permanent Taichang Temple is an institution specially set up by the Central Committee of the Song Dynasty, which is responsible for ceremonies, ancestral halls, gifts, tombs and other affairs. There are also special institutions during the state funeral, such as the "five ambassadors" formed at the funeral, which have very high specifications.
In the vast history of the Song Dynasty, in Yongding Mausoleum, Song Zhenzong, because of the usurpation of power by "five envoys", that is, the eunuch Lei Yungong moved to court, a great event occurred that alarmed the ruling and opposition parties at that time. After Song Zhenzong's death, Queen Liu presided over the funeral of Zhenzong and appointed his trusted eunuch Lei Yungong as the supervisor of Shanling. When she was in charge of the construction of Yongding Mausoleum, Lei Yungong made a decisive decision, abandoned the old cave and excavated the Forbidden City a hundred paces above the original site. As a result, gravel and quicksand appeared under the new cave, and later water was dug. The project was forced to stop. As a result, Lei Yungong was clubbed to death in Gongxian prison, the prime minister of Shanling in Song Dynasty was demoted, and Empress Liu also lost face.