The mound in the middle of Baocheng is called Baoding, also called "Dulong House". It is twenty feet high and thirty-three feet in circumference. It is compacted with concrete (lime, sand and loess). It is said that some glutinous rice soup should be poured when tamping. If the boy is unlucky, the soup is not sticky, but it is hard when it is cold. The skin on the top of the treasure should be painted with white ash. Make it clean and firm, and it will not be infiltrated and washed by rain.
The underground palace is the "heart" part of Baoding underground mausoleum. Official books are not confidential to the imperial tombs and laws and regulations, except the underground palace, which is confidential. This leads to many strange legends and gossip. For example, a legend about this underground palace was collected in the Annals of Beiling published in1930s:
"According to legend, Baoding has a big hall called Appreciation Hall. There are two pavilions and sacrificial vessels. Behind the beech coffin in the main hall, there are two stone pillars on both sides of the beech coffin, which are suspended in space by iron, and there is a well named Jinjing under it. The so-called emperor used gold and was buried in the imperial palace. Take the dragon to the seaside. According to Emperor Xiuling, the underground works in Baoding were rammed by children, leaving a little trace, so that boys and girls all ran around the well, which is also obvious. People call it the emperor's difficulties for boys and girls, or the misunderstanding of children's ramming. It is also said that A Ring of Endless Light's setting will last for 10,000 years. " It is also said that "there are crossbows and arrows behind, to prevent diggers from coming."
There are still people in Shenyang who can tell these legends. Kishi Nobusuke just heard it from hearsay. History has proved that the bodies of Huang Taiji and Xiao Duanwen were cremated, and only the urn (Treasure Palace) was buried in the underground palace, but there was no coffin. The so-called "golden well" is not a "well" with endless water all the year round, but only the mark left by Mr. Feng Shui when he determined the acupoints in the underground palace. It's just a small pit less than ten centimeters deep.
The structure of Zhaoling underground palace will not be as huge and complicated as that of Qianlong underground palace, and there will not be too many funerary objects, because a large number of funerary objects have been burned after cremation. Of course, its interior decoration is not as luxurious as the Qianlong underground palace. The specific situation will be known after the excavation of Zhaoling underground palace. In addition, I do not know when, in order to imitate the ancestral grave-Yongling "Shenyu", Zhaoling Baoding also planted an elm tree and named it "Shenyu". Yongling is the ancestral tomb of the Qing royal family and was buried in Zhao. Xing, Jing and Xian are the four ancestors. There used to be an ancient elm tree on the top of this mausoleum, which was intertwined and grew strangely, and there were many legends about it among the people. Commonly known as the "sacred tree", Emperor Qianlong traveled eastward to worship the ancestral tomb, wrote down the imperial book "Ode to the sacred tree" and carved it on the stone tablet. This elm tree symbolizes Long Mai in Qing Dynasty. It is closely related to Feng Shui, and we attach great importance to it. It is said that General Shengjing will report to the emperor once a month about the protection of Shen Yu. It has also been said that whenever a new king ascended the throne, the "Oracle" of Yongling and Zhaoling will certainly issue new skills. In the late Qing Dynasty, the sacred elm in Yongling and the sacred elm in Zhaoling also showed signs of dying. These were hailed as miracles. This "Shen Yu" can still be seen in the photos of Zhaoling Baoding taken in the 1930s. Now the whole baoding has been covered with trees.