The tombs of Zhu Yuanzhang and Ma Huanghou, the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, are located in Nanjing, known as the Ming Tombs, with a history of more than 600 years.
Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum is located in Dulong House at the southern foot of Zijinshan Mountain in Xuanwu Gate, which is a treasure trove of geomantic omen. According to legend, only one person can thrive here.
(Stone statue of Ming tomb)
There is also a little story. In the Southern Liang Dynasty, there was a famous monk named Master Bao Zhi. He discovered the geomantic omen here before his death, so he was buried here after his death.
Zhu Yuanzhang discovered this treasure trove of geomantic omen, and heard that this treasure trove can only flourish for one person, so he moved the tomb of the Zen master.
In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered migrant workers to start building their own Ming tombs. In the second year of construction, Ma Huanghou died, so Ma Huanghou was buried in the Ming Tombs in advance.
Ma Huanghou is famous for his filial piety all his life, and pursues the principle of "ruling the world by filial piety", and is known as "filial queen and high filial piety". So the mausoleum was named "Xiao Ling".
The construction of the Ming Tombs used more than 654.38 million people, and it has been 25 years since it was officially completed in Yongle three years.
The Ming Mausoleum, with an area of 6.5438+0.7 million square meters, is also one of the largest mausoleums. Referring to the design of the underground palace of the Tang and Song emperors, the overall building is magnificent.
There are all kinds of pavilions in the Ming tombs. The whole mausoleum is strewn at random in Zhou Songbai, with evergreen seasons. On the whole, the cemetery is surrounded by mountains and waters and has a beautiful environment.
(Stone statue of Ming tomb)
When the cemetery was just built, thousands of sika deer were stocked, and a silver medal with the words "thief killed" was standing on each road. After the completion, in order to protect the cemetery, more than 10 thousand people were arranged to look after the cemetery.
10 years later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War burned to Nanjing, and the Ming Tombs were almost destroyed. During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan was ordered to repair the Ming tombs and the mausoleum of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Until today, after 600 years of war, the Ming Tombs have been well preserved without any damage, except for some wall paints peeling off, the walls slightly collapsing and small cracks appearing in some places. Of course, the treasures in the underground palace are also intact.
Then why did the Ming tombs survive for 600 years? 1, special anti-theft measures
The Ming Mausoleum itself was transformed from a solid stone mountain, which is the Dulong House mentioned above. In the past, stone tombs were built from top to bottom, and a deep cave was dug all the time, and then a mausoleum was built in this deep cave and then capped.
However, when the Ming Tomb was built, it was cut horizontally by the mountain, hollowed out internally to form a hanging palace, and then closed the horizontal pyramid-shaped mound. This kind of building is so strong that it is impossible to rob a tomb from it without explosives.
In such a horizontal cave design, the horizontal pyramid-shaped mound is the only passage leading to the mausoleum, and the position of this horizontal pyramid-shaped mound has been fully considered and deliberated. The entrance to the pyramid-shaped mound leans to one side rather than the middle. After entering this pyramid-shaped mound, the pyramid-shaped mound twists and turns like a maze, and there is no regularity at all, which also increases the difficulty of grave robbers.
The most important thing is where the entrance to the underground palace is and how it is sealed. This is a mystery. Grave robbers can't find the entrance at all, let alone rob the tomb.
(Ming tomb map)
Furthermore, the designer adopted the ancient anti-theft method of quicksand, that is, the cobblestone layer was artificially filled at the top of the tomb. Once shaken, pebbles will roll down and may bury the thief alive. This is also one of the measures to increase theft prevention.
It can be seen that the design of Ming tombs is perfect!
In order to prevent grave robbery, there is another puzzling thing: after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, on the day of the funeral, 13 funeral teams set out at the same time. The number and specifications of the 65,438+03 teams are the same. No one knows which coffin belongs to Zhu Yuanzhang except a few who know the inside story.