Emperor Archives Li Zhi: Reigned from 650 to 683, named Shan, the 9th son, with a weak and gentle temperament. Li Shimin came to the throne after his death from illness. He reigned for 34 years. He was generous and kind to friends, pacified Goryeo, and expanded his territory. The territory was the largest during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. Gaozong was weak and sickly, and he was a conservative king for a generation. After his death, he was buried in Qianling Mausoleum. The posthumous title of the Emperor, the Great Sage, Emperor Dahongxiao, and the temple name of Gaozong
The mystery of the location of Gaozong’s Qianling Mausoleum. There is such an interesting legend about the location of the Qianling Mausoleum: Not long after Tang Gaozong ascended the throne, he sent his own His uncle, Sun Wuji, and Taishi Ling Li Chunfeng, who was in charge of astronomy and calendar, chose the place for his mausoleum. One day, the two of them looked at Liangshan Mountain and saw three towering peaks of the mountain, with the main peak reaching into the sky. It faces Jiushan across Wushui in the east, and connects Loujing Mountain and Qishan with Qishui in the west. The two waters of black and lacquer meet and embrace each other in front of the mountain, forming a water wall that surrounds the dragon energy in the ground. Liangshan is a rare holy land with dragon veins in the world. After Changsun Wuji and Li Chunfeng selected the mausoleum site, they returned to Beijing to report to Emperor Gaozong. After Yuan Tiangang heard about it, he strongly opposed it. It turned out that he had visited Liangshan to select the site for Emperor Gaozu's mausoleum, and he was well aware of the pros and cons of the mountain's feng shui. He said to Gaozong: Liangshan looks like a geomantic treasure land from the outside, but there are many shortcomings if you look closely: First, although Liangshan is surrounded by water on the east and west sides, which can surround the dragon spirit, it is cut off from Taizong's dragon veins. If the people choose ancestral tombs, Three generations can prosper here, but as the site of the imperial mausoleum, the country may be in danger after three generations. The Dragon Vein of the Tang Dynasty branches off from the Kunlun Mountains and crosses the Yellow River, enters Guanzhong, starts with Qishan, and spreads eastward to Jiushan, Jinsu Mountain, Saga Mountain, and Yao Mountain. Today, Taizong has been buried in Jiu Mountain, which is the head of the dragon. Your Majesty cannot come from behind and take the lead. Moreover, Liangshan is not the head of the dragon, but the tail of the dragon vein of the Zhou Dynasty. The exhaust will surely decline, and your majesty will be unable to govern the country. Second, the north peak of Liangshan Mountain is the tallest. There are two peaks in front that look like female breasts. From a distance, the entire mountain shape looks like a young woman lying flat. Your Majesty chose this mausoleum, fearing that it will be controlled by women from now on. Third, the main peak of Liangshan Mountain is straight and beautiful, belonging to the wooden grid, while the second southern peak is round and sharp, belonging to the golden grid. Although the three peaks are tall and straight, they look flat from a distance and appear to be earthy. Metal can overcome wood, earth can generate metal, and the whole mountain-shaped dragon energy helps metal. Under the main peak of the underground palace camp, your majesty will be controlled by people with golden grid. In my humble opinion, if the mausoleum is located on this mountain, Your Majesty will be injured by a woman in the future! After listening to Yuan Tiangang's grand remarks, Emperor Gaozong withdrew from the court without further discussion. A close confidant had already told Mrs. Wu, who was very happy to hear it. She thought to herself: When she was a child, she heard from her father that Yuan Tiangang said that I would be the empress in the future, and it seems that it will come true. In the evening, Gaozong blew a pillow wind, which naturally praised Changsun Wuji and belittled Yuan Tiangang
At the morning of the next day, Gaozong issued an imperial edict and designated Liangshan Mountain as the site of the mausoleum. When Yuan Tiangang heard this, he looked up to the sky and sighed and said: The person who succeeded the Tang Dynasty must be Wu Zhaoyi. He was afraid that he would be implicated in the future, so he resigned from his post and went out to travel.
After the site for the mausoleum was selected, the officials argued endlessly about how to name it. Some ministers suggested that the mausoleum of Taizong should be named Zhaoling, which means to show the emperor's aura. His Majesty's mausoleum should be named Chengling to inherit Taizong's grace. Changsun Wuji reported: Liangshan is located in the northwest of Chang'an. In the Bagua, it belongs to the Qian position. Qian is Yang, Heaven and Emperor. Chang'an is the imperial capital of His Majesty in this life, and Liangshan is naturally the imperial capital of Heaven where His Majesty lives for ten thousand years. The world and heaven, heaven and earth are one, and the universe is in harmony. The Lord has determined that His Majesty will be the emperor forever. In my opinion, let’s name it Qianling! Emperor Gaozong was very happy to hear this and named it Qianling. How did Changsun Wuji know that what Yuan Tiangang said was that Liangshan was filled with gloomy air and could not be chosen as the site for the mausoleum. Now that it is named Qianling, isn’t it destined that a woman will be the emperor? All subsequent developments fulfilled Yuan Tiangang's prediction
Legends are just legends after all. According to literature records, after Gao Zong died in the first year of Hongdao, others strongly advocated setting up a mausoleum in Luoyang. However, Wu Zetian followed Gao Zong's last wish to return Chang'an and chose an auspicious site on the Weibei Plateau in Guanzhong. Wei Taizhen, the envoy of the mountain mausoleum and a doctor in the household department, served as a great craftsman and mobilized more than 200,000 soldiers and migrant workers. According to the burial system of using mountains as mausoleums, the main peak of Liangshan Mountain was used as a mausoleum and a cave was dug on the mountainside to build an underground palace. According to the biography of Chen Zi'ang in the New Book of Tang Dynasty: The restoration of the mountain tombs will require the help of servants. They will lead the masses of the enemy, raise tens of thousands of troops, mobilize them to Kinki, supervise and support the young and old, shovel the mountains and carry the rocks, and drive them to achieve success. After more than 300 days and nights of intensive construction, the main project was completed by the time of the burial in August of the first year of civilization. After Emperor Gaozong was buried, the construction of Qianling Mausoleum continued. 22 years later, Wu Zetian died of illness in the first year of Shenlong. There was a debate in the court over the burial of Wu Zetian. Zhongzong wanted to fulfill his mother's last wish of returning to the mausoleum, but minister Yan Shansi strongly opposed it. He said: The venerable ones should be buried first, and the humble ones should not touch the venerable ones and be buried later. The Queen Mother of Heaven was humbled by the Emperor. If they were buried together in the mausoleum now, she would be humiliating the respect and frighten the dragon's veins.
I heard that the gate of Xuanque of Qianling Mausoleum was blocked by stones, and the cracks in the stones were cast iron to solidify them. If the mausoleum is to be opened now, it must be chiseled. Mobilizing people and adding merit will cause more harm than good. Looking next to the Qianling Mausoleum, we chose an auspicious place and built a separate mausoleum, which not only served as a burial ceremony, but also consolidated our roots. If there is knowledge of the divine way, the secluded path should be understood. If there is ignorance, what is the use of joining together. The generous and kind Emperor Zhongzong did not accept this suggestion. In order to show his filial piety, he ordered people to dig the Qianling Tomb Road, open the tomb door, and buried Wu Zetian together in the Qianling Xuan Palace in May of the second year of Shenlong. Since then, Qianling Mausoleum has become the only mausoleum of ancient Chinese emperors that buries two emperors in one mausoleum. Empress Wu Zetian was buried together, and 17 people from the Zhongzong and Ruizong dynasties, including the second prince, the third king, the fourth princess, and the eighth minister, were buried together in the Qianling Mausoleum. Therefore, all the construction projects of the Qianling Mausoleum were not completed until the early days of Wu Zetian, Zhongzong and Ruizong dynasties, which lasted for 57 years.
When the Qianling Mausoleum was built, it was at the height of the Tang Dynasty and the national power was high. The mausoleum is large in scale and has majestic and magnificent architecture. It can be called the crown of all imperial mausoleums in the past dynasties. In the early Tang Dynasty, Taizong Li Shimin learned from the historical lesson that there is no immortal country from ancient times to the present, and no tomb has been dug. Starting from the Zhaoling Mausoleum he created, he created the burial system of using mountains as tombs. It was led by the famous art masters Yan Lide and The Yan Liben brothers presided over the design. The mausoleum is a combination of buildings and sculptures, and is arranged on the mountains with the appearance of dragons and phoenixes. The Qianling Mausoleum of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty developed and improved the shape of the Zhaoling Mausoleum. The mausoleum was built after the layout of Chang'an City, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and was divided into the imperial city, the palace city and the outer city. Its north-south main axis is 4.9 kilometers long. Documents record that the Qianling Mausoleum is eighty miles in circumference. It originally had a two-layered city wall and four gates in the inner city: Qinglong Gate in the east, Zhuque Gate in the south, White Tiger Gate in the west, and Xuanwu Gate in the north. According to the investigation by archaeologists, the inner city of the cemetery is approximately square, with the north and south walls each being 1,450 meters long, the east wall being 1,582 meters long, and the west wall being 1,438 meters long, with a total area of ??approximately 2.3 million square meters. There are many splendid buildings in the city such as Xiandian, side rooms, cloisters, towers, ancestral halls, lower palaces and other statues of 60 courtiers.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the ground buildings of Qianling Mausoleum were severely damaged. Tang Huiyao records that in the 14th year of Zhenyuan, 378 houses were built during the renovation of Qianling Mausoleum. Since then, after more than 1,300 years of vicissitudes, the majestic buildings on the ground of Qianling Mausoleum have disappeared. Only the more than 120 exquisite large-scale stone carvings arranged along the main axis on both sides of the Sima Road outside the Zhuque Gate in the inner city of the mausoleum have become the symbol of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The true portrayal of the vigorous development of society makes people feel the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty it embodies. Starting from the natural double peaks of the second southern peak of Liangshan Mountain, they are arranged symmetrically to the north. Standing at the top of the list is a pair of octagonal stone tables with a height of more than 8 meters. This is the symbol of the imperial mausoleum. Its shape expresses the concept of eternal life and the ancient ancestors' worship of human reproductive behavior. Next is a pair of magnificent round stone-carved winged horses with their heads held high and their chests held high. Their wings are carved with curling cloud patterns, as if they are about to take off. To the north of the winged horse is a pair of beautiful high-relief ostriches, which are a symbol of cultural exchanges and friendly exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and the people of the Western Regions. Next to the ostriches are five pairs of stone horses with drivers and ten pairs of stone wengzhongs about 4 meters high.