The Ming Tombs 明十三陵（DVD）Ming shi san ling / English - Chinese Language Options (2009)

The Ming Tombs 明十三陵（DVD）Ming shi san ling / English - Chinese Language Options (2009)

(This DVD will not play on most DVD players sold in the US or Canada [Region 1]. This item requires a region specific or multi-region DVD player and compatible TV.)

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Description

Less 50 km away from Badaling, a section of the Great Wall in Beijing, there is a royal graveyard where 13 Chinese emperors, 23 empresses and several dozen imperial concubines are buried. The graveyard was once larger than the capital of the feudal empire the city of Beijing. All buildings there follow the style of royal palaces. Each tomb, with huge walls and wonderful palaces, appear more similar to emperors' villas than tombs. This is where the famous Ming Tombs are located. The Ming Tombs is still ranked as the largest imperial burial site in the world.

明十三陵》讲述了在距离中国北京八达岭长城不到百里的地方，有一片皇家墓地，葬着13位中国皇帝、23位皇后以及数十名殉葬皇妃。它的占地甚至大大超过了当时那个封建王朝的都城北京城，陵园的建筑全疗仿皇宫建造，每一座陵墓都建造高大的城墙和金碧辉煌的宫殿，它气势非凡，仿佛不是陵墓，而是皇帝的一个行宫，这就是举世闻名的明十三陵。同时，也是世界上占地面积*大的皇家陵园。

01 The Ming Tombs 明十三陵概貌
02 The Sacred Way 神道
03 The Ding Ling Tomb 定陵

About The Ming Tombs

The Ming tombs are a collection of mausoleums built by the emperors of the Ming dynasty of China. The first Ming emperor's tomb is located near his capital Nanjing. However, the majority of the Ming tombs are located in a cluster near Beijing and collectively known as the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty (Chinese: 明十三陵; pinyin: Míng Shísān Líng; literally: 'Ming Thirteen Mausoleums'). They are within the suburban Changping District of Beijing Municipality, 42 kilometres (26 mi) north-northwest of Beijing city center. The site, on the southern slope of Tianshou Mountain (originally Huangtu Mountain), was chosen based on the principles of feng shui by the third Ming emperor, the Yongle Emperor. After the construction of the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) in 1420, the Yongle Emperor selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum. The subsequent emperors placed their tombs in the same valley.

From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming dynasty emperors were buried in the same area. The Xiaoling tomb of the first Ming emperor, the Hongwu Emperor, is located near his capital Nanjing; the second emperor, the Jianwen Emperor, was overthrown by the Yongle Emperor and disappeared, without a known tomb. The "temporary" emperor, the Jingtai Emperor, was also not buried here, as the Tianshun Emperor had denied him an imperial burial; instead, the Jingtai Emperor was buried west of Beijing.^[1] The last Ming emperor buried at the location was the Chongzhen Emperor, who committed suicide by hanging (on 25 April 1644). He was buried in his concubine Consort Tian's tomb, which was later declared as an imperial mausoleum Si Ling by the emperor of the short-lived Shun dynasty, Li Zicheng, with a much smaller scale compared to the other imperial mausoleums built for Ming emperors.

During the Ming dynasty the tombs were off limits to commoners, but in 1644 Li Zicheng's army ransacked and set many of the tombs on fire before advancing and capturing Beijing in April of that year.

In 1725, the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing dynasty bestowed the hereditary title of Marquis on a descendant of the Ming dynasty imperial family, Zhu Zhiliang, who received a salary from the Qing government and whose duty was to perform rituals at the Ming tombs, and was also inducted the Han Plain White Banner in the Eight Banners. Later the Qianlong Emperor bestowed the title Marquis of Extended Grace posthumously on Zhu Zhuliang in 1750, and the title passed on through twelve generations of Ming descendants until the end of the Qing dynasty.

Presently, the Ming Tombs are designated as one of the components of the World Heritage Site, the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which also includes a number of other locations near Beijing and in Nanjing, Hebei, Hubei, Liaoning province.