Xiao Mausoleum

The Ming Xiaoling (Chinese: 明孝陵; pinyin: Míng Xiào Líng; lit. 'Filial mausoleum of Ming') is the mausoleum of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty. It lies at the southern foot of Purple Mountain, located east of the historical centre of Nanjing. The legend says that in order to prevent robbery of the tomb, 13 identical processions of funeral troops started from 13 city gates to obscure the real burying site.

The construction of the mausoleum began during the Hongwu Emperor's life in 1381 (645 years ago) (1381) and ended in 1405 (621 years ago) (1405), during the reign of his son the Yongle Emperor, with a huge expenditure of resources involving 100,000 labourers. The original wall of the mausoleum was more than 22.5 kilometres long. The mausoleum was built under heavy guard of 5,000 troops.

Da Jin Men and Sifangcheng. One enters the site through the monumental Great Golden Gates (Da Jin Men), and is soon faced by a giant stone tortoise (bixi), which resides in the Sifangcheng ("Square city") pavilion. The tortoise supports a carved stone stele, crowned by intertwining hornless dragons. The well-preserved stele is known as the "Shengong Shengde Stele" (神功圣德碑), i.e., literally, "The Stele of Godly Merit and Saintly Virtue". The inscription of the stele, extolling the merits and virtues of the Hongwu Emperor was written by his fourth son, the Yongle Emperor. The tortoise is 5.15 metres (16.9 ft) long, 2.54 metres (8 ft 4 in) wide and 2.8 metres (9 ft 2 in) tall, the stele stands 8.78 metres (28.8 ft) tall (including the tortoise) and is one of the best-known examples of its genre.

It is thought that originally the Yongle Emperor planned to install a much bigger stele here. The work on making it was started in the Yangshan Quarry (some 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of the mausoleum) in 1405, but the unfinished stele was abandoned in the quarry, as it was realized that it would not be possible to move it.

Unlike the similar pavilion at the Ming Tombs near Beijing, Nanjing's Sifangcheng roof was once destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion and left unbuilt until 2006. Recently, Chinese engineers have conducted research in regard to the possibility of restoring the roof, which was then eventually restored in between 2007-2009.

The Sacred Way is an 1,800-metre (5,900 ft)-long road at the Nanjing city Government site. The winding Sacred Way (Shendao) starts near the Sifangcheng pavilion. It includes several sections: the Elephant Road and the Wengzhong Road. The Elephant Road is lined by 12 pairs of 6 kinds of animals (lions, xiezhi, camels, elephants, qilin, and horses), guarding the tomb. Beyond them is a column called huabiao in Chinese. One then continues along the Wengzhong Road. Four pairs of ministers and generals (or warrior guardian figures, Wengzhong) of stone have been standing there for centuries to guard the journey to the afterlife.

The Lingxing Gate, a pailou at the end of the Wengzhong Road was destroyed long ago, but rebuilt in 2006.

One enters the central area of the mausoleum complex through the Wen Wu Fang Men (The Gate of the Civil and the Military). On an inscribed stone tablet outside of the gate an official notification of the local government in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) is ordered to protect the tomb. Inside the gate, there is the Tablet Hall (Bei Dian) in which five steles stand. The one in the middle, also mounted on a stone tortoise, is inscribed with four Chinese characters, "治隆唐宋", which were written by the Qing dynasty's Kangxi Emperor on his third inspection tour of the South in 1699. The text is interpreted as alluding to the greatness of the Ming dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang, matching (or surpassing) that of the founders of the Tang and Song Dynasties of old.