15 kilometers northwest of pucheng county seat in Weinan City, there is a magnificent Tangqiao Mausoleum, located on the rolling Fengshan Mountain. This is the mausoleum of Li Dan of Tang Ruizong, built during the "Kaiyuan Dynasty", representing the most prosperous strength of the Tang Dynasty. On January 13, 1988, Qiaoling was announced as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
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On the morning of August 15, 2021, my friend and I went to Pucheng County and went straight to the Qiaoling Scenic Area here. Affected by the epidemic, the scenic spot is not open to the public, and we cannot enter and visit. So, outside the wall on the east side of the scenic spot, I operated my own drone to take aerial photographs of the Shinto and mountain tombs of the bridge, and the stone carvings on the Shinto and the surrounding scenery were unobstructed.
After the drone rises, it first flies to the southern end of the Shinto and overlooks the whole bridge to the north. The Shinto here is about 625 meters long and 110 meters wide, and the atmosphere is magnificent and spectacular. From the dai at the southern end of the Shinto to the north, there are 38 tall stone carvings symmetrically distributed on both sides, including Huabiao, badger, ostrich, war horse, Weng Zhong, etc., which is known as the "open-air museum of Sheng Tang stone carving art".
The drone flew north along the top of the Shinto path towards the tall mountain peaks. At the end of the northern end of the Shinto, there is the symmetrical rammed earth Quetai ruins, and in the middle is the ruins of the Suzaku Gate (Minamijinmon Gate), flanked by an exquisite stone lion. On the north side of the Suzaku Gate, the core area of the Bridge Tomb, once stood important ceremonial buildings such as the Dedication Hall and the Sleeping Palace. Today, there are no obvious remains on the ground.
The drone flew past the Suzaku Gate and continued north to reach the bottom of the mountain. Here stands a stone stele written by Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, on which are engraved several large characters of "Tang Ruizong Bridge Mausoleum". Usually, tourists visit the bridge and end here; however, the unfinished tourists will climb along the back path to the top of the main peak of the bridge and overlook the magnificent landscape around them. It is said that on the hillside, you can also see the entrance to the underground palace.
Historically, Toyotomi was also known as "Jinzhi Mountain" and "Golden Millet Mountain". The mountain is 751 meters above sea level, and the three peaks in the west form a barrier, the lofty mountains in the north are undulating and winding, and the south is an endless plain, far away from the towering Qinling Mountains. In 1963, archaeologists on the mountainside of the eastern slope of the main peak, once carried out a test excavation of the tomb of the bridge mausoleum, the tomb road was filled with stone strips, the stone strips have numbers on them, arranged according to a thousand characters. It can be seen that the underground palace has not been opened, and the bridge tomb has not been stolen and excavated.
Li Dan (662-716) of Emperor Ruizong of Tang was the eighth son of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and the fourth son of Wu Zetian. Humble and studious, proficient in calligraphy, he was successively named King yin, king of Yu, king of Ji, and led luozhou pastor. In the first year of the reign of Si Sheng (684), after ascending the throne, Wu Zetian bowed to the government. After the establishment of Wu Zhou, he was demoted to imperial heir. In the first year of shenlong (705), Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian was restored to the throne, and Li Dan was made the Prince of An guoxiang.
In the first year of Jingyun (710), after Li Longji and Princess Taiping launched a coup d'état, Li Dan became emperor again. In the first year of Yanhe (712), Zen was the crown prince Li Longji, who proclaimed himself Emperor Taishang and also took charge of military affairs.
Tang Ruizong Li Dan ascended the throne twice, reigned for a total of eight years, and really held power for two years. In the fourth year of the new century (716), Li Dan died of illness at the age of 55, and was buried in Qiaoling tomb.