This person who climbed from the grassroots to the emperor's throne step by step not only had the "Five Peaks Alone" when he was alive, but even after he died, no tomb robbers dared to move his tomb. If it were not for the first time that the scientific research staff of the mainland archaeology community at the end of the last century explored the tomb of this person, I am afraid that this record will continue to be maintained.
And this person is the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum is named Xiaoling. The origin of the name Xiaoling is actually related to the folklore "Bigfoot Empress" Empress Ma.
Legend has it that because Empress Ma accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang in her early years in the southern expedition to the northern war, her body fell ill. In 1368 AD, when Zhu Yuanzhang declared himself emperor in Nanjing, Empress Ma's body had reached the point where it was difficult to return. If it were not for the good cultivation in the court later, I am afraid that Empress Ma would not have lasted hongwu for fifteen years.
After Empress Ma's death, Zhu Yuanzhang was very sad and discussed with a group of ministers what kind of title empress should be given. After consultation with the founding heroes of Tang He, Xu Da, and Hu Weiyong, empress Ma's title was determined to be "filial piety". After this title was confirmed, the mausoleum where Empress Ma was buried was also called Xiaoling.
Speaking of which, the reason why Xiaoling can be called Xiaoling is that there is a small story in the middle. It is said that after Empress Ma was buried that year, Zhu Yuanzhang was ready to name the mausoleum Xiaoling. Hu Weiyong, who was the prime minister, also opened his mouth to dissuade him, saying that this mausoleum would also be buried in the future, and if you named it after the empress's courtesy name, it would not be inappropriate in terms of etiquette. Who knew that Zhu Yuanzhang immediately blew his beard and narrowed his eyes, saying how good the relationship between himself and Empress Ma was, and there was no problem in naming his wife's nickname. Hu Weiyong also knew this, so he did not persuade again.
In this way, the name of Xiaoling was determined. The reason why we now call it "Ming Xiaoling" is only to facilitate a distinction with the "Qing Xiaoling" of the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1398 A.D., Zhu Yuanzhang, who had lived for seventy-one years, was also buried in Xiaoling. It was also from this time that Xiaoling began its long journey of not being stolen for more than 600 years.
In fact, the reason why Xiaoling has not been stolen and excavated by tomb thieves for more than 600 years is mainly because of the difference in the construction of Xiaoling.
Friends living in Nanjing know that the location of the Ming Tomb is at the southern foot of the Purple Mountain, not far from the current urban area of Nanjing. As a mausoleum built on a mountain, the geographical location of the Ming Tomb is doomed to make it impossible to be stolen and excavated like an ordinary imperial mausoleum.
According to historical records, before the Ming Tomb began to be built, Zhu Yuanzhang actually hesitated for a long time because of the location of the mausoleum. In the end, it was Liu Bowen who offered advice, and finally the address was determined to be south of the Purple Mountain. The location was determined, but how the mausoleum was built became a problem. If you talk about digging mountains, the manpower and material resources consumed are too much and too big. But if you don't dig the mountain, then the address will have to be re-selected.
Faced with this problem, Zhu Yuanzhang directly waved a big hand and directly summoned nearly 100,000 people to start the construction of the Xiaoling Tomb, which took up to 25 years.
After the completion of the palace building inside the mountain, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was dying of old age, ordered the construction of many ground buildings on the surface of the mountain, including the East and West Wu Temple, the Divine Palace, and the Tanglin Tomb. If it were not for the spread of war in the Nanjing area at the end of the Qing Dynasty, which caused most of the ground buildings of the Ming Tombs to be destroyed, we can still see those magnificent ancient buildings.
As we mentioned earlier, unlike the tombs built underground by other emperors, the Ming Tombs built in the mountains directly cut off the ideas of those tomb robbers from the geographical point of view, because the mountains are different from the land, and if you want to open a robbery hole, unless you directly explode.
And if the tomb robbers really dare to blow up, then Zhu Yuanzhang's other countermeasures can play a role. That is, the professional army of tomb guards with an establishment of 5,000 people- Xiaolingwei.
The existence of Xiaolingwei did not need to be questioned, even after the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, Xiaolingwei was stationed at the foot of the Purple Mountain. Moreover, in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of Xiaolingwei, Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants and grandchildren would specially allocate hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year to ensure the armament and training of Xiaolingwei.
Even if someone really came to dig up the Ming Tombs as tomb robbers, and the Ming Tomb Guards could not defeat the other side, they could send someone to run to the city of Nanjing not far away to call for reinforcements. As soon as the reinforcements arrived, no matter how powerful the tomb robber was, there was only one way to go that he had been hacked to death by a random knife.
There are strong and indestructible mountain stones in the ground, and there are formed armies on the ground to guard it, which tomb robber who does not have long eyes dares to fight the idea of Ming Xiaoling?
And even after the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rule of Jiangshan by the Qing Dynasty, the status of the Ming Tombs did not decline in the slightest. It should be known that even when the Kangxi Emperor, who was called "Emperor Shengzu" during the Qing Dynasty, passed through the Ming Tomb, he first went up the mountain after the "Nine Percussion Ceremony".
Although we don't have to think about why the Qing Emperor also respected Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum so much, but the mausoleum that the "Shengzu Emperor" respected so much, where would ordinary people and later emperors look down on it?
So, that's why the Ming Tombs have not been stolen and dug for more than six hundred years.
The Ming Tombs, which had never been stolen, kangxi saw the "Nine Percussion Ceremony", what was special about it?
Why did no one dare to steal Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Tomb for 600 years, but it was still well preserved?