Chongling engineering site. Chongling is the mausoleum of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Longyu, and construction began in the first year of Xuantong (1909) and was completed in the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915). Today we look at the construction site of Chongling through a set of old photos. It is the only emperor's mausoleum in Chinese history where the construction process is recorded by camera lenses.
Chongling Minglou construction site. On November 14, 1908, the Guangxu Emperor died; the next day, Empress Dowager Cixi died. When Cixi died, her mausoleum (Bodhidharma Yuding Dongling) had been completed, so the Feng'an Ceremony was held in 1909. However, when the Guangxu Emperor died, his mausoleum had not yet been built. At the end of 1908, Puyi's small imperial court hastily chose to build the Chongling Tomb in the Jinlongyu Valley of the Qing Dynasty.
Chongling Ming Building after completion. At the beginning of 1909, the construction of Chongling began, and Belle Zaixun served as the minister of repairs. Since then, the area of Jinlongyu within a radius of 5 miles has shown a scene of great enthusiasm. During the most tense period of the project, more than 20 manufacturers and more than 6,000 people were working at the same time. In order to maintain order, the military and police patrolled day and night.
Chongling Longen Hall. In the tombs of the previous emperors of the Qing Dynasty, the scale of chongling is not large, there is no large monument pavilion, stone statues and other buildings, decorative carvings are not luxurious, but its materials are extremely exquisite. For example, the wood of Longen Temple is an extremely precious copper algae iron algae wood, which has a hard texture, high density, heavy color, beautiful wood heart pattern, thick and elegant, and strong antioxidant ability. Therefore, the wooden longen hall is known as the "copper beam iron pillar".
Chongling engineering site. The process of chongling construction can be described as ups and downs. Work is stopped every year because the weather is too hot or too cold. The craftsmen also caused two incidents and stopped work twice because of the poor treatment, forcing the management to improve the construction conditions and increase the wages of the craftsmen.
Chongling Stone Arch. The biggest crisis in the construction of Chongling came from the demise of the Qing Dynasty. In 1912, when Puyi abdicated, he agreed with the Provisional Government of the Republic of China on preferential conditions, the fifth of which said: "If the unfinished project of the Dezong Chongling Tomb is completed, if it is made and repaired, its ceremony will remain as the old system, and all actual expenses will be spent by the Republic of China." "However, as soon as the republic of China government was established, it could not come up with money at all, and the construction of the mausoleum was stopped for more than a year."
On the east side of Chongling, the project is nearing completion. In the spring of 1913, Yuan Shikai, the president of the State, sent Premier Zhao Bingjun to consult with Shao Ying, minister of the Qing Dynasty, and others to take a part of the money allocated to the Qing Dynasty and restart the chongling project. The funds for the underground palace, Boseong and other projects were resolved through repeated consultations between the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China government.
The main building of the Chongling Underground Palace. After the death of the Guangxu Emperor, the Zi Palace was moved to the main hall of the LiangZhuang Palace in the Qing Dynasty Tombs. In 1913, the Chongling Underground Palace was built first, and on December 13, the Zi Palace was enshrined here, and Empress Longyu, who died of illness in the same year, was also buried at the same time. In 1915, the mausoleum was completed at a total cost of about 5.51 million taels of silver.
500 meters east of Chongling, the concubine garden sleeps. Concubine Chongling is buried with Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen. Princess Zhen was killed by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1900 and was hastily buried in the palace cemetery, and moved to chongling concubine garden in December 1913. Princess Jin died on September 24, 1924, and was buried as a noble concubine of The Duankang Emperor.
Liang Dingfen, the former Qing Sanpinjingtang alternate, planted trees in Chongling. Liang Dingfen was loyal to the Guangxu Emperor, and repeatedly went to Liang Gezhuang to prostrate himself to the Zi Palace, "sleeping next to the sleeping hall and looking at the drooling". Due to financial difficulties, no trees were planted in Chongling and looked bare. Liang Dingfen was anxious about this, ran around to change the fortune, raised tens of thousands of silver, purchased more than 40,000 pine, cypress, maple, poplar and other trees, and greened Chongling. After his death in 1919, he was buried on a hill to the right of Chongling.