Travel in China---QianLing Mausoleum
Today, when I looked into the dictionary, I saw an interesting explanation of “Empress”. It is said that the meaning of “Empress” was quite clear in Asian countries, like Japan and China. They have totally different expressions of “female emperor” and “the wife of an emperor”. However, in English, “Empress” has the both meanings of them. In order to distinguish the differences, suffixes were added to this word. Therefore, “empress regnant” meaning a female who crowned to be an emperor; and “empress consort” indicated to the wife of an emperor.
“Female Emperor”, this reminds me of the most famous female in Chinese history. Some of you may know that man is quite superior to woman in ancient China. Basically, it wasn’t possible for women to be an emperor at that period. However, Wu Zetian was such a female aggressive enough to break the rule. She was a very intelligent woman and became quite powerful after she helped her husband--Emperor Gao Zong---govern the court as he was not in good health. When she was almost 60 years old, her husband, Emperor Gao Zong，died. She then dethroned her own sons, and claimed herself the emperor at the age of 66. She changed the Tang Dynasty into the Zhou Dynasty and so became the only female emperor in Chinese history. This extraordinary lady died at the age of 82 and was buried in Qianling Mausoleum with her husband.
This was a famous, unique, and also mysterious mausoleum.
It is famous because it was the only mausoleum in China in which two emperors were buried together.
It is unique because one of these two emperors was the only female emperor in Chinese history.
It is mysterious because, although 1000 years old, this mausoleum had never been robbed or excavated.
Although it was so far that maybe most of you can never visit it yourself, you can still enjoy some unique parts of this place of historical interest with the pictures and my introductionsJ.
The holy way--- This will lead people up to the tomb. There are stone statues lining both sides of the holy way---a pair of cloud pillars, a pair of flying horses, a pair of ostriches, ten pairs of guarding generals with helmets and swords, and a pair of stone lions. They were built to protect the emperor’s tomb.
Two stone tablets---The one on the west side is the seven-joint tablet. It was built in memory of Emperor Gao Zong. He was the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty and was entitled Gao Zong. He ruled the Tang Dynasty for 34 years. However, because of his poor health, the power gradually fell into Wu Zetian’s hands.
There were 8000 words on the tablet to praise the great achievements of Emperor Gao Zong. And it was built by seven parts: the top part symbolized the sun and the bottom part symbolized the moon. The middle five parts symbolized five elements because the ancient Chinese believed that the universe was made of the five elements: metal, wood, water, earth and fire. The seven parts together symbolized that the great achievements of Emperor Gao Zong would last forever in this universe.
On the east, there’s another stone tablet without any words. This wordless tablet was built for the Emperor Wu Zetian (the famous lady I have introduced before). It was interesting that she set up a tablet praising her husband but a wordless tablet for herself. Some one said that she wanted people of later generations to give her a judge and fair appraisal. Others said it was because she was the first female emperor and she thought her accomplishments were immeasurable and beyond words. And also some one said this tablet was built by his son, and he didn’t know how to comment his mother. So it kept wordless. No one knows which is the correct reason, and how do you think about this?
Beyond the two tablets there are 61 stone sculptures standing in two groups. According to the historical record, after the Tang Emperor Gao Zong died, empress WuZetian invited more than 61 official leaders from the ethnic groups and other countries to take part in Gao Zong’s funeral. And these stone sculptures were made in order to commemorate this event. Originally, on the back of each sculpture, they were carved with its nationality, official position and name. Unfortunately, after many years, most of them have disappeared, but the nationalities of the officers can still be discerned from their uniforms.
Besides the Qian Ling mausoleum, there are also 17 satellite tombs, e.g.: the tomb of Princess Yong Tai. She was a grand daughter of Empress Wu Zetian. According to the unwritten story, after Wu Zetian claimed herself the Emperor, she had many kept men. But this young lady, Princess Yong Tai, had criticized about this. So she was bitten to death by her grandma at the age of 17. The archaeologists discovered many frescos in these satellite tombs which have vividly reflect the social life at that time.
The QianLing Mausoleum was on the top of LiangShan Mountain, about 80 kilometers northwest of the Xi’an City (the capital of Shaan’xi province) which was the capital of 13 Dynasties in ancient China; So many emperors’ mausoleums were found here. If you are interested in Chinese history, this will be a good place for travel~ Any other place worth traveling around you? Welcome to share with us~J