Ming Ancestral Mausoleum 明祖陵

About Ming Ancestral Mausoleum

The Ming Ancestral Mausoleum (明祖陵) is the tomb complex that the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) built for his forebears in Huaihe Town (淮河镇), Xuyi County (盱眙县), about 15 km from the county seat, with Hongze Lake (洪泽湖) to its east.

The Xuyi county government calls it the "First Mausoleum of the Ming" and describes it as the only underwater imperial tomb in China. It is a cenotaph for Zhu Yuanzhang's great-great-grandfather Zhu Bailiu (朱百六) and great-grandfather Zhu Sijiu (朱四九), whom he honoured as the Xuan and Heng emperors, and the real grave of Zhu Chuyi (朱初一), his grandfather, honoured as the Yu Emperor. Building began in 1385 and ended in 1413 under his son, the Yongle Emperor, who added the Lingxing Gate (棂星门) and the outer wall. The complex once had three walls and three Golden Water bridges.

In the summer and autumn of 1680 the Yellow River and the Huai rose together and drowned the city of Sizhou (泗州); the mausoleum, 13 li north of the city, went under Hongze Lake with it. In the drought of winter 1962 to spring 1963 a Jiangsu cultural relics survey team working along the lake's western shore found a long row of stone carvings, which experts then identified as the Ming ancestral tomb. Excavation began in 1976, a 2,700-metre embankment was built from 1978 to hold back the lake, and in 1980 state funds paid for the fallen statues to be set upright. Jiangsu listed the site as a provincial protected site in 1982; the State Council added it to the fourth batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in 1996, and it became an AAAA-rated scenic area in 2020.

The original sacrificial halls are gone. What remains are 21 pairs of spirit-way carvings, the site of the inner imperial city and the underground burial chamber. The spirit way opens with two pairs of qilin and six pairs of stone lions. When Hongze Lake fell to near its dead-water level in the drought of May 2011, the tomb's nine arches reappeared as an outline in the silt, and the site was flooded again to protect them.

What to look for

• The spirit way's 21 pairs of stone figures, opening with two pairs of qilin and six pairs of stone lions
• Huabiao (华表) stone columns in front of the tomb
• The site of the inner imperial city (内皇城遗址)
• Fragments of the original Golden Water Bridge (金水桥) kept in the site's exhibition hall
• The protective embankment, planted with more than 9,700 pines, cypresses, poplars and willows

Location & getting there

Getting to Ming Ancestral Mausoleum

• Search for 明祖陵 with 淮安市 and 盱眙县.