The Ming Ancestors Mausoleum () is the first imperial mausoleum complex of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, and a cenotaph located north of the former Sizhou City, Yangjiadun, in present-day Xuyi County, Huaian City, by

Hongze Lake Hongze Lake or Lake Hungtse () is the fourth largest freshwater lake in China, in Jiangsu Province, China and is encompassed by the prefecture-level cities Suqian (Sihong County and Siyang County) and Huai'an (Xuyi County and Hongze County). La ...

, north of

Huai River The Huai River (), Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It was built by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, in 1385, for his great-great-grandfather (posthumously styled Emperor Xuan), great-grandfather (posthumously styled Emperor Heng) and grandfather (posthumously styled Emperor Yu). It is also the actual burial site of Zhu Chuyi, Zhu Yuanzhang's grandfather. In 1680 during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

changed its course and merged with the

. The quickly accumulated river sediment blocked the flow of the Huai, creating the large

, which submerged the mausoleum complex, along with the nearby city of Sizhou.Eric N. Danielson,
The Ming Ancestor Tomb
". ''CHINA HERITAGE QUARTERLY'', No. 16, December 2008. Not until the dry season of 1966 (or, according to other sources, 1963 or 1964) did the mausoleum surface. It was initially excavated in 1976. In 1980, State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture allocated funds to repair it. The original Xiang Hall and Pei Hall had been destroyed and had no remains. They surfaced because of drought in May 2011. In front of the mausoleum there are several gravestones and ornamental columns which are preserved. Today, the total area of the mausoleum is 351,000 square meters. It contains over 9700 trees, including pines, cypresses, poplars and willows on the banks. An arch bridge and five exhibition rooms have been newly built. The region of Yangze river and Huai river has been affected by serious drought since May 2011, making the water level of Hongze Lake decline almost to the dead water level. The nine arches of the Ming Ancestors Mausoleum, beams under the arches, and most of the top of the paved path leading to the mausoleum are buried deep under the silt in the pond, only showing an outline. In order to protect the cultural relics after being unearthed, the site was submerged.

See also

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Further reading