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Maoling Mausoleum
The Maoling Mausoleum
was the tomb of Emperor Wudi in the Western Han Dynasty, who had ruled
the country up to 74 years. It is grand in scale, and it is the largest
mausoleum among all the royal mausoleum of the Western Han Dynasty.
Emperor WuDi
Emperor WuDi, named Liu Che, was the son of Emperor Jingdi. He was recognized
as an Emperor of great achievement that can parallel Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
He ascended the throne at 16 and in the year 112 B.C, he revoked the titles
of 106 seigniors for he had realized the malpractice of eupatrid and established
the Imperial College to train qualified officials and talents to strengthen
feudal centralization. Meanwhile he also advocated statism in the fields
of finance and commerce. For example, he announced that only the coins
minted by the central government could be in circulation; metallurgy and
salt processing were also forbidden among the people. Business run by
the government enjoyed an exclusive right and the government imposed heavy
property tax on industrialists and businessmen to enhance the income of
the court. The Western Han dynasty became unprecedented rich and powerful,
centralization strengthened and its feudal economy flourished. Emperor
Han Wudi launched battles against the barbarian invaders on the northern
border. In 138 B.C., He appointed Zhang Qian - Chinese ambassador- extraordinary
to journey westward into Central Asia and opened the historic Silk Road
and established the first cross-cultural exchanges between East and West.
All of which have revealed that he was not only a stateman but also of
great talent. The establishment of an official conservatory "Yuefu"
and actualization of Dong Zhongru's proposal had a far-reaching influence
afterwards.
During the 54 years of his reign, he greatly expanded the territory. As
an emperor with great achievements in Chinese history, he governed the
nation smoothly and reinforced his power. In the second year of his reign,
Emperor Wudi began to build the Maoling Mausoleum, which took 53 years
to finish.
Architecture
Maoling Mausoleum is situated in the Mao Village of Huaili County, about
40 kilometers away from Xi'an City. It was entitled the name of "Chinese
Pyramid" for not only its large size but also the richest burial
contents stored, in addition to the longest building time of 53 years.
On the whole, it is generally in a square-shape and consists of the inner
and outer city as many tombs do. To be specific, the rampart is 431meters
long from east to west, and 415meters from south to north. The wall base
is 5.8meters wide; the gates are situated in the middle of the four walls.
The cover tumulus is 46.5meters high, 231meters long from the east to
the west, and 234meters long from south to north.
Treasures
In accordance with the historical data, the funerary objects were quite
abundant, including gold and silver, birds and beasts, cattle, horse,
leopard and such kind. There were in all up to 290 kinds of animals in
the tomb. Some female servers were put in as well. In addition, the jade
box, jade crutch presented by the Emperor Tang Qu and a gold box filled
with 30 volumes of classics that Emperor WuDi had read were buried together.
When Emperor WuDi was buried, the funerary objects had already crammed
the roomage of the coffin chamber, leaving no room for any other things.
Many satellite tombs of the emperor's concubines, maids-in-waiting, officers
and imperial relatives disperse around the Maoling Mausoleum. Also a large
number of cultural relics were found here, like the fancy black jade knocker-holder
with patters of animals, the steel rhinoceros wine vessel with pattern
of clouds, and things like that. In 1981, more than 230 pieces of cultural
relics were found in the eastern satellite tombs, such as the gold-plating
copper horse, gold-plated and silver-plated bamboo smoke stoves and copper
warming stoves. They are all rare art treasures. In order to show all
the unearthed cultural relics found in the mausoleum to the public, there
established the Maoling Mausoleum Museum that worth visiting for travelers. |
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