Changling
Changling is the tomb for Emperor Yongle, the third Ming emperor, and his wife Empress Xu. He ruled for 22 years and made some achievements in political, military, economic, cultural and diplomatic fields.
   Changling is located at the foot of Tianshoushan (Heaven and Longevity) Mountain and is the first and the largest of the Ming tombs. The tomb was constructed in 1409 and completed in 1427. It took almost 18 years.
   In architectural design, it is square in the front and round in the rear, and is divided into three courtyards. The main buildings on the central axis are still standing.
     Ling'an Hall, or the Hall of Eminent Favour, is grand and magnificent.  It is 66.67 metres long from east to west and 19.31 metres wide from north to south. The 32 gigantic columns carved out of nanmu, a kind of cedar (this kind of nanmu can give off an unusual scent reputed to repel mosquitoes in summer), support the entire building.  The four columns in the middle are the biggest, 1.17 metres in diameter and 14.3 metres in height. Each is made of a whole trunk. This kind of valuable timber came from Southwest China. The succeeding emperors used the hall for offering sacrifices to their ancestors.
    According to historical records, 16 imperial concubines were buffed alive with the third Ming emperor, and the imperial concubines were permitted to be buried in the tomb of the emperor, various tomb grounds known as "pits" were built on either side of Changling. They were called pits because they were vertical shafts without horizontal tunnels.
    Human sacrifice was a common practice in the slave-owning society in feudal China. From the Qin and Han dynasties onwards, wooden or earthen human figures were used instead, like the ones in Dingling. The first Ming emperor restored the old system. Those buried alive were granted honorable titles and their family members were usually assigned official posts.
      This practice came to an end when the sixth Ming emperor made an edict in mid 15th century to abolish the system of human sacrifice.
      A bronze seated statue of Zhu Di, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was designed by Miao Xintian, a sculptor in Shanxi Province and manufactured by the Dalian Daqing Metal Company Ltd. , was placed in Changling Tomb. The statue is 2.75 metres tall, 2.18 metres wide, and the total height is 4.08
metres, weighing 5.6 tons. A ceremony for placing the statue was held in
Changling Tomb on September 18, 1999.