At
the southern end of the mausoleum area is a large memorial archway called Pailou. Built in
1540, it is now a monumental construction, built of white marble with five arches. Six
rectangular pillars support it with beautiful bas-relief carvings (lions, dragons, lotus
flowers). It is 14 metres hith and 28.86 metres wide.
 One kilometre
north of the archway is the main gate of the mausoleum area-the main gate of the palace
called the Great Red Gate. two tablets used to be placed on both sides of the gate which
said: "Dignitaries, officials and other persons arriving here must dismount from
their horses."
The central
entrance was reserved for the body of the dead emperor alone, the living emperor had to
use the left entrance when he came to pay homage to their ancestors. One more kilometre
north of the main gate of the palace is a stele pavilion, on the back of the stele marble
was engraved resume of Zhu Di, the emperor of Chenzu of the Ming Dynasty and on the upper
front was engraved characters. "Stele of Divine Merit and Sacred Virtue, Changling,
Great Ming". The stele is carried on a marble tortoise, which, according to Chinese
Legend, is the Son of Dragon, which the emperor called himself.
Around the
Pavilion are four Ornamental Pillars built with the same mythical beast on the tops, which
face either inward or outward, which means hoping the emperor not to cling to the palace
or not to forget to return to the Palace to handle state affairs.
Going inward from
the stele Pavilion is the 3.5 Km long Sacred Way, which means the road leading to Heaven.
The emperor, known as the Son of Heaven went through the sacred road to the sacrificial
altar to converse Heaven during his reign, naturally, after his death, he would also go
through the Sacred Way back to heaven.
Alongside the
Sacred Way are 18 pairs of marble figures lined up in antithesis, these marble figures,
sculptured from whole stones, were erected over 500 years ago, the traditional way of
putting over marble figures as guard of honour in front of the mausoleum began in the Han
Dynasty which signified the dignity of the emperor, symbolising the good fortune and
warding off evil influence.
This Sacred Way
starts with two hexagonal columns called Wang Zhu on either side, they are carved with a
cloud design. Their tops are shaped like a rounded cylinder.
Then follow, one
on each side, lions, xie zhi (a mythical beast of feline family, with a mane and a horn on
its head), camels, elephants, Qilin (a kind of imaginary animal with a scaly body, a cow's
tail, deer's hooves and, horns on its head), horses. All these six animals are two
kneeling, two standing, 12 animals on each side and 24 animals in all. They were supposed
to change guards at midnight.
A slight turn of
the Sacred Way leads to the human statues. Even this slight turn is in conformity with the
principle of Feng Shui (winds of heaven and the waters of earth). On each side stand two
generals, two civil officials and two "retired" government officials, 6 on each
side, and 12 in all. They are larger-than-life-size human statues.
The avenue of
stone animals and statues ends at Ling Xing Gate, better known as the Dragon and Phoenix
Gate.
But the Sacred Way
goes on beyond the Dragon and Phoenix Gate towards the chief tomb-Changling, emperor
Yongle's tomb. |