3.5
The East Royal Tombs of the Qing Dynasty
In traditional Chinese architecture, the making of routes and progressions for ritual purposes was especially elaborate, for the society was rigidly hierarchical and devoted to Confucian concepts of respect for parents and ancestors. In addition, the philosophy of Daoism engendered a great respect for the forces of nature and the way they were considered to manifest themselves in the landscape as flows of energy, qi.1 It is, therefore, hardly surprising that some of the most impressive spatial progressions in China are found at royal tombs. As the emperor, as Son of Heaven, was supposedly able to intercede with natural forces, these are also places where the landscape is most visibly engaged, and the practice of feng-shui is most carefully observed.2 The East Royal Tombs of the Qing Dynasty at Zunhua, Hebei Province, north east of Beijing, are relatively late, the earliest dating from 1661,3 but they follow the same general pattern as earlier tombs and have the advantage of being well preserved, and their relationship with the surrounding landscape is still relatively unspoiled. The enormous sacred precinct, of around 2,500 km2, includes five separate tombs for emperors and yet more for queens and concubines.4 Embedded side by side in a range of rising hills at the north end of the site, just in front of the remains of the (by then) long disused Great Wall,5 they are approached by a single sacred way nearly 10 km long, along which a sequence of monuments unfolds (see plans Figures 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 and photo sequence Figures 3.5.3 to 3.5.15). The modern visitor is free to wander, with little sense of the once forbidden and protected nature of the huge site.
The starting point is a broad paifang or ceremonial gate (Figure 3.5.3), with five arches hierarchically heightened towards the centre, largely symbolic roofs carved with imitation tiles and elaborate applied decoration. It is no physical barrier, but it does mark the beginning and centre line of the route towards the tombs, leading north towards the main gate. In China, all ceremonial building complexes were laid out on a more or less south–north axis, including the Forbidden City, for the emperor was regarded as connected with the sun, and his throne had to face south. This resulted in axial progressions for all official architecture, but, unlike Western baroque layouts, the axis was not left open. It had to be closed to the south, often with a screen wall set opposite the entrance. So, south of the paifang, seen axially as one returns (see p. 156), is a lone pointed hill, a propitious gift in feng-shui terms, and the main reason for the choice of site.6
Figure 3.5.1 General plan of the eastern tomb complex, entered centre bottom and leading to several tombs set in the foot of the mountains at the top, showing the roads, monuments and outer wall; north is top (redrawn after a version in the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo)
Walking north, one soon reaches the three-arched and roofed main gate in the boundary wall (Figure 3.5.4 and plan above). This was not fully the edge, for there were three notional boundary layers beyond it, designated with regular coloured stakes in red, white and blue, showing, respectively, the fire buffer zone, the 60-m limit of hunting, and the 5-km limit for fires and mining.7 This is typical of how, in parallel with its obsessive axiality, Chinese architecture stressed progressive enclosure. The main gate is a hip-roofed building,8 built in masonry rendered in royal red, but with doors studded with ceremonial ‘nails’ of royal number,9 and a tiled roof carrying on its hip ends the customary array of protective mythical beasts. The central arch was heightened for passage by the emperor, his route marked on the ground by a raised central path of smooth stone paving, along which he could walk or be carried.10 The gate afforded shelter to guards and a temporary rest for visitors, and just within was a changing pavilion, where honoured visitors could adopt more appropriate attire. The reigning emperor also changed dress between different parts of his ritual visit.
Figure 3.5.2 Detailed plan of the first tomb in the series, that of Emperor Shunzhi, from the triple bridge at the bottom through the sequence of courts to the tomb embedded in the hill at the top (redrawn after a version in Chinese archives).
Figure 3.5.3 First paifang, a purely ceremonial, freestanding gate set axially between the holy mountain and the main gate, which can just be seen through the central arch
Source: Photograph by Peter Blundell Jones
Figure 3.5.4 Main gate set in the wall that enclosed the whole complex. The merit pavilion beyond can just be seen through the half-open middle gate
Source: Photograph by Peter Blundell Jones
Figure 3.5.5 Merit pavilion, a square building containing a sculpture of a tortoise with a stele on its back recording the virtues of the emperor
Source: Photograph by Peter Blundell Jones
From the main gate, the next monument is visible on axis about 500 m away (Figure 3.5.5). It is a small square tower, with a double-eaved roof, hipped below, half gable above, doubly symmetrical, with an archway facing each cardinal direction, and standing at the centre of a larger square defined by four stone pylons. It has more protective animals on its ridge and corners and increased decoration of the upper wall. This is a so-called merit pavilion, containing in its raised ground floor the figure of a tortoise, a holy animal in Chinese mythology,11 with an inscribed stone stele erected on its back enumerating the merits of the first Qing emperor, Shunzhi. The tortoise’s head faces back towards the site entrance, its body blocking direct progression. Visitors circumvent it to regain the axis, and then proceed straight until another natural feature intervenes (Figure 3.5.1). This is a low hill lying between entrance and tomb, an earthly organ to be respected, and so the route veers westward to circumvent it, and then swings back on to axis (Figure 3.5.6), all the time broad, horizontal and centred on the emperor’s stripe of raised paving. Distant mountains become clearer, and a long, straight walk opens with paired stone pylons, followed by a sequence of stone figures on each side, first animals, then soldiers and courtiers, as if on parade. There are eighteen pairs, twice the imperial number nine.
Ten minutes’ walk brings one to an inner paifang (Figure 3.5.7), the dragon and phoenix gate. It is smaller and more delicate, with three arches this time, the middle again larger than the sides. The gateways are real, and one is obliged to pass through, for there are walls between and to the sides, but no closable doors and no roofs over the openings. Roofs instead sit on intermediate walls treated with the centralised tiling patterns normal for a screen wall.12 It serves as an intermediate gate, after which progress is less formal. The ground drops and curves left and right to cross a ceremonial bridge of seven arches, skewed away from the axis but almost in line. Water nurtures life and brings qi, and is also one of the five elements or phases in Daoism. The good feng-shui site has protective mountains to the north and is open to the south, and a river should pass in front.
Figure 3.5.6 (top) After the merit pavilion, the route curves to avoid a low hill, and then returns to the axis, now lined with a parade of sculpted figures
Source: Photograph by Peter Blundell Jones
Figure 3.5.7 (bottom) The parade terminates at an inner paifang, another ceremonial gate. The mountain range in which the tombs are embedded can be seen behind
Source: Photograph by Peter Blundell Jones
Departing from the bridge, the way runs on, contiguous in its paving with the emperor’s central reservation, but curving with the contours and dividing off at various junctions to approach later tombs. It crosses another bridge over a second small stream, this time with
