| Most Chinese ancient emperors' mausoleums lie in Middle China and North China, Ruins of Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums, which locates in Zan'gon Village, Southeast of Shaoxing, 18 kilometers away from downtown, is the single large-scale imperial mausoleum in the South of the Yangtze River.In the South Song Dynasty's history, there had been totally 9 emperors from Song Gaozong, who founded the dynasty, to the last emperor Bing, who committed suicide into the sea. Six of them were buried in Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums, whose reigning period lasted for 148 years, while the whole South Song Dynasty' s history had just took a period of 153 year. Hence, the history of the masters of the Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums was almost the entire chequered history of the South Song Dynasty.The site selection and construction of Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums fundamentally follows the North Song Dynasty's tomb system, fully embodying the influence of ancient idea of feng - shui. However, due to the low burial characteristics of Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums, there are quite a lot of differences on various respects of tomb system from the North Song Dynasty's.In the period between the end of Song and beginning of Yuan Dynasty, Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums suffered many times of large-scale plunders. It had been gradually razed to the ground, without any ground constructions, which become a tea field, although maintenances and mending had continued in the past history. In the recent years, lots of ancient pine trees have been dead or nearly withered. As the result of this grieving matter, the protection and develop on the mausoleum are imperative. Besides, the tranquil and solemn atmosphere and the pretty environment of the Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums will absolutely bring a promising prospect for the tourism development. This paper has made discussions and research in separated chapters according to the historical evolution on the above-mentioned contents. Meanwhile, some necessary introductions on the emperors and empresses buried in the Songliuling Imperial Mausoleums were made in the paper as well, for the mausoleum is also the resting place for the emperors after their lives. |
