I am very impressed with your explanation with 3D modelling on 7:42. This is very clear explanation about the real underground palace. Thank you for delivering the history very clear. Most of the youtube channel about Wan Li emperor tomb in Chinese without English translate or maybe with unclear english. Good job Wang, waiting your other video about Chinese imperial architecture.
I was there on a tour in 1981 and from these pictures the tombs appear to be cleaned up and organized so a tourist is better able to interpret the area. It is an impressive trip from Beijing to the Ming Tombs.
Yes it looks like much rebuilding work and cleaning has taken back. When I went in the 80s it was almost entirely a ruin after being completely ransacked and destroyed during the cultural revolution
Thank you for sharing. Amazing history, I really can’t imagine the time and people to construct the great tombs. Very lucky it was not robbed as we can now see what beautiful items and have a close feel with history seeing those items in the tomb. 👍
The Ming Dynasty was overthrown by the peasant uprising army. The founders of the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing in the name of "avenging the Ming Dynasty", so they personally paid homage to and protected the tombs of the Ming Dynasty emperors. When the Qing Dynasty fell, Sun Yat-sen, who founded the Republic, also paid homage to the tomb of the Ming Dynasty emperor. The tombs of Ming emperors have become cultural relics that Han nationalists must protect.
Every Han Chinese emperor supposedly had a bathroom or toilet built into his tomb. On the Internet there's a fine photo of a Chinese emperor's well-constructed toilet. It had two floor placements for the emperor's feet. There was an armrest for his right arm. A sturdy stone backrest allowed the emperor to squat and lean his back against it. But there was no visible sign of provision for toilet paper or a place to wash his hands. I can't remember which dynasty this was.
We can be grateful that the victorious Qing Manchurian Dynasty did not spitefully destroy the Ming tombs. The Qing left the Ming tombs alone. This contrasted with the vandal Jin Jurchens who after conquering northern China, proceeded to vandalize the Song Dynasty emperor tombs. On deceased Song emperor had his head kicked about like a soccer ball by Jin warriors. There was another Ming emperor disliked greatly by today's Han Chinese for being neglectful of his emperor official duties. Angered, frustrated, and pessimistic with his divided, squabbling government which opposed him at almost every turn, this emperor decided not to show up for work. He essentially went on strike for a decade. As a result, the Ming government, already hobbled by infighting between the two major factions, East Bureau and West Bureau, simply stopped. In the long run this government paralysis left the Ming Dynasty vulnerable to the growing power of the Manchurian Qing to the north. During the Cultural Revolution, an angry Chinese mob ransacked his tomb, pulled his corpse out of his lavish coffin and set it on fire.
Interesting video, thanks for sharing. I somehow thought if a Chinese Emperors tomb was opened, it would be full to the ceiling with treasures similar to that of the Pharaoh's of Ancient Egypt.
Very good explanation, one question: do the treasures of the King reside in the same place as the King's Tomb or somewhere in the Valley of the Kings or even elsewhere?
According to current archaeological discoveries, the treasures were all placed in the tombs of kings. Some large-scale tombs would have some burial pits containing chariots, weapons, and human figurines, such as the famous Terracotta Army. As for treasures, they were usually in tombs.
Don't want to split hairs here, but the Ming dynasty is not exactly "ancient times " as a student of history we consider that era as late middle age. To give a comparison of ancient vs the Ming tomb, the pyramids were built around 3500 years before the Ming tombs were built
Even during the time of ancient Egypt, they managed to build huge monuments like pyramids and obelisks. These ancient peoples surely are as sophisticated in terms of architecture and technology.
@@ElijahBenjamin-ug6opmiddle ages is a european era. China reached imperial age very early in their history. Their timeline is different to the european centric eras
China has so little stone architecture so it is a shame that its most impressive stone architecture is to be found 27 meters underground. It would be wonderful if there was a temple above ground that looked like this.
It was not because of limited conservation techniques that most items weren't saved, it was looted and destroyed during Mao's cultural revolution, and they even burned the emperor's remains.
Like all who began an empire, conquered human beings, slaves chiseled and stone masons, labor to move the stones, and build palaces. Rome, was build by slave laborers. Some were educated. Others learned by sight and the whip. Under those palaces, whether in China, or any other country all have skeletons underneath.
Wanli's skeleton, as well as those of his empresses, and the original coffins and the vast majority of the burial items where destroyed and burnt by Mao's red army during the cultural revolution.
Was not a tomb anymore than the Great Pyramid was a tomb. TPTB globally ALWAYS call these mysterious and outlandish structures tombs, have you noticed that?
Copies of Greek architectural motifs. Crude and derived copies. Simple, almost as if built by children who visited Athens only once. You can only copy.
