Although the last monarchs of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chongzhen and Puyi, were both known as the "Fallen Monarchs", their fates were very different. Chongzhen reigned for 17 years, and during his reign, the country was in decline, and he continued to make mistakes, which led to the change of the imperial order, and was finally invaded by Li Zicheng.
In a desperate situation, Chongzhen took Wang Chengen to Jingshan to hang himself.
Pu Yi's Luck: Ascending the Throne at an Early Age, Encountering a Progressive and Enlightened Era 2Chongzhen's regret: shabby and humble cemetery, unable to build a mausoleum during his lifetime.
The new copy is as follows: Sadly, the treasury of the Changping Prefecture Office is empty and there is not enough money for the burial. So the officials of the state office and the enthusiastic citizens spontaneously organized themselves and raised 34000 yuan to reluctantly hold the funeral.
Emperor Chongzhen did not build a mausoleum during his lifetime, and it seems a little inappropriate to bury him directly in an ordinary place. Someone suggested that Emperor Chongzhen's favorite concubine Tian was buried in the Ming Tombs, so we can also bury Emperor Chongzhen and his favorite concubine together.
The government spent 5 taels of silver in Changping to hire people to dig up the tomb of Concubine Tian, moved Concubine Tian to the right side of the tomb, Emperor Chongzhen was in the center, Empress Zhou was on the left, and the outer coffin of Concubine Tian was covered on Chongzhen's coffin, and then the tomb was sealed.
After Chongzhen was buried, because the tomb was too shabby, the site raised funds to buy bricks, and asked craftsmen to build a circle of bricks for Chongzhen's mausoleum. The process was rudimentary, but it was filled with admiration for the emperor.
In order to alleviate the contradictions between the Manchus and the Han Dynasty and win the hearts of the people, the Qing Dynasty funded the restoration of the Chongzhen Tomb in accordance with the regulations of the emperor's mausoleum and named it "Siling". In the 50th year of Qianlong, the Ming Tower and the Qi'en Hall were added, and the circular wall was built.
However, the warlord melee and social unrest during the ** period caused Siling to be robbed many times, and the underground tomb was stolen twice. In 1947, the Kuomintang army demolished the ground building of Siling and used it to build a turret.
At the beginning of this century, there are only remnants of stone five offerings, the pillar base of the palace, and the inscription of the inscription, which are desolate. In 2017, two candlesticks from the five stone offerings of Chongzhen's tomb were stolen, but fortunately they were later recovered and the case was solved.
Puyi Mausoleum: Feng Shui Treasure, Luxurious and Spectacular Compared with Chongzhen Mausoleum, Puyi is much luckier. Pu Yi died of kidney disease on October 17, 1967.
A week after his death, Pu Yi's nephew, Aixin Jueluo Min Zhe, originally planned to bury Pu Yi's ashes with Tan Yuling, but ultimately failed to materialize due to the opposition of his widow Li Shuxian.
On May 29, 1980, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a grand memorial meeting for Pu Yi to commemorate this important figure in Chinese history. Only three days after the meeting, Pu Yi's ashes were placed in the east side room of the first exhibition room of Babaoshan Cemetery.
Fifteen years later, Puyi's ashes were moved to the Hualong Royal Cemetery in Yixian County, Hebei Province, which was invested and operated by Hong Kong businessman Zhang Shiyi, and is a commercial cemetery with a strong royal atmosphere.
Puyi's tomb is located in the core of the cemetery, surrounded by the cemetery of his beloved wife Wanrong and Tan Yuling, covering an area of more than 100 square meters. The entire cost of building these cemeteries was borne by the cemetery, mainly because the arrival of Puyi's tomb increased the popularity of the cemetery and highlighted the royal atmosphere of the cemetery.
The birth of Hualong Royal Mausoleum originated from an interesting episode. When Zhang Shiyi invested in Hebei, the county leaders proposed that they would like to move Pu Yi's ashes to promote the development of local tourism.
Zhang Shiyi readily agreed, and through an introduction, he met Pu Yi's widow Li Shuxian at the Kunlun Hotel in Beijing in December 1994. He expressed to her his idea of changing the name of the cemetery to "Royal Mausoleum" to express his "heart" to build a mausoleum specifically for Puyi.
After seeing the topography of the cemetery, Li Shuxian was very satisfied with its feng shui, and entrusted Zhang Shiyi to move the funeral. Zhang Shiyi reburied Pu Yi's body here on January 26, 1995, and bore all the expenses.
Pu Yi may not have expected that he still has such a great influence behind him, and even brought economic benefits.