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Irving Hultengrens home page

The Soul Tower returns to this home page

Imperial tombs start page

Tomb of each individual Ming Emperor

Zhu Yuanzhang's family tombs

Tombs of the Ming founder's family

Imperial consorts and eunuchs

Consorts, eunuchs, generals etc.

General information base page

Information about Ming tombs

Literature, acknowledgements and credits

Reference material and credits

China's Ming Tombs

The Ming Dynasty, declared in 1368 in Nanjing, would prove to be the last Han Chinese imperial rule of China.

Xianling Soul Tower

Already in the early 1400's the 3rd Ming emperor moved the imperial court to Beijing. Hence, all Ming emperors were buried in Beijing except for the first, who was buried in Nanjing.

These pages explore each Ming Emperor's mausoleum along with a brief recap of his reign.

But we will go beyond that by also exploring Ming tombs of consorts, family members, generals, eunuchs, and even a king.

And for those interested, we will revisit the annual rites, provide a tomb dictionary, touch upon geomancy, Ming tomb layout and similar concepts on the information pages.

Tombs may not rank high on the list of great places to visit. I hope however that my pages will inspire you to pay a visit to some of them. Trust me, it's well worth it.