Empress Dowager Cixi’s Tomb

Empress Dowager Cixi’s Tomb

Empress Dowager Cixi’s Tomb is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Dingdongling Tomb in Puxiangyu is the mausoleum of Empress Xiaozhenxian (Empress Dowager Cixi), located in Puxiangyu on the western side of the southern foothills of Changrui Mountain. To the east, built adjacent to it, is the Boduo’yulu Dingdongling Tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi. Both tombs lie to the east of Emperor Xianfeng’s Ding Tomb, hence they are collectively referred to as the Dingdongling Tombs.

In the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign (1866), Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Cian sent Grand Secretary Zhou Zupu and others to the Eastern Qing Tombs to select their eternal resting sites. As the western side of the Ding Tomb bordered the West Grand River with no suitable land available, they chose Pingdingshan and Boduo Mountain on the eastern side of the Ding Tomb. On the ninth day of the third lunar month in the twelfth year of the Tongzhi reign (1873), taking the opportunity to visit the Eastern Qing Tombs, Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Cian personally inspected Pingdingshan and Boduo Mountain. Finding the area “majestically beautiful with mountains and rivers encircling it,” they designated it as their eternal resting place, renaming Pingdingshan to Puxiangyu and Boduo Mountain to Boduo’yulu.

Before construction began on the tombs, the supervising ministers discovered that the burial sites of the two mausoleums could not be aligned and were offset from north to south. Thus, the two dowager empresses adopted the suggestion of the supervising ministers: the survey marker of Puxiangyu was moved 1 zhang 5 chi 2 cun southward and 4 chi 7 cun 5 fen westward, while the survey marker of Boduo’yulu was moved 7 chi 4 cun northward and 8 cun eastward, evening out the positions of the two tombs. Additionally, as the area was low-lying and covered in marshland, a site outside the Eastern Qing Tombs was selected to extract pure, fine sand-free soil to fill and elevate the chosen sacred grounds.

Construction of both tombs commenced simultaneously on the twentieth day of the eighth lunar month in the twelfth year of the Tongzhi reign (1873). After six years, they were completed on the twentieth day of the sixth lunar month in the fifth year of the Guangxu reign (1879). The construction of Empress Dowager Cixi’s Tomb cost 2,665,743.823 taels of silver, while Empress Dowager Cian’s Tomb cost 2,275,818.046 taels.

The Dingdongling Tomb in Puxiangyu incorporates many features of imperial and empress tombs from the Qing Dynasty, making it the most complete imperial concubine tomb. Its layout is neat and comprehensive, arranged from south to north as follows: two pairs of stone horse-dismounting tablets, one well pavilion, a central spirit way stele pavilion, one three-arch stone bridge, one east and one west side bridge, five east and five west ceremonial halls, three east and three west duty rooms, a five-bay Long’en Gate, one east and one west cremation furnace, five east and five west side halls, a five-bay Long’en Hall, three glazed archways, one stone offering shrine, a square city, a Ming Tower, a treasure city, and a treasure mound. All are enclosed by red walls. To the east is the Divine Kitchen and Storage area, which includes five divine kitchen rooms, three north and three south divine storage rooms, one animal-slaughtering pavilion, each measuring three bays in width and depth.