Fangshan Yonggu Mausoleum

Fangshan Yonggu Mausoleum

Fangshan Yonggu Mausoleum is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Fangshan Yonggu Mausoleum Ruins (Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units)

Era: Northern Wei Dynasty

Location: On Fangshan Mountain (now Sierliang Mountain), 30 kilometers north of Datong City

Yonggu Mausoleum is the tomb of Empress Feng Wenming, wife of Emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Jun. Construction began in the fifth year of the Taihe era (481 AD) and was completed in the eighth year. She was interred in the fourteenth year (490 AD).

In 1976, the Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Work Committee and the Datong City Museum conducted clearance and excavation. The mausoleum was built on the basalt summit of the southern part of Fangshan Mountain. Its surface features a large earthen mound — the upper part is semi-circular, and the lower part has a square base. It measures 117 meters from north to south, 124 meters from east to west, and stands 22.87 meters tall overall. The burial chamber is located at the center of the mound, facing south, and is a brick-built multi-chamber tomb consisting of a passageway, front chamber, corridor, and rear chamber. It stretches 17.6 meters from north to south. The front chamber is trapezoidal in plan with an arched ceiling, connected to the rear chamber via a corridor. At both ends of the corridor are large stone arched gates, exquisitely and meticulously crafted. Each gate consists of five parts: a pointed arch lintel, gate pillars, threshold, tiger-head gate plinths, and stone doors. The doors have no hinges and do not open or close; they are embedded into the lintel. Below the door frames, there are lotus-petal-shaped arched surfaces. On either side of the recessed pillars are relief carvings of barefoot children holding lotus buds and smiling. Beneath the children are carvings of seven-tailed peacocks, each holding a jewel in its beak. The rear chamber is nearly square in plan, tall and spacious, with walls slightly convex outward and converging upward to form a pyramid-shaped roof. At the center of the roof is inlaid a piece of white sandstone carved with a lotus design.

The burial chamber is 6.4 meters long from north to south, 6.83 meters wide from east to west, and 7.3 meters tall. Over 200,000 bricks were used to build the chamber. The bricks are bluish-gray and come in several sizes depending on their use. Most are standard bricks, measuring 41 cm in length, 21 cm in width, 7.7 cm in thickness, and weighing 25 jin. The large floor bricks measure 50.6 cm square, are 7.2 cm thick, and weigh 69 jin. The bricks contain very little sand or gravel, have sharp edges and uniform dimensions, feature fine rope patterns on the back, and produce a metallic ringing sound when struck.

Yonggu Mausoleum was robbed three times, resulting in some damage to its structural components, and all the funerary pottery, stone figurines, and stone beasts inside were destroyed.

Yonggu Mausoleum is extremely grand in scale. Its associated structures include Yonggu Hall, the Dining Hall, Stone Watchtowers, Moon Temple, Fangshan Grottoes, Lingquan Hall, Lingquan Pool, and the Imperial Pathway.

Further reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units