Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty
Hello, everybody! Welcome to Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty. It is the first world cultural heritage site in Nanjing.
Xiaoling Tomb is situated at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain in the east part of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. It is the burial place of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his wife empress Ma. As one of the largest imperial tombs existent in China, Xiaoling became a major historic and cultural site under state protection in 1961. On July 3, 20xx, together with the 13 Ming Tombs in Beijing, it was accepted into the World Heritage List as an associated site of “the imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties”.
Ming Dynasty was the penult feudal regime in China’s history. Its founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, was often referred to as a “beggar emperor” for his miserable childhood.
Zhu was born into a poor peasant family in 1328 in Anhui Province neighboring Jiangsu. In 1344, a serious drought and plague swept the north of the Huaihe River. All his family members died in succession during the disaster. To support himself, he entered a monastery near his village to be a monk at the age of 17, but before long he was sent out to beg alms for survival until 1348. At that time, peasant uprisings against the oppression of the Yuan Dynasty broke out in many places. One of the strongest forces was the Red Tie Army, so named because every soldier wore a red tie on the neck. At the age of 24, Zhu ran away from the monastery and joined the army. There he fought bravely and showed great talent as a strategist. He was quickly promoted to be one of the leading generals and married the commander’s adopted daughter. When the commander died, he succeeded him. Under his leadership, the army became stronger. After wiping out all the other rivals
