Ming Tombs (3)

Dahongmen Gate consists of a juandong cave. Although the stone-tablet pavilion inside the gate is named a pavilion, its size is huge. Each side is 26 meters long' and 22 meter high. A huge monument is erected in the pavilion, with a marble pillar on each of the four corners outside the pavilion to enrich the appearance and set off the grandeur of the stone-tablet pavilion, and enlarge the controlled scope over a vast space .On the north of the pavilion, the stone-laid Shinto is 1,200 meters long. A total of 19 pairs of stone pillars, stone beasts and stone figures are arranged on the two opposite sides. At the northern end of the Shinto are three parallel stone gates with a low wall between them. There are no more installations in a distance of more than four km from north of here to the Changling Tomb, making it seem like a blank picture, there placement of solid with void making this more implicit.

The route of the leading part of the whole is arranged in light of the geographical situation, basically bearing southwest-northeast with as light turn. Taking the main peak of Tianshou Mountain on the right eastern side of the Changling Tomb as the background, the route deviates slightly to the horseshoe-shaped eastern side. This is because the mountain ridges on the eastern side are relatively low, so the deviation helps gain the feeling through the perspective effect that the east and west are approximately balanced. It is a successful artistic treatment of the environment, which should be the decision made by the planner after making an on-the-spot survey.

(Source: chinaculture.org)