Why Were the Qing Eastern Tombs So Badly Damaged, While the Qing Western Tombs Remained Relatively Intact?

[Why were the Qing Eastern Tombs so badly damaged, while the Qing Western Tombs remained relatively intact?]

"Badly damaged? They were robbed!"

"The Qing Eastern Tombs and the Qing Western Tombs should be the Qing Dynasty's imperial tombs!"

"Good, talk about the Qing Dynasty. Sky screen, please don't talk about my Great Song again! If you must, say something good!"

"After I pass away, I will be buried in the Eastern Tombs. If the Eastern Tombs were badly damaged, wouldn't my mausoleum..." Qianlong's face grew darker with every word.

It wasn't just Qianlong. All the Qing Dynasty emperors and empress dowagers looked grim.

["The Qing Western Tombs weren't completely intact either. The four emperors buried there were Yongzheng, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Guangxu. Guangxu's tomb was robbed, so the Qing Western Tombs weren't completely safe; they just didn't fare as badly as the Qing Eastern Tombs."]

"My tomb was robbed?" Emperor Guangxu stared at the sky screen, his face filled with anger, and shouted, "Scoundrel! Hateful scoundrel!"

"Send more tomb guards to protect the Western Tombs immediately. Send more Manchus there. My imperial tomb must not be robbed! Even if the Great Qing falls, no one can be allowed to plunder my imperial tomb. I only want some dignity!"

["Of the five emperors buried in the Qing Eastern Tombs—Shunzhi, Kangxi, Qianlong, Xianfeng, and Tongzhi—all but Shunzhi had their tombs robbed. By comparison, the Qing Western Tombs seemed to have fared a little better."]

["The Qing Eastern Tombs were so badly damaged not only because of the famous tomb robber Sun Dianying, but also because nearby villagers and bandits took turns paying them visits."]

"Sun Dianying? The one people in later generations call a national hero? He was a tomb robber... I get it!"

"National hero was probably a joking title! But it shows just how unpopular the Manchu Qing was. Sun Dianying was a tomb robber who robbed the Qing Dynasty's imperial tombs, yet he was called a hero!"

["When Sun Dianying robbed the Qing Eastern Tombs, he initially set his sights on Kangxi's Jingling. But the biggest problem with Kangxi's tomb was severe water seepage. It was a problem back then, and even today, because it hasn't been drained, Kangxi himself is still soaking in water."]

"I'm soaking in water?" Kangxi himself was dumbfounded.

["Likewise, when Sun Dianying was about to dig into it, he ran into the same problem. After digging a little, he found nothing but water, so he simply gave up on Jingling and headed straight for Qianlong's Yuling and Cixi's Ding Eastern Tombs instead. But Sun Dianying was far from the only visitor the Qing Eastern Tombs received."]

"Sun Dianying, that man who deserves a thousand cuts!" Seeing Sun Dianying go to rob her tomb, Cixi let out a shrill scream.

"Sun Dianying..." Qianlong ground his teeth.

["After Sun Dianying, the place practically became a free public park."]

The emperors who planned to be buried in the Qing Eastern Tombs could not bear to watch any longer. Whether their imperial tombs had only just been started or had already been completed, they no longer intended to use them.

If they knew who Sun Dianying's ancestors were, they would immediately exterminate his nine familial relations.

["After victory in the War of Resistance against Japan in 1945, Wang Shaoyi, a local bandit from the area around the Qing Eastern Tombs, joined forces with descendants of the tomb guards and came to the Qing Eastern Tombs once again."]

"Don't send any tomb guards!" Guangxu said, looking forlorn. "Even the tomb guards' descendants joined in the grave robbing. Who else can be trusted?"

["They first paid a second visit to Cixi's Ding Eastern Tombs, which had already been robbed. When they found Cixi stripped completely bare, the group flew into a rage, went straight out and turned right, heading for the Dingling of her husband, Emperor Xianfeng, the tomb of Empress Dowager Ci'an next to Cixi's, and the Huiling of Cixi's son, Emperor Tongzhi. They stripped the whole family again, then smashed their way into Emperor Kangxi's Jingling, where the water had receded, and dug through every tomb Sun Dianying had failed to break into the previous time in one go."]

The people of ancient times: Stripped completely bare—did that mean what they thought it meant?

Cixi: I can't show my face to anyone! I've lost all my dignity!

["Of these, Kangxi's Jingling had the richest burial goods, and it was also very badly damaged. The remains of the four empresses and one imperial noble consort buried alongside Kangxi in his mausoleum were all carelessly thrown onto the ground, and Kangxi's bones were mixed together with those of his consorts."]

"Imperial father!"

"Imperial grandfather!"

"Lord Shengzu!"

Seeing the humiliation Kangxi would suffer in the future, unable to rest in peace even after death, the Qing Dynasty emperors and the Manchu Qing's loyal ministers felt a wave of sorrow and were filled with resentment.

["When it was cleaned up in the last century, they found that water had seeped into the underground palace once again, and the remains of all five people were soaking in it. Because of the limitations they faced, they simply shut the doors, and Kangxi has been soaking there ever since."]

["That meant Shunzhi's Xiaoling was the only tomb in the Qing Eastern Tombs to be preserved."]

["This was mainly because the first three generations of Qing Dynasty emperors were cremated. It was no secret at the time, so no one had much interest in Xiaoling."]

["The Qing Eastern Tombs were visited so frequently first of all because of their location. Although the Qing Eastern Tombs were more remote than the Thirteen Ming Tombs, during the warlord conflicts of the Republican era, they happened to become a place where warlords stationed their troops."]

"Were our Great Ming's imperial tombs robbed?"

When the short video mentioned the Thirteen Ming Tombs, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately realized they were the imperial tombs of Zhu Di's descendants. Then he thought of the Song Dynasty's imperial tombs, and his heart clenched.

By now, it wasn't just Zhu Yuanzhang. Most emperors were worried about their own imperial tombs; only the Yuan Dynasty emperors were not.

"I built my imperial tomb deep in the mountains. It can't be that easy to rob, can it?"

"I think imperial tombs should be dug deeper!"

"The Han people's burial practices won't do. Their burial sites are too conspicuous!"

["Another reason was that the emperors and empresses buried in the Qing Eastern Tombs generally loved indulging themselves and were relatively wealthy. Kangxi, Qianlong, and Cixi were the three most representative examples."]

["The Qing Western Tombs were different. They were even more remote than the Eastern Tombs, and not many warlords came there, so they were relatively safe."]

["More importantly, the people buried in the Qing Western Tombs were all paupers: Yongzheng, who spent his whole life saving money; Jiaqing, who was short of money all his life; Daoguang, who pinched every penny all his life; and Guangxu, who hardly ever handled money throughout his life."]

Yongzheng: Thrift has its own benefits.

Jiaqing: In that case, did I find a blessing in disguise?

Daoguang: I had no choice but to be stingy!

Guangxu: Of the four emperors in the Qing Western Tombs, why was mine the only tomb to suffer this calamity?

["Of course, Guangxu was still the unluckiest of the four, because his was the only tomb in the Qing Western Tombs to be dug up. It was all these reasons that kept the Qing Western Tombs largely out of sight, so they were relatively better preserved."]

"Why doesn't the sky screen tell us what treasures are in the Qing Dynasty's imperial tombs?"

"Those are imperial tombs, emperors' graves. How could there be a shortage of treasure?"

"We weren't born at the right time! When one dynasty replaces another, rob just one emperor's tomb, and your descendants won't have a care for generations!"