Xiaoling and Nanjing: Mapping the Imperial Mausoleum in a Fourteenth-Century Capital in China

Abstract

This paper is about the unique spatial arrangement of the capital (Nanjing) and imperial mausoleum (Xiaoling) in fourteenth-century China. According to Confucian principles and traditional practices, the location of tombs should be separated from the space of the living for philosophical and emotional reasons. However, this convention was challenged by the Hongwu emperor (1368–1398), founder of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), who built his own imperial mausoleum, Xiaoling, within the confines of the capital, an unprecedented act. According to primary sources—ritual texts, gazettes, tour books, and poetry—this innovative capital–mausoleum plan suggests an extension of the pattern by which the Hongwu emperor honored his ancestors through spatial arrangements and incorporated the imperial ancestors into dynasty-building.