Underground Palace of Dingling

The underground Palace of Dingling was hidden 27 meters below the surface and covers an area of 1195 square meters. The underground Palace of Dingling was composed of five chambers, namely the antechamber, central chamber, rear chamber, left and right annex chambers. The whole complex was built with giant stone slabs and sealed by the "Diamond Wall".

The antechamber of underground Palace of Dingling was empty as an entrance to the central chamber.
Three marble thrones were placed in the Central Chamber for the emperor and his two wives. In front of each throne, there is a set of five glazed pottery pieces, consisting of two candlesticks, two beakers and an incense burner. The white porcelain jar was used to contain sesame oil for providing oil for "everlasting lamp. The lamp was lit when the emperor was buried, but after the tomb was closed, the light naturally went out for want of oxygen. Such a layout signified that even after death the emperor still sat on high receiving the homage of his subjects and exercising rule over all.

The Rear Chamber of underground Palace of Dingling was the largest one of the five chambers. It was 30 meters long and nine meters wide with a big coffin dais in the center. Three coffins of Emperor Wanli and his two empresses were placed on the big coffin dais. There is a square hole in the center of the dais, called "gold Well". It was filled with yellow clay to show the sacred connection between the coffins and the earth. Each coffin was surrounded by pieces of uncut jade, which were believed to preserve the bodies from decay. This is the highest level of burial in ancient China: to bury the dead at the Gold Well and among jade piece s. Also on the dais were 26 red lacquered wooden chests containing the funerary objects.

The left and right annex chambers of underground Palace of Dingling are of the same size each containing a white marble dais evidently intended for a coffin. There is an entrance and a section of the underground passage to the backside of the underground palace. According to the Ming funeral institution, the coffins of the empresses were to be brought in through the left and right passages and kept on the dais. The reason why these two annex chambers were empty is that the burial was done in a hurry. There was not enough time to open up the left and right passages, so all the three coffins had to be brought in through the front entrance. It happened that the doorways of the annex chambers were too narrow for coffins, so the annex chambers were too narrow for coffins, so they could only be placed in the rear chamber.

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