monarchs of past ages all attached great importance to construction of mausoleums The emperors of the ing Dynasty went even beyond The book has been by now the monograph with most comprehensive research on the mausoleums in the ing Dynasty It collects completely all the academic achievements of the author Xu Guangyuan for his research on ings mausoleums for thanyears Especially the chapter “Subordinate Tombs of ing Imperial Mausoleums” includes a huge number of discussions and pictures that have never been published With the formal historical records and ing Palace archives as the basis and hundreds of treasured pictures and drawings of the investigation sites the book elaborates in the vivid and plain narrative language the fantastic stories and
secrets related to theing Dynastys mausoleums and their subordinate tombs over the last three hundred years according to the construction seuence of ing mausoleums playing a role in correcting the errors and resolving puzzles of some academic viewpoints and folk legends With rich historical materials it is highly readable.