China - Expansion Project of Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties: King Lujian’s Tombs

As recorded in King Lujian's Mausoleum Constructed by Imperial Orders, the king's tomb was completed in the eighth month of the 43rd year of Wanli's reign in the Ming Dynasty (1615), from which it could be inferred that the second wife's tomb was built in the 30th year of Wanli's reign (1602). The mausoleum was well protected by military and civil officials from its completion to the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644. It continued to be protected in the early Qing Dynasty, after the government issued orders to protect the mansions of the kings of Zheng, Lu and Zhao in the third year of Shunzhi's reign (1646). It was regularly renovated after the structures and the land of the mausoleum were sold to Monk Zhenxi from Mount Wutaishan in the 13th year of Shunzhi's reign (1656), who used the structures as monks' dormitory and prayer halls. From the end of the Qing Dynasty (1911) to 1949, when the People's Republic of China was newly founded, the structures were protected by the people who had moved inside the city walls to live, but some of them were destroyed in the wartime. The mausoleum was closed to the public when North Henan Penitentiary was moved inside the two city walls in 1953. In 1978, when the penitentiary and local residents had moved out of the complex of King Lujian's Mausoleum, the local government set up an office for managing its cultural relics under the Cultural Administration of Xinxiang City, started to repair King Lujian's Mausoleum and the soul path, and opened the mausoleum to the public. The mausoleum was upgraded to be a museum in 1997, a section-level institution under Fengquan District. King Lujian's Mausoleum was listed as key protected historic site at provincial level in 1986 and at national level in 1996. It was included in the tentative list of Chinese world heritage in 2006. After North Henan Penitentiary moved out of the tomb of the second wife in December 2005, the entire structure-covered area was transferred to the Museum of King Lujian's Mausoleum.