The mausoleums of the Ming royal house are scattered in four places in China. The grandparents of Zhu Yuanzhang， the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)， were buried in Xuyi， Jiangsu Province.The mausoleum of Zhu Yuanzhang’s parents is in Fengyang， Anhui Province. Zhu Yuanzhang was buried in today’s Nanjing， the capital for the first few decades of the dynasty. Thirteen other emperors after Zhu Yuanzhang were buried in Beijing. Another important Ming mausoleum is in today’s Zhongxiang City in central China’s Hubei Province. The man buried there is Zhu Kuyuan， who was not an emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Of the thirteen Ming tombs in Beijing， three are relatively large in size. They are Changling， the underground mausoleum of Zhu Di also known as Emperor Chengzu， Yongling， the underground mausoleum of Zhu Houcong also known as Emperor Shizhong， and Dingling， the underground mausoleum of Zhu Yijun also known as Emperor Shenzong.

Wu Han (1909-1969)， a prominent historian and then vice mayor of Beijing， first proposed to disinter a Ming mausoleum in Beijing in the 1950s. A document now declassified shows that the initial target was the Changling. Xia Nai (1910-1985)， an archaeologist and member and technical advisor of the Changling Exhumation Committee， instructed his student Zhao Qichang to do a field study first. Wu visited the tomb with an assistant for a few days， but as it was snowing heavily the probe yielded no positive result.

Wu Han and Xia Nai then decided to exhume the Xianling， the underground mausoleum of Emperor Renzong first to gain first hand experience for the real target.Emperor Renzong came to the throne at the age of 47 and passed away 10 months later. His tomb was a simplified version of the Changling. After several rounds of discussions， Wu and Xia turned their eyes to the Dingling.

Emperor Shenzong was Zhu Yijun， whose reign spanned 48 years from 1573 when he was only 10 years old to 1620. He is better known as Emperor Wanli. It is not clear why Wu Han and Xia Nai chose the Dingling. Scholars have conjectured that Wu and Xia had two reasons. First， the tomb was one of the latest Ming tombs in Beijing and as its above-ground structure was in good repair， it would be easy to repair the tomb after the exhumation. Second， as the Emperor Wanli ruled 48 years， the longest of all the Ming emperors， his tomb was believed to have the biggest treasure. But conjecture aside， nobody is sure what actually motivated the decision.

However， some people believe that what the Emperor Wanli had done in his lifetime brought the ultimate revenge upon him in 1956.

Stealing wealth from tombs has been a long nasty business in China. The most notorious graverobber in the Ming Dynasty was a eunuch named Chen Feng. Grave robbery was so prevalent in the Ming that many high-ranking court ministers appealed to Emperor Wanli in the hope that the emperor would agree to take rigorous measures to ban the evil practice.However， the emperor ignored the appeal for a good reason. History says that the emperor was great at generating income. He decreed to set up mining industries so that mining taxes could be levied. The measure boosted the national revenue.

In 1599， Chen Feng was ordered by the emperor to be in charge of the mining industry in Hubei and levying mining taxes. Chen Feng and his gangsters did all kinds of bad things in Hubei. One day， the eunuch received a secret report that some villagers had robbed the tomb of the wife of Li Linfu， a notorious prime minister of the Tang Dynasty (618-907)， and sold the loot for 10，000 liang of gold. Instead of conducting a thorough investigation， Chen Feng fined the robbers 10，000 liang of gold. The emperor was pleased by the event and instructed to have the gold transferred to the national treasury. The incident opened Chen Feng’s eyes to the tombs of historical personages buried in Hubei. The eunuch then robbed all the big tombs in Hubei Province and put the money into the emperor’s coffers， exasperating and humiliating the local people and officials.

But Chen Feng was not satisfied with the loot he had gathered by tomb robbery. He fancied the biggest tomb in Hubei: the Xianling， the underground mausoleum of Zhu Huhang and his wife， the great grandparents of the reigning emperor. Zhu Huhang was the father of the Emperor Shizong named Zhu Houcong. When Emperor Wuzong passed away without a crown prince， his cousin Zhu Houcong was appointed to inherit the throne. The new emperor had the tombs of his father and mother repaired and upgraded， treating them as if they had been emperor and empress. The expansion project took 47 years to complete. Chen Feng could guess how much wealth was in the mausoleum and apparently had the acquiesce of the reining emperor to rob the royal mausoleum.

As the mausoleum was near a mine， Chen Feng decided to use the mine as an excuse to dig into the mausoleum. Local officials were angry and reported the scandalous plan to the court. The emperor did nothing and the eunuch tried to dismiss those who had tried to stop him. Local people and officials responded to the digging so violently that the Emperor Wanli finally called the eunuch back to the capital without punishing him.

It is not known whether Wu Han and Xia Nai thought of the emperor’s acquiescence to grave robberies when they decided upon his tomb in the 1950s. They did not leave any trace on their intention and the decision makers are dead now. Though it is hard to decide that it is karma， many people would certainly talk about what the emperor and his eunuch did and about the karma that showed up when the emperor’s tomb was opened more than 300 hundred years later.

Some other people say that the bad Feng Shui of the tomb of Emperor Wanli was the very reason why he was disinterred. Some people believing in geomancy claim that the emperor had only himself to blame for the exhumation in 1956.

Zhu Yijun decided to build his mausoleum in 1583 when he was 21 years old， ten years after he had ascended the throne. The court officials in charge of looking at the stars and formulating calendar recommended a few sites. The emperor inspected the sites and grunted with dissatisfaction. He loved the two alternative sites recommended by a geomancer. After inspecting the two sites， the emperor chose one place named Xiaoyushan and then changed its name to Dayushan. Construction on the tomb started on November 6 in the 11th year (1583) of his reign and came to completion in the 18th year.

While preparing the ground of the burial chamber where the coffin was to be placed， construction workers dug up a large rock and there was no soil under the rock. Such a situation was prohibited in Feng Shui. The court ministers who had recommended the site were horrified by the discovery. A court minister submitted an appeal to the emperor， proposing to choose another auspicious site for the purpose of ensuring the 10-millennia reign of the Ming Dynasty. The official also proposed to punish those who had recommended the place.

The emperor， a firm Buddhist， made an unexpected decision. He asked his ministers to stop debating and confirmed that the site was the right place for the dynasty. He even punished some court officials who insisted that the site was a bad choice.

Although the emperor insisted upon the original site， he secretly asked some geomancers to look for new sites. No ideal places resulted. The emperor gave up any idea for a new site. However， debate persisted during the construction and after its completion. An 11th-generation descendent of Liu Bowen， who had helped the founding of the Ming Dynasty and who had profound knowledge of geomancy， submitted an appeal to the emperor saying that the site was not appropriate for the dragon.

The tomb of Emperor Wanli was exhumed in 1956 but the emperor and his queens in their coffins were not disturbed. The nightmare materialized during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). A group of “red guards” arrived at the mausoleum. They removed the skeletons from the coffins and burned them after an angry mass rally.

Even today some people still wonder if it is karma.#8194;□