Zhongxiang, China

History

Zhongxiang is one of the cradles of Chu culture. It was the alternate capital of the Chu state in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.

Because the Jiajing Emperor (r. 1521–1566) of the Ming dynasty was born and had lived in the city before he succeeded to the throne, Zhongxiang, the place where the Chengtian Prefecture (fu) Government Office was located, became one of the three major prefectures directly under the central government. Once on the throne, the Jiajing Emperor controversially had his dead father Zhu Youyuan (1476–1519) retroactively styled as the Gongruixian Emperor; his mother became the Zhangsheng empress dowager. They were buried at a sumptuous mausoleum, knowns as the Xianling Tomb, a few kilometers northeast of Zhongxiang.

During the Jiajing Emperor's reign, a large estate owned by the emperor occupied a significant part of Chengtian Prefecture, and was run by the same eunuch who was in charge of the protection of the mausoleum.

The mausoleum complex is now a tourist site; it was included on the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2000, as one of the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

From the History section of Zhongxiang on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.