![]() ![]() Raised by top Mandarins according to strict Confucian principles, the intelligent and sensitive young man was prepared to devote his life to being a model ruler, guided by grand-secretary Chang Chu Cheng. The interesting thing is that he began his almost five-decade reign (one of the longest in Chinese history) as a conscientious young sovereign. No doubt he was parroting the official party line at that time, but he made me curious about the Wanli Emperor. Our guide stopped in front of the royal coffin and told us that the man whose remains it held was ‘the most venal emperor in Chinese history’ and also that his ‘feudal excesses had bled the Chinese people dry’. The main chamber held the enormous coffins of the emperor himself and two of his consorts. ![]() One contained numerous lacquered boxes of all sizes containing grave-good treasures. The chamber led into other chambers, just as massive and cold. Inside there were thrones carved with dragons and phoenixes, also of the same white marble, and huge blue-and-white porcelain urns. ![]() Our Chinese guide led us down a ramp into a subterranean, vaulted chamber clad in white marble. It was the only royal tomb open to the public in the Ming Tombs complex at that time. In 1987, I went to China and visited, among other places, the tomb of the Wanli Emperor near Beijing.
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