Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/568

 4 66 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. BOOK IX. When the tomb is situated, as is generally the case, on a hillside, this arrangement is not only appropriate, but elegant (Woodcut No. 496). When the same thing is imitated on a plain, it is singularly misplaced and unintelligible. Many of the tombs are built of granite, finely polished, and carved with a profusion of labour that makes us regret that the people who can employ the most durable materials with such facility should have so great a predilection for ephemeral wooden structures. When the rock is suitable for the purpose, which, however, seems to be rarely the case in China, their tombs are cut in the rock, as in Etruria and elsewhere; and tombs of the class just described seem to be a device for converting an ordinary hillside into a substitute for the more appropriate situation. One of the finest ex- amples of the tumulus type is the tomb ofYung- lo of the Ming dynasty near Pekin 1425 (A.D.) (Woodcut No. 497) ; this consists of an earth mound about 650 ft. in diameter, with a retain- ing wall crenellated and about 20 ft high round it. This is preceded by a square tower (E) in three storeys, each set slightly behind the one beneath it ; in front of this is an enclosure 500 ft. wide and 1 1 50 ft. long, with an entrance gateway (A) in front and subdivided by cross walls into two courts with a second gateway (C) between them. In the further soo Feet 497- Plan of the Tomb of Yung-lo. court is the altar (D), and in the first or principal court the great Ancestral Hall (B), which is one of the finest examples of Chinese