English: The Tombs of the Chinese Emperors at Ningpo. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 2 May 1857.

The Tomb of Tu Yu in Ningpo, Chekiang, Qing Dynasty China (now Ningbo of Zhejiang Province in China) in 1857.

1857 in Qing Dynasty China.

Anonymous artist. The newspaper mistakenly illustrated it as a 'Chinese emperor's tomb' but actually it was Tu Yu's.

Read the ILN

TOMBS OF THE CHINESE EMPERORS AT NINGPO. In the neighbourhood of several of the cities in China it has bean customary for many centuries to pile up the mortal remains of the inhabitants. Near Ningpo is a necropolis of this description. The coffin used resembles a trunk of a tree, and varies in expense acording to the condition of the family. Sometimes the body is not interred, but retained for a protracted period in a portion of the house set apart for the purpose which is daily scented with spices. There are several strange and superstitious ceremonies performed, and ideas entertained as to the destiny of the soul after death The bewailings of the women in the presenoe of the corpee, and the belief in the transmigration of souls, are a sufficient exemplification. When the coffin is lowered into the grave a tombstone with a rounded head is reared over it, on which is inscribed a simple epitaph. The dynasty is always noted. In the cue of the tombs of the Emperors, at Ningpo, in the Engraving, the Ming dynasty was reigning at the time of the decease of the persons there buried; and to that family the illustrious man belonged whose resting-place is portrayed. The Ming (that is bright) dynasty descended from Hungwu, as Chu Yuenchang was called on his assumption of power. It endured for 276 years, terminating in 1643. The last Emperor of this race, Hwai-tsung, having lost Pekin, and becoming disliked by his subjects, brought the ancestral line to a close by the murder of his daughter and by suicide. Ningpo-fa (Peaceful Wave City) is well situated for trade and commerce, at the point of conuence of three streams, which, united, become one river, named the Tatsieh. It is next in importance to Hangohau, in Chekiang. The climate is preferable to that of Shanghai, on aecountof the hills in the vicinity y lies in a plain stretching from the bass of hills on one side, to the shore of the ocean on the other. In looing around, the attention is arrested by monasteries, temples, and family tombs. Several misionaries have visited the locality from time to time. Trade was attempted here in 1701, but four years afterwards it ceased, in consequence of an adray between the English and the Malayas. In 1842 the former took Ningpo, with Amoy Chinhai, and Tinghai. And a few years have brought with them a renewal of hoetilities between the same two nations-between Christianity and Heathenism, between lightand darkness, between enlightment and ignorance, between bold intellectual development and the pitiable remautsof still more miserable superstitions. It may be fully anticipated that as inroad after inroad is made into the exclusive territor of China, the strong tide of civilisation will set inwith such force that every effort on the part of the people, and on the part ofat the ruler. of the peple, will not avail to prevent the beams of the light of its adversary from shining with continually increasing radiating power into the very heart of the empire.