Feudalism experienced its heyday during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). As the country was gaining strength and prosperity, the first few Tang emperors became increasingly keen to the magnificence of the tombs they were to occupy after death while sparing no effort to expand the imperial complex they were living in. Emperor Taizong, the second Tang emperor who reigned supreme from 626 to 649, was no longer satisfied with the traditional practice of building a mound with earth from digging of the burial pits to indicate where a dead person was buried. He was the first to have a tunnel dug into an imposing hill for use as his tomb.

    The tomb shared by Emperor Gao Zong and his crown empress Wu Zetian is the best representative of the dynasty's imperial tombs. The tomb is on Mt. Liangshan in Qianxian County under the jurisdiction of Xi'an City, whose peak, rising 1,047 meters above sea level, overlooks two smaller hills to its south. The tomb is a tunnel dug into Mt. Liangshan, on its north slope, halfway from the peak. More than 100 stone statues stand at both sides of the divine boulevard at the

foot of Mt. Liangshan in the south. The statues, of not only Chinese civil and military officials but also rulers of China's neighboring countries, testify to the kind of overweening characteristic of Chinese monarchs who regarded their empire as the center of the world and themselves as the rulers of "all land within the four seas".

    The Song Dynasty (960-1279), however, was much weaker than the Tang, its northern borders constantly falling prey to invasion and harassment by ethnic minority tribes. Imperial tombs of the dynasty are, therefore, significantly smaller. The Song Dynasty, in fact, banned construction of tombs for emperors and crown empresses before they died. It is only after an emperor died would a tomb be built for him, and the burial must take place in no more than seven months from the

day of the emperor's death. That explains why the dynasty's imperial tombs are not only small in size but also duplicated in design.

    All the nine emperors of the North Song Dynasty (960-1127) were buried in Gongxian County, Henan Province. Each tomb is an earthen mound in a walled compound with a watchtower at each corner, and in front of the compound there is the divine boulevard flanked by stone statues.

Though not as imposing and magnificent as imperial tombs of the Han and Tang dynasties, the nine tombs of the Song are within walking distance from one another. The way of having the emperors buried in the same place was to continue into the Ming and Song dynasties.

    None of the Song Dynasty's imperial tombs have been opened. In some north China provinces like Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, Song tombs belonging to rich merchants or government officials have been excavated. The burial chambers, mostly stone and brick structures, are pretty small, some only about two square meters large, but the murals and relieves depicting the tombs' occupiers in the real world are invaluable. The burial chamber of one Song Dynasty tomb features relieves of the occupier's house on three sides of the brick wall -- a cluster of one-story buildings with windows and doors to allow in sufficient sunshine and fresh air. On the south side of the wall, the tomb's occupier and his wife are depicted as sitting at the either side of a table laden with food and flowers, watching a theatrical performance on the stage in the opposite. The lines are so fine and exquisite that the facial expressions of the figures are clearly discernible, in a style of

realism that characterized the architectural art of tombs and mausoleums built in the Song Dynasty.