The crypt is a stone-vaulted burial chamber deep underground, fitted with drainage, in which the form of the crypt expresses imperial ritual and rule.
After Qin unified the realm, the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, begun in 246 BCE, was greatly enlarged. Underground chambers, accompanying burial pits and protective drainage works fixed the pattern of the imperial crypt.
In the seventh year of Yongle of the Ming (1409), Changling was begun. The Ming Tombs, with their vaulted stone crypts and their round walled mounds, became the standard form of imperial tombs for the Ming and Qing.
The crypt expresses the idea of serving the dead as one serves the living: the tomb is built for a dead emperor, but according to the rites of his life.
Crypt Architecture is the class in the chapter on Architecture on the underground construction of imperial tombs, centred on the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin and the Ming Tombs. The crypts are roofed with vaults of stone and fitted with waterproofing and drainage works, setting the rite of serving the dead as one serves the living beneath the ground.
