Looting of the Eastern Mausoleum

The Looting of the Eastern Mausoleum was an incident in which some of the major mausoleums of the Chinese Qing dynasty in the Eastern Qing Tombs were looted by troops under the command of the warlord Sun Dianying.

In the early hours of June 8, 1928, the warlord Sun Dianying led his army into the Eastern Mausoleums of the Qing dynasty in Malanyu, northwest of Zunhua, Hebei. This was the final resting place of the Qing emperors and empresses, that lay about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Forbidden City in Peking. The 78 square-kilometer (30.1 square-mile) burial site was for five emperors, 15 empresses and 136 imperial concubines within 15 tombs, including the Shunzhi Emperor (1638–1661), the Kangxi Emperor (1654–1722), the Qianlong Emperor (1711–1799), and Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908).

On June 12, 1928, Sun Dianying ordered a large scale grave robbing operation that removed almost all the underground funeral objects of the Huifeiling and Yuling Mausoleums and the underground palace of Puxiangyu East Dingling. Ma Futian, Regimental Commander in the 28th Army of Zhang Zuolin, had quietly occupied Malanyu. Sun Dianying ordered Tan Wenjiang, one of his division commanders, to capture the tomb area. At dawn on July 2, Ma Futian was driven away and Tan's army looted the mausoleums in Malanyu. After that, Sun's army went straight to the area of the Eastern Qing Tombs, pretending to engage in war exercises in the area. Tan Wenjiang placed policemen all around, denying access to the area and signs declared the army was "protecting the Tombs" to prevent interference.

The looting operation was directed by Sun Dianying from his car. Trucks were on hand to speed away with the loot as soon as they were loaded. At midnight, the engineering corps blew up the entrance, opening the passage leading to the underground palace. The stone door was pried open to give access to the rear room of the grave. Sun gave first priority to officers above battalion commander level to collect treasure for themselves. Finally, ordinary soldiers were allowed to take the leftovers.

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