Since both feudal concepts and religious superstition militated a burial with her first husband, Xiaozhuangwen did not have much choice but to ask to be buried near Xiaoling Mausoleum.

Complying with Xiaozhuangwen's last wishes, Kangxi built "Zhananfeng Temple" in the south of Xiaoling Mausoleum. But, in the second year of his reign (1724), Emperor Yong Zheng built the present mausoleum for her, "West Zhaoling Mausoleum." Built to resemble the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Huangtaiji in Shenyang, the West Zhaoling Mausoleum is located several hundred km away from Zhaoling Mausoleum. It is a one-of-a-kind among Qing Dynasty mausoleums.

 Grave Robbers

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty and due to factions from the Revolution of 1911, separationist warlord regimes fought ceaseless wars. Amidst this chaos, grave robbers went out on the prowl. Since Qing tomb guards no longer received wages, they often stole or helped steal the treasures. Trucks full of cultural relics stolen from mausoleums were very common on the roads of Jixian County at the time. Under the warlord Zhang Zuolin in Northeast China, the era witnessed so much looting that even most trees in the mausoleum areas went missing.

By 1928 almost all of the underground funeral objects from Huifeiling, Yuling Mausoleum and Putuoyu East Dingling had disappeared.

On June 12 of that year, Ma Futian, regimental commander in the 28th Army of Zhang Zuolin occupied Malanyu. Sun Dianying, another warlord, however, ordered Tan Wenjiang, one of his military leaders, 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 marched straight to the Qing tombs under the guise of engaging in war exercises.

Tan Wenjiang stationed policemen around the area to "protect the tombs."

At midnight the engineering corps blew up the entrance, opening the passage leading to the underground palace. The stone door was pried open to access the rear room. Sun Dianying then gave officers above the battalion commander level permission to collect treasures for themselves. Finally, ordinary soldiers were allowed to rummage through the leftovers.

The robbers first grabbed the large treasures surrounding the remains of Cixi, such as jadeite watermelons, grasshoppers and vegetables, jade lotus and coral. They even took objects found beneath her body and ravaged the corpse itself, taking her imperial robe; tearing off her under clothing, shoes and socks, and all of the pearls and jewels on her body. They even pried open Cixi's jaw and stole a rare pearl from her mouth. Finally, they looted some of the empress' favorite objects tucked away under her coffin.

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