Zhu Yuanzhang's mysterious water tomb refers to the Ming Zuling in the ancient Sizhou city. Later, because the ancient Sizhou city was flooded, the Ming Zuling sank to the bottom with the ancient Sizhou city and became a water burial tomb. In fact, the cemetery was built on land.

Sizhou City is located in Xuyi County, Huai 'an City, Jiangsu Province. Historically, it was an important city in the lower reaches of Huaihe River. Defending the south port on both sides of the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River to Bianhe North Canal is of outstanding strategic, transportation and economic status. Sizhou City was founded in the Northern Zhou Dynasty in 580. In the 19th year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (1680), the Yellow River seized the branch and entered the Huai River, and Sizhou City was devastated. By the thirty-fifth year of Kangxi (1696), the whole city was completely buried by sandstorms.

In 605, the first year of Sui Daye in the ancient Sizhou City, Yang Di recruited more than one million migrant workers from Jiangnan and Huaibei to build the Grand Canal, and the Tongjiqu Bianhe section just passed through Sizhou City, which was newly built only 25 years ago. After the Grand Canal was opened, Sizhou became the water transport center of Huanghuai and the inland transportation hub at the junction of Bianqu and Huaihe River.

1385, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of Daming, came here. In Yangjiadun, 13 miles outside the north gate of Sizhou City, a large-scale Ming "Three Ancestors Mausoleum" was built for his great-grandfather Zhu, his great-grandfather Zhu and his father Zhu Chuyi, and the stone carving in front of the tomb even surpassed the Nanjing Ming Mausoleum. As a result, in addition to the unprecedented developed commerce and transportation, the ancient Sizhou city has the status of the capital and the splendor of the palace, and has become one of the political and cultural centers of the Ming Dynasty.

10 winter, 1680, heavy rain caused "the Huaihe River and the Yellow River rise together, which is a terrible trend". More than 70 days later, it finally triggered a devastating flood, which rushed into Sizhou City and submerged the ancient city together with the Ming Zuling in the suburbs.

More than 300 years later, the Ming Zuling became a legend, because it sank to the bottom of the water and was called the mysterious water tomb.

At present, the archaeological excavation of Sizhou City in Xuyi County has begun, and the mysterious water tomb is about to see the light of day.