Qing Dynasty Posthumously Honored Hetuo Zhong Prince Stele

Qing Dynasty Posthumously Honored Hetuo Zhong Prince Stele

The Qing Dynasty Posthumously Honored Hetuo Zhong Prince Stele is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Zhong Prince Stele is located to the south of Kuli Village, Xinfeng Township, Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County, Jilin Province. Locals commonly refer to it as the “Kuli Stele” (see photo). As the stele is inscribed in both Manchu and Mongolian scripts, it is also known as the “Manchu-Mongolian Script Stele.”

The stele stands 5.82 meters tall in total, made of igneous rock. Its top features a decorative arch with dragons playing with a pearl and an inscription, while the lower part includes a pedestal. The body of the stele is finely carved with 12 cloud-dragon patterns around its circumference, all facing downward with their heads at the top and each chasing a ball. The inscriptions consist of 383 vertical Manchu and Mongolian characters in 15 lines, carved in intaglio. The right side has eight lines in Mongolian (201 characters), and the left side has seven lines in Manchu (182 characters). The first line of each script reads “Stele for the Posthumously Honored Zhong Prince and the Virtuous Consort of the Zhong Prince,” and the last line of each reads “Erected on the seventh day of the fifth month of the twelfth year of the Shunzhi reign in the Great Qing.”

The Zhong Prince, named Zhasang of the Borjigit clan, was a Beile (noble rank) of the Horqin tribe of Mongolia during the early Qing Dynasty. He was the maternal grandfather of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, and the Virtuous Consort of the Zhong Prince, his wife, was Emperor Shunzhi’s maternal grandmother. After their deaths, in May of the eleventh year of the Shunzhi reign (1654), they were posthumously honored as Hetuo Zhong Prince and Virtuous Consort. On the seventh day of the fifth month of the twelfth year of the Shunzhi reign, in accordance with the emperor’s decree, their eldest grandson, Heta, erected this stele in front of their tomb.

The translated text of the stele inscription is as follows:

“Emperors honor the virtuous and reward merit, and thus bestow lofty titles to extend glory through generations. They uphold precedents and preserve legacies, broadening the path of kinship, engraving them in iron and stone to reveal their origins and express reverence.”

To the Holy Mother, the Wise, Benevolent, and Reverent Empress Dowager:

Our late father and mother raised us. Tracing our roots, it was our ancestors who received blessings and thus brought forth virtuous offspring, and our grandmothers who attained honor and thereby bestowed fortune. Your son has now inherited this title and been granted great grace. In tending to the remains of our grandmother and remembering the grace of our ancestors, we have compiled this memorial text to posthumously honor our grandfather as the Zhong Prince and our grandmother as the Virtuous Consort of the Zhong Prince. This stele is erected at their tomb to endure for future generations, preserving the kindness and grace of familial bonds.”

Originally, this stele had a pavilion, which was a four-cornered hip-and-gable structure made of brick and tile. Behind the pavilion was a temple compound enclosed by blue brick walls, with a three-room entrance gatehouse at the front—featuring a central gate flanked by statues of Guan Ping and Zhou Cang. Inside the courtyard was a three-room main hall housing a statue of Guan Yu. In the early years of the People’s Republic of China, this temple was destroyed. Beneath the statue of Guan Yu, a brick-chambered tomb was discovered, containing a wooden coffin. Inside the coffin was an urn in a dull yellow hue, inlaid with gold and silver ornaments, holding fragmented bones. Additionally, many valuable gold and silver artifacts were unearthed from the tomb. It is speculated that this may have been the burial site of the Zhong Prince and the Virtuous Consort.

This stele has been designated as a Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit of Jilin Province.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units