Tomb of Gao Panlong

Tomb of Gao Panlong

The Tomb of Gao Panlong is a cultural relic protection unit of Wuxi City.

The tomb of Gao Panlong is located on Qingshan Hill in the western suburbs of Wuxi.

Gao Panlong, one of the leading figures of the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty, had the courtesy name Yuncóng, later changed to Cúnzhī, and the pseudonym Jǐngyì. A native of Wuxi, he passed the imperial examination during the Wanli reign and became Left Censor-in-Chief. He was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown for opposing the eunuch faction, and gave lectures at the Donglin Academy with Gu Xiancheng and others. In the sixth year of the Tianqi era (1626), Wei Zhongxian sent men to arrest him, and he committed suicide by drowning.

After Gao Panlong drowned himself, he was hastily buried near Hengshan in the western suburbs of Wuxi. Following the rehabilitation of the Donglin injustice case during the Chongzhen era, his tomb was rebuilt on the original site. In February of the third year of the Shunzhi era in the Qing Dynasty (1646), his remains were relocated to the southeastern foot of Can Mountain. In 1966, the tomb was destroyed. In 1985, it was reconstructed atop Qingshan Hill, covering an area of 490 square meters. The tomb gate faces north, with stone steps and an altar in front. The tomb complex is enclosed by a brick wall, and inside there is a stone-lined earthen mound, 2.9 meters in diameter and 1.8 meters high. In front of the tomb stands a bluestone stele inscribed with “Tomb of Gao Panlong of the Ming Dynasty.”