Dongpo Crabapple Tree

Dongpo Crabapple Tree

The Dongpo Crabapple Tree is a cultural relics protection unit of Yixing City.

The Dongpo Crabapple Tree is located at the eastern end of Yongding Village, Zhakou Town, Yixing City. In June 1983, it was designated as a county-level cultural relics protection unit by the People’s Government of Yixing County.

During the Xining and Yuanyou reigns of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo was invited multiple times to visit Yixing by fellow jinshi (imperial examination graduates) such as Shan Xi and Jiang Zhiqi from Yixing, and he even married his niece to Shan Xi. Shao Minzhan, the owner of Tianyuan Hall in Zhakou, admired Su Dongpo’s literary talent, studied under him, and purchased farmland and a residence for Su Dongpo in Yan Tou Village (now Nanxintangtou Village) by Gihu Lake. In February 1083 (the sixth year of the Yuanyou era), when Shao Minzhan’s new residence was completed, Su Dongpo was invited to celebrate and inscribed a plaque titled “Tianyuan Hall” as a gift. In 1084 (the seventh year of the Yuanyou era), Su Dongpo visited Tianyuan Hall in Zhakou again and personally planted a “Western-style Crabapple Tree” brought from Sichuan in Shao’s courtyard. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, when the Jin army invaded the south, Shao’s former residence was burned down, and the “Tianyuan Hall” plaque was also damaged. In 1177 (the third year of the Chunxi era during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty), Shao Minzhan’s nephew Lu Zhao rebuilt Tianyuan Hall, traced the remnants of the old plaque, and engraved a new one. The existing “Tianyuan Hall” plaque is made of wood, inscribed with three large regular script characters reading “Tian Yuan Tang” from left to right. The heading reads “February of the Sixth Year of Yuanyou,” the signature is “Su Shi of Meishan,” and it bears the seal “De Shou Zhi Cheng” in white intaglio. The plaque is 2.26 meters long and 0.72 meters wide.

In 1952, the main trunk of the Western-style Crabapple Tree planted by Su Dongpo was broken by a typhoon, but new branches grew afterward, flourishing with leaves and blossoms. In 1982, through the efforts of Shao Bowen, a descendant of the Shao family, the Yixing County Government funded the construction of a surrounding wall around the crabapple tree, creating a crabapple garden. The renowned calligrapher Lin Sanzhi inscribed the garden’s name, Sha Manweng wrote the couplet, and two single-story houses were built at the northwest corner of the garden. Inside, the “Tianyuan Hall” plaque is displayed along with historical materials about Su Dongpo’s time in Yixing.