Tomb of Chang Yuchun

Tomb of Chang Yuchun

The Tomb of Chang Yuchun is a protected cultural heritage site of Jiangsu Province.

The Tomb of Chang Yuchun is located in Baima Village at the foot of the third peak of Zhongshan Mountain, outside Taiping Gate in Nanjing. Chang Yuchun, courtesy name Borren, was a native of Huaiyuan in Haozhou (present-day Huaiyuan, Anhui) and one of the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty. He was posthumously conferred the title of Prince of Kaiping and honored with the posthumous name Zhongwu.

The original stone carvings in front of the tomb were quite large in scale, similar to those in front of Xu Da’s tomb, but today they are largely damaged. Only one eight-sided stone pillar remains, standing 2.8 meters tall; two stone horses, each 1.9 meters high, accompanied by a horse attendant—one of whom has a damaged head. The saddle of the horse is adorned with a decorative band of entwined floral patterns, and within a central crabapple-shaped curved frame, intricately carved cloud-and-dragon motifs are finely detailed. There are also two stone sheep, each 1.05 meters high; two stone tigers, each 1.25 meters high; two stone statues of military generals, each 2.5 meters high; and one tomb stele erected in February of the tenth year of the Tongzhi reign in the Qing Dynasty (1871), inscribed with “Tomb of Chang Yuchun, Prince of Kaiping, Founding Ancestor of the Ming Dynasty.” It was erected by descendants from the 16th to the 19th generations. The tomb mound has been repaired twice. Currently, the tomb is enclosed by block stones with a diameter of 9.5 meters and a height of 2.4 meters. Several column bases near the tomb are believed to be remnants of the offering hall. In the summer of 1988, to construct the Eastern Urban Expressway, all the stone carvings of Chang Yuchun’s tomb were relocated in the same direction as the tomb mound.

Further Reading:

· First and Second Batch of Protected Cultural Heritage Sites of Jiangsu Province