Shangfang Sun Wu Tomb

Shangfang Sun Wu Tomb

The Shangfang Sun Wu Tomb, also known as the Shangfang Eastern Wu Grand Tomb, is located at the southern foot of a small earthen mound called "Sun Family Tomb" in Zhongxia Village, Shangfang Town (now part of Dongshan Subdistrict), Jiangning District, Nanjing. It faces Qinglong Mountain and backs onto Huanglong Mountain. Unearthed on December 22, 2005, the tomb's occupant is inferred to have been a high-ranking noble or a member of the Sun Wu royal family.

The Shangfang Sun Wu Tomb pit measures 21.5 meters in length and 14.4 meters in width. It is an earth-pit vertical-shaft brick-chamber tomb, consisting of a burial mound, tomb pit, sloping ramp, drainage channel, and brick chamber. Prior to excavation, most of the burial mound, the roof of the front chamber, and the upper fill of the pit, ramp, and drainage channel had been damaged by construction work.

The Shangfang Sun Wu Tomb is the largest, most structurally complex, and richest in porcelain artifacts among all discovered Sun Wu tombs to date. Its scale far exceeds that of the Tomb of Zhu Ran and the adjacent Zhu Ran Family Tomb, as well as the Tomb of General Sun at Ezhou Iron and Steel Plant and Tomb No. 1 at Ezhou Beverage Plant in Hubei’s Ezhou, where the occupants are presumed to be members of the Sun Wu royal family. It even surpasses the Ma’anshan Songshan Tomb, which excavators believe to be the Dingling Tomb of Emperor Jing of Wu, Sun Xiu.

In 2013, the Shangfang Sun Wu Tomb in Nanjing was designated as part of the seventh group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level by the State Council.

Further reading:

· Seventh Group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level