Tomb of Xiao Wei

Tomb of Xiao Wei

The tomb of Xiao Wei, the Prince Yuanxiang of Nanping from the Liang Dynasty, is located on the north side of Zhoujiashan in Yaohuamen, northeast of Nanjing, approximately 3 kilometers east of Ganjiaxiang.

Xiao Wei, courtesy name Wenda, was the eighth son of Emperor Wen of Liang, Xiao Shunzhi. During the Southern Qi Dynasty, he served successively as military advisor to Prince Jin'an, military governor, and governor of Yongzhou. In the first year of the Tianjian era (502), he was created the Prince of Jian’an. In the seventeenth year of Tianjian, his title was changed to the Prince of Nanping. He was later promoted to positions including Palace Attendant, Left Guanglu Grand Master, Central Pacification General, Chancellor with the Same Authority as the Three Excellencies, Director of the Palace Secretariat, and Grand Marshal. He passed away in the fourth year of the Zhongdatong era (532) and was posthumously honored as Palace Attendant, Grand Tutor, with the posthumous title “Yuanxiang.”

Two stone pillars remain in front of the tomb, which were originally buried underground. At the end of 1978, while working in the fields, members of the Beijiabian community in Wulong Village, Yaohua Township, discovered a broken section of a stone pillar. In 1979, the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee and the Nanjing Museum conducted a clearance and excavation of the stone carvings and tomb, unearthing two stone pillars from the spirit way. The eastern pillar retains parts of the pillar body and base; the western pillar retains the pillar capital, body, and base. Inscriptions on the pillar capitals can still be faintly identified, including characters such as “Former Palace Attendant, Central Pacification…”

The burial chamber is located about 700 meters north of the spirit way stone pillars. It is a single-chamber brick tomb with a vaulted ceiling. The tomb is 10.25 meters in total length, 3.48 meters at its widest point, and 4.44 meters in height, oriented at 176 degrees. The burial objects inside were disturbed and damaged. A total of 56 artifacts were unearthed, including stone epitaphs, pottery, celadon ware, and bronze items. There are four stone epitaph slabs: the first measures 1.06 meters in length, 0.38 meters in width, and 0.13 meters in thickness. Only around 120 characters of the inscription remain legible, featuring neat and elegant script similar to that of the Xiao ?? stele, representing a relatively mature form of regular script. The other three epitaphs are similar in size and shape to the first but the inscriptions have eroded and are no longer identifiable.