Tomb of Tao Xingzhi

Tomb of Tao Xingzhi

The Tomb of Tao Xingzhi is a Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a classic red tourism attraction.

The Tomb of Tao Xingzhi is located on Laoshan in Xiaozhuang, outside the Zhongyang Gate of Nanjing. Tao Xingzhi, originally named Wen Junqing, was from She County, Anhui Province. He was a renowned educator and the founder of Nanjing Xiaozhuang Normal School. On July 25, 1946, he passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in Shanghai. In accordance with his will, his family had him buried in Xiaozhuang, Nanjing. The tomb mound has a diameter of about 8 meters and a height of 2.8 meters, with a seven-step staircase in front of the grave. The tomb path features a memorial stele and a memorial archway. The top of the stele is carved with cloud patterns, measuring 0.6 meters in height, 1.56 meters in width, and 0.28 meters in thickness; the main body of the stele is 2.28 meters tall, 1.5 meters wide, and 0.24 meters thick. The front is inscribed with “Tomb of Mr. Tao Xingzhi” by Shen Junru, with the inscription “Jointly Buried by Fifty-Three People’s Organizations of China” below. The base of the stele is 0.21 meters high, 2.35 meters wide, and 1 meter thick. The memorial archway was erected in December 1946, standing about 5 meters high with a 4-meter spacing, and bears the inscription “Love Fills the World” written by Tao Xingzhi on the horizontal beam. The pillars of the archway are inscribed with words from Tao Xingzhi’s teachings as quoted by Guo Moruo: “Of all teaching, teach people to seek truth; of all learning, learn to be true persons.” After the liberation, the tomb underwent multiple renovations and landscaping efforts.

Tao Xingzhi (1891–1946) was a great Chinese people's educator. He was born on October 18, 1891, in Huangtanyuan Village, Xixiang, She County, Anhui Province. Intelligent and studious from an early age, a local village teacher believed this child would grow up to achieve great things and allowed him to attend school for free. In 1906, he entered Chongyi School, a church-run institution in his county, where he studied English, mathematics, physics, and chemistry for free, beginning his exposure to Western bourgeois education. However, having always lived at the bottom of Chinese society, he developed a deep awareness of the hardships faced by ordinary people from childhood... More details about Tao Xingzhi ++

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units