Tomb of Qin Yi

Tomb of Qin Yi

The Tomb of Qin Yi is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

The Tomb of Qin Yi is located at Qinjiabao at the foot of Feixian Mountain on West Hill, commonly referred to locally as the King’s Tomb. The burial site spans approximately ten acres, with relatively well-preserved earthen mounds about three meters high and around forty meters in circumference. To the south stands a bluestone tomb stele and an offering platform. The stele was re-erected in the 42nd year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1703), inscribed with “Joint Tomb of the Late Song Hanlin Academician and Imperial Son-in-Law Yuan De Qin Gong and Princess E Ming. Erected in the 42nd Year of Kangxi, in the cyclical year of Zhaoyang Xieqia, during the Osmanthus Month.”

Qin Yi (1229–1273), courtesy name Yuande, was a native of Qinjiabao on West Hill and the eighth-generation descendant of Qin Guan, the renowned Song Dynasty poet. He passed the imperial examination at the age of nineteen in the 7th year of the Chunyou era (1248) and was appointed as a Hanlin Academy editor. Later, he married Princess E Ming, the daughter of Emperor Lizong. Princess E Ming (1229–1270), who was the same age as her husband, was granted the title of Imperial Son-in-Law along with a Golden Certificate. He was successively appointed as Golden Purple Grand Master of Splendid Happiness and Direct Academician of Baowen Pavilion. His former residence was in Qinjiabao on West Hill, and after the age of forty, he lived on West Hill with Princess E Ming. After Qin Yi’s death, the court bestowed funeral rites and a burial tunnel, and he was interred alongside Princess E Ming at the ancestral tomb near the southern foot of Feixian Mountain, by Piaomiao Peak. At the time of his passing, only seven years remained before the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. Aware that the dynasty had no hope of survival, he admonished his descendants not to serve the Yuan Dynasty, instructing them with the words “You may study, but you may not seek office.” He had three sons — Xiaomao, Xiaoguang, and Xiaoyi — all of whom were granted official positions through their status as sons of an imperial son-in-law.