Tomb of Li Genyuan

Tomb of Li Genyuan

The tomb of Li Genyuan is located on Little King Mountain (also known as Qintai Mountain), east of the Qionglu Mountains in Cangshu Township, Wu County.

Li Genyuan, courtesy name Yinquan, was from Tengchong County, Yunnan Province. He studied in Japan in his early years and played a significant role after returning to China in 1909 during the Double Ninth Uprising, the campaign against Yuan Shikai, the struggle against warlords, and the opposition to Cao Kun’s bribery to become president. In 1922, he served as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce and Acting Premier under the Beiyang government. In 1927, he retired to Suzhou, and the following year purchased the mountain here to bury his mother. He lived by her grave in mourning, cleared springs, carved stones, planted bamboo and pine trees, and developed more than ten scenic spots including Hushan Hall and Tingsong Pavilion. During this time, numerous veterans of the Kuomintang and social celebrities visited him, leaving hundreds of inscribed poems and calligraphy works. Li commissioned the carving of these artworks onto the mountain rocks, featuring a variety of scripts including regular, cursive, clerical, and seal styles. The cliff inscriptions on Little King Mountain are abundant, beautifully written, and exquisitely engraved, making it a sort of “open-air exhibition hall” of modern celebrity calligraphy. Li Genyuan passed away in Beijing in 1965 and was later buried alongside his wife Ma Shulan beside his mother’s tomb on Little King Mountain. In 1985, on the 20th anniversary of his death, the tomb was restored, and the “Queying Village Cottage,” where he had lived by the gravesite, was also rebuilt.