Tomb of Liu Guo

Tomb of Liu Guo

The Tomb of Liu Guo is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

The Tomb of Liu Guo is located at the eastern foot of Ma’anshan within Tinglin Park in Kunshan City.

Liu Guo, styled Gaizhi and also known as Longzhou Daoren, was a native of Taihe (some say Ji’an), Jiangxi Province. Renowned for his poetry and ci, he was a bold and unconstrained style poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, and maintained close ties with Xin Qiji, Lu You, and Chen Liang. Throughout his life, he led a carefree, wandering existence, and after his death, he was buried on the eastern side of Ma’anshan. During the “Cultural Revolution,” the tomb was damaged but was restored in 1983. It is built of granite, has an octagonal layout, with a perimeter of 11.5 meters and a height of about 2 meters, topped with a mound of earth. In front of the tomb stands a memorial stele inscribed with “Tomb of Master Longzhou, a Scholar from Luling.” In front of the stele are stone steps, behind it lies a mountain cliff, and nearby are the Jade Liquid Pool and the Clear Gorge Spring. Above are the Cloud-Splitting Peak and the Cloud-Retaining Cave. The site enjoys a tranquil environment, lush trees, and a solemn and respectful atmosphere.

To the east of the tomb is the “East Studio,” originally a monk’s quarters of the Huiju Temple built during the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties. In the fifth year of the Jiading era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1212), it was converted into the Longzhou Shrine. In the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), local residents raised funds to renovate it, adding a central hall, two side rooms, and corridors. The hall is 17 meters wide, 8.5 meters deep, with eaves 5 meters high, featuring a flush gable roof style that is tall and spacious. Inside the shrine, four stone tablets from the Yuan and Ming dynasties remain on the walls: 《Liu Longzhou Tomb Archway》, 136 cm high and 66 cm wide, in clerical script, erected in 1353; 《Tomb Epitaph of Master Liu of the Song Dynasty》, written by Yang Weizhen, 146 cm high and 68 cm wide, in clerical script, erected in 1363; 《Portrait and Biography of Mr. Liu Longzhou of the Song Dynasty》, respectively authored by Yang Ziqi and Gu Xichou, 90 cm high and 44 cm wide, in regular script, erected in 1641; 《Genealogy of the Liu Family》 by Chen Jiru, with the same dimensions, script style, and erection date as the previous one. All are embedded in the back wall of the central hall. The structure was renovated again in 1963 and 1983.