Tomb of Zhang Huan

Tomb of Zhang Huan

The Tomb of Zhang Huan is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

The Tomb of Zhang Huan is located on Zhangjia Mountain in Fengqiao Town. It was designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Wuxian County in 1986, and in 1995, due to an administrative division change, it became a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

Zhang Huan, courtesy name Maoxian, was a native of Wuxian from the Ming Dynasty. He passed the imperial examination during the Jiajing era and rose to the position of Right Vice Censor-in-Chief. "His governance and literary works were highly regarded by his contemporaries." The "Wuxian Annals" states: "The tomb of Zhang Huan, Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Ming Dynasty, is located on Zhixing Mountain." Zhangjia Mountain is a spur of Zhixing Mountain, bordered by Tianping Mountain to the south, Hanshan Ridge to the west, and Jinshanbang to the east. The terrain is relatively high and the surroundings are tranquil. According to Li Genyuan’s "Record of Visiting Antiquities in the Western Mountains of Wujun": "It is said that the Zhang family’s burial ground was originally the site of Zhongfeng Temple. The Zhangs sought the mountain land for burial, allegedly set fire to the temple, and then donated another plot of land to rebuild the temple." If this account is accurate, it suggests that the tomb site was originally the location of Zhongfeng Temple on Zhixing Mountain, which was taken over by the Zhang family as a burial ground. The tomb complex is quite large. During the Cultural Revolution, the burial chamber was destroyed, but the stone statues and animals along the spirit way still remain. There is a pair of stone figures — a civil official and a military general — standing opposite each other, each 2.7 meters tall; a pair of stone horses, 1.5 meters tall and 1.9 meters long; a pair of stone tigers, 1.5 meters tall; and a pair of stone sheep, 1.1 meters tall and 1 meter long. All are made of bluestone, with relatively simple carving techniques. This site is one of the more intact surviving examples of spirit way stone carvings from a Ming Dynasty tomb.