Tomb of the Prince of Yi from the Ming Dynasty

Tomb of the Prince of Yi from the Ming Dynasty

The Tomb of the Prince of Yi from the Ming Dynasty is a national key cultural relics protection unit.

The tomb complex of the Prince of Yi’s family is located on Hongmen Ridge in Hongmen Town, Nancheng County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province. It is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Jiangxi.

In the 29th year of the Wanli era (1601), Hongmen and Yuekou were designated as the burial grounds for the Prince of Yi’s family. The Hongmen burial area spans from Xutian and Zhuangshang in the north to Puqian in the south, covering an area of 20 square li. According to the Nancheng County Annals, the tomb complex of the Prince of Yi’s family is the burial site for the descendants of Prince Yi Duan, the son of Emperor Zhu Jianshen of the Ming Dynasty. This includes the tombs of Prince Yi Duan Zhu Youbin, Prince Yi Zhuang Zhu Houye, Prince Yi Gong Zhu Houxuan, and the last Prince Yi Zhu Cixi, along with their descendants through successive generations. The burial chambers of these princes are grand “underground palaces,” some constructed with brick and others with lime. They are covered with stone slabs weighing several tons, sealed with a mixture of lime and glutinous rice paste. In front of the tombs are spirit ways and spirit way steles, flanked by stone statues of civil and military officials, as well as stone horses and figures. Protective walls were also built around the tombs, along with prohibition signs stating “This is the burial ground of the Prince of Yi. Commoners are not allowed to bury graves, graze animals, or hunt here,” and there were dedicated personnel for supervision. The Ming-era tomb complex of the Prince of Yi in Hongmen was excavated in the 1970s. Among the unearthed artifacts, in addition to a number of gold and jade items, there were also 110 complete sets of ceremonial figurines, providing valuable reference material for the study of the ritual systems and scale of Ming princes. These artifacts are now preserved in the provincial museum.

Further Reading:

· Seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units