Tomb of Yang Zuo

Tomb of Yang Zuo

Inside the Sun Bin Tourist City in Juancheng, Shandong, the joint tomb of Yang Zuo was listed as a county-level cultural heritage site in 1979.

Inside the Sun Bin Tourist City in Juancheng, Shandong, the tombs of Sun Bin, the joint tomb of Yang Zuo, and the tomb of Jing Ke are all key attractions.

Sun Ming, an expert in cultural relics from Heze City, Shandong, said that in the 1990s, he once conducted an archaeological survey at the Sun Bin Tourist City. At that time, the joint tomb of Yang Zuo was already preserved as a site-type cultural heritage, “however, no archaeological exploration was carried out on the joint tomb of Yang Zuo, so its exact scope and structure remain unknown.” An official from the tourism office of Juancheng City introduced that the joint tomb of Yang Zuo was listed as a county-level cultural heritage site in 1979, and the ancient tomb still exists today — it’s a large earthen mound with a diameter of 3 meters and a height of 2 meters. “There is also a stele erected by people from the Qing Dynasty in front of the ancient tomb, which is somewhat damaged.” The official explained that the Qing-era stele has been protected under a pavilion. That stele is called the “Epitaph Stele for the Ancient Righteous Man Zuo Boxiao of Fan County,” erected in 1807. It stands 1.7 meters tall and bears an inscription composed by the Qing scholar Sun Xingyan. The main text is written in regular script, comprising 14 lines with 38 characters per line, totaling 527 characters. The inscription describes the righteous deeds of Yang Jiao’ai and Zuo Boxiao, as well as research on their joint tomb. “Within a radius of dozens of miles in the local area, elements related to the joint tomb of Yang Zuo are still preserved in funeral customs. When a person passes away and is placed in a coffin, a small blue tile is placed on top of the coffin, tied with a red string to an arrowhead. The arrowhead points in the direction of Jing Ke’s tomb, and the tile is inscribed with the four characters ‘Arrow Shoots Jing Ke’ to protect the deceased from being disturbed by Jing Ke.”

Lu Weimin, director of the Juancheng County Cultural Relics Management Office, told reporters: “The tomb of Yang Zuo and its stele here more closely resemble burial methods from the Spring and Autumn period.”