Tomb of Dao Gui

Tomb of Dao Gui

The Tomb of Dao Gui is a protected cultural heritage site of Shandong Province.

The Tomb of Dao Gui is located to the south of Majia Village in Lixia District, Jinan City (currently beneath the Shandong Metallurgical Hotel).

The tomb chamber faces south and is a single-chamber grave built from blue shale rock, consisting of a tomb passage, corridor, and main burial chamber. The chamber has a slightly rounded trapezoidal floor plan, measuring 3.4 meters in length from north to south, 2.8 meters in width at the northern wall, 3.3 meters at the southern wall, and 3.2 meters in height. The door wall and chamber walls were coated with white lime and painted with murals. The southern entrance of the corridor features a white tiger outlined in ink, while the ceiling depicts celestial images such as the sun, moon, Big Dipper, and Southern Dipper. The northern wall shows a nine-panel screen, with the central panel depicting the tomb owner seated at ease on a support, flanked by two clerks handling affairs, as well as mountain landscapes and drifting clouds. The southern wall illustrates two gate-guarding warriors; the eastern wall shows two ceremonial guards holding weapons and a scene of horses being prepared; the western wall features a carriage, behind which are the tomb owner’s wife and two maidservants. Some human figures were initially sketched in ochre, while others were outlined with fine sticks on wet lime plaster before being refined with ink lines and then colored with ochre, vermilion, and other pigments. Burial objects include over ten items such as pottery plates, porcelain ewers, and celadon bowls. A set of epitaphs was also found, with the cover left plain. According to the inscription, the tomb was built in the second year of the Wuping era of the Northern Qi Dynasty (571). It was designated as a protected cultural heritage site of Shandong Province in 1992.

Dao Gui (500–569) was a native of Nanyang who relocated to Licheng during the Xiaochang era of the Northern Wei Dynasty (525–527). In the second year of the Huangjian era of the Northern Qi Dynasty (561), he was appointed by imperial decree as the magistrate of Zhuyi County (then governed from present-day Gucheng Village in the western suburbs of Jinan), where he died in office.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Protected Cultural Heritage Sites of Shandong Province