The Tomb of the Wang Family of Zhengding

The Tomb of the Wang Family of Zhengding

The Tomb of the Wang Family of Zhengding is a cultural relic protection unit of Hebei Province.

The Tomb of the Wang Family of Zhengding is an ancient tomb complex from the Tang Dynasty, located in the areas of Muzhuang Village and Yujiazhuang Village in Zhengding County. It served as the burial site for successive generations of the Wang family, who were military governors (jiedushi) of the semi-independent Chengde Commandery—a regional power that controlled part of Hebei during the late Tang period. To date, the tombs of Wang Shizhen, Wang Yuankui and his wife, Princess Luoguo (the Eldest Princess of Luoguo), and Wang ? have been discovered. In October 2008, it was designated as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit of Hebei Province.

　According to historical records, in the 17th year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1837), Shen Tao, the magistrate of Zhengding and author of the "Changshan Zhen Shi Zhi" (Records of Stone Inscriptions from Changshan), discovered the epitaph of Wang ?, a military governor of the Chengde Army during the Tang Dynasty, outside Lijiazhuang Village north of Zhengding. Between 1973 and 1979, three Tang Dynasty tombs were excavated in Muzhuang Village; only one of them yielded the epitaph of Wang Yuankui, a military governor of the Chengde Army, along with the cover of the epitaph of his wife, Princess Luoguo. In April 2007, another epitaph of Wang Shizhen, also a military governor of the Chengde Army, was unearthed at the seventh construction section of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, northwest of Yujiazhuang Village north of Zhengding. Currently, apart from Wang ?’s epitaph, which has been lost for many years, the others are preserved at the Zhengding Cultural Relics Preservation Office.

Based on the excavation of the tombs of Wang Yuankui and two other nearby Tang tombs, as well as the discovery of Wang Shizhen’s epitaph, it is inferred that the Wang Family Tomb Complex may have suffered looting or devastating destruction at some point in history. There is currently no documented evidence regarding the exact time of such events. However, as an important burial site from the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty—especially with the discovery of the epitaphs of Wang Yuankui and Wang Shizhen—it provides rare physical materials for studying the political and military conditions of the Chengde Commandery (present-day Zhengding), one of the “Three Commanderies of Hebei” during the Tang era. On October 20, 2008, it was listed by Hebei Province as part of the fifth batch of provincial-level cultural relic protection units.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Hebei Province