Tomb of Ba Manzi

Tomb of Ba Manzi

The Tomb of Ba Manzi is a protected cultural heritage site of Chongqing Municipality.

The Tomb of Ba Manzi, commonly known as the "General’s Tomb," is located beneath the Yuhai Building at Lianhua Pond in Qixinggang, Yuzhong District (in the basement of a furniture store next to Shanghai No. 1 Department Store).

The tomb site is an arched stone cave, measuring 4.78 meters in length, 5.2 meters in width, and 2.6 meters in height, covering an area of about 20 square meters. The tomb is built in a hexagonal shape with stone slabs and has a round top, sealed with a lime-based mortar. In front of the tomb is a gabled, wood-like stone roof structure, with a blue-grey stone stele embedded in the front facade. The current tomb stele was inscribed by Dang Maoxin, a veteran of the Xinhai Revolution, reading “Tomb of General Ba Manzi of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.”

The tomb chamber and the stele show severe signs of weathering. The hexagonal shape of the tomb can be faintly discerned, entirely enclosed in stone. The central stele bears the seal script inscription “Tomb of General Ba Manzi of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty,” with the upper inscription reading “The 11th Year of the Republic of China, February, Auspicious Day,” and the lower inscription “Inscribed by Dang Maoxin of Rong County.”

Over 500 years ago during the Ming Dynasty, a book titled “Famous Sights of Shu” described the Qixinggang area where the tomb is located as follows: “Behind the Prefectural School at Lianhua Dam, there are stone lions and stone tigers, traditionally believed to be the tomb of the King of Ba.” Later, burial items were discovered, proving that the interred was not a king but a general, hence the site has also been commonly referred to by locals as the General’s Tomb.