The Tomb of the Chen Yi Family

The Tomb of the Chen Yi Family

The Tomb of the Chen Yi Family is a cultural relic protection unit of Guangdong Province.

The Tomb of the Chen Yi Family, dating back to the Ming Dynasty, is located in Jinzhou Community, Humen Town, Dongguan City.

Chen Yi was an ancestor of the Chen residents in Beizha Community, Humen, and a forebear whom the Chen descendants take great pride in. This is because Chen Yi was the first person in China to introduce sweet potatoes, a pioneer of China’s second food revolution, and made outstanding contributions to alleviating hunger among the people at the time.

In the eighth year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1580), Chen Yi, dressed in plain clothes and carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle, took a merchant ship from Humen to Vietnam with the help of a friend. Upon arrival, the tribal chief of Vietnam served them a banquet, during which a sweet, soft, and smooth official dish — “sweet potato” — was presented. This caught Chen Yi’s interest — “If only I could bring this back to plant, how many people could have their hunger relieved!”

From then on, he began paying close attention to the growth habits and cultivation methods of this filling official dish. A year later, at the risk of his own life, he bribed a tribal guard and hid sweet potato seeds in a bronze drum, intending to smuggle them back to China. But to his surprise, just as the ship was about to set sail, several Vietnamese official boats carrying numerous guards arrived to arrest him. At this life-or-death moment, the accompanying Chinese crew showcased their superior seafaring skills, sailing ahead by a hair’s breadth and entering China’s borders first. Thus, Chen Yi finally managed to bring the sweet potato seeds hidden in the bronze drum back to Humen.

Afterward, he planted them in his own courtyard, where the vines quickly sprawled, covering the yard. When dug up and cooked, they were just as fragrant and smooth as those from abroad. He then spent all his family fortune to purchase 35 acres of land next to the tomb of his grandfather, Chen Zhijing (literary name Yizhi, style name Lianfeng, who once served as the Assistant Regional Commander of the Left River Pacification Commission), to sow the seeds. He even chose his own burial site within the sweet potato field, wishing to be together with the sweet potatoes for eternity. Before he passed away, he wrote a will instructing his descendants to hold ancestral worship ceremonies in spring and autumn every year.

Until the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the descendants of Chen Yi still used red-skinned sweet potatoes as offerings during annual tomb-sweeping rituals, along with the inscription: “A pair of sweet potatoes brings more wealth than a thousand crates.”

Jinzhou Community: Covering an area of 4.8 square kilometers, Jinzhou Community consists of 7 resident groups, with a registered population of 3,874 and a migrant population of about 25,000. The community currently has 8 “two-committee” officials (including 8 Party committee members and 5 residents' committee members, with 5 holding dual positions). Among them, 6 have high school education or below, and 2 hold college degrees or above. The community Party general branch has a total of 189 Party members. There are 3 “two-new” (new economic organizations and new social organizations) Party organizations under the community, with 11 “two-new” Party members. In 2011, the total assets of the community (at both levels) were 677 million yuan, with total income of 85.35 million yuan, net profit of 44.9 million yuan, and assets... Detailed information about Jinzhou Community++

Further reading:

· Ninth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Guangdong Province