Tomb of Eunuch Wei Juan

Tomb of Eunuch Wei Juan

The Tomb of Eunuch Wei Juan is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Tomb of Eunuch Wei Juan is located at Yaojiagang in Dongshan, Guangzhou, behind the old Yongtai Temple. It was excavated in 1964. The tomb is a vaulted stone chamber facing southeast and backing northwest, constructed from red sandstone blocks, with a total length of 7.44 meters. The tomb chamber is meticulously built and hermetically sealed, featuring unique anti-theft measures. The thickness of the arched side walls and the rear wall of the stone chamber exceeds 1 meter. The front section has five layers of arched vaults, while the rear has four. Outside the stone chamber is a three-cornered brick wall up to half a meter thick, coated with lime on the exterior. Between the stone chamber and the burial pit, the surrounding area is densely packed with layers of lime, sand, gravel, and clay from top to bottom, mixed with a large amount of iron sand, making it as hard as rock. The tomb floor’s rammed earth layer is about 1 meter thick, compacted in nine layers. The tomb door is sealed with horizontally stacked stone slabs. The interior is divided into a main chamber and an antechamber. The antechamber is 1.13 meters long, 1.21 meters wide, and 1.38 meters high. It is entirely filled with stacked red sandstone slabs up to the ceiling. The main chamber is 3.91 meters long, 1.76 meters wide, and 1.8 meters high, with its floor two steps lower than that of the antechamber. The doorway is equipped with a lintel, door frame, and sill, and the pair of stone slab doors are hinged to allow opening and closing. The stone doors are carved with knobs and rings, and behind them is a “self-standing stone” mechanism. The chamber floor is paved with stone slabs, and at the center lies a sarcophagus pedestal resembling a Sumeru throne, with shallow carvings of swirling cloud patterns.

The tomb has been looted and severely damaged. There is a robbery hole in the roof of the antechamber, and four of the sealed stone slabs have been pried loose and pushed to the entrance of the main chamber. The coffin platform has been dismantled, with the stone slabs piled to one side. Many floor bricks and stones have also been removed, and all burial objects were stolen. During the excavation, only one plain thin circular gold piece was recovered, along with a broken piece of red coral, three Song dynasty coins, one Southern Han lead coin, and three foreign silver coins. Among the foreign coins, two are 15th-century Bengal silver coins, minted in 1459 by Rukn al-Din Barbak Shah of Bengal (reigned 1459–1462 AD). The other is a 15th-century Venetian silver coin, issued by Pasquale Malipiero, Doge of the Republic of Venice (reigned 1457–1462 AD), known as a “grosso” or “grosetto” silver coin.

A stone tomb stele was also unearthed at the site, inscribed with phrases such as “The fifth day of the eleventh month of the eighth year of the Hongzhi reign of the Great Ming” and “Tomb of Eunuch Wei, Imperial Commissioner and Supervisor of Maritime Trade in Guangdong and Guangxi.” This confirms that the tomb belonged to the Ming dynasty eunuch Wei Juan, who served as the Superintendent of the Guangzhou Maritime Trade Office during the Chenghua to Hongzhi eras (1465–1495 AD).