Tomb of Yang Shenxiu

　　Tomb of Yang Shenxiu (Third Batch Provincial-Level Protected Site)

　　Era: Late Qing Dynasty

　　Location: 50 meters south of Yizhang Village, Xiayang Township, Wenxi County

　　Yang Shenxiu was a reformist during the late Qing Dynasty. His courtesy name was Yicun, and he was from Wenxi, Shanxi. During the Hundred Days' Reform (1898), he advocated for political reform and was executed by Empress Dowager Cixi, making him one of the Six Gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform. The tomb mound is circular, 3 meters high, with a stone base at the bottom and an earthen dome on top, spanning 6 meters in diameter. Beside the mound stands a tombstone inscribed with “Tomb of Yang Shenxiu, A Patriot of the Hundred Days' Reform.”

　　Yang Shenxiu (1849～1898)　　Yang Shenxiu was from Yizhang Village, Wenxi County, Shanxi. He was born on April 24, 1849 (the second day of the fourth lunar month in the 29th year of the Daoguang reign, Qing Dynasty). At the age of 12, he became a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations at the county level), and at 21, he passed the provincial examination as the third-ranked Jinqiu. In 1871, at the age of 22, he went to Beijing to take the imperial examination for the Xinwei Year (the 10th year of the Tongzhi reign) but did not pass. While in Beijing, he studied under masters and delved into Han Learning, advocating for contemporary classical studies and showing particular fondness for Gongyang Commentary. 1877–1878 (the third to fourth years of the Guangxu reign), a severe drought struck several northern provinces including Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, with Shanxi being the worst affected. Shanxi Governor Zeng Guoquan reported in a memorial: “Over a thousand li of land has turned barren, and the number of starving people has reached five to six million—a catastrophe of extraordinary proportions...” Details +