Tomb of Wu ? Scenic Area

　　Located on a verdant hill on the northeast side of Huicheng County, historically known as Zhonglou Mountain and now called Wushan, this scenic spot is enveloped by towering cypress trees, creating a serene natural environment that has naturally become a destination for visitors. The tomb of Wu Jie, a Song Dynasty general, along with the “Epitaph Stele for the Late Song Dynasty Duke Wu Zhonglie, Formerly the Prefect of Kaifu,” is situated here.

　　Originally, there were two burial mounds at Wushan. One has completely lost its tomb remnants, while the other is located approximately nine meters directly east of the stele. It is circular in shape, standing 1.4 meters high with a base diameter of 9.3 meters. The bottom part is built up with stones to about 40 centimeters high.

　　The “Epitaph Stele for the Late Song Dynasty Duke Wu Zhonglie, Formerly the Prefect of Kaifu” faces west and measures 2.96 meters in height, 1.53 meters in width, and 0.31 meters in thickness. Below the stele’s top tablet are ten large engraved characters reading “Epitaph for the Late Song Dynasty Duke Wu Zhonglie, Formerly the Prefect of Kaifu.” The main body is written in regular script across twenty lines, with roughly seventy characters per line, though most of it has peeled off and is no longer legible. According to the inscription, “Wu Jie passed away and was buried in his ancestral land north of Shuilo City in Deshun Army.” However, both the *New Gazetteer of Gansu* and the *Jingning County Annals* state that his tomb lies 120 li south of Ningzhou, on the northern plateau of Shuilo City. This conflicts with the actual site. At the time (March of the ninth year of the Shaoxing era), a peace treaty between the Song and Jin dynasties had just been established. Wu Jie passed away in June, and preparations were made to bury him in his hometown, hence the creation of the epitaph. But in August, the Jin broke the alliance, and by April of the following year, they launched a massive invasion. As a result, Wu Jie was not able to be buried in his hometown and was instead interred at Tianhe Pool. The record in the *Jingning County Annals* merely repeats the original intention expressed in the epitaph about returning him to his homeland.

　　In the early years after liberation, the architectural structures in the tomb area were almost entirely destroyed, leaving only the burial mound and the stele, which had also tilted and was left unattended. On February 11, 1963, the Provincial People's Committee designated it as a provincial-level key cultural relics protection unit, including the entire Wushan and its ancient cypress trees within the protected zone. In 1978, the stele was re-erected upright, a stele pavilion was constructed, and protective measures were strengthened. In 1985, the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau allocated special funds to renovate the stele pavilion.