Tomb of Qiu Jun

　　Qiu Jun’s Tomb In the eighth year of the Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty (1495), Qiu Jun passed away in his official residence in the capital at the age of 75. The following year, the imperial court held a funeral for Qiu Jun, and the burial site was chosen at the source of the Five Dragon Pools in Shuitou Village, Qiongshan. It is said that Qiu Jun himself had specifically entrusted someone to return to his hometown to select the site before his death. Three years before his passing, Qiu Jun asked a geomancer to find a suitable burial ground. The person assigned this important task was Xu Bao from Anhui. Upon arriving in Qiongzhou, Xu Bao went directly to Qiu Jun’s student, the famous poet Wang Zuo. Together, they chose the final resting place for Qiu Jun in his hometown.

　　The tomb of Qiu Jun was built in the eighth year of the Hongzhi reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty (1495), taking nearly four months of labor to complete. The tomb complex covers an area of 0.25 hectares. The main tomb is constructed of granite, with a round top approximately 6 meters high, facing south but slightly northeast at 5 degrees. Originally, the tomb base had six levels, and the tomb path included 16 steps. In front of the tomb stands a stele 4.4 meters high, with a base 2 meters wide, the body of the stele 1 meter wide, and carved at the top are two dragons dancing in opposite directions. The middle of the stele is inscribed with: “The Imperial Ming Tomb of the Grand Master of Splendid Light, Pillar of the State, Minor Protector, concurrently Crown Prince’s Guardian, Minister of Revenue, Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall, specially posthumously honored as Left Pillar of the State, Grand Tutor, with the posthumous title ‘Wenzhuang,’ Qiu, and his wife Lady Wu, posthumously honored as First Rank Noble Consort.” The left and right edges of the stele are adorned with carvings of pine trees, cranes, and auspicious clouds. Two meters in front of the stele is a stone altar, with a stone incense burner in front of the altar and two pairs of stone candlesticks. Sixteen meters in front of the tomb is a stone memorial archway, 5 meters high, with the inscription “Edicted Virtuous Scholar Official” carved in the center on the front. Behind the archway stand two ancient-style stone statues of tomb guards. Four meters in front of the statues is a marble stele, 2 meters high and 1 meter wide. The north side of the stele is inscribed with “Imperial Decree,” while the south side bears the text of the Ming emperor’s sacrificial decree. The entire tomb complex is oval-shaped, enclosed by railings on the left, right, and back sides, stretching about 140 meters, with lush green slopes surrounding the outer perimeter. In front of the tomb complex lies a pond, originally about 0.36 hectares in size, later expanded by the villagers of Shuitou to 0.8 hectares. The pond has an inexhaustible spring, remains full year-round, and is cool in summer and warm in winter. In front of the pond is a square grassy area of about 900 square meters, with one pair each of stone horses, stone sheep, and stone lions. It was once said, “Those who pass by the tomb of Wenzhuang cannot help but feel solemn.”

　　The tomb complex faces vast fertile fields and is backed by a lush green hill, exuding a simple, elegant, solemn, and dignified atmosphere. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, national leaders such as Zhu De and Guo Moruo visited Qiu Jun’s Tomb. In 1962, the People’s Committee of Guangdong Province designated Qiu Jun’s Tomb as a Guangdong Provincial Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. In the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Qiu Jun’s Tomb was vandalized. When the tomb chamber was pried open, items such as a coffin, skeletal remains, imperial robes, ceremonial tablets, jade belts, crown ornaments, and hairpins were found inside. On Tomb-Sweeping Day in 1979, the Qiu family across the island carried out simple restoration work on the tomb. In 1986, the Hainan Administrative Region and the Haikou Municipal Government allocated 300,000 yuan to begin restoring the main tomb, tomb stele, tomb complex, tomb path, and memorial archway.

　　Source: Party History Research Office of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China