The Stele of the Jiang Family Spirit Way

　　The Stele of the Jiang Family Spirit Way is located near Baima Village in Chengxiang Town, Zhongshan. Because the inscription is carved into a rock formed by two stones joined together like a palm, it is also known as the Palm-to-Palm Stone Stele. The full text of the stele contains nearly 1,300 characters and documents the historical fact that during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, a woman surnamed Jiang from Zhongshan remained loyal and sacrificed her son to uphold national unity.

　　In order to maintain his rule, Chen Shubao, the last emperor of the Southern Chen Dynasty, sought to control Zhong Bojiang, the Fubo General who commanded a powerful army in Lingnan — the chieftain of Guangnan, Zhong Shixiong — thereby restraining various armed forces. He took Lady Jiang, Zhong Shixiong’s mother, as a political hostage.

　　“Lady Jiang was repeatedly held hostage in the capital.” In the eighth year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui launched a campaign against Chen, which ended in defeat for Chen. By the ninth year, Jiankang (modern-day Nanjing) had fallen and the Chen Dynasty was destroyed. Yang Guang, the Prince of Jin, returned Lady Jiang, who had been kept as a hostage by the Chen court, to her native place of Linhe, reuniting her with her son Zhong Shixiong. At that time, a fellow townsman, Yu Zimao, raised an army to attack the city in resistance against the Sui. He sent Zhong Wenhua to invite Shixiong to join the alliance. Just as Shixiong was about to agree, Lady Jiang, demonstrating great moral integrity and fully aware of the suffering war brings to the people, foresaw that national unification was inevitable. She persuaded Shixiong, saying, “I have endured great hardship in the capital. Now, blessed by the enlightened rule, my son and I are reunited. Even if I could not repay this kindness for the rest of my life, how could I possibly rebel? If you act with the heart of a beast and betray virtue and righteousness, I will die before you.” Shixiong heeded his mother’s advice. Later, Lady Jiang wrote a letter to Yu Zimao, explaining the consequences of his actions. Yu did not listen and was eventually defeated by the Sui army. When the Sui court learned of these events, they “bestowed upon Lady Jiang the title of Lady of Anle County.” After the fall of the Sui and the rise of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang, “deeply honoring the loyalty of the former ministers,” “issued an imperial edict and allocated funds of three thousand strings of cash from the imperial treasury,” ordering “Minister of Works and Duke Xu Guogong Su [surname unclear] to compose the text,” which was then engraved on stone to create the stele, named the “Spirit Way Stele of the Lady of Anle County.” Initially, the stele was embedded in the Longevity Welcoming Temple originally granted to be built in her honor. However, due to the chaos of the Five Dynasties period, the temple was destroyed and the stele was lost. The current Palm-to-Palm Stone Stele was recarved in the fourth year of the Huangyou era of the Song Dynasty by Liu Xun, the magistrate of Fuchuan County, who inscribed the missing text into the palm-to-palm rock. This is a rare piece of patriotic educational material. The historical facts recorded in the stele text are also documented in the Twenty-Four Histories of official Chinese history.