Tomb of Zhang Gongyi

　　The Tomb of Zhang Gongyi is located about 200 meters south of Qiaobeizhang Village in Sunkou Township. In 1963, it was designated as a key cultural relic protection unit by the People’s Government of Shandong Province. According to the stele in the Zhang family woodland, the original graveyard covered an area of over 20 acres, densely planted with pine and cypress trees so thick that the sky was not visible from below. In front of the tomb were three stone memorial archways and more than ten stone tablets. During the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, repeated breaches of the Yellow River destroyed the graveyard, burying the tombs, archways, and tablets under silt. Later descendants piled up an earthen mound on the site of the tomb, standing 12 meters high with a base diameter of 3 meters. Zhang Gongyi was a notable figure of the Tang Dynasty, hailing from Shouzhang County, Yanzhou (now Taiqian County, Henan Province). He was born in 578 AD (the second year of the Chengxian era of the Northern Qi Dynasty) and died in 676 AD (the first year of the Yifeng era of the Tang Dynasty), living through the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang dynasties, and reaching the age of 99. Historical records state that from a young age, Zhang Gongyi demonstrated virtuous character, cultivated moral integrity, promoted family harmony through courtesy and yielding, and established a grand hall of righteousness and unity. He created codes of conduct and family precepts to guide his descendants, resulting in a household where fathers were kind, sons filial, elder brothers friendly, younger brothers respectful, husbands upright, wives obedient, mothers-in-law gentle, and daughters-in-law obedient. Nine generations lived together under one roof, a total of 900 family members, who gathered daily to eat after the beating of a drum. They even raised a hundred dogs, which followed the family’s harmonious ethos—none would eat unless all were present. Because of the Zhang family’s unity, forbearance, and generosity, they received commendations from multiple dynasties throughout history. In the second year of the Linde era (665 AD), when Emperor Gaozong of Tang (Li Zhi) made an eastern tour to Mount Tai, he diverted his route to Yanzhou to visit the virtuous scholar Zhang Gongyi. “He personally visited Zhang’s home and inquired about the source of their harmonious principles. Zhang requested paper and brush and wrote nothing but over a hundred characters of ‘forbearance’ (忍). Moved to tears, the emperor bestowed upon him silk fabrics.” (See “Old Book of Tang · Biography of Zhang Gongyi.”) The ancestral hall of Zhang Gongyi was first built in the first year of the Sui Sheng era of the Tang Dynasty (684 AD). It was named “Bairen Hall” (Hall of Hundred Forbearances) in reference to the story of Zhang Gongyi presenting the concept of “hundred forbearances” to Emperor Gaozong. In 1994, the county government allocated 10,000 yuan, and Zhang family descendants raised 30,000 yuan to rebuild the Bairen Hall south of Qiaobeizhang Village in Sunkou Township.