Zhu Shugui - Burial

Burial

Zhu Shugui was 66 years old (by Chinese reckoning; 65 by Western standards) at the time of his suicide. Moved by loyalty, the townsfolk interred him together with his primary wife Lady Luo in what is now Hunei Township. At the time there was no marking on the tomb, and over 100 decoy tombs were built to confound the Qing army’s searches.

The tomb, located in Hunei District, Kaohsiung City, was discovered in 1937. At the time of discovery the casket was empty, and the artifacts in the tomb fell into the hands of the Japanese. Although the tomb was empty, the villagers built a square concrete wall around the tomb site to demarcate it. After World War II, the residents of Zhuhu and Hunei funded the tomb's rebuilding, and the decoy tombs were dismantled and assembled into a large tomb. The tomb site you can see today is a reconstruction done by the Kaohsiung County (now part of Kaohsiung City) government in 1977, and in 1988 it was designated a third class historic site.

Read more about this topic:  Zhu Shugui

Famous quotes containing the word burial:

    I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day,
    I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away,
    And, turning from my nursery window, drew
    A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!
    William Cowper (1731–1800)

    On the beach at night,
    Stands a child with her father,
    Watching the east, the autumn sky.

    Up through the darkness,
    While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,
    Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky,
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    How shall my animal
    Whose wizard shape I trace in the cavernous skull,
    Vessel of abscesses and exultation’s shell,
    Endure burial under the spelling wall....
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)