Where is Huxieping?
Huxieping is a famous scenic spot that is the former residence of famous people in Xiangtan.
Going west from the second floor of Dishui Cave, there is a very quiet bluestone mountain path, which leads to Huxieping on Niuxing Mountain. The mountain path is extremely steep, and the bamboo forest beside the path is pleasantly green, and you can climb it along the iron rope. Going up, after about 800 meters, we arrived at Huxieping.
It is said that in the late Qing Dynasty, Mao Zedong’s great-grandfather Mao Siduan and a “Feng Shui master” went into the mountains to cut firewood and came to a hill. While resting, they accidentally discovered that this place was a “Feng Shui treasure land”. This place was left to his two sons: Dechen and Yichen. The two sons discussed and decided that whoever died first would be buried in this "treasure land".
In 1904, Yi Chen, his younger brother, passed away. In order to verify whether this place was a "treasure land", Yi Chen's son Mao Shunsheng just parked the coffin next to the cemetery. It was not until 1912 that he was officially buried. Legend has it that at the time of burial, the cemetery was surrounded by stone tiger rocks on Huxie Ping. Only the soil where the coffin was placed was loose. When the coffin was dug, there was only room for one coffin. When the coffin was lowered into the ground, there were faint sounds of flutes all around. This legend gradually spread. In the 1920s and 1930s, it reached the ears of Chiang Kai-shek, who was superstitious about Feng Shui. At that time, Mao Zedong, the grandson of the owner of the tomb, Mao Yichen, was making revolution in Hunan and Jiangxi. People spread the legend that Mao Zedong was an immortal and a real dragon emperor was born.
On June 29, 1932, the Kuomintang sent a grave-digging team to Shaoshan. They went up the mountain at dark to dig out the "dragon vein" of Mao Zedong's family in order to extinguish Mao Zedong's "dragon spirit". They served as a grave-digging team. When walking into Huxieping, they suddenly heard a series of sounds from inside and outside the mountains, which frightened the bandit soldiers of the grave-digging team. They thought that the tomb of Mao Zedong's grandfather was actually the ancestral grave of the Mao family, and that the divine soldiers and heavenly generals were secretly protecting it. In a panic, they dug several graves at random and stole the bones, but the tomb of Mao Zedong's grandfather was not found.
When Chiang and Mao were repeatedly defeated in the confrontation, Chiang decided to strike again. However, the people of Shaoshan had learned the lesson from the last time. They filled up Mao Zedong’s ancestral tomb with soil overnight and buried the tombstone in the ground. Several fake graves were also built next to the tomb. Therefore, when the Kuomintang came to dig graves again, they failed because they could not find the location. After liberation, the organizers of the grave digs were severely punished by the people's government.
On December 28, 1986, when the Shaoshan Administration Bureau was sorting out the tomb of Mao Zedong’s grandfather, they unearthed a tombstone buried underground. The inscription on the tombstone was: Renzi Xia Yueji, the first year of the Republic of China, Xingkao The tomb of Mr. Mao Gong's minister, Mr. Yichang, is located in Neixin Mountain and Waiwu Mountain. Sun Zedong, Ming and Lin are standing there. In the inscription, Zeming means Zemin and Zelin means Zetan, which are the original names of Mao Zedong's two younger brothers.
The name Huxieping only came into being in recent times. Before the 1960s, South China tigers often rested and basked here, hence the name. Nowadays, the tomb of Mao Zedong’s grandfather in Huxieping has been restored. Two stone tigers transported from Wenling, Zhejiang Province lie on the stone mound in front of the tomb. A tiger pavilion is built on the north side of the tomb. When tourists come here, they are surrounded by stone tigers and overlook the mountains. Their hearts are shaken, and their ears seem to have the roar of tigers lingering in their ears. From the top, you can have a panoramic view of Shaoshan Mountain.