Nanjing Meiling of Xie An’s Tomb
The emperor bestowed the cemetery
In the tenth year of Taiyuan (385), Xie An died of illness. Because he was the chief minister of the DPRK during his lifetime, his funeral was extremely grand and sponsored by the imperial court. Emperor Xiaowu Sima Yao gave him a large and fine coffin and chose a geomantic treasure land in Meiling for him. According to "Jingding Jiankang Zhi" (Volume 17), this hillock used to be only two feet high. Because the home of Mei Yi (the author of "Guwen Shangshu"), a native of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the governor of Dongyu Zhang, was nearby, so There is the name "Mei Yigang".
The "Yuanhe County Chronicles" of the Tang Dynasty: "Xie An's tomb is located in Shizigang, ten miles southeast of the county." "Jingding Jiankang Zhi" of the Song Dynasty states: "Xie An's tomb is located at Meiling Hill, Jiuli south of the city", and also conducted research on the origin of the wordless stele. Through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it was still recorded in the "Capital Chronicle" of the Republic of China: "There are mountains in the east of Yuhuatai", and "famous people were buried there, including Xie An, Han Xizai, etc." The place names vary according to the era, and are called "Zhiling", "Meigang", "Shizigang" and "Meilingang", all in the Yuhuatai area.
After Xie An was buried in Meiling, with the demise of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the glory of the Xie family also faded. However, the Xie family's incense continues, and the care of Xie An's tomb is still a family matter. Generally, civilian tomb robbers have a thief's heart, but not the courage, so Xie An's tomb is still safe.
Chen Shuling tomb robbery
But in the Chen period of the Southern Dynasty, Peng Guiren, the second son of Emperor Chen Wen and Chen Qian, and the biological mother of Chen Shuling, the king of Shixing, died in the eleventh year of Taijian (579). At that time, it was popular for fortune-telling to predict ghostly houses. Chen Shuling also wanted to find a feng shui treasure land for his biological mother, and he immediately thought of Meiling, where Xie An's tomb is located. He asked the emperor's father to bury Peng Guiren in Meiling. Meiling is not a small place, but Chen Shuling looked at it differently and felt that the best place was the location of Xie An's tomb. As a result, Chen Shuling actually occupied Xie An's cemetery.
Not only do they want Xie An’s grave, but they also want his tomb. Chen Shuling ordered people to dig up Xie An's tomb. Although he had been buried for so many years, the large coffin was still very intact and the paint was bright. After carrying out Xie An's coffin, Chen Shuling arranged for craftsmen to "decorate" Xie An's tomb, paint it, and carry it into the coffin of his biological mother. The tomb of Xie An, a famous prime minister, became Peng Guiren's tomb. "Villa of Hades".
The cemetery returned to the Xie family
Xie An's ninth grandson, General Zhaoyuan Xie Zhen, had just returned to the capital Jiankang from the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Faced with Chen Shuling's power, although he complained, he could do nothing. Tomb robbers do not end well. Later, after failing to compete with Chen Shubao for the throne, Chen Shuling was beheaded and his body was thrown into the Yangtze River to feed the fish. Soon, the courtiers wrote to Empress Chen to liquidate Chen Shuling's crimes during his lifetime. The body of his biological mother Peng was pulled out of the tomb, the temple and dormitories built were destroyed, and the cemetery was returned to the Xie family, but Xie An's coffin did not return.