The Fragrant Tomb of Taoranting (香冢)

Peking · Kina · Cemetery

The land around the Taoran Pavilion in southern Beijing was for centuries the city's back side: desolate reed marshes full of mass graves and charity plots where the poor, the homeless and the nameless were buried without a stone. In the middle of this ground of the dead, on the Jinqiudun mound, stood a single tended grave called Xiangzhong, the Fragrant Grave. Its stele bore a mournful poem about beauty perished and a remnant of fragrance buried in the earth — but no name. The guesses became legends: a famous courtesan, some whispered; the Fragrant Concubine Xiangfei, said others; fallen Ming loyalists, claimed a third. A postscript hinted bluntly that a failed examination candidate had buried his own poems there. The grave is long gone, but the riddle and the countless nameless dead still give Taoranting its particular silence at dusk.

FAQ

Hvor ligger The Fragrant Tomb of Taoranting (香冢)?

The Fragrant Tomb of Taoranting (香冢) ligger i Peking, Kina.

Opplysningene bygger på lokal folketro og vitneskildringer.