Recently, after in-depth investigation among the people, the author came to the conclusion that this cemetery in Beicun is the tomb of Ji Xiaolan and his descendants, and its authenticity is beyond doubt.
The gravestone engraved with the imperial inscription in front of Ji Xiaolan's tomb is the most powerful evidence. According to the epitaph written by Zhu Gui for Ji Xiaolan, after Ji Yun's death, the emperor wrote a letter to "give grace to the sutra quilt, dismiss the rank minister Detong, bring ten guards to give wine, give five hundred and twenty pieces of silver to the treasury, and bury the manager". Emperor Jiaqing personally wrote eulogy and inscriptions. According to local chronicles and oral records, Ji Xiaolan and Mrs. Matthew were buried together in Xinqiao, Beicun, xian county on April 19 of the following year (the 11th year of Jiaqing 1806). The so-called burial of a grave every 50 miles is purely a rumor and not credible.
It is said that on the day of burial, a shed several miles long was set up from Cui Erzhuang to Beicun, and the court also sent someone to the cemetery to make a letter. The funeral was grand and lively.
It's not hard to explain why Ji Xiaolan didn't go to the ancestral grave. With his rank before his death, the funeral will definitely surpass his ancestors. If you are buried in front of your ancestral grave, you are afraid of bullying your ancestors. At that time, his family had many manors, and Beicun New Village was one of them. It is not surprising that Ji Xiaolan chose the tomb site here. In addition, from what we saw when we excavated Ji's tomb during the Cultural Revolution, we can also prove the authenticity of Bei's tomb. The cemetery pattern is roughly like this. Microscopically, the mound is about 2 meters high and the base is made of bricks. The brick is about 60 cm high and the circumference of the soil bottom is 25.5 meters.
The tombstone stands on the stone pedestal. The original humpback (commonly known as the stone turtle) has been destroyed. The monument is 268cm high,109.5cm wide and 38cm thick. 1989 re-carved the crown of Dinglong brand. The crown height 120 cm is longer and wider than the monument, and there is an irregular crack in the middle of the monument. The front and back of the monument are surrounded by exquisite Yunlong reliefs. There are 12 Youlong sculptures, 2 up and down and 4 left and right. To the west of the tombstone is the original imperial inscription, about half of which can be recognized and the other half can't be recognized. The east side of the tombstone was restored on 1989 and re-carved according to the original inscription written by Cangzhou calligrapher Liu Wenyuan.
The tombstone is 195cm high, 66cm wide and 20.5cm thick. On the front (east) of the monument, the words "Tombstone, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, Ji Wenda, and Shaobao, the Prince of Qing Dynasty" are engraved in regular script. Inscription (West). The tombstone crown is 63cm high, 77cm wide and 24.5cm thick, with a dragon pattern on it and a seal of "Immortality".
There are also some broken stone tablets scattered in the cemetery, two of which are engraved with patterns and are said to be the remains of stone turtles under the original tombstone. At present, the cemetery in Ji Xiaolan, which people can see, is far from its original appearance, both in scale and layout. Some people even suspect that it is not the real tomb of Ji Xiaolan. All kinds of mysteries need to be solved step by step. According to the local villagers and the descendants of Ji, Mr. Feng Shui from the south was specially invited to look for Ji's manor, and finally the new village in Beicun was determined. At that time, the cemetery occupied dozens of acres. According to the old people's memories, the original site of the tombstone that stood in the ninth year of the Republic of China is about150m away from Ji Xiaolan's tomb, and it stands on the roadside of a north-south passage on the east side of the cemetery, commonly known as "dismounting the horse monument", which means "the civilian gets off the sedan chair and the military attache dismounts". This monument is a complex monument, and the year when the original monument was destroyed is unknown.
The tombstone is located 2 1 m east of the mound. On the cornerstone under the tombstone, there is a piece of lime mixed soil to tamp the foundation, and two pieces of 198×82 cm bluestone slabs are paved. There is another piece, which was placed under the tombstone when 1989 restored the cemetery. Tombstones are combined into one, surrounded by carvings. Above it is a huge turtle, which has been destroyed. You can also see the claw marks of stone turtles from the cornerstone. The claw spacing is 160cm, and the left and right claw spacing is 120cm. Carrying a tombstone, the crown of the monument has been destroyed. From the base to the crown, the whole tombstone is about 5 meters high.
There is a bluestone altar between the tombstone and grave, which has been lost. The table top is about 2m long and 1 m wide, and its four legs are round. The author visited a table leg with a height of 50 cm, a waist circumference 104 cm (about 33. 12 cm in diameter) and a bottom diameter of 2 1 cm.
The original tomb was very big. According to the old man's memory, there was a flood in 1963, and the whole village was flooded. Some villagers took refuge in Jiyun Tomb, which can accommodate more than 50 people.
Ji Xiaolan's tomb is at the entrance of Xinshan B. Looking eastward from the cemetery, there is a Ma Pingchuan with an unobstructed view, and the sea is hundreds of miles away. There are two large mounds on the north side of the tomb mound, which are shaped like inkstones, and there is a Vitex negundo tree on the south side, named Phoenix Forest. There is a clearing between the west (behind the tomb) and Yongtun (Yongtun village no longer exists). Under the monument, there is a saying that "Sijia (there is a Sijiazhuang more than ten miles away) pushes, and there is treasure in the north of LAM Raymond in the south".
There are more than 30 other graves in the cemetery. There are three small graves on each side of the grave, and it is said that six side rooms of Ji Yun are buried. On both sides of the cave, there are two larger mounds, where four sons, Ruwa, Ruchuan, Ruxiang and Yiru, are buried. The graves of their grandchildren were buried by the previous generation in turn. This burial method is said to have been approved by Ji Xiaolan at the suggestion of Mr. Feng Shui before his death, and it is called "holding a child and grandchildren".
At that time, Shinto was lined with stone statues and horses, but soon after Ji Xiaolan's death, China entered a turbulent modern history. According to legend, not many years after Ji Xiaolan was buried, these stone statues were stolen by cultural relics dealers in the south, and now they are gone. The periphery of the cemetery was originally a lush tall pine and cypress. The whole cemetery is magnificent, and the weather is solemn and strict.