Tomb of the Last Emperor of the Song Dynasty in Shenzhen

Statue of Lu Xiufu and the child emperor, photo by Jiang Wu

In May 18, 2015, I visited Shenzhen 深圳 to see my friends who brought me to the tomb of the last Song emperor 宋少帝陵. I was surprised to see this. The emperor Zhao Bing 赵昺 was only nine years old when his minster Lu Xiufu 陸秀夫 carried him to water. Both were killed in the ocean in Yanshan 崖山 in 1279. His body was washed to Chiwan 赤灣 in Shenzhen and a tomb was built. China fell to Mongols after this. It was a sad story of a lost dynasty. It has been dramatized in a historical novel Souls in the Sea 海上魂 by Chen Zhan 陳湛 in 1907. Purely incidentally, I just finished reading this book before leaving for China.

tomb of the last Song child emperor, photo by Jiang Wu

government order for protection, photo by Jiang Wu

Outside Chiwan is the Sea of Lingdingyang 伶仃洋 where the Song prime minister Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 passed by and wrote his famous poem 過伶仃洋. Wen was jailed and killed in Beijing after being captured by Mongol armies.

Crossing Lonely Sea

Delving in the Book of Change, I rose through hardship great, 
And desperately fought the foe for four long years; 
Like willow catkin, the war-torn land looks desolate, 
I sink or swim as duckweed in the rain appears. 
For perils on Perilious Beach, I heaved and sighed, 
On Lonely Sea now, I feel dreary and lonely; 
Since olden days, which man has lived and not died? 
I'll leave a loyalist name in history!

tr.Xu YuanZhong

辛苦遭逢起一經，
干戈寥落四周星。
山河破碎風拋絮，
身世飄搖雨打萍。
惶恐灘頭說惶恐，
零丁洋裏嘆零丁。
人生自古誰無死，
留取丹心照汗青。