Tián Yì Mù 田义墓
石景山区模式口大街80号
Eunuch tombs built with syphoned imperial riches
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond
Although the authorities were too prudish to permit the Qián Mén area to go ahead with plans to promote its history as a red light district, discussion of neutered men is apparently permissible at this temple and tomb site, or at least takes place far enough away from the city centre to be less of a worry.
Tián Yì (1534–1605), buried in the grandest of five eunuch tombs here, served three of the great Wall-building Míng emperors: Jiājìng (1522–66), Lóngqìng (1567–72), and Wànlì (1573–1620). He oversaw the Directorate of Ceremonies and was also responsible for supplies of flour, vinegar, and spirits, graft from which would have helped to finance the acquisition of land for the tombs and the elaborately carved stonework still found around the site. But modern authorities seem happy to assume these were funded by the largesse of grateful emperors, and for some reasons the memory of Tián Yì is respected, although eunuchs usually appear in Chinese opera and much official history as the greatest of villains.
Many eunuchs used funds acquired through corruption to build temples for themselves to which they would retire, and even the last eunuch of all, Sūn Yàotíng (孙耀庭), spent his declining years in the Guǎnghuà Sì (see East Bank of the Hòu Hǎi walk), where he died in December 1996, aged 93. Unfortunate Sūn was emasculated as a boy on the instruction of his father at a time only later discovered to be one month after the end of the Qīng dynasty. He was one of the last to be taken into the palace, serving only eight years before the remains of the eunuch system collapsed as the last Qīng emperor left the Forbidden City.
The small ‘eunuch culture’ museum here, in the process of rebuilding and expansion, gives the nod to Sūn in a general display on the eunuch system and some of its more notorious members (although with nothing in English at the time of writing). According to the curator, the site receives only a few thousand visitors a year, although most of these are foreigners. The collection of items that will be on display were mostly donated by Sūn himself, including a yellow jacket given him by the last emperor.
Tián Yì’s tomb was tended for generations by nuns and retired eunuchs who came to live at the site, but the tombs were pillaged during the Republic. A period during which the front portion served as a kindergarten and the tombs were sealed off helped to protect them from further damage during the Cultural Revolution. Sūn himself was not so lucky: his ‘treasure’ (a jar containing his pickled organs that should have been buried with him) was destroyed by family members fearful of the consequences of being discovered in possession of such a feudal object.
The surviving structures are a number of highly ornamental stone columns, pavilions, and tomb guardian figures leading to a forlorn collection of slightly overgrown tumuli — the imperial style in miniature. A sliding cover over the largest, that of Tián Yì himself, permits descent to the chamber beneath, complete with large solid stone doors that can still be swung, and signs that visitors still leave offerings.
▶ Just beyond the W Fifth Ring Road in Shíjǐng Shān, at Móshì Kǒu Dàjiē 80, gps 39º56’00”N, 116º09’06”E, t 8872 4146, 9am–4.30pm. ¥8. m Pínguǒ Yuán (Line 1, exit D), then b to 首钢小区: 运通112线, 运通116线, 336, 358, 396, 489, 摆站597, 597, 941, 959, 961, 972, 977.
Turn right just beyond the bus stop into a bustling market street, left at the top, and left again into Móshì Kǒu Dàjiē (模式口大街). The entrance is on the right.You can easily walk from here to Fǎ Hǎi Sì. Turn left out of the out of the entrance along Móshì Kǒu Dàjiē. Take the first major left turn, at which you’ll see a sign for Chinese Medicine Hospital in English (法海寺 also appears in green characters on a lamppost on the right opposite the turning). The road climbs and narrows a little. At the T-junction turn right, and you almost immediately arrive at the temple steps.
The return is to stop 地铁苹果园站, and from there buses will take you to Tánzhè Sì and Fǎ Hǎi Sì. Or take b 运通112线 directly to the Běijīng Botanical Gardens and neighbouring sights, passing the Bā Dà Chù and
Fragrant Hills Park.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: Fǎ Hǎi Sì
Previously: Jiètái Sì
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
