What does the story of the grave keeper tell?

A few miles east of Shishan Town, Linghai City, there is a small village called Yimafang. It is said that the name of the village where Yima was once raised was inscribed by Emperor Qianlong himself. An asphalt road leads to the western end of the village. In a large fruit forest, there is a large-scale cemetery, where the once lean "Northeast King" Zhang is buried.

Zhang Lingyuan is located on a hill to the east of Thirteen Peaks, facing the vast Bohai Bay in the north and facing Thirteen Peaks across the stream in the west. Compared with the "Marshal Forest" in Fushun, this cemetery seems to have a feeling of being hidden in the deep mountains. Actually, Yimafang, a small village, is very famous. Otherwise, how could Emperor Qianlong kiss the name of such a small village? What are the strange landscapes and geomantic omen in Yimafang Village? After Zhang's death, why not be buried in the luxurious "Marshal Forest" like the imperial mausoleum, but in this simple cemetery? I visited the cemetery with these questions.

There are two stone pillars on both sides of the gate of Zhangchuyuan, which are engraved with couplets. The first couplet is: Zhao Jia Qian Qiu is driving a post horse; Bottom line: filial piety, filial piety.

Entering the cemetery, you are greeted by two large stone tablets with the same specifications and shapes, on which nine eyes and dragons are carved. "Yong Yong Nan" is an imperial tablet given to Zhang's mother by Emperor Puyi on November 19th, the second year of Qing Dynasty. The volunteer army in the north is a tombstone erected by Zhang for his mother in November of the fifth year of the Republic of China. The cemetery is surrounded by bricks, which is simple and beautiful. From the garden gate to the grave, there is a 64-meter-long blue brick tunnel with light red kerbs on both sides. Both tombs are arched with cement. One is the tomb of Lady Zhang's mother, the Queen Mother, and the other is the tomb of Lady Zhang and Lady Zhao.

Zhang Fulai, a 53-year-old grave keeper, is a villager in Yimafang. He told me that there were pavilions and stone archways in the cemetery, which were quite large in scale and were later destroyed. Over the years, the government has funded the restoration of the cemetery several times. His family lived in the cemetery instead of the late Li Ziyuan. He has been here for four years. He is responsible for the daily management of the cemetery and is willing to tell tourists about the history of the Republic of China. When I asked him some questions, he gushed.

19 12 years, Zhang, who had been appointed as the minister of training outside the customs, wanted to move his ancestral grave in Heishan county, so he entrusted his brother-in-law Wu Yongen to handle it. Wu Yong 'en found seven famous geomancers. He started from Shanhaiguan and walked all the way to Yimafang Village at the foot of the "Thirteen Peaks" in Linghai. He saw beautiful peaks, gurgling streams and towering old trees in the valley. The overall mountain shape is high on both sides and low in the middle, and two mountains are sandwiched by a hill, which represents the emperor's statement. Among the thirteen peaks, there are three mountains, namely "Monkey Mountain", "Yinshan Mountain" and "Maanshan Mountain", and there is a small river at the foot of the mountain. The building of a grave here coincides with the ancient people's intention of "setting up a seal on the Hou" and "sealing the Hou to hang a seal". In addition, this area is also the place that Zhang often visited when he was wandering in the rivers and lakes in his early years. Zhang is very fond of this place, which belongs to his hometown. Therefore, it is Zhang's own will to choose this place as the ancestral grave. After finding this place, Zhang bought 40 hectares of land around and built the Zhangjia cemetery. It is said that Zhang's father, Zhang Youcai, was killed after winning money by gambling, and was buried in a wooden cupboard because of his poor family. After burial, the grave soil was swallowed up by the flood, and the coffin was blocked by trees when it went down with the water. The Zhang family called this "the omen of heaven and earth", so they were reburied on the spot. After Zhang made his fortune, he thought it should be said. Therefore, after the "omen has been auspicious", in order to avoid the destruction of Feng Shui, my father's grave did not move, and Mrs. Wang was buried here alone. In the second year of the Republic of China, Zhang moved and buried his mother's remains from Heishan County as the main grave, and his wife Zhao (Zhang Xueliang's biological mother) was also moved and buried here. The tomb covers an area of about 15 mu, with five or six fruit trees outside and cultivated land around. This is probably why Zhang moved his ancestral grave to Yimafang Village.

Later, after Zhang was named the Grand Marshal of the National Army, Navy and Air Force by the "King of Northeast China", he decided to choose a place with beautiful scenery and outstanding terrain near Zhangdang, Fushun. According to the example that the emperor began to repair the mausoleum when he ascended the throne, a "Marshal Forest" was also built.

1June 4, 928, Zhang was forced to return to Fengtian from Beiping and was killed by the Japanese army in Huanggutun. The coffin was temporarily parked in Chikurinji, Dongguan, Shenyang, and buried behind Marshal Lin Xiucheng of Fushun. In the September 18th Incident, the Japanese invaders invaded Shenyang, and Marshal Lin was forced to stop work, so the burial of Marshal Zhang ran aground.

1On June 3rd, 937, on the 9th anniversary of Zhang's bombing, Zhang Jiubu presented "condolences" to the victims in Fengtian. Zhang's coffin was transported by train from Shenyang to the railway station, and then to Yimafang to be buried with his wife Zhao. At that time, Zhang's brother-in-law Wu Yongen presided over the funeral in Yimafang. There are twenty or thirty Japanese officers and men, as well as many other staff members, as well as monks, veterans and lamas. There are four wheels under Zhang's coffin After getting off the bus, the queue from the station to the ground is about a mile long, including elegiac couplets, wreaths, national umbrellas and national flags. The monk drum music brought by Fengtian and the monk drum music in Jinzhou played together when the coffin stood up from the sheepfold car. The scene was spectacular. Every time you pass through a village, you must also play, which is vast and very lively.

After decades of ups and downs in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, the land reform in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the "Cultural Revolution", and at the same time, after the wind and rain erosion of nature, the land was overgrown with weeds and desolate, and all other buildings collapsed and destroyed except the Liangyong Monument.

1In August, 984, the Jinzhou Municipal People's Government listed Zhang as a key cultural relic protection unit, carved a granite sign in the garden, engraved the words "Zhang Lingyuan" on the Weibei monument, and allocated funds for many times to repair it, making Zhang's cemetery more and more solemn and tidy. The news that Zhang's cemetery was repaired by the local government soon spread all over the world, attracting Zhang's old employees and overseas descendants. In recent years, Zhang's descendants and Zhang Xueliang's former staff have made special trips to Yimafang Village in Shishan Town many times to pay homage to Zhang's cemetery. According to relevant sources, in the 1990s, Zhang Xueliang planned to go back to China to visit the grave, but failed to make it. Now that the young marshal has passed away, it will be a lifelong regret to sweep the grave.

After listening to the little-known story about the owner of the tomb told by the grave keeper, my calm heart trembled so violently. Although Zhang is a lean man in troubled times, I still admire this "king of Northeast China". During his reign as king in Northeast China, the modern heavy industry system and education in Northeast China were rapidly established and improved, which made the industry, agriculture, medical care and modern education in Northeast China far ahead of the whole country at that time. Although he was born a bandit, he deeply understood the country's righteousness and was unwilling to betray the country's interests. It is precisely because of Zhang's "uncooperative, uncooperative and disobedient" that the Japanese finally created the Huanggutun incident, killed Zhang and another warlord in Northeast China who refused to obey Japan's "restraint", and then launched the "September 18th Incident" of invading China.

As people say, if Zhang or Wu did not die, the Japanese army could not quickly occupy the Northeast, and the history of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in China might be rewritten. Maybe that's why people come to see him!