Tomb of Xu Da, Ming Dynasty tomb in Jiangsu, China

The Tomb of Xu Da stands at 192 Bancang Street outside Taiping Gate in Nanjing's Xuanwu District, facing south at the foot of Zijin Mountain. A reconstructed "Ming Zhongshan Prince Spirit Way" archway opens onto a roughly 300-metre spirit way lined with paired stone figures: horse attendants, sheep, tigers, warriors and civil officials. At its end, the 8.95-metre stele of the Zhongshan Prince rises on a turtle base before the joint burial mound of Xu Da and his wife Xie.

Xu Da died in February 1385, the 18th year of the Hongwu reign, and was posthumously made Prince of Zhongshan with the name Wuning, buried north of Zhongshan. In 1956 the tomb was listed as a Jiangsu provincial protected site; in July 2003 it joined the Ming Xiaoling imperial tombs on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and in May 2006 it was merged into the national key protected Ming founder tombs.

The tomb lies on the shady north slope of Zhongshan, opposite the sunny south slope of the Ming Xiaoling, a placement reserved for the highest-ranking founding officials; over ten are recorded there, but only six graves, including Xu Da's, have been confirmed by archaeology. The stele text was written by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, and its sentences carry punctuation marks, unusual on old steles; one explanation is that the engravers did not dare alter the emperor's own marks.

The tomb lies at 192 Bancang Street, outside Taiping Gate in Xuanwu District, at the northern foot of Zijin Mountain, near the Li Wenzhong tomb. The spirit path runs about 300 metres from the 1984 replica archway to the burial mound, with stone figures in pairs along it. The site is oriented south, so walk from the archway inward.

The stele's text, written by Zhu Yuanzhang himself in 28 lines of about 1,716 characters, carries punctuation marks — extremely rare on old steles. One explanation: the marks were in the emperor's own hand, and the carvers did not dare alter them.