The Site of Su Mansu's Tomb

Su Manshu's Tomb

Walk across the Xiling Bridge, along a path on the hill top at the back of the Xiling Seal-Engravers’ Society and then turn 100 meters east, you’ll see the ruins of Su Mansu’s Tomb among the bushes.

Su Manshu’s original name was Xuan Ying (1884-1918), writer and famous translator. His father was a native of Guangdong province, and his mother was Japanese. He was born in Japan. He learned Chinese and English in Guangdong and Shanghai when he was young and studying in Japan. After he returned from Japan, he became a teacher and editor. He was good at writing poetry, prose and novels and he was at home with English French, Japanese and Sanskrit. He wa sthe first one to translate The Tragic World by Victor Hugo into Chinese.

Born out of wedlock, he was quite unfortunate and led a life hard to tell. He became a monk three times in his life, the first at Changshou Temple in Huizhou, Guangdong province when he was twelve. He chose Manshu as his Buddhist name. And he was destitute ands homeless, roving all over the world. He died of illness in Shanghai at 35. Mr. Liu Yazi and some others raised funds and built his tomb and pagoda at the northern slope of the Solitary Hill in 1924.

Su wrote six loving novels such as his autobiographical account titled ” Story of a Solitary Wild Goose”, which stirred the heart of so many young people at that time.

His poetry as a whole is romantic. One of his poems in answer to Chen Duxiu reads:
“Don’t ask about my coming and going, life or death,
A lonely monk as drifting cloud and floating water,
For no reason laughing and weeping wildly,
My heart is ice-cold even though I put on a smile.”

In his ” A Few Remark about Master Su Manshu”, He shiling had this to say:
” Buried all alone by the side of the lake,
Ten thousand trees loom gloomy and pitiable.
Over such a life and such death,
I have come to mourn and weep in front of your tomb.”

In the 1950′s, Su’s tomb was not large, but looked comfortable with the surrounding scenery and lay close to Su Xiaoxiao’s tomb. They were a perfect match, the former a gifted scholar of the morden times while the latter an ancient beauty. The two tombs kept each other company. People used to go and pay tribute to them. These and some other tombs on the lakeside were either removed elsewhere or dismantled in 1964. Today at the foot of the northern Solitary Hill stands a new Su Manshu’s pagoda, which is a miniature of the original, with the words ” the Site of Su Manshu’s Tomb”. It is a pity that the original tomb is nowhere to be found.

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Author: Amoytrip---Free China Travel Guide--The Site of Su Mansu's Tomb
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