Detailed information: According to Wang Yimin, curator of Shunchang County Museum, the tomb of the Sun Wukong brothers is located in the Shuangsheng Temple behind the Nantianmen, the main peak of Baoshan at an altitude of 1,305 meters. Shuangsheng Temple was built in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, with a construction area of ??about 18 square meters. Inside the temple is an ancient tomb of gods with two stone tablets standing side by side. The tomb is 2.9 meters wide and 1.3 meters deep. The shape of the tomb is splayed outward.
Two tombstones stand side by side on a tomb platform 0.43 meters above the ground, with the height of both tombstones being 0.8 meters. The two small characters "Baofeng" in regular script are engraved horizontally on the top of the left stele, the four large characters "Monkey King" are engraved vertically in the middle, and the two small characters "divine position" are engraved horizontally at the bottom of the large characters. The outer frame of the stele is decorated with relief Ruyi curly grass; The right stele is engraved with four large regular script characters "Tongtian Monkey King" vertically, and two small characters "divine position" are engraved horizontally at the bottom of the large characters. The outer frame of the stele is decorated with a relief scroll pattern.
The "Monkey King" Sun Wukong is a mythological figure familiar to Chinese people at home and abroad, but the "Tongtian Monkey King" did not appear in "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng'en, a novelist of the Ming Dynasty, and is almost unknown to everyone. After research and verification, Wang Yimin found the image of the "Tongtian Monkey King" in the drama "Journey to the West" written by Yang Jingxian, a Mongolian dramatist in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties.
According to Wang Yimin's research, the plot framework of Yang Jingxian's "Journey to the West" in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties is similar to Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West", but the plot is different. There is a confession by Sun Xingzhe in the play: "There are five brothers and sisters of the Little Saint, the eldest sister is Mother Lishan, the second sister is the Holy Mother Wu Zhizhi, the eldest brother is the Great Sage Qitian, the little Saint is the Great Sage Tongtian, and the third brother is playing Sanlang."< /p>
Wang Yimin reminded that readers should carefully read this passage. In his confession, Sun Xingzhe called the Monkey King "elder brother", while Qian Qian called himself the "little sage".
He also cited considerable evidence: the order of brothers in Yang Jingxian's "Journey to the West" drama coincides with the order of the brothers in the tomb, the Great Sage Qitian, on the left, while the "Baofeng" on the tomb is It is clearly shown that both brothers are from Shunchang.
From the analysis that the "Tongtian Monkey King" is the original form of the Monkey King, it is obvious that the tomb is earlier than the time when Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" was written. Even if analyzed based on the known birth and death data of Mr. Wu Chengen, the above view is supported.
Wang Yimin believes that if the currently discovered Ming Dynasty Hongwu 24th year (1391) is used as the time limit for analysis, this joint burial tomb is nearly two centuries earlier than Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" was written.
In his opinion, Wu Chengen used the title of Monkey King Qitian on Monkey King Tongtian in order to portray the character’s personality, and the abilities of his brothers and sisters were all concentrated on Monkey King in the novel. The Great Sage was alone, but other brothers and sisters such as the Great Sage Tongtian were buried. Baoshan, the birthplace of the five brothers and sisters, also became the real scene of Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West".
In this regard, Wang Yimin also conducted quite in-depth research and raised relevant questions.
Why were the other three missing?
Since Sun Xingzhe had many brothers and sisters, there must be a mystery as to why they were buried together here. This leads us to another public case, which needs to be verified in the future.
The tomb of the two saints buried together is an important physical evidence of the personification of the gods worshiped by the local people. People created gods based on certain phenomena in the world, and then personified, nationalized, and localized gods, and changed and shaped them according to practical needs. This is not uncommon in our country's folk beliefs and ancient literary works.
The date is inferred from the Yuan and Ming Dynasties
The Nantianmen building area is about 120 square meters, and the main body of the building collapsed seriously. Wang Yimin and other cultural relics workers discovered the following inscription on the collapsed stone components of ancient buildings during their preliminary inspection: "Rebuilt on an auspicious day in the sixth month of the Wushen year in the 27th year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1548)". Recently, they have discovered early stone components around the site, as well as inscribed chronological records such as "Open the mountain to encourage worshipers and bow to thank you" and "In the 24th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1391), the 20th day of the eighth month of Xinwei..." models, as well as relief stone Buddha statues on early components.
Wang Yimin believes that based on the analysis and investigation of the above-mentioned chronicles, stone components of different styles in different periods, and the founding date of the main hall of Baoshan Temple in the 23rd year of the Yuan Dynasty (1363), this group of buildings should be It was built no later than the 24th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1391) in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.
The left "Qitian" and the right "Tongtian"
The Shuangsheng Temple has a construction area of ??about 18 square meters. The original imitation wood and stone temple roof has been destroyed, and the existing one was added by later generations. Behind the statue of Sun Xingzhe (added later) in the temple is an ancient tomb of the gods with two stone tablets erected side by side.
The shape of the tomb is similar to the ancient stone tombs of the same period in the Ming Dynasty in the local Shifeng Temple monk tombs in Shunchang. The shape of the tomb is splayed outward, with a width of 2.9 meters and a depth of 1.3 meters. The top of the tomb is a stone tomb head (top stone), which is in the shape of a roof, with a gourd-shaped "ridge" carved in the center, and the "ridge kisses" at both ends are roughly upturned in the shape of a fishtail, 0.76 meters long and 0.25 meters high. Wang Yimin has seen similar tomb capstones many times on ancient tombs in Guangze, Wuyishan, Pucheng and Ningde in eastern Fujian and northern Fujian.
The distance between the two tombstones standing side by side in front of the tombstone is 0.18 meters. The left stele is 0.3 meters wide, 0.8 meters high, and 0.12 meters thick. It has a semi-circular arc on the top of the stele and a relief pattern on the front of the stele with a conch and a magic weapon. The conch is in the shape of a bull's horn.
The inscription on the stele is inscribed with two small characters "Baofeng" in regular script horizontally at the top, four large characters "Monkey King" in regular script inscribed vertically in the middle, and two small characters "divine position" inscribed horizontally at the bottom of the large characters. The outer frame of the inscription is decorated with a relief of Ruyi. Curly grass decoration. The right stele is 0.33 meters wide, 0.8 meters high, and 0.11 meters thick. It has a peach-shaped top and a flower pattern in relief on the forehead. The inscription is inscribed with four regular script characters "Tongtian Monkey King" in vertical lines, and "God's Bit" is inscribed horizontally at the bottom of the characters. There are two small characters, and the outer frame of the inscription is embossed with Ruyi curly grass pattern. The two-way stone tablet is standing on the tomb platform 0.43 meters above the ground.
The tombstone of the Great Sage Temple of Baoshan Temple has the Great Sage Qitian on the left, which is consistent with the ancient etiquette and customs of seating on the left, as well as the ordering habits in local folk customs. Moreover, among the two stone tablets, the "Monkey King" tablet has the word "Baofeng" above it, while the tablet of "Tongtian Dasheng" omits these two words. It is not difficult to understand that the brother follows the brother's intention. Judging from the decorative patterns of the two stele, the "Monkey King" stele is obviously more rich and elegant than the "Tongtian Monkey King" stele.
These are consistent with the descriptions in the above-mentioned historical documents "Journey to the West" Zaju