Yiqidun Mound

Relation to the entry of the same name (2026-09-30): this entry records the mound itself, its form, period and level of heritage protection. The culture site separately carries "The Tale of Yiqidun" (ls:item:yiqidun-gushi), which records the folk legend attached to the mound as an intangible cultural heritage item, with its district-level batch, its recommended guardian and the outline of the story. The two are in one place but are not the same object: the mound is a relic, the tale is the name of an intangible heritage item. Under the criterion that different objects of the same name are not merged — the same reason "Wuxiangshan Cliff Carvings" and "Wuxiang Mountain" each keep an entry — each site keeps its own entry and the two point at each other rather than merging. The entry for the tale already states that it does not repeat the level and period recorded here.

Two listings

The Nanjing municipal list of protected sites records Yiqidun Mound as Spring and Autumn to Warring States, in Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town, Lishui District.

In the notice of the Lishui District People's Government on the third batch of district-level protected sites (Li Zheng Fa [2017] No. 197) the mound is recorded as Spring and Autumn, in Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town.

The two records differ in both period and level: one as a municipal site of the Spring and Autumn to Warring States period, the other as a district site of the Spring and Autumn period. This entry sets them side by side without choosing between them; the level and period given here follow the municipal list. Neither list gives the year of the batch, so the municipal batch number remains unverified.

The Yang–Zuo grave eulogy in the gazetteer

Juan 8 of the Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, the "Yiwen zhi" (literary records), carries a eulogy (贊) by Xu Liangyan of the Ming, "A Eulogy for the Grave of the Ancient Righteous Men Yang Jiao'ai and Zuo Botao", with the subscription "知縣" (magistrate) — that is, written by a Lishui magistrate. Its prose opening runs:

羊角哀、左伯桃為死友，聞楚王賢，往見之。道遇雨雪，計不俱全，乃並衣糧與角哀，入樹中死。

The two were sworn friends (死友), who heard that the King of Chu was worthy and went to see him; encountering rain and snow and unable both to survive, Zuo Botao gave his clothes and rations to Yang Jiao'ai and died inside a tree. The eulogy closes:

予立貞珉，匪捍樵牧。

"貞珉" is a stone tablet: the author says he set one up at the grave, not to keep out woodcutters and herdsmen. The eulogy is the old gazetteer's own record of the Yang–Zuo grave, and it shows that the legend of that grave does have a gazetteer basis.

One limit must be noted: the eulogy gives no location for the grave, and it does not say the two were men of Yan or that they reached Lishui, so it cannot be used to identify Yiqidun with the Yang–Zuo joint tomb. The identification of Yiqidun as that tomb is the modern folk tradition retold in a media report, as recorded in this library's culture-section entry "The Tale of Yiqidun" (ls:item:yiqidun-gushi); the two protected-site lists do not carry it, nor does the eulogy point to Yiqidun. The period and protection level of the mound itself continue to follow the two listings.

To be added

The form, size and present condition of the mound, whether it has been excavated and any resulting report, the origin of the name (the sources do not give one, and no legend should be inferred from the name), and the reason for the difference between the two listings.