The Yangshan Quarry (Chinese: 阳山碑材; pinyin: Yángshān bēi cái; literally "Yangshan Stele Material") is an ancient stone quarry near Nanjing, China, presently preserved as a historic site. Used during many centuries as a source of stone for buildings and monuments of Nanjing, the quarry is famous for the gigantic unfinished stele that was abandoned there during the reign of the Yongle Emperor in the early 15th century. This project is viewed by some as a perfect epitome to the megalomaniac spirit of the Yongle era, whose other giant undertakings included the launching of the Treasure Fleet for the Zheng He expeditions and the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing.[1][2]
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The Yangshan Quarry is situated on the Yangshan Mountain (elevation 140 m),[3] also known as Yanmen Shan (雁门山), northwest of the town (China) of Tangshan Town (汤山镇).[3] [4] The Yangshan is the main peak of the Kongshan Mountain Range (孔山山脉). The site is located 15-20 km to the east from the eastern part of Nanjing City Wall and the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.[5] Administratively, the area is in Jiangning District of Nanjing City, Jiangsu province.
The Yangshan Quarry has been worked from the time of the Six Dynasties, the local limestone being used for construction of buildings, walls, and statues in and around Nanjing.[3]
The Yangshan quarry became the main source of stone for the major construction projects that changed the face of Nanjing after the city became the capital of the new Ming Empire, founded there by Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) in 1368.[4] In 1405, Hongwu's son, the Yongle Emperor, ordered the cutting of a giant stele in this quarry, for use in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum of his deceased father. In accordance with the usual design of a Chinese memorial stele, three separate pieces were being cut - the rectangular stele base (pedestal), the stele body, and the stele head (crown, to be decorated with a dragon design). After most of the stone-cutting work had been done, it was realized that moving stones that big from Yangshan to Ming Xiaoling, let alone installing them there in a proper way, would not be physically possible, and the project was abandoned.[3] Instead, a much smaller tablet (still, the largest in the Nanjing area), known as the Shengong Shengde ("Divine Merits and Godly Virtues") Stele was installed in Ming Xiaoling's "Square Pavilion" (Sifangcheng) [3] in 1413.[6]
The three unfinished stele components remain in Yangshand Quarry to this day, only partially separated from the living rock of the mountain. The present dimensions and the usual weight estimates of the steles are as follows:
According to experts, if the stele had been finished and put together (i.e., the stele body installed vertically on the base, and topped with the stele head), it would have stood 73 m tall.[3] For comparison, the Shengong Shengde Stele actually installed in Ming Xiaoling is 8.78 m tall (6.7 m body + crown, on top of a 2.8 m tall tortoise pedestal).[6] The Song-Dynasty (early 12th century) Wan Ren Chou ("Ten Thousand Men's Sorrow") Stele in Qufu, which is thought to be one of the tallest in China, is 16.95 m tall, 3.75 m wide, 1.14 m thick.[8][9][10]
Like with other giant construction projects of the Yongle era, working at the Yangshan Quarry was not an easy job. According to a legend, workers who failed to fulfill the daily quota (measured, supposedly, by the amount of crushed rock produced in the process - it had to measure to at least 33 sheng) would be executed on the spot. In memory of the workers who perished there - whether actually executed, or died of overworking and disease - a nearby village became known as Fentou (坟头), i.e. "Grave Mound" Village.[3] Ann Paludan translates the place name as "Death's Head Valley".[11]
In the centuries since the giant stele project was abandoned, a number of Ming, Qing, and modern authors visited the site and left accounts of it.[3]
The poet Yuan Mei (1716 – 1797) expressed his feelings in "The Song of Hongwu's Great Stone Tablet" (洪武大石碑歌), which concludes with "ten thousand camels could not move it!" ("十万骆驼拉不起").[3] The poem is published in his collection Xiao Cangshan Fang Wenji (小仓山房文集).
In 1956, the Yangshan Quarry was entered on the Jiangsu provincial register of protected cultural monuments.[3] It is maintained as a tourist site, although, as journalists who visited it in the closing years of the 20th century, the site was little known even in Nanjing itself, and saw few visitors.[12][1] Perhaps to attract more visitors, a small theme park called the Ming Culture Village (明文化村, Ming Wenhua Cun) was constructed at the entrance to the site; as of 2011, it has a stage, children's rides, and various history-themed amusements. A single admission ticket allows one to visit the "village" and then to walk some 300-400 m to the quarry proper on one of several forest trails. The site is open year-round, but still is mostly deserted in winter.
Transportation from Nanjing to the Yangshan Quarry (either directly to the Ming Culture Village's entrance plaza, or to the "Yangshan Quarry" stop on the Jiangsu Provincial Highway 122 (S122)) is provided by several bus routes, including the Nanjing-Tangshan Line (南汤线, Nan-Tan Xian) from the Nanjing Railway Station.[13][14]