Cai Lun Tomb and Shrine 蔡伦墓祠

About Cai Lun Tomb and Shrine

The State Council listed 蔡伦墓和祠 in the sixth batch of national key cultural relic sites, published on 9 June 2006, with the era given as 清 and the address as Yang County.

A Shaanxi Provincial Local Records Office gazetteer entry places the tomb about 200 m south of 龙亭铺 street in Yang County. It gives 蔡伦 as a man of 桂阳 in the Eastern Han, courtesy name 敬仲, who under Emperor He served as 中常侍 and as 尚方令 in charge of imperial manufactures, was enfeoffed as 龙亭侯 in 114, and improved papermaking using bark, hemp, rags and old fishing nets to make what was then called 蔡侯纸; it says later ages handed him down as the inventor of papermaking in China.

The same entry gives the tomb as running north-south, 97 m long and 33 m wide, with a mound 30 m by 17 m and 7 m high. Three steles stand before it, the frontmost a 新建祠记碑 of 1603 and the middle one reading 汉龙亭侯蔡伦之墓. A shrine stands south of the tomb, which the entry, published in 2006, says then served as the 龙亭乡 middle school buildings, with several dozen old trees, cypresses among them, in the tomb area and around the shrine.

The site is run as a cultural relic management office. A filing with the Shaanxi Provincial Public Institution Registration Administration records 洋县蔡伦墓祠文物管理所, with its address at 龙亭镇龙亭村, a sponsoring unit of 洋县文物旅游局 and seven staff, none of the posts for visitor reception; it describes the site as a national-level protected cultural relic site that is also open to visitors.

The same filing, covering 2023, records that conservation works on the 大殿 passed the provincial bureau's final acceptance in October that year, that the provincial bureau had approved 2022 applications for works on the 祠区大殿 and 拜殿 and for a security upgrade, with 2.2 million and 2.5 million yuan sought, and that the site received 100,000 visitors and 500,000 yuan in ticket income, hosted more than 20,000 people in study groups and ran more than 50 study activities.

The gazetteer entry is from 2006 and its account of the shrine's use is dated to that year. Neither source describes the papermaking displays the site is known for, and neither gives opening hours or ticket prices.

What to look for

• The tomb mound, which the gazetteer gives as 30 m by 17 m and 7 m high within a 97 m by 33 m tomb plot.
• The three steles before the tomb, among them the 1603 新建祠记碑 and the one reading 汉龙亭侯蔡伦之墓.
• The shrine south of the tomb, whose 大殿 and 拜殿 the filing records under conservation works in 2023.
• The old trees the gazetteer records in the tomb area and around the shrine, cypresses among them.

Location & getting there

Getting to Cai Lun Tomb and Shrine

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 蔡伦墓祠 with 汉中市 and 洋县.