Shrine and Tomb of Sima Qian 司马迁祠墓

About Shrine and Tomb of Sima Qian

The surviving buildings are largely Song. The People's Daily Overseas Edition essay records a wooden archway inscribed as the shrine of the Han grand historian, which it says was rebuilt under the Qing, and cites the Commentary on the Waterways Classic for a stone chamber, stele and cypresses raised in the fourth year of Yongjia by Yin Ji, administrator of Hanyang, in recognition of Sima Qian's merits – from which the essay concludes the shrine is at least 1,600 years old. It also cites the Hancheng county gazetteer for the county magistrate Yin Yang gathering Zhichuan villagers in the seventh year of Xuanhe under the Song, which the page dates to 1125, to repair the tomb wall and build a sleeping hall and a mountain gate, and says the present gate and sleeping hall are the remains of Song building.

The ascent and what stands at the top are described in the same essay. It records a second wooden archway, probably earlier than the Ming, inscribed 'the high mountain is looked up to', and a flight of stone steps outside the mountain gate, described as extremely steep and numbering exactly 99. The courtyard at the top holds an offering hall and a sleeping hall, with the shrine's name on the door and old cypresses in the yard; a seated figure of Sima Qian stands in the sleeping hall, and the walls carry steles, mostly records and laments from the Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing. Behind the courtyard, the essay says, is the tomb, built up in a circle with blue bricks.

The site's designations and its present extent come from two further pages. A China Daily Online item credited to Huashang Net records that the State Council named the shrine a second-batch national cultural relic protection unit in 1982 and that it was raised to a national AAAA-grade scenic area in 2014, and that the scenic area has grown from the tomb alone into three parts – the national culture and history park, the memorial park for the Eighth Route Army's crossing of the Yellow River, and the main shrine area – with the main area expanding from 200 mu to 2,000 mu. A Western Network feature on Hancheng gives the tomb and shrine four terraces linked by 99 stone steps, and reads the number nine as the extreme figure, matching the regard in which Sima Qian is held.

What to look for

• The 99 stone steps up to the shrine courtyard, which the People's Daily Overseas Edition essay says number exactly 99 and the Western Network feature describes as linking four terraces.
• The sleeping hall and the mountain gate, which the People's Daily Overseas Edition essay says are remains of Song building.
• The seated figure of Sima Qian in the sleeping hall.
• The steles on the shrine walls, mostly records and laments from the Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing.
• The circular tomb built up in blue bricks behind the courtyard.

Location & getting there

Getting to Shrine and Tomb of Sima Qian

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

• Search for 司马迁祠墓 with 渭南市 and 韩城市.