Zhenhui Princess Tomb at Liuding Mountain (六鼎山渤海古墓)

The Tomb of Princess Zhenhui lies on Liuding Mountain near Dunhua in Yanbian, Jilin province, and belongs to the cemetery of the Bohai Kingdom, a state that ruled much of northeast China, the Russian Far East and northern Korea from 698 to 926 AD. Dunhua was the area of the early Bohai capital at Aohan, and Liuding Mountain was the burial ground of the early royal house. Princess Zhenhui was the fourth daughter of King Wen of Bohai, Da Qinmao, and died in 792 AD at about the age of 40. Her tomb was excavated in 1980 and is notable because it was built of cut stone with a brick-lined chamber and contained a stone epitaph. The inscription gives details of the princess's life and of Bohai court titles and reveals the strong cultural influence of Tang China on the kingdom. The chamber also preserved murals showing attendants, musicians and guards in Tang-style dress, painted on plastered walls, which are among the key surviving examples of Bohai painting. The original paintings are fragile, so the visitor display relies on reproductions and interpretive panels, along with a presentation of the excavated layout and finds. The tomb is located in a park-like setting on the hill, which also includes a restored complex of Buddhist buildings at Zhengjue Temple and the Bohai-era burial mounds. The architecture of the tomb, with a sloping approach passage, a corridor and a rectangular burial room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, parallels contemporary Tang burial practice. The site is a protected national relic. A visit takes about one hour, and is easily combined with the temple on the same hill.