Yongling Mausoleum (Wang Jian's Tomb)

Yongling Mausoleum sits at 10 Yongling Road in Jinniu District and holds the remains of Wang Jian, a Tang dynasty general who founded the Former Shu kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, ruling from 907 until his death in 918 CE. The tomb is architecturally unique among known Chinese imperial burials because its chamber was constructed above ground level beneath an earthen mound, rather than dug underground, a fact confirmed when archaeologists excavated the site in 1942 and again after 1949. The burial chamber consists of three vaulted rooms connected along a single axis, with the central chamber containing a stone coffin platform, or 'coffin bed,' supported by twelve carved stone figures in the form of strongmen, and decorated along its sides with a relief carving of a 24-member court musical ensemble playing instruments including pipa, konghou harp, and various drums, one of the most complete surviving depictions of a Tang-Five Dynasties court orchestra in stone. The rear chamber holds a stone seated statue identified as Wang Jian himself. Because the tomb was looted at some point before its modern excavation, most portable grave goods were lost, and what survives is primarily the architectural and sculptural fabric of the chamber itself, which has been protected and displayed in situ since the 1940s excavation, with a small on-site museum building added around the mound to house descriptive exhibits and replicas of missing artifacts. The site's preservation focuses on stabilizing the original stone reliefs and coffin bed rather than reconstruction, and the mound and above-ground chamber structure remain largely as excavated.