The Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery () is

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

's main resting place for the highest-ranking revolutionary heroes, high government officials and, in recent years, individuals deemed of major importance due to their contributions to society. In Chinese, ''Babaoshan'' literally means "The Eight-Treasure Mountains". The cemetery is located in the

Shijingshan District Shijingshan District () is an urban district of the municipality of Beijing. It lies to the west of the urban core of Beijing, and is part of the Western Hills area, bordering the districts of Haidian to the northeast and east, Fengtai to the so ...

, a municipality located in western Beijing.

History

The Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, with an area of 0.10 square kilometres and located in the western frontiers of Beijing's massive urban sprawl, was first built as a temple in honor of General

Gang Bing Gang Bing (, sometimes written as 刚秉/剛秉 Gāng Bǐng, also known as 刚铁/剛鐵, Gāng Tiě) was a Chinese general and eunuch who served under the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Self-castration Gang Bing is most notable for his ac ...

, a

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

soldier who castrated himself as an act of obedience for the

Yongle Emperor The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyn ...

. The emperor designated the area surrounding the temple as the final resting place of concubines and eunuchs. Over time, the

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

temple became a place for retired eunuchs only, which it remained for five centuries of imperial rule until it was converted to honor the elite of the Chinese Communist Party five decades ago. The official name of the temple was (), roughly translating into Temple of Loyalty and Defender of the Nation. The last abbot of the temple was Xin Xiuming (信修明), who was married and had two children. Due to the harsh living conditions of rural China, Xin Xiuming, when he was 19 and against the strong oppositions of his family members, castrated himself and became a eunuch for

Puyi Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...

. After the establishment of

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

, Xin Xiuming left the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrifi ...

and went to live in the Temple of Loyalty to the Nation, and by 1930, he had risen to the top as the abbot of the

temple. Under Abbot Xin's management, the

temple prospered as an agricultural business establishment: 52 Chinese acres of land that the temple owned were farmed by the eunuchs themselves, another 157 Chinese acres of land the temple owned were farmed jointly by eunuchs and tenant farmers, and the remaining 269 Chinese acres of land the temple owned were rented out to be farmed by tenant farmers. When the communists decided to turn the temple into a cemetery, Abbot Xin Xiuming was able to negotiate with the then deputy mayor of

, Mr. Wu Han a good deal for the eunuchs: the government would pay the full price for all assets of the temple, and pay each eunuch a monthly pension until his death. The abbot also convinced the government to arrange vehicles to help relocate eunuchs to two new locations. Those older eunuchs were relocated to a

temple for eunuchs at Colored Glazed River (Liulihe), and the rest were located to another

temple for eunuchs at Westward Tilted Street (Xixiejie).

Israel Epstein Israel Epstein (20 April 1915 – 26 May 2005) was a Polish-born Chinese journalist and author. He was one of the few foreign-born Chinese citizens of non-Chinese origin to become a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Early life and educat ...

, a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

who immigrated to China, was honored and cremated at Babaoshan in 2005. In January 2010, eight individuals (four UN peacekeepers and four Chinese delegates) who were killed in the

2010 Haiti earthquake A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's ca ...

, were also laid to rest at Babaoshan as martyrs.

Establishment

After the land was purchased, the legal proceeding followed: Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery traces its legal/judicial root to the Temporary Legislation on the Burial at Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery (革命烈士公墓安葬暂行规定) issued by

Municipal Government in August 1951. After numerous reviews, the modified version was renamed to Temporary Legislation on Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery (革命公墓暂行规定) and made into law on Executive order #270 on December 20, 1951. Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was built according to the regulations described in this law. One of the most important piece of legislation is the third section, where it dictates the different level of treatment of late cadres at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, which has since become the standard for the rest of cemeteries in China for decades. There are three levels for the area and the location of the graves depending on the ranks of the late cadres: One of the two portions of the 1st District is the region in front of the temple. This is the region for cadres at county level and regimental officers. The area of individual grave can not exceed 12 ft (4 m) by 6 ft (2 m). The other portion of the 1st District is the region to the east of the temple. This is the region for cadres at prefecture level and divisional officers. The area of individual grave can not exceed 12 ft (4 m) by 12 ft (4 m). The 2nd District is located to the west of the temple. This is the region for cadres at provincial level and army/corps level officers. Since this category includes several levels of rank, the maximum size of each grave varies: those who held lower ranks can not exceed square, and those of higher rank can not exceed square. The 3rd District is located to the north of the temple, and it is designated those had special place in the revolution, and those served in the central government. The area of the grave would be determined individually by the government. The mourning hall with several rooms where cinerary caskets are placed follows a similar rule: room number one has all of the cinerary caskets of deceased cadres / officers qualified to be buried in the graves in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Districts, and cinerary caskets of all other deceased would be placed in other rooms. Arrangement of the cinerary caskets also follows the similar rule: the front wall of room number one is reserved for the cinerary caskets of deceased cadres of central government, while side walls of room number one are reserved for the deceased cadres who had no positions in the central government, but held ranks enough to have their cinerary caskets to be placed in room number one. Even for the same wall, there are similar rules for the levels at which the cinerary caskets are placed: the higher the ranks the deceased held, the higher the cinerary caskets is placed.

Hearse

For the first few years, there was no hearse for Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery; vehicles were temporarily drafted from other governmental establishments or hired from private businesses when needed. In 1956, three vehicles were assigned to Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: a Polish truck, a World War II Japanese

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

truck nicknamed "Potato vehicle" by the workers due to its round nose, and an American Jeep towing a trailer where the cadaver was placed. In 1962, more than a dozen GAZ-63 trucks were reassigned to Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery at once, from the 13th Plant of Passenger Coaches (客车十三厂), but the original three vehicles did not completely retire until

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

had started. When the

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Chen Yi Chen Yi may refer to: * Xuanzang (602–664), born as Chen Yi, Chinese Buddhist monk in Tang Dynasty * Chen Yi (Kuomintang) Chen Yi (; courtesy names Gongxia (公俠) and later Gongqia (公洽), sobriquet Tuisu (退素); May 3, 1883 – June ...

died in February 1972, the Chinese government finally realized that trucks acting as hearses was not adequate for special occasions such as funerals of important governmental figures. An emergency order was given to the 4th Plant of Passenger Coaches (客车四厂) to produce a true hearse, and after consulting with workers at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, a purpose built hearse was pressed into service just a few months after the order was given. The hearse was based on the chassis of Liberation Truck, and thus also used the same Liberation brand.

Crematorium

From the start, the

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

used at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was Type 82B, the Chinese copy of a 1940s era Czech crematorium, which could only be operated manually, resulting in very slow preparation time. Furthermore, it took huge effort to clean the crematorium. Whenever a high-ranking official's funeral took place, ordinary citizens had to wait and their original schedules were disrupted, causing many complaints from the public. To solve the problem, in 1984, China imported two new crematoria from a Japanese firm in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

(日本東京博善株式会社), one went to

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

, and the other went to Babaoshan. The Japanese crematorium was highly automatic but also could be operated manually when wanted, and in addition, the pollution generated during the cremation was next to nothing. However, such environmental friendly process came at a price: the cremation process itself took much longer and consumed more fuel. Nonetheless, due to other advantages such as the ease of cleaning and automation, all activities other than the cremation were greatly reduced, resulting in much higher efficiency. The higher efficiency in turn, helped to solve the schedule conflicts and reduced complaints. After two months of installation and testing, the Japanese crematorium formally went into service and replaced the obsolete Type 82B crematorium, and it remains in service until this day, specifically used to cremate high-ranking governmental officials' cadavers. Although the Japanese crematorium is adequate, the ever increasing need required new crematorium, and a new domestic crematorium that was fully computerized was added to the inventory. The new crematorium further improved environmental standards and efficiency, and consume less fuel in comparison to the Japanese crematorium while the cremation process was shorter. This newest addition was produced by

Shougang Shougang Group Co., Ltd., formerly Shougang Corporation is a Chinese state-owned steel company. Based in Beijing, its the Shijingshan district operations were moved out of the city prior to the Olympics due to concerns over pollution. Its subs ...

, and are mainly used for common citizens.

Notable people buried at Babaoshan

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- buried 2019 In April 1996 the ashes of Emperor Puyi were buried in Eastern Qing Mausoleum near Beijing (清东陵, ''Qingdongling'') until Puyis's wife Li Shuxian insisted on having his ashes transferred to the tomb of Wanrong in Xiling where they remain buried to this day. Nowadays, only the emperor's brother Prince Pujie (溥杰) lies in Babaoshan Cemetery.

Notes

External links

Pictures of Babaoshan
during Qingming Festival with short biographies of several of the people interred there.
Babaoshan Cemetery
at

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{{Coord, 39, 54, 28, N, 116, 14, 09, E, region:CN_type:landmark, display=title National cemeteries Cemeteries in Beijing Shijingshan District