The Tale of Yiqidun

Relation to the entry of the same name (2026-09-30): this entry records the folk legend attached to Yiqidun as an intangible cultural heritage item — its district-level batch, its recommended guardian and the outline of the story. The history site separately carries the entry "Yiqidun Mound" (ls:place:yiqidun), which records the mound itself, its form, period and level of heritage protection. The two are in one place but are not the same object, so under the criterion that different objects of the same name are not merged — the same reason "Wuxiangshan Cliff Carvings" and "Wuxiang Mountain" each keep an entry — each site keeps its own entry and the two point at each other rather than merging. This entry does not repeat the level and period of the mound, which are recorded in the history site's entry.

Name and category

According to the public notice of January 2024, 17 projects were recommended for the fourth batch of district-level intangible cultural heritage items in Lishui District, of which 14 were new inscriptions and three extended projects. The Tale of Yiqidun is one of the new inscriptions and belongs to the folk-literature category; it is the only folk-literature item among the 17 projects, and its recommended guardian is the Hefeng Town Cultural and Sports Centre.

Place of transmission

The Yiqidun that appears in the item title is in Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town. The heritage status and level of the mound itself are recorded separately in this library's history section, under the Yiqidun entry (the municipal list and the district's third-batch list differ as to its date and level). This entry does not repeat that record, and it does not infer the level of the tale from the mound's protected status.

The place name "Zhongyang Village" can nevertheless be corroborated by two independent sources: the List of Nanjing Cultural Relic Sites Protected at the Municipal Level published by the Nanjing Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism gives the detailed location of the Yiqidun row as Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town, with the period given as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States; and annex 1 of the district's third-batch list of protected sites records Yiqidun in Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town, with the period given as Spring and Autumn. The two differ in the period they give (see the entry in the history section), but the location agrees in both, so the place of transmission of this item can be confirmed as Zhongyang Village.

This can also be read against the fourth-batch public notice: the reporting-area column of the row for the Tale of Yiqidun reads "Qinhuai District", which does not agree with Zhongyang Village. This entry does not rewrite the original wording of the notice on that basis, but the divergence between that column and the location given in the heritage lists is a direct point of comparison: the place of transmission can be confirmed here, while that column of the notice remains to be verified.

The story, as a folk legend

According to a 2014 China News Service report carried from the Jinling Evening News, local tradition in Lishui holds that the Yiqidun mound is the joint tomb of Zuo Botao and Yang Jiao'ai: the two were men of Yan who set out south when King of Chu called for talents; reaching Lishui, they were overcome by cold and hunger, and Zuo Botao, to save his friend, left him the provisions and shut himself in a hollow tree to die. Yang Jiao'ai later became a grandee of Chu and dreamed that Zuo Botao was tormented by evil spirits in the nether world, whereupon he took his own life to go and help him. The report says the idiom "to accompany a gentleman at the cost of one's life" originates here.

The above is a folk legend. This entry keeps its legendary character, sets it apart from historical statement, and does not write it as fact.

Where legend and history part

The same report also carries the specialists' view: there are several "joint tombs of Zuo Botao and Yang Jiao'ai" in China, and the Lishui mound is very likely a mound tomb in origin, the local people having attached the moving tale to it and so produced a relic. On this view, the claim that Yiqidun is the joint tomb of the two is an attachment, and the mound at the level of documented history still rests on its archaeology and on the mound itself. This entry sets the legend and the specialists' view side by side and does not choose between them.

The Yang–Zuo grave eulogy in the Kangxi Gazetteer

Juan 8 of the Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, the "Yiwen zhi" (literary records), carries a eulogy (贊) by Xu Liangyan of the Ming, "A Eulogy for the Grave of the Ancient Righteous Men Yang Jiao'ai and Zuo Botao", with the subscription "知縣" (magistrate) — that is, written by a Lishui magistrate. Its prose opening runs:

羊角哀、左伯桃為死友，聞楚王賢，往見之。道遇雨雪，計不俱全，乃並衣糧與角哀，入樹中死。

The two were sworn friends (死友); hearing that the King of Chu was worthy, they set out to see him, met rain and snow on the way, and, unable both to survive, Zuo Botao gave his clothes and rations to Yang Jiao'ai and died inside a tree. The eulogy closes:

予立貞珉，匪捍樵牧。

"貞珉" is a stone tablet: the author says he set one up at the grave, not to keep out woodcutters and herdsmen. The gazetteer thus records the Yang–Zuo grave and a eulogy for it, so the legend does have an old-gazetteer record and is not without a source.

Three limits of the eulogy must be noted. First, its narrative has only the motif of giving up clothes and rations and dying in the tree, not the later motif, in the modern media account, of Yang Jiao'ai taking his own life to aid Zuo Botao in the nether world; it is therefore evidence for the earlier form of the story only. Second, it does not say the two were men of Yan, nor that they reached Lishui. Third, it gives no location for the grave, so it cannot be used to identify Yiqidun with the Yang–Zuo joint tomb. The identification of Yiqidun as that tomb is the modern folk tradition retold in a media report, as recorded above in this entry.

Points in doubt

First, only the outline of the story as retold in a media report is available; the teller, the range of transmission and the occasions of telling are not recorded and remain to be added.

Second, whether Yiqidun is the joint tomb of the two is doubted by the specialists cited in the report; this entry sets out both accounts and does not raise confidence on that account.

Third, the date and heritage level of the Yiqidun mound are recorded under the Yiqidun entry of this library's history section; this entry does not repeat them.

Fourth, the reporting-area column for this row in the public notice reads "Qinhuai District", which does not agree with the place of transmission in Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town, and is inconsistent with the other rows; the wording is reproduced as it stands, not silently altered, and the discrepancy remains to be verified. The two heritage lists, the List of Nanjing Cultural Relic Sites Protected at the Municipal Level and the district's third-batch list of protected sites, both give the location as Zhongyang Village, Hefeng Town, which supports the view that the column is in error; but any correction to the original wording of the notice must await an official document, and this library does not rewrite it.

Fifth, of the five Lishui County Gazetteers this library holds, only the Kangxi gazetteer carries a relevant passage — the eulogy on the Yang–Zuo grave in juan 8, quoted above — so the Yang–Zuo legend does have an old-gazetteer record and is not without a source. The eulogy, however, gives no location for the grave, so it cannot serve to identify Yiqidun with the Yang–Zuo joint tomb. The story text has no ascertainable date, so no starting date is given.

Sixth, the level of the story text is still missing: the sources available give only an outline, with no record of the teller, the line of transmission or the occasions of telling. The outline given in this entry is a retelling of a media report, not a transcription from a performer's script.