ABSTRACT
In furthering our effort to collect the cultural artifacts con cerning the pro-Legalist, anti-Confucian progressive thinker L i Cho-wu, we conducted an investigation, between March and July 1975, into the grave of L i Cho-wuTs wife, Huai^-shih, s itu ated in the Kung-hsia locality of Chang-yiian Village in the Pankuan chTü of Nung-chfang yiian, in Mt. Tzu-mao, Chin-chiang County. With the assistance of the cadres of the agriculture farm and the poor and lower-middle [classes of] peasants, we found the entire piece of the Tombstone, the Tomb Inscription, the Official Tablet and other stele inscriptions.2 We now report the findings as follows:
The Tombstone was originally erected in front of the grave of L i Chih’s wife. Many years ago, it was broken into three pieces of slabs. The right and the middle portions were used to erect an outer wall of a well [in the vicinity](they later fe ll into the w ell)，and the left portion had been removed to make a stand supporting an old Lor^an龍 眼 tree twenty-odd meters away from the grave. (Note: When [we published] the article ” L i Chih te chia-shih, ku-chii, chi chTi chTi mu-peiTT [L i ChihTs Family, His Old Home, and His Wife’s Tombstone] in WWu 1975:1, we had found only the left portion [of the stele], and at that time we thought that it was the whole tombstone. This was a mistake.)3 We then thoroughly explored the surrounding, and, joined by the poor and lower-middle peasants of the locality, we recovered from the well the two portions of the fragmented tombstone. When we put the three pieces together, they fitted
perfectly. The left portion is 26 cm. wide, the middle 27 cm.， and the right portion 25 cm.; altogether it is 78 cm. in width, and 214 cm. in height. It is a piece of granite. There are two vertica l lines of inscription reading from right to left: "The Grave of the Ming Invested fLadyT L i Cho-wu!s Wife Huangshih，’ 錄 紂 4 人 莩 拳 H 黄 勿 之 蟇 . ] in thirteen characters. The right portion is inscribed: "W ritten by Chowu Elder,，[ 卓 每 皂 手 書 ] ，and the left portion reads: ” Erected by Son-in-law Chuang ChTun-fu on the wu-tzu year of Wan-li [1588].” 4
Havii^ cleaned up the Tombstone, we found a stone stele of the Tomb Inscription of Huang-shih about 150 meters east of her grave, and an inscription of the O fficia l Tablet at the back of the stele.5 It is also a piece of granite, but it was again broken into two long pieces of slabs which had been used as the footpath of a brieve [in the v ic in ity ]. One is 47 cm. wide and the other 46 cm.; a ll together it is 93 cm. in width. The height of the central portion [of the stele] is 274 cm., but the left and right portions are slightly shorter, each measuring 257 cm. Fortunately, the split was made on the blank portion of the stele， so that, even though a few characters had been defaced, the in scription is preserved intact. Although some characters on the inscription had been blurred by erosion and damages, the text could s t il l be read, but we are unable to ascertain the original location of the Tomb Inscription.
