Wangcongci
Twin earthen tomb mounds honoring two legendary Shu kings, one a farmer, one a flood-taming engineer.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Wangcongci in Chengdu opens beside a fifteen-meter earthen burial mound ringed by ancient cypresses, where a cuckoo's call is said to carry the soul of a king named Du Yu, remembered as Wangdi, legendary ruler of the ancient Shu kingdom before it had writing of its own. It traces his rule over the flood plain, the catastrophic flooding he could not solve, and the minister named Biling who arrived, in legend, as a spirit from the river itself. The bronze masks and gold ornaments of this same vanished culture, dug up nearby at Sanxingdui and Jinsha, still puzzle archaeologists today. Listen for the cuckoo, still calling from the cypress trees above.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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