Comrade | Guevara
Dezhou City, Shandong Province, is famous at home and abroad for grilled chicken, but what is little known to the world is that in a place called Beiying Village in the northeast of the city, it has been concerned by southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia for more than 600 years. Because, in this seemingly ordinary village, there is a tomb of a foreign king, the tomb of the king of Sulu, and the owner of the tomb, Batu Ge Khla, is also the only Filipino king buried in China. So the question is, why did a Filipino king choose to bury himself in China thousands of miles away after his death? Everything must start from the three dynasties of Sulu to worship Ming Chengzu Zhu Di.
Map of the Kingdom of Sulu
The ancient Sulu Kingdom, located on the Sulu Islands in present-day southwestern Philippines, appeared in Chinese history books for a long time. For example, the "Records of the South China Sea of Dade", written in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, describes the basic national conditions of Sulu, and in the "Island YiZhiluo" written by the famous scholar Wang Dayuan in the Yuan Dynasty, the geographical location and main products of Sulu are recorded in detail. However, according to the existing historical data, as early as the 3rd century, Chinese arrived in the Sulu Islands, and in the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, there were a large number of Chinese immigrants to settle there.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Minangabao people from the western Part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra conquered the Sulu Islands and established a powerful Islamic state, which at its peak included the present-day southern Philippines of Palawan and Basilan, the central province of Tavitawi, and the islands around northern Borneo and the Sulu Sea. After the establishment of the state of Sulu, it implemented a unique three-king co-governance system, with the highest status of the middle eastern king, and the western king and the king of the gong equivalent to the vice king, similar to the emperor and co-ruling emperor of the Roman Empire.
Zheng He's RoadMap to the West
After Ming Chengzu Zhu Di seized the throne, in order to find the Jianwen Emperor whose life and death were unknown, and also to publicize his legitimacy to the surrounding countries, he sent the eunuch Zheng He to lead a huge fleet of ships to visit the Western countries (Note: The Ming Dynasty referred to the Western Ocean as Southeast Asia, India, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula and the east coast of Africa). In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), Zheng He sent a detachment to Sulu, and while conveying the imperial orders and trading, he also used the generous reward as bait to persuade the three princes to pay tribute to China.
The Three Kings of Sulu witnessed the might of the Ming Fleet and the abundance of trade materials, and had previously heard the news that neighboring Luzon, Java, and Boni had gained rich economic benefits and strong political support because of their friendship with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, in order to express the sincerity of friendship with the Ming Dynasty, in the fifteenth year of Yongle (1417), the eastern king of Sulu, Batu Ge ha la, the western king Ma Ha La, and the king of Ba Du Ge La bu collectively dispatched and led a huge delegation composed of more than 340 people from family members and officials to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
Portrait of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di
On the first day of August of that year, a tribute group led by the three kings of Sulu arrived in Beijing and offered pearls, precious stones, tortoiseshells and other gifts, which greatly pleased the Ming Dynasty. In return, Ming Chengzu set up a state banquet to solemnly receive the three kings of Sulu and held a canonization ceremony, and at the same time gave them commandments, robes, crown belts, seals, saddle horses, honor guards, etc., and the entourage was also generously rewarded. Subsequently, Ming Chengzu ordered Yousi to arrange for a delegation from the Sulu State to visit various places in and around Beijing, and all expenses were borne by the Ming Dynasty.
The Three Kings of Sulu stayed in Beijing for nearly a month, then returned to China by boat along the Grand Canal, and before leaving, they were received by Ming Chengzu and given a large number of precious gifts. However, due to the unsatisfactory water and soil, the arduous journey, and the irregular diet and living, Batu Gezhahara fell seriously ill not long after leaving Beijing, and when he barely managed to support dezhou in Shandong Province, he died of no medicine, on September 13 of that year.
Tomb of the King of Sulu
Because he admired the civilization and prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, Batu Gehala asked his family to bury him in China before his death, and when the news reached Beijing, Ming Chengzu was both emotional and sad. In order to fulfill The Last Wish of Batu Ge Hara, Ming Chengzu sent Libu Langzhong Chen Shiqi to Dezhou with a eulogy written by the emperor himself, and buried Batu Ge Hara in Texas with a royal ceremony, giving him the nickname "Gongding". As a result, Batugarhara became the only filipino king buried in China.
After the funeral, The eldest son of Batu Ge Khla, Tuo Ma Han, returned to China to inherit the throne, while Princess Ge Muning and her second son Wen Hala, the third son Andulu and more than ten attendants stayed in Texas to guard the tomb, and never returned to Sulu. After the death of Ge Muning, Wen Hala, Andulu and others, they were buried in the southeast corner of the tomb, while their descendants took over the responsibility of guarding the tomb, changed to the Chinese surnames of Wen and An, and married and had children in the local area. By the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the number of descendants of Batu Ge Hara was considerable.
Mosque near the tomb of king Sulu
Considering that Batu Ge Hara and his descendants were all Muslims, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming (1425-1435), the Ming Dynasty deliberately built a mosque in the southwest of the tomb of king Sulu, and chose one person in charge of each of the Wen and An surnames. During the Wanli dynasty (1573-1620) of the Ming Dynasty, with the acquiescence of the imperial court, the descendants of king Sulu of Beiying Village and the nearby Muslim masses jointly donated funds to build the Beiying Mosque.
After entering the customs, the Qing Dynasty followed the practice of the Ming Dynasty, still giving special care to the descendants of the king of Sulu, but at first rejecting their application for naturalization in China. It was not until the ninth year of Yongzheng (1713) that the Yongzheng Emperor, out of the need to establish himself as a benevolent monarch at home and abroad, finally allowed the descendants of Badu Gehala to be naturalized with the surnames of Wen and An. At the same time, the Yongzheng Emperor also ordered the local government to renovate the tomb of the Eastern King of Sulu, set up the Spring and Autumn Festival, and once again reiterated the rule that the surnames of An and Wen should guard the tomb of the King of Sulu.
Gurudwara, a descendant of the king of Sulu
At present, the descendants of Batu Gezhahara have been passed down to more than 20 generations, scattered throughout the country about 1,000 people, of which there are more than 460 people in 120 households in Beiying Village, who still shoulder the responsibility of guarding the tomb. At the same time, in order to strengthen the management and protection of the cemetery, the tomb of the Eastern King of Sulu has been listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Shandong Province since 1956, and has been upgraded to a national key cultural relics protection unit since 1988.
bibliography
Zhang Tingyu (Qing): History of The Ming Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1974.
The First Historical Archive of China: A Collection of Archives of the Ming Dynasty of China, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2001.
Wang Shoudong: A Study on the Tomb of the King of Sulu, Texas, China Drama Publishing House, 2009.
Wang Shoudong: A Study on the Family Culture of the Descendants of the Sulu Kings, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2014.