Liu Ji's name appears in the text on the tomb's stone inscription. Liu was born in AD 757 and died aged 53. As military governor of Youzhou, he was in charge of the civil and military affairs of the region, which included what is today Beijing and its surrounding area.

Liu's family remained one of the most influential in the region for nearly 400 hundred years. During a period of chaos, Liu, whose rule was relatively independent, maintained a very good relationship with the weak central government and kept offering tributes to the emperors.

Liu fell ill during an expedition and was murdered by his second son Liu Zong with poison. The son then killed his elder brother and took the hereditary position from his father.

Liu has an important place in the official historical records. His biography appeared in two major history books including The Thorough History of Tang Dynasty. However, records in the two books conflicted in parts, and experts said they were looking forward to learning more details about Liu's life through the text on the inscribed stone, part of which remains covered by dirt.

Historical records show Liu was a Buddhist and sponsored stone inscriptions of more than 100 scrolls of Buddhist texts, which are still kept in Yunju Temple in Fangshan, said Wu Menglin, an expert on historical stone inscriptions.

Wu believes the discovery of Liu's tomb will create support for efforts to list Yunju Temple, with its nearly 15,000 pieces of stone inscriptions, as a World Cultural Heritage site.

Liu Xiangrui

(China Daily USA 06/24/2013 page5)