Fang Cemetery

Fang Cemetery in Lijiang

The Fang Cemetery is on a wooded hill immediately to the north of Lijiang Ancient Town. The triangular area of the mountain is roughly a mile on each side, with the Black Dragon Pond at the southwestern foot of the mountain. The Cemetery contains the remains of the Fang Family starting with Fang Ting Feng, who was born in 1791 and was the first Fang to live in Lijiang. He is considered to be the Lijiang Fang Family Generation 1. He had 3 sons, but only his first son, Fang Pei Gang, Generation 2 Brother 1, was buried in the Fang Cemetery. All of the married male descendents of Fang Pei Gang and their wives are buried in the cemetery (red marker), with the exception of Fang Guo Yu, who has a more ornate tomb (yellow marker) near Black Dragon Pond (blue marker), 2/3 of a mile southwest of the Fang Cemetery on the opposite side of the peak. Fang Guo Yu's grave is 1000 feet east of Black Dragon Pond, and 250 feet higher in elevation than the Pond, but 500 feet lower than the Fang Cemetery.

Rock on left was by the road at the start of the trail. Rock on right was a 2 minute walk from the Fang graves.

Top stone in cemetery, with "Fang Family" on top of stone (rest of stone has random scratches).
One relative said this stone is for the Fang Family Spirit.

Rows 1 and 2 at the upper part of the cemetery

Row 3

Rows 3 and 4

Row 4

The text on the old gravestones are very similar:
The middle column tells who is in the grave, and all but three characters (in yellow and blue) are identical. The column says "This is the tomb of Fang YYY ZZZ (male) and ZZZ (female family name)".
The right column gives the position of this person in the family tree: "# generation, # ancestor".
The left two columns give the date when this tombstone was erected (1993 for all graves before generation 6, which must be when the graves were moved to this spot from elsewhere on the mountain), and the person in charge of creating the tomb.
The frame around the stone has poetic writing that is the same for most of the tombs. The left side says "Your appearance and voice will exist forever". The right side says "Your spirit and reputation will last forever". And the top says "Your spirit will light us forever".

red: Fang character followed by "Mother" on left and "Father" on right
yellow: wife's family name
blue: husband's name (family name of course is Fang)
orange: "5th generation 5th person"
green: "year 1993"
The following photos were taken in October 2016, and show all of the freshly-painted grave markers.