The island of exiles

The end of the world

For many centuries Hainan was the outermost edge of the Chinese empire: hot, plagued by disease, far from everything considered culture. Exile here was the harshest punishment short of death, and many exiles never returned.

Precisely for that reason, the most awkward minds were often sent here — ministers, scholars and poets who had crossed powerful opponents. They brought books, writing and learning to the island. Two places in Haikou tell of this: the Temple of the Five Lords and the tomb of Hai Rui.

Five exiles, one temple

The Wugong Temple, the “Temple of the Five Lords”, honours five statesmen exiled to Hainan. The first was Li Deyu, a powerful chancellor of the Tang dynasty who lost a power struggle at court in the 9th century and died on Hainan. The other four date from the Song era: Li Gang, Zhao Ding, Li Guang and Hu Quan. They opposed a humiliating peace with the conquerors in the north, and their opponents at court had them exiled. Zhao Ding eventually refused food on Hainan and died.

A first temple existed as early as the Ming era; the present main building was erected in 1889. It's a two-storey wooden building with surrounding galleries and is called the “First Tower of Hainan”, because at the time it was the island's most impressive building. Look closely and you'll even find echoes of Southeast Asia in its construction.

Su Dongpo on the island

The most famous exile isn't one of the five but their neighbour in the temple grounds: Su Dongpo, one of China's greatest poets. In 1097, at the age of sixty, he was exiled to Danzhou in the west of the island. On the way he stayed a good twenty days in a small hermitage, where the hall in his honour stands today.

Because the people here had hardly any clean drinking water, he showed them where to dig. Two springs were created this way. One is called the “Spring of Floating Millet”, because small bubbles rise to its surface that look like grains of millet. It still bubbles today.

Breaking through the sky

Su Dongpo stayed in Danzhou for three years and taught the island's young people. One of his students, Jiang Tangzuo, later became the first person from Hainan to pass the provincial examination — the first step into an official career that until then had been practically out of reach for Hainanese.

Su Dongpo had given him a verse saying, roughly, that the sea had never really cut the link to the mainland and that a student from here could break through the sky. The phrase “breaking through the sky” still stands in Chinese for something that happens for the very first time.

What you see in the temple grounds

The grounds are a small park with pavilions, ponds, bridges and old trees, about seven hectares. Besides the Temple of the Five Lords and the hall for Su Dongpo and his brother, there's a shrine to two Han-dynasty generals who once brought Hainan into the empire. A small exhibition shows Li bronze drums and old bells.

The temple grounds have been a national cultural monument since 2001. They're much quieter than the old town and a good place to escape the heat.

Hai Rui — the man who bought his coffin

Hai Rui went the opposite way. He was born on Hainan in 1514, grew up with his mother after his father's early death and went to the mainland as an official. Throughout China he is still the epitome of the incorruptible official who bows to no one.

He became famous in 1566 with a memorial to the emperor accusing him of neglecting the empire in his quest for immortality. Before submitting it he bought himself a coffin and said goodbye to his family — he fully expected to be executed. The emperor had him imprisoned but didn't survive the affair long, and Hai Rui was released.

A funeral and a snapped rope

When Hai Rui died in Nanjing in 1587, barely enough money was found in his house for the funeral; colleagues chipped in. When his coffin was carried south on the Yangtze, people in mourning clothes lined the banks.

On Hainan, the legend goes, the rope snapped while the coffin was being carried — and he was buried on that very spot. The tomb was completed in 1589, built on the emperor's orders.

A play and the Cultural Revolution

In 1959 Mao Zedong called on Party cadres to follow Hai Rui's example and speak their minds openly. The historian Wu Han then wrote a play about him, “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office”. But in 1965 a sharp critique of the play appeared, interpreting it as a veiled attack on Mao. This critique is considered the prelude to the Cultural Revolution.

In autumn 1966 Red Guards came to the tomb, toppled the stone figures, smashed the gravestones and opened the grave itself. Overseas Chinese visiting at the time lit incense from a safe distance. In 1979 the villagers rebuilt the burial mound on their own initiative, and in the 1980s the city had the site restored.

The park today

Today the tomb is part of a large, free cultural park with a memorial arch, statue, exhibition and gardens. The authorities use it as a place of learning against corruption — an official who would rather die poor than be bribed fits the message well.

That the same man became a hate figure in the Cultural Revolution is mentioned only in passing in the exhibition. So if you know the story, you see two things in the tomb at once: a monument to courage and a reminder of how quickly a hero can be declared an enemy.

How to approach the visit

The temple grounds and the tomb are in different parts of the city, about twenty minutes apart by Didi. One to one and a half hours is enough for each. The temple grounds combine well with a teahouse in old Fucheng.

The cultural park around the tomb is free; the tomb itself is accessible during the day from about 9 to 18. Check the current admission for the temple grounds on site. The signs are mostly in Chinese.