Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Heng, was buried at Yongding Mausoleum, where his tomb surprisingly contained more than 30,000 specimens of lingzhi mushrooms.

Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty was the third emperor of the Song dynasty. After his death, he was buried at Yongding Mausoleum in the Gongyi region. Yet among his burial offerings were many unusual items—most notably, over 30,000 specimens of lingzhi mushrooms. What on earth was going on? Was Emperor Zhenzong planning to sell lingzhi in the underworld?
Before Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty, there were two emperors: Emperor Taizu was quite formidable, and Emperor Taizong was even more so. But by the time of Emperor Zhenzong, he encountered an opponent even more formidable—and this opponent was a woman: Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao dynasty.
The Song dynasty’s military had clashed with the Liao forces on two occasions: first, in the fourth year of the Taiping Xingguo era under Emperor Taizong (979 AD), when the Song army suffered a defeat at Gaoliang River; and second, in the third year of the Yongxi era (986 AD), when the two sides faced off once again, with the Song army emerging defeated once more.
To restore his prestige, Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty resolved to lead an expedition himself. Yet the ensuing battle proved fiercely grueling. Although the Song forces held the upper hand, the emperor grew apprehensive and ultimately signed the humiliating Treaty of Chanyuan, under which the Song pledged to pay the Liao dynasty 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 bolts of silk annually. Thus, the conflict came to a bitterly unsatisfying close.
To dispel the negative legacy of the Chanyuan Treaty—“victorious yet defeated”—Emperor Zhenzong of Song first found a pretext to dismiss Chancellor Kou Zhun, then appointed Wang Qinruo, a master of flattery, to a key post in the imperial cabinet. Dubbed the “Goiter Chancellor” for his swollen neck, Wang colluded with Ding Wei, Lin Te, Chen Pengnian, and Liu Chenggui (a eunuch), collectively known as the “Five Demons,” to orchestrate a farcical spectacle: Emperor Zhenzong was said to have received an imperial mandate, ushering in the Song dynasty’s rise, entrusted to prudence, seated upon the throne, and safeguarded by righteousness, destined to endure seven centuries, its fate sealed by the number nine. This culminated in the absurd ritual of a fengshan sacrifice on Mount Tai.
At the time, the Song people stubbornly believed that the Song dynasty was a vast and mighty empire, while the Liao state was but a tiny, insignificant realm—though in fact the Liao’s territory was no smaller than that of the Song. To the Song court, paying tribute to the Liao was seen as an utterly shameful humiliation. Yet Emperor Zhenzong of Song, with his self‑proclaimed, aura‑shrouded ceremony of enshrining the emperor on Mount Tai, managed to restore among the populace a renewed confidence in the supremacy of the Celestial Empire.
Sure enough, upon learning that Emperor Zhenzong of the Song had received the Heavenly Scripture, the Liao state ceased its hostilities and refrained from provoking war for the remainder of his reign. Yet the price of Emperor Zhenzong’s deception was that, once a lie was told, he could only perpetuate it by fabricating yet another. Consequently, throughout his rule, reports of heavenly scriptures descending to earth proliferated, imperial sacrificial rites were held without cease, and temples sprang up in ever greater numbers. Meanwhile, the people of the Song dynasty, eager to win the emperor’s favor, eagerly presented him with “auspicious omens” and other tokens.
During the fifteen years of Emperor Zhenzong’s reign (from May 8, 997, to March 23, 1022), it is fair to say that he lived by the lies he himself had concocted; in order to keep these falsehoods going, the Song dynasty’s imperial treasury was virtually emptied.
On March 23, 1022, Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty passed away and was interred on the northeastern ridge of Caizhuang in Gongyi City, Henan Province—his mausoleum, known as Yongdingling. As the emperor of the Song dynasty, his tomb contained every conceivable ritual and funerary object, from beaded shrouds and jade caskets to ceremonial vessels and burial goods. Yet when it came to the vast array of heavenly scriptures and auspicious relics, a consensus proved elusive. In the end, the empress dowager, the imperial consorts, and the ministers split into three factions: some advocated burning them, while others favored continuing to enshrine them within the palace. Ultimately, Chancellor Wang Zeng proposed a solution that won universal approval: leave nothing behind, and allow Emperor Zhenzong to take it all with him.
The plan proposed by Chancellor Wang Zeng was indeed ingenious, for only in this way could the pernicious effects and harms stemming from Emperor Zhenzong of Song’s “Heavenly Scripture” deception be eradicated.
What particularly awe-inspiring “auspicious” artifacts are found in Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty’s tomb?
The editor consulted historical records and found roughly four types:
1. Various heavenly scriptures, with the “Da Zhong Xiang Fu” at their head.
2. Various types of plants, with Jiahe (one ear with two grains, two seedlings bearing ears together, and three seedlings each producing an ear—such a crop is called Jiahe) as the foremost.
3. Various animals, represented by auspicious deer and tortoises bearing inscriptions of good fortune.
4. Various unique stones bearing auspicious characters.
Of course, none of the aforementioned items were the most numerous “auspicious” artifacts; the greatest treasure buried with Emperor Yongding was the more than 30,000 lingzhi mushrooms contained in over a hundred boxes.
This account was conveyed through the words of Zhu Yuanzhang, and the surviving written record reads as follows: “Emperor Zhenzong, too, was hailed as a wise ruler. At the outset, under the chancellor Li Hang, he frequently heard of calamities and omens, yet his mind remained ever vigilant. Later, at the Treaty of Chanyuan, the ministers first invoked the Heavenly Book to inflate their ambitions, while the courtiers, in obsequious compliance, sought only to curry favor. As a result, those who reported auspicious signs came one after another, and over thirty thousand bundles of medicinal herbs were presented.”
Whether Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty had buried celestial scriptures or auspicious relics in his own mausoleum, nothing could stop the tomb robbers. After the fall of the Northern Song in 1127 and the subsequent Jin invasion, his tomb was ransacked, leaving behind a scene of utter devastation—too harrowing to behold.
As for the most bold and decisive move, it was undoubtedly that of Zhu Yuanzhang. Upon ascending the throne, he issued an edict abolishing the title “Eastern Peak Heavenly Emperor of Benevolence and Sage” bestowed upon Mount Tai, thereby putting an end once and for all to the farcical spectacle of imperial sacrificial rites on the mountain.