Ritan Park - Altar of the Sun - Muslim Tomb Memorial

In addition to the historical heavenly altar of the sun and its associated structures, the sun mural and the southern landscape ponds, Ritan Park reserves another corner for a more solemn type of attraction.

This is the site of the Tomb and associated Memorial Hall (room) of Ma Jun, a man who by now has been officially recognized by the ruling Communist Party as an early revolutionary martyr. Although few Foreigners may have heard of his person, Ma's deeds have been regarded as of great historical importance virtually since the moments they took place. Hence, already at an early time, an important location had been selected for his tomb which was inside the sacred grounds of the Ritan Park.

Find this tomb in the north west corner of the park not too far a distance walking from the Northern Gate.

As it turns out, the carreer of Ma Jun and the story of his marturdom are complicated.

Although studying in another city, noteably Tianjin, Ma Yun was an compatriot and fellow of late Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhou Enlai and his wife Deng Yinchao, the latter studying in Jinan, the Capital of adjacent Shandong Province.

MARTYRDOM OF MA JUN:

Born into a Hui Muslim ethnic family who lived far up north in the Ning'An County of what was then a part of the Jilin Province of Manchuria in the year 1895 AD, Ma Jun is hailed as an Chinese Nationalist as well as Revolutionary.

Ostensably, Ma's greatest sorrow was the slow absorbtion of his native homelands at the hands of encroaching Foreign Imperialist Powers, in case mostly the Japanese.

Already a succesful student in his early years, he found himself studying at a Foreign administered school in the port City of Tianjin when the nationsweeping protest-movement of the May the 4Th erupted in the year 1919.

The movement was quickly copied over by angry students in other cities near Beijing and around the Nation, allowing Ma through hard work and dedication to become a popular student leader in his city of study residence, a city with various good schools but also large Foreign settlement and according population of various Nationalities. Although, not among the most well remembered names, subsequently Ma Jun became important enough to be remembered as one of the five top leaders of the National May the 4th Movement.

It was in this position that Ma Jun came into contact with other Revolutionary students, most notably Zhou Enlai and Deng Yinchao, together with whom to set up early grassroots organizations which eventually built up the May the 4Th Movement nationwide and helped prepare the consciousness of the then still stumbling Nation for further political learning and steps to win back Chinese self confidence and ultimately National Independence.

Details of the Ma Jun Tomb in Ritan Park. As an especially important, loyal and longstanding early friend in the lengthy years of China's revolution, Ma Jun posthumously received great honors after the succesful completion of that Revolution. The large white marble tomb was designed and awarded in 1951 and at the time was unveiled in the presence of Zhou Enlai. His person embedded in the official narratives of the early revolution, even today the tomb site is considered semi-sacred and well kept. Revolutionary youth is frequently sent down for an educational visit.

Having already established himself as one of the 5 top leaders of what had become nationwide movement for political and even cultural change, the further political career of Ma Jun continued with a membership of the Chinese Communist Party as established in 1921 and subsequently a stint of schooling at was known as the Zhongshan University, a party Cadre school for Chinese established by the ComIntern in Moscow.

Unfortunately, unlike Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao and Mao Zedong to name but a few, Ma Jun was not

Various white marble plaquettes surrounding the tomb laud the great deeds of Ma Jun and his unfortunate martyrship. This particular slab was engraved and dedicated by none other than late Premier Zhou Enlai and his loyal wife Deng Yingchao, both of whom had held Ma Jun in high esteem. As loyal and surviving brethren of the same revolution, posthumously the honor debt was repayed by creating a permanent tomb to the fallen hero and fellow Communist Ma Jun.

fortunate enough to escape the wrath and persecutions of the Kuomintang National Party.

When in the year 1927 AD an Russian pushed attempt at a Communist Take-over in th economically crucial port city of Shanghai was brutally put down by Kuomintang Nationalist troops on orders of their leader Chiang-Kai Chek, the Communist Party fell into disarray. Subsequently, Ma Jun was secretly sent to the northern Capital Beijing and assigned the all important duties of rebuilding and reorganizing the Communist Party there. Assigned a very hazardous task to begin with and also a publicly well-known face, he was unable to elude authorities for long. Acccording to his history betrayed, he found himself arrested at the end of the year 1927. Brutalized and tortured, he eventually died on February 15th of the year 1928.

Originally interred in the grounds of Ritan Park, an entirely fresh monument was established not too long after the revolutionary take-over and the building of a Communist Government in Beijing. Apart from having an official unveiling ceremony in the presence of various high cadres of the Communist Party, the new tomb included the grave site of the widow of Ma Jun, Mrs. Yang Xiurong. Dressed in white marble and surrounded by trees and gardens, the new grave for Ma Jun was adorned with a text by revolutionary writer and compatriot Guo Moro (郭沫若) and Red Star identifying the tomb as belonging to a recognized Communist of the Past.

In 1987, an additional tomb inscription was added to the tomb by Deng Yinchao, then the widow of Premier Zhou Enlai and a woman of great esteem within the Party. It was one of her last such acts of commemoration and building of the Parties legacies.

Adorned with the Red Star of the Revolution flying above, the head of the Ma Jun Tomb in Ritan Park is shaped in the form of a book scroll displays a text written by Guo Moro. At the time Guo Moro was regarded as the number 1 visionairy socialist writer in the realm and thus made the first President of the newly established Chinese Aacdemy of Science and given various other Government jobs. Today he is regarded as a shameless apologist for the dark sides of the new regime and someone who was outclassed as a writer by among others the great Lu Xun.

In the year 1995, at the time of the 110Th birthday of Ma Jun, the City Government of Beijing reserved the large sum of some 2 million yuan (RMB) in order to restore, renovate and rejuvenate the various sites related to (socialist) Revolutionary Martyrdom as found within the Chaoyang District. As one may tell, a large part of this sum was invested into the Tomb of Ma Jun and the small rose garden and structures accompanying it. Additionally financed with private donations a large bust of Ma Jun and a 200 square meter memorial hall were also introduced on site at the time.

Find the memorial hall, of a traditional Chinese not a modern architectural design, standing just beyond the trees that line the tombs and bust proper.