During the reign of Emperor Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1522~1566), Japanese pirates often invaded China's southeastern coast and plundered and did harm to local people. Today's Congming, Songjiang, Qingpu and Jiading all suffered from the intrusion of Japanese pirates.
People's complaints were heard everywhere, however, the government was at its wit's end and Emperor Jiajing was shocked and determined to wipe out Japanese pirates by recruiting people from all over the country.
Che Tang, Yi Feng, Zhen Yuan and Xin Ming, four monks from Henan Shaolin Temple, were disciples of eminent monk, Yue Kong and mastered martial art. They led more than 100 monks to Songjiang and fought against Japanese pirates.
They won in every battle and boosted people's confidence. They were praised by everybody. In the 32nd year of Emperor Jiajing's reign (AD 1553), the four monks fought hard with many enemies. In the end, they were outnumbered by enemies and sacrificed their lives.
The local people buried them and remained near the third peak of the East Sheshan Mountain. In the same year, in order to cite their righteous acts, Fang Kang, the magistrate of Songjiang county built a pagoda named "Four Righteous Monks Pagoda" near their tomb at the expense of the government, and set up a monument with inscription recording their heroic deeds in fighting against Japanese invaders to inspire the future generations.
The pagoda and stone monument were not preserved. Today, the components of the stone pagoda are collected in the courtyard of the No 3 building of the West Sheshan Mountain Observatory.
Today's pagoda was built according to the size of the components. It is 240cm high. The pedestal is hexagonal. Its diameter is 52.5cm. The components bear the pattern of lotus petals with no Chinese characters.
