An Introduction to Mawangdui Han Tombs
Historic relics unearthed from Han Tombs at Mawangdui are relevant to many legendary and touching stories, therefore it’s not easy to introduce them thoroughly to our reverend visitors. But we can still enjoy the delicate articles of ancient civilization to our eyes’ content as well as to our heart’s content. Next, we are to explore the historical and artistic wonders made by ancient Chinese people more than 2100 years ago.
This picture shows the outside scene of Han Tombs at Mawangdui. The Han Tombs are located at Wulipai in the eastern suburb of Changsha. They are about 4 kilometers from the downtown area. In the flat extending fields are two mounds of tombs. They are of similar size and are linked to form the shape of a saddle. It was recorded that this site was once the family graveyard for Ma Yin, King of the Chu State during the Five Dynasties Period, and therefore acquired the name Mawangdui meaning Mound of King Ma. But according to Tai Ping Huan Yu Ji’s recording about Changsha, Mawangdui was the graveyard of Lady Cheng and Lady Tang, two concubines of Emperor Jingdi of the Han Dynasty. They were buried by Liu Fa, Prince of the Changsha State. Thus this graveyard was called “Shuang Nv Zhong” meaning the Tomb of Two Ladies. The authentic owner of this mysterious graveyard has been uncertain before Mawangdui Tombs were unearthed.
At the end of 1971, No.366 Hospital of Hunan Provincial Military Region was to construct underground wards and storerooms at Mawangdui. Before the construction, Hunan Provincial Museum excavated these tombs, revealing the myths buried in this thousand-year underground palace. Here are Models of Tomb pits of the three Han Tombs at Mawangdui. They are numbered in the sequence of excavation. Tomb No.1 and Tomb No.2 lie aside from east to west. Tomb No.3 is located to the south of Tomb No.1. The opening of Tomb No.1 is of square shape, measuring 19.5 meters by 17.8 meters, with a dipper-shaped pit underneath. It is typical of western Han period. The pit measured from the sealing soil is 20.5 meters deep with 4 steps extending downward from the opening. A slope tomb channel leads directly from the ground to the pit bottom at the north of the tomb chamber. Over 1800 cultural relics of lacquer wares, textiles and paintings on silk as well as a well-preserved female corpse were unearthed. The opening and middle layer of Tomb No.2 are of round shape. Due to the fact that the tomb was not compactly sealed, it had been robbed several times and the outer coffin chamber had collapsed. Only around 200 cultural relics were left behind. Tomb No.3 is similar in shape with Tomb 1. It is well preserved with more than 1,000 cultural relics of inscriptions and paintings on silk, inscribed on bamboo slips, lacquer wares and textiles unearthed. The corpse in this tomb, however, was only a skeleton. It’s identified that the corpse belongs to a man who died in his early thirties. He was 1.85 meters tall. Model of Filling Materials in Tomb No.1
Tomb No.1 is well-preserved due to several reasons. At the bottom of the tomb is a 15cm-thick layer of white filling clay. Covering the whole outer coffin chamber is a layer of 40cm thick charcoal weighing more than 5 tons. On top of the charcoal is a 1.3cm thick layer of white filling clay. Then earth is rammed every 0.5 meter on its top. Charcoal serves as a moisture-proof substance. It takes in the small amount of water in the chamber. White filling clay is termed montmorillenite, a material for porcelains. It has high plasticity and low permeability. Thus with effective burying and sealing, the corpse, coffins and abundant burial objects are kept impact in the tomb.
Wooden Tablet with Burial Date The inscription on the wooden tablet unearthed from Tomb No.3 reads, “On the first wu-chen day of yi-si, the second month of the twelfth year, the chamberlain in charge of funeral service, on holding a memorial with funeral articles, presents a list of the delivery for inspection.” Accordingly the date inscribed on the tablet is equivalent to the twenty-fourth of lunar February of the twelfth year in the reign of Emperor Wendi of Han, or 168 B.C. It is the exact burial date of the tomb-owner.
Part II: Walking into the Family of the Marquis of Dai
Li Cang’s Jade Seal It’s archeologically established that Mawangdui was the family graveyard of the Marquis of Dai in the early Western Han Dynasty. Based on the unearthed jade seals inscribed with “Li Cang”, the bronze seals with Seal of the
- 1 -
Marquis of Dai” and “Prime Minister of Changsha State”, we conclude that the owner of Tomb No.2 is the first generation Marquis of Dai and the Prime Minister of Changsha State—Li Cang. He was born in the later years of the Warning States period and died in 186B.C. or the second year of the reign of Empress Gaohou. In his youth, he participated in the Peasants’ Revolution against the Qin Monarch and also in the warfare between Chu and Han. Due to his outstanding contribution to the western Han, he was appointed Prime Minister of Changsha State in the beginning years of the Western Han. He continued his efforts in consolidating the central government’s ruling and keeping unification of the country. It’s recorded in Shi Ji and Han Shu that he was conferred the rank Marquis of Dai in the fourth lunar month of the second year of Emperor Hudi’s reign or in 193B.C. Dai is the name of his fief which is located between Luoshan county and Guangsha county in present-day Henan Province. He had 700 families under his jurisdiction in his fief. Compared with marquises with a fief of 10,000 families like Chen Ping and Zhang Liang, Marquis of Dai was not of the highest rank. However, owing to the peculiar location of his Changsha State, his family had sumptuous means and clothes, leading a life of extravagance. Even after their demise, they were buried with lavish funerals.
Seal with the legend “Qie Xin Zhui”
Xin Zhui buried in Tomb No.1 was Li Cang’s wife. Her name is known to us because of a seal unearthed from her tomb. Though she was a woman of prominent status, she saw the death of her husband in her youth and the death of her son in her later years, which must have greatly pained her. She died in the first year of Houyuan reign of Emperor Wendi or 163 B.C. at the age of 50 or so. Hunan Provincial Museum made a wax figure of Xin Zhui to show her graceful bearing with the help of Xi’an Superman Sculpture Research Institute, on the basis of her corpse and her painting on a piece of T-shaped silk Boxwood Combs
Xin Zhui enjoyed high position and lived in comfort before her death. She cared much about her making up. In the two-tiered lacquer cosmetic box with nine smaller boxes and the single-tiered one with five smaller boxes were found rouge, oil paint, white powder and other cosmetics as well as utensils for making up, such as bronze mirror, mirror polisher, powder puff, combs, wooden tweezers, brush, horn knives with ring-ended handle, etc. The wooden tweezers were used for shaving brows and the brush for applying powder to the face. The hair of the brush on excavation was partly reddish, which might be left by rouge. The boxwood comb is worth observing. It is finely polished and the tooth gaps are fine and even. Within a length of 5 centimeters, the comb has 74 teeth. It is much delicate than the general combs used nowadays. It’s still amazing how it could be made so fine. Map of Garrison
The owner of Tomb No.3 was Li Cang’s son, the Marquis of Dai of the second generation. According to the unearthed wooden tablet, he died in the twelfth year of Emperor Wendi’s reign, i.e., 168B.C. in his early thirties. From Tomb No.3 were found 38 weapons as well as a Map of Garrison. During the last years of the reign of Empress Gaohou, Zhao Tuo, King of the Nanyue Kingdom who set up a separatist region to the south of the Southern Ridges, launched an attack on the southern part of the Changsha State. In response, the Han Court and the Changsha State immediately sent troops on a punitive expedition. The war continued until the early years of the reign of Emperor Wendi. This map of garrison in his tomb revealed to us that the tomb owner was once a key military officer of Changsha State. He participated and even was in command of the campaign. Contrary to a modern map, the south is shown at the top of this map and the south at the bottom. The circles on the map identify the villages, called “Li” then, while the squares stand for the county sites. The barracks are indicated in irregular shapes. The headquarters represented by a triangle is located at the center of the garrison area where several rivers or brooks meet. Within the garrison area, 6 troops are allocated to the front, the left and the right of the headquarters along 2 lines guarding 3 valleys that lead from Nanyue Kingdom to Changsha State. It’s obvious that Changsha State took advantage of preferential geographic sites to defend itself. The distribution of troops shown on the map was proof for the rather high level of military thoughts and commanding art at the early period of Han.
- 2 -
Millet Cakes
A large quantity of food as well as eating and drinking utensils was unearthed from Tomb No1 and No.3. They are enough to prove that high ranking officials and aristocracy of the Western Han led a life of great extravagance. Besides, a total of 11 bags of ice, wheat, barley and other grains as well as various cakes were discovered from the tombs. The millet cakes found in the painted pottery box from Tomb No.1 were made by steaming the paste of ground or pounded millet powder. Ciba and ci-fantuan that are popular today in the south of China may have developed from the millet cakes.
Remaining Slices of Locus Root in the Lacquer Tripod with Cloud Design from Tomb No.1 The primary non-staple foods in Hunan area at that time were fish, meat, vegetables, fruits and so on. Abundant samples of these foods were dug out from the Mawangdui Tombs. The vegetables have been carbonized completely. But we can still get the original forms of some. Much to our amazement, on opening the lacquer tripod with cloud design form Tomb No.1, we found soup made over two thousand and one hundred years ago with a contact layer of sliced lotus root floating on its surface. But it’s regretful to see the speedy disappearance of them due to chemical reactions in the air and unavoidable vibration. Experts in seismology said this phenomenon proved that no serious and destructive earthquake had ever taken place in Changsha area in the last 2100 years. Bones of Wild Geese
Meat consumed by the family of the Marquis of Dai came from a variety of animals. From the buried meat in Tomb No.1 and Tomb No.3, we see they ate not only the meat of domestic fowls and animals but also the meat of wild ones. According to the inventory of burial objects, the buried animals included the commonly seen ones like pigs, goats, oxen, chicken, carps and crucian carps and rare animals such as sika deer, cranes, golden pheasants, turtledoves, wild geese, and mandarin fish. In a way, they range from the flying birds to swimming fish to reptile animals. The coverage of the food is really astonishing.
Drawing of Daoyin, the Physical Exercise Chart This physical exercise chart found in Tomb No.3 is the most ancient one in the world on health care and physical exercise. “Dao Yin” means promoting flowing of qi and blood, and stretching the limbs. It is a treatment of therapeutic physical education combining movements of limbs and respiratory movement. On the chart, 44 Daoyin positions are illustrated. Judging from the remaining characters, they are of 3 categories: the movements of a body, the initiated movements of certain animal and the function of such a movement. If you are interested in this exercise, why not have a try with this ancient treatment? “Guan Ren” Male Figurine
Over 300 wooden figurines, substitutes of the household servants in the afterlife, were unearthed from Tomb No.1 and No.3. This figurine has a strong built body and is wearing a tall hat and a silk gown. One of its shoe-soles is caved with “Guan Ren” in Chinese characters, meaning male servant. On excavation, there were scores of painted wooden figurines behind him in his command. Therefore, he should be the butler of the Marquis of Dai’s family. The maid figurines are crafted with excellent workmanship and extravagantly dressed in laced embroidery gowns. They should be the Maids of Honor attending the Marquise of Dai. Figurines with painted design are a share contrast to the above mentioned ones. They are of large quantity but the smallest in size. Their facial expressions are of unanimous sadness. They represent the servants of the lowest rank engaged in sundry duties in the household of the Marquis of Dai. We’ll see later on wooden figurines of singers, dancers and musicians. Their existence tells us the great variety of them.
Wooden Figurines of Musicians
Five figurines of musicians were discovered from the tombs. Two are in the posture of playing the Yu, a wind instrument and the others playing the Se, a string instrument, forming a family orchestra. You can see they are in gowns and seriously preparing for their performance. The figurines of singers have handsome faces. They are also in long robes and seating on the floor, seemingly producing melodious tunes. Figurines of dancers have round faces with rouge and powder. Their bodies are leaning
- 3 -
湖南省博物馆马王堆英文讲解词
