Mural tombs in the early and middle Western Han Dynasty
The history of tomb decoration in China can be traced back to Shang Dynasty at least. Because the tomb structure in Shang and Zhou Dynasties has not yet formed a kind of "architecture", the tomb decoration in this period is only a simple decoration. As a decorative form of tomb buildings, tomb murals began at the end of the Warring States Period, and after a long period of development, they gradually became popular after the mid-Western Han Dynasty. The early and middle Western Han Dynasty is an important period for the brewing, formation and development of mural tombs in China. Limited to archaeological excavation materials, only two mural tombs of persimmon garden in Mangdang Mountain, Yongcheng, Henan Province and the stone tomb of Nanyue King in Guangzhou have been discovered.
The Mangdang Mountain Han Tomb has a unique design and a huge area. "Cutting the mountain into a gallery, piercing the stone to hide". In a society with extremely low productivity, we can't imagine how this huge project was completed. More importantly, these underground palaces were formed 1300 years earlier than the Ming Tombs, and the area and scale of the buildings far exceeded four times. The great poet Li Bai once praised in a poem: "There is no reason to cross the river when ten thousand people chisel stones." Looking at the stone and swaying the mountain, hiding your tears and mourning for the ages. "If counting from Liang Xiaowang, there are eight generations, nine kings and queens buried here. These rare underground tombs are praised as "the first stone tomb in the world" by scholars at home and abroad. In the excavation of mural tombs, there is an important discovery, that is, the huge color mural of the tomb of "Four Gods", which has become the only tomb mural in the early Western Han Dynasty in China and has great research value. Scholars' research shows that the mural was formed more than 630 years earlier than the Dunhuang mural. Large-scale colorful murals of four gods were unearthed from the mural tomb in Mangdang Mountain Persimmon Garden [1]. The mural tomb of the persimmon garden in Mangdang Mountain, commonly known as the Han tomb of the persimmon garden, is located on the south slope of Baoan Mountain in yongcheng city, with a total length of 95.7 meters. The whole tomb consists of a pyramid-shaped mound, a tunnel, a main room, a roadway and various side rooms, and a drainage system is built in the tomb. The pyramid-shaped mound is 60 meters long and 5.5 meters wide, which is divided into east and west sections. The west section is 30 meters long, located on the mountain, and the ground is all compacted with brown pure soil; The eastern section is built for cutting mountains, and the north and south walls are vertical; At the end of the pyramid-shaped mound and in front of the tunnel, there is a rectangular stone pit, which is10.5m long from east to west, 4.56m wide from north to south and1.3m deep. The eastern part of the tomb was sealed by a rectangular stone. The tunnel is 23.6 meters long from east to west, 2.4 meters wide from north to south and 2.06 meters high. There is a doorway at the entrance of the tunnel. The entrance1.84m deep, 2.85m wide from north to south and 2.32m high. The tunnel is inclined, high in the west and low in the east, inclined up and down in parallel, and the north and south walls are vertical; At the end of the tunnel, there is a flat-bottomed tomb doorway with a length of 5. 1 m and a height of 2.1m. The structure of the tomb doorway is the same as that of the tomb doorway.
The large-scale color murals of Four Gods are located at the top of the main room, with a width of 3.27 meters from east to west, a length of 5. 14 meters from north to south and an area of 16.8 square meters. "The main contents of murals include: Qinglong, White Tiger, Suzaku, Monster, Ganoderma lucidum, moire and so on. On the picture composed of black, white, green and red, rare birds and animals and auspicious clouds have different meanings and symbols. Among them, Qinglong is in a prominent position in the middle, accounting for more than half of the entire mural area. The dragon has a long horn, a long beard, a mouth and a tongue, and a monster is rolled out on the tip of the tongue. The dragon wing is plump, with two front feet stepping on the cloud wing, two hind feet connecting the rosefinch tail and the fully grown flower, and a long stem flower sticking out from the tail end and covered with scales [2]. Suzaku is painted on the east side of the middle section of the dragon's body, with dragon horns and shin buds in its mouth, and polka dots on its back, which is sufficient to the side. Draw a white tiger on the west side of the dragon body, step on the cloud, raise your head and open your mouth, and want to swallow a ganoderma lucidum. The monster is located at the southern end of the picture. Its head is duckbill-shaped, its neck is very long, its whole body is covered with fish scales, its back has huge thorns, and it has a fish-like tail. The moral of the picture is happiness, peace and vitality, which may represent the host's beautiful yearning and prayer for happiness after death, and also reflect the prosperity, prosperity and harmony of society and the prosperity of the country at that time.
Mural tombs in the late Western Han Dynasty
In the late Western Han Dynasty, murals began to appear and became popular in medium-sized brick tombs. At present, the mural tombs in the late Western Han Dynasty are mainly found in Xi 'an and Luoyang, including Buqianqiu mural tomb in Luoyang, No.61mural tomb in Shaogou, mural tomb in Luoyang shallow wellhead, mural tomb in Xi 'an Jiaotong University and mural tomb in Xi 'an University of Technology, among which the Western Han mural tomb in Xi 'an Jiaotong University is the most typical. This mural tomb is located in the primary school campus of Xi Xi Jiaotong University in Shaanxi Province. In the Western Han Dynasty, it belonged to the east of Shanglinyuan. The tomb faces south and has an "ancient" shape on the plane. It consists of an inclined tomb, east and west ear chambers and a main chamber.
20 1 1 The author made an in-depth analysis and research on the mural tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Xi Jiaotong University [3]. The total length of the pyramid-shaped mound 12.5m, the width of the upper opening 1. 1m and the width of the bottom 1m. The plane of the ear chamber is rectangular, located on the east and west sides of the tomb. The main tomb is rectangular in plane, 4.55 meters deep from north to south, 1.83 meters wide from east to west and 2.25 meters high. The tomb door is located in the middle of the south wall, with a width of 1.065 m and a residual height of 0.65 m. It was originally equipped with wooden doors, and the door frame was protected by vertical bricks. Murals are painted directly on the walls and top of the main room. The background color is divided into two layers, the bottom layer is white and the top layer is ochre. The preservation area is about 24 square meters. There is a red diamond decorative belt in the middle of the tomb, which divides the mural into upper and lower parts. The top of the upper part of the picture is a mural of the sky, and the periphery of the lower part is painted with flowing clouds and animal images. The upper mural mainly includes the top of the coupon and the upper part of the back wall. The top part of the ticket is mainly composed of sky paintings, cranes and colorful clouds. There are four images in the sky: Qinglong, Suzaku, White Tiger and Xuanwu, which match the stars and have two concentric circles inside and outside. On the north-south line in the middle of the star circle, there is a scarlet sun passing 30 centimeters south, and there is a sun spreading its wings and flying in the middle. There is also a black outline in the north, with a jade rabbit and a toad in the middle. Around the sun and the moon, there is an' S' shaped square continuous pattern (moire), and there are white and black cranes between the clouds. Outside the star circle, there are also cloud cranes. The upper part of the back wall is semicircular with animals painted in the middle. The head is like antlers, and the parts of the body have been mutilated due to the passage of time. There are two cranes flying upward on the east and west sides, and a deer is lying below. The lower murals, including the four walls of the tomb, are painted with S-shaped moires, and there are various birds and animals painted between the moires, which are lifelike and lifelike.
The mural tomb of Jiangchi in Anqu, Xi, is located about 1 km southwest of Xiqu Village, Qujiang Township, Yanta District, Xi City. It was discovered by 1985. The tomb is located in the west and south, with an "A" shape on the plane. It consists of a tomb, a tunnel, an ear chamber and a tomb, with a total length of 28.9 meters and a depth of 1 1.55 meters. Murals are painted above the first step of the tomb and above the first step of the tomb. The material is white powder, mostly herbivores, and the size is the same as the real thing. Murals are clear in outline, refined in lines, bold in style, vivid in shape and unique in content, which is also extremely rare in tomb murals in the Han Dynasty.
Tomb murals and funeral culture in Han Dynasty
Like many traditional ceremonies, the funeral culture in China was gradually formed after the social development to a certain extent, and the funeral culture in each period was different due to the changes in economy, politics and concepts. For the ancients, funeral is not simply burying the dead, but directly related to the ethics and class order of the whole society. The form and development of tomb murals in the Han Dynasty were influenced by the ideological beliefs of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, and combined with the concepts, thoughts and customs at that time, forming a portrait schema that keeps pace with the times. The ideas and beliefs in the pre-Qin period were extensive, which directly influenced people's views on heaven, life and death, ghosts and gods in the Han Dynasty, and also formed the basic background of the specific content and structure of tomb murals.
"Book of Changes" said: "Heaven is humble, and the dry Kun is certain" [4]. It can be seen that before the Han Dynasty, China people had regarded "Tian" as their honorific title. "Book of Rites" said: "Everything is contained in the earth, and the sky hangs like an elephant. Taking money from the earth and taking the law of heaven is the pro-land of respecting heaven" [5]. People's worship and attention to heaven in Han dynasty can be fully reflected in several murals of celestial phenomena appearing in tombs of Han dynasty. There are a large number of paintings and sculptures of flying immortals and flying beasts in the tombs of the Han Dynasty, which is closely related to the popular concept of ascending immortals in the Han Dynasty. The image of "Tianmen" in Han tombs is also worthy of attention. Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs of Priestess of Death Chu Ci" mentioned: "Open the Tianmen, I take advantage of the empty cloud." The so-called Tianmen is the gate of heaven, and anyone who wants to climb the gate of heaven must pass through it. Two T-shaped silk paintings unearthed from Tomb No.1 and No.3 of Mawangdui in Masha, Hunan Province are typical representatives, which are divided into three parts: heaven, ground and underground. There is a special T-shaped pattern in the middle of the back wall of the back room of the Eastern Han mural tomb at Baizicun 1 in Xunyi County, Shaanxi Province. This pattern consists of yellow and red. The door frame is outlined with red lines and painted on the facade with dark ochre yellow, which is called "Tianmen" pattern.
Influenced by the popular divination thought in the Han Dynasty and Dong Zhongshu's theory of "the feeling between heaven and man" and "the divine right is endowed by God", people in the Han Dynasty generally believe that God will use words or images to predict wealth and good fortune to the world and also show auspicious images to benevolent people, which is the main reason for the widespread popularity of auspicious images in the Han Dynasty. In the Han dynasty, people regarded the tomb as a happy place after death, or called it a replica of the secular home. Even the layout structure, household items and interior decoration in the tomb should be readily available. Therefore, tomb murals and portrait decorations with different themes appeared in the tomb, which attracted the attention of later generations. As can be seen from the complex structure, on the one hand, the Han tomb symbolizes the universe, with stars and idols in the sky above and various life situations on the earth below; On the other hand, it is the place where people live after death, which is deliberately decorated into the appearance of Yang Zhai. Some are divided into front and back rooms, and some paintings or sculptures symbolize patios. For Han people, death is not the end of life, but the beginning of another stage, which is based on the concept that although people die, their souls are immortal. People in the Han Dynasty had many beautiful associations with heaven, and thought that this colorful heaven was the ideal destination for the soul after death. In the Han dynasty, people were very resistant to the afterlife. There are not many related words and pictures, and there are few related portraits in the tomb. The picture of this underground world is relatively blurred. In the Han dynasty, people were in awe of the sky, the celestial phenomena and gods in the sky, but avoided the evil spirits in the underworld.
The role or position of tomb murals in Han tombs is similar to that of stone reliefs or brick reliefs, which generally includes three aspects: (1) epitaph with images as the main part; Record or narrate specific scenes and plots; Record or refract the thoughts of the times. "Image-based Epitaph": Epitaph mural is an inscription that appears in the form of images rather than words, providing more specific images than words. Especially in describing the life story of the tomb owner and praising his merits and morality, it is more specific and infectious than the written epitaph. But it can't be called "epitaph" because it doesn't form a fixed shape. Judging from the function of "indicating the owner of the tomb" in tombs, they are similar to later epitaphs and can be regarded as the precursor of epitaphs.
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