Tombs are commonly known as mountain graves, and ancient tombs are tombs before the Qing Dynasty. Ancient burial customs vary from time to time, including burial, cremation and water burial. Burials are common.
brief introduction
Most tombs in Ming and Qing dynasties have monuments, which are easy to identify; In the Qing Dynasty, there were many tombs above Jiupin officials, and their official positions were generally engraved on tombstones. Once found, it should be reported in time. Tombs before Ming and Qing Dynasties are difficult to distinguish on the surface of the cemetery, so we must pay special attention to the development of bulldozing. Dusty sand tombs in Ming and Qing dynasties; Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many earthen pit tombs and brick chamber tombs. Most of the funerary objects are wooden coffins, as well as urn coffins, pottery coffins, sarcophagus and sarcophagus. For various reasons, some people dig up the remains of the deceased after burial, put them in coffins or clay pots, and move them to other places for burial, commonly known as relocation (relocation) burial, also known as secondary burial.
Most of its burial utensils are clay pots, commonly known as bone altars. There are many funerary objects in the grave. Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most of them were buried with household utensils and production tools, and some of them were specially used as funerary objects, such as pottery houses, pottery stoves, pottery pieces and pottery pigs unearthed from Han tombs. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, thin burial prevailed, with few funerary objects, mainly jade, gold and silver ornaments.
source and course
There are both connections and differences between tombs and burials in ancient tombs in China. "Tomb" refers to the fixed facilities for placing dead bodies, and "burial" refers to the way of placing dead bodies. In archaeology, the two are often collectively referred to as "tombs". In tombs, there are often various funerary objects. Since ancient times, people have attached great importance to funerals because of the influence of traditional concepts such as "ancestor worship" and "death is like life". Therefore, tomb materials not only provide burial customs and burial system itself, but also reflect social politics, economy, production, life, customs, religion, ideas and so on to some extent. Therefore, the burial customs and burial system displayed in tombs are often regarded as the epitome of society at that time, and the study of tombs is of great significance.
"Tomb", as a fixed facility for placing corpses, occurs with the progress of human culture and changes with the development of the times. At first, the disposal of the body was very simple. The Book of Changes under the Cohesion says: "In ancient times, people were buried in fields with thick clothes, and there were countless mourning periods without seals or trees." That is, the body is wrapped in thatch, abandoned in the wilderness, and the grave is not dug. Later, people may not be able to bear to see the bodies of their loved ones being eaten by animals, so they began to bury them, so there appeared graves for placing bodies.
In the Paleolithic Age, because humans often lived in natural caves, they also used natural caves or stone sheds as cemeteries to place corpses. For example, the caveman's grave and his residence are in the same cave. After entering the Neolithic Age, due to the improvement of productivity and living standards, people began to consciously build various forms of tombs, tombs and burial customs became more popular and diverse, and obviously had the characteristics of institutionalization.
More than 3,000 tombs of matriarchal clan communes excavated in China show that the burial customs in prehistoric times showed different characteristics in terms of tomb shape, burial style and burial tools due to different times, regions and cultures. Nevertheless, in prehistoric times, cultural identity was generally based on the clan system, so there were often some * * * identification principles in the tomb system that conformed to the clan system. In the Neolithic Age, people dug holes to bury bodies, which became the most common way of burial in the Yellow River Basin. Clan cemeteries appear, including single burial, multiple burial and second burial.
With the development of society, there have also been separate burial systems for adults and infants and graded burial systems. By the end of primitive society, pit tombs had developed from the Yellow River valley to the Yangtze River valley, southeast coast and northeast China, and men and women were buried together. The fact that men stand upright on their backs and women bend sideways shows that the patriarchal social structure is more regular, and the difference in status level is more obvious through the size of tombs, the availability or quality of burial utensils and the quality of funerary objects.
For example, in the Longshan period, with the further development of social economy and technology, while the principle of clan cemetery was widespread, the phenomenon of different levels of burial became more prominent because of the grade difference of settlements, and even different specifications of aristocratic cemeteries appeared, of which Liangzhu culture was the most obvious. Both Fanshan and Yaoshan sites are Liangzhu aristocratic cemeteries, but the specifications of Fanshan cemetery are obviously higher than Yaoshan cemetery. In addition, there are many specifications of Liangzhu aristocratic cemetery that are lower than Yaoshan. There are also different levels of tombs in Taosi cemetery in the Central Plains, and the tomb specifications can be divided into three categories, seven or eight levels.
Structural evolution
underground part
In the early days of primitive society, the form of grave was very simple, only a pit was dug underground. This pit is usually very small, and it can only hold the body. There is no coffin and there is no special package for the body. By the late Neolithic Age and the late Dawenkou culture, a few grave pits had a large area, and the walls along the pit were built with natural wood, and the upper part was covered with natural wood. With the development of social history, great changes have taken place in the structure of tombs. There are mainly the following three types: the first type of wooden underground palace: after entering the class society, the tomb system has strict classes and grades, and the scale of tombs of the ruling class is very grand. An Asian-shaped Shang Dynasty tomb in Houjiazhuang, Anyang, Henan Province, covers an area of about 330 square meters, with a total area of 1800 square meters. The tombs of kings and nobles at all levels are made of wood. Guo is the "palace" for holding coffins, that is, coffins outside coffins. Make neatly cut large wooden squares or thick plates into a flat box with tenons and mortises, a chassis below and a big cover above. The coffin is divided into several compartments, with the coffin in the middle. There are several compartments on both sides and up and down, called compartments, for placing funerary objects, such as coffins. The female corpse in the coffin is intact, including lacquerware, silk, cotton embroidery, musical instruments, bamboo slips, wooden figurines, agricultural and livestock products, Chinese herbal medicines, prints, etc. 1000.
"Yellow Intestine Mystery" is the development of Guo Mu Gong Xuan, and its scale and complexity are the peak of Di Gong in Guo Mu. Yellow sausage refers to cedar yellow core, that is, cedar core as tenon; "Ming" refers to the architectural form of the parliamentary hall, the predecessor of the tenon structure, and the square-wood cross building. After tenon, it has no practical architectural significance and becomes a symbol of etiquette, that is, "Ming" and "He" are architectural forms. By the Han Dynasty, the tenon had been separated from the rafters and piled up around the rafters, which became a "crossword puzzle". If you look from the inside, all the walls can only see the end of the rafters. According to documents, this burial system appeared at the latest in the Warring States Period. At present, the earliest known Huangchang crossword puzzle has been unearthed at Tomb Qin Jinggong 1 in Qin Yongcheng, Yu Fengxiang. In addition, Huang Shang crossword puzzles were discovered in the early, middle and late Western Han Dynasty. Among them, the Han Tomb 1 in Dabaotai, Beijing in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty is a grand puzzle made up of15,000 cypress rafters, which is 3 meters high and reaches the top of the tomb. There are cloisters and front and rear rooms in it, which is a mature form of yellow sausage puzzle.
The second kind of masonry underground palace: Since the Han Dynasty, masonry tombs have been widely used, and wooden coffins have been gradually replaced. This is an epoch-making change in China's ancient tomb system. This change mainly began in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, and then spread to all parts of the country. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, hollow brick tombs were popular in the Central Plains. Stone tombs began to appear at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, and portraits were carved in the tombs, so they were called "relief stone tombs". The structure and layout of the tomb are also imitations of real-life houses. From the Han Dynasty to the Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, tombs and underground palaces built with bricks and stones have been developing continuously.
The third kind of earth cave underground palace: In the loess-rich areas in the north, the earth cave underground palace is dug by using the characteristics of thick soil layer, strong viscosity, uniform texture and less precipitation, and there are exquisite carvings and murals on the walls. For example, the tombs buried with Xi 'an Gan Mausoleum, the tombs of Princess Yongtai, Prince Zhang Huai and Prince Yide, and the Jingling Underground Palace in Tang Xizong.
funeral objects
In the early primitive society, the funerary objects in the tomb were mainly the objects that the deceased liked and used before his death, including pottery, stone tools and decorations. In the same cemetery, the number and thickness of funerary objects in each tomb are often not much different.
grave
In the later period of primitive society, there was a phenomenon of polarization between the rich and the poor. For example, in TombNo. 10 In the late Wenkou culture, there were funerary objects with complicated structures. The deceased wore exquisite jade ornaments, shovels, ivory utensils and nearly 100 exquisite pottery.
After entering the class society, the polarization between the rich and the poor is even more disparity. The funerary objects in the tombs of kings and nobles are extremely rich and exquisite, including bronzes, jade, lacquered wood, bone horns, land and so on. The system of human sacrifice was also very popular in Shang Dynasty. Human martyrdom means burying dead clan leaders, parents, slave owners or feudal lords with living people. There are dozens of martyrs in the tombs of Wang Shang and big noble, ranging from 100 to 200 people, including the attendants of the tomb owners, maids and concubines, guards and various handymen. Human martyrdom was still common in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, but decreased slightly after the middle period. Since the Warring States period, the custom of burying wooden figurines and pottery figurines has prevailed and can be regarded as a substitute for human sacrifice.
Since the mid-Western Han Dynasty, various pottery funerary objects have been added, including models of warehouses, stoves, wells, mills and pavilions, as well as models of pigs, dogs and chickens. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were more kinds and quantities of funerary wares. This is a great change in the funerary objects of ancient tombs in China. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the funerary objects were mainly ceramics, utensils, pottery sculptures, clay figurines and tomb-robbing animals. During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, a large number of pottery figurines were the main funerary objects. Pottery figurines can be divided into two categories: guards when traveling and servants and waiters at home. From Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, funerary objects were mainly practical objects and treasures, including ceramics, gold and silver wares and jade articles.
Ground part
grave
From the late Yin Dynasty to the early Zhou Dynasty, burial tombs began to appear on tombs. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the tomb became bigger and bigger, shaped like a hill. In particular, the sealing of the emperor's mausoleum is a big project with obvious development and changes. The following are several forms of imperial tombs:
The first "square". Its practice is to tamp the soil layer above the tomb to make it a square cone with a small top and a large bottom, because its upper part is a small square flat top, as if the top of the square cone had been cut off. Therefore, this day is "beside". The mausoleum of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum in Lintong, Shaanxi Province looks like an earthen mountain with a typical square shape. The tombs of the emperors' tombs in the Han Dynasty also took the form of squares.
The second is "taking mountains as the mausoleum". That is to say, the tombs of emperors in the Tang Dynasty were all in the form of mountains as tombs. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhaoling took Jiuyi Mountain as the mausoleum and built it by chiseling the mountain.
The third kind of "Bao Cheng Bao Ding". That is, build a tall brick city above the underground palace, and add soil in the brick city to make it a dome above the city wall. This kind of city wall is called "Baocheng", and the circular tomb above it is called "Baoding". There is also a square tower protruding forward in front of Baocheng. There is a square tower on the tower, which is called "Fangcheng Tower", and there is a posthumous title monument of the emperor or queen in the building. Emperors and Empresses in Ming and Qing Dynasties all adopted this tomb type, which consists of Fangcheng, Baocheng and Baoding.
Historical significance
Tomb research is a research field to explore social customs and religious behavior concepts based on archaeological unearthed tomb materials and documents. Therefore, the study of tombs is closely related to people's view of death and the world after death.
Because life and death are problems that every society must face. Regardless of ancient and modern society, the death of a member often implies its threat to the whole society. Therefore, the issue of life and death has not only social significance, but also religious significance.
In ancient society, because people's life span was generally quite short, death was a frequent occurrence in daily life. The universal custom of human beings will help the deceased leave the society of the living and enter another world through the implementation of a set of funeral ceremonies after the death of a social member. And we can also spy out the characteristics of religious belief in this society from the attitude of strangers towards the dead and facing death.
Funeral system usually includes funeral ceremony and burial. A set of ceremonies held by the living for the dead to end his relationship with this world and ensure or guide the dead into another world; Bury the body of the deceased in a way that the living see fit.
Funeral is a continuation of funeral. In many cultures, there are sacrifices after funeral, and the living try to communicate with the dead. Since China people have always been cautious about funerals, human beings can actually use tomb materials to discuss the religious and social phenomena in ancient China. When discussing the tomb system in pre-Qin and Han dynasties, there are usually two key points, one is the development of the tomb system, and the other is the hierarchical system of the tomb system.
The former can explore the social concept of the afterlife world through the architectural form of tombs, while the latter shows that tombs can reflect funeral etiquette based on social class. Ceng Zi once said, "Be cautious in the end, and people's morality will be improved", which is not only his personal expectation, but also reflects the important position of funeral ceremony in the society at that time.
The importance attached to funeral in China's history can be seen at least from the existence of Shang King's tomb. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the emergence of tombs and funeral systems can be used as a sign that people in that society attach importance to funeral.
During the Warring States period, although there were some remarks about thin burial, these opinions just showed that thick burial was the general trend of the whole society. This is not to say that all archaeological excavations are thick burials. On the other hand, even if ordinary people can't be reburied, they still have the desire to be reburied, which just explains the important reason why ordinary tombs have used pottery funerary objects in an advanced position since the Warring States Period.