Chapter 22 Section 7 The Discovery of the Tombs of Princes and Monarchs

The tombs of Zhou kings in the Spring and Autumn Period have not yet been discovered, but since the founding of the People's Republic of China, archaeologists have excavated some tombs of princes and monarchs in the Spring and Autumn Period, which reflect the level of bronze culture development in the Spring and Autumn Period from one aspect.Choose to be introduced below. First of all, since 1976, archaeologists have investigated and excavated the Qin Gong Cemetery in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods on Sanwanyuan, south of Yongcheng, the capital of Qin, Fengxiang, Shaanxi.It is seven kilometers long from east to west and three kilometers wide from north to south.Defense ditches with a total length of more than 7,000 meters were also found in the north, west and south of the mausoleum.In the entire mausoleum area, 44 large tombs with double or single passages have been discovered, belonging to 13 small cemeteries.Among them, the cemetery in the north-central part of the mausoleum area is the largest. From south to north, there are two large tombs with double passages and one large tomb with single passages. Each large tomb has a rectangular pit (possibly a pit for chariots and horses) on the southeast side. .Tomb No. 1, the southernmost, is the largest and was excavated from 1976 to 1986.The tomb is rectangular, east-west, 59.4 meters long, 38.8 meters wide, and 24 meters deep. The slope tomb passages at the east and west ends are 7 meters wide and 270 meters long, with a total area of ​​more than 5,330 square meters. It is the largest ever discovered. Tombs of the Spring and Autumn Period.The main chamber in the tomb is 15 meters long, 6 meters wide and 3 meters high, and is made of three layers of giant square wood.Charcoal is filled outside the outer coffin, and the thickest part reaches 3 meters.There are 182 male and female martyrs buried in the upper part of the coffin chamber and its surroundings, all of which have coffins.The tomb has been seriously robbed, but jade bi, jade kui, jade Zhang, jade huang, more than 20 pieces of stone chimes, gold belt hooks and more than 10 pieces of iron shovels and iron shovels were still unearthed.According to the inscriptions on the stone chime, this tomb may be the tomb of Qin Jinggong (577 BC-537 BC) in the late Spring and Autumn Period.

Secondly, in 1955, the tomb of Cai Zhaohou (518-491 BC) in the late Spring and Autumn Period was excavated in the west gate of Shou County, Anhui.The tomb is rectangular, 8.45 meters long from north to south, 7.1 meters wide from east to west, and 3.35 meters deep.The coffin is decayed.584 burial objects were unearthed from the tomb, including 486 bronze wares.Bronze sacrificial vessels mainly include one (ding yu) [yu yu] (wok) tripod, seven ascending tripods, nine feeding tripods, one small tripod, eight gui, eight gui, four urns, and two duns , two pieces of bean, two pieces of bian [bianbian], three pieces of statue, two pieces of pot, one piece of pot, four pieces of statue, two pieces of toilet, four pieces of Jian, four pieces of plate, one piece of pottery, and eight pieces of braided pottery 12 pieces, 12 pieces of Yongzhong, 9 pieces of button bell, 1 piece of gong and 1 piece of cymbal, etc.It shows that the princes at that time also used Jiuding, which provided valuable information for the study of the ritual system in the Spring and Autumn Period.Many of these bronze ritual vessels have inscriptions cast on them, such as "Cai Houshen's feeding tripod" and so on.According to this, it can be known as the tomb of Cai Zhaohou Shen.In addition, there are two pieces of Wu Wang Guang Jian, which are made by Wu Wang Guang's married daughter to Caihou, reflecting the friendly relationship between Cai and Wu.In addition, bronze weapons such as spears, spears, and swords, bronze chariots and horses, jade ware, lacquer ware, and gold leaves were also unearthed.

Third, in 1990, two tombs of the kings of the Guo State from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period were excavated in Shangcunling, Sanmenxia, ​​Henan.The first (M2001), the tomb is a rectangular earth pit shaft, facing north-south, 5.3 meters long, 3.55 meters wide, and 11.45 meters deep.The burial utensils are heavy coffin and single coffin.More than 3,200 burial objects were unearthed, including more than 1,700 bronze wares.There are seven main (row) tripods, two shame tripods, eight guis, and a set of 鬲, bean, 盨, pot, plate, 匜, a set of eight Yongzhong, and one gong.Many of them are cast with inscriptions, such as "Guoji made a treasured tripod, and Ji's descendants and grandchildren of ten thousand years will enjoy it" and so on.In addition, there are weapons such as jade stems, copper cores and iron swords, as well as jade masks, jade pendants and gold belt ornaments.Among them, the iron sword is 33 centimeters long, and it has been tested by the China Metallurgical History Research Office of Beijing University of Science and Technology. It is a man-made iron-smelting product.A large chariot and horse pit was also found four meters away from the tomb, with a length of 46 meters and a width of 5.2 meters.In the second (M2009), the tomb is also a rectangular earth pit with a length of 5.6 meters, a width of 4.4 meters and a depth of about 20 meters.Heavy coffin and single coffin.The funerary objects are more abundant than M2001. There are more than 30 bronze tripods alone, some of which have the inscription "Guo Zhong".There are also four sets of chime bells, one of which is a set of eight button bells with long inscriptions.There are as many as 800 pieces (sets) of jade wares buried in the tomb, some of which have ink calligraphy or inscriptions on them.There are also a wide variety of round-carved animal-shaped jade ornaments with vivid shapes.It is particularly noteworthy that some jade wares are relics of the Shang Dynasty.

In addition, the tomb of Prince Guo was excavated here from 1956 to 1957.The tomb is also rectangular, 5.8 meters long, 4.25 meters wide and 2 meters deep.The burial utensils are single coffin and heavy outer coffin.970 burial objects were unearthed.Among them, the bronze sacrificial vessels mainly include seven pieces of Zheng (row) Ding, six pieces of Gui, six pieces of Li, one piece of jar, bean, pot, plate, yong, and Yongzhong, a group of nine button bells, weapons, chariots and horses, etc. .Two of the bronze Ge are cast with the six-character inscription "Guo Prince Yuan Tu Ge".There is also a pit for chariots and horses 10 meters to the west of the tomb. The bottom of the pit is 29 meters long from north to south and 3.3 to 3.5 meters wide from east to west. There are 10 chariots, 20 horses and 3 dogs buried inside.All these are consistent with the identity of Prince Guo.At the same time, many small and medium-sized nobles were buried with five, three or one bronze tripods in the Shangcunling Guo State Cemetery.These are precious materials for studying the tombs of princes and monarchs and their burial rituals from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period.