Chapter 32 Section 10 The Discovery of the Tombs of Princes and Monarchs

There have been some important discoveries in the tombs of the princes and monarchs during the Warring States Period, and I will introduce them here. In 1978, the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in the early Warring States period (about 433 BC) was discovered in Suizhou, Hubei.Excavated on a hill, it is a wooden tomb with a shaft in a rock pit.The tomb is polygonal and divided into east, north, middle and west chambers.Charcoal and green paste mud are filled around the coffin chamber, so that the funerary objects are relatively well preserved.Zeng Guo was only a small country at that time, but tens of thousands of exquisite artifacts were unearthed in the tomb.As we have introduced earlier, it is the most complete and largest set of bronze chimes discovered so far.In addition, a large number of bronze sacrificial vessels were also unearthed from the tomb, mainly including two wok tripods, nine rising tripods, nine feeding tripods, eight guis, four bamboo urns, a pair of large statues, a pair of forbidden large pots, Two sets of appraising fou, one set of two respect plates, four sets of wash fou, etc.The shape is huge and the workmanship is exquisite.For example, a pair of large statues among them are 1.26 meters high, with a belly diameter of one meter and a weight of 327.5 kilograms.The Zun Pan is cast by the lost wax method, which is very complicated and exquisite, and can represent the high level of bronze culture development in the Warring States Period.A large number of bronze weapons and carriages and horses were also unearthed from the tomb, including the Dogo halberd, Shu (shu book), and chariots with spears.The total weight of the bronzes unearthed from this tomb is as large as 10 tons, which is enough to reflect the huge bronze output during the Warring States Period.Moreover, gold cups, gold cups, gold belt hooks, and groups of 48-centimeter-long jade pendants were also unearthed from this tomb, which is a concrete portrayal of Zeng Houyi's extravagant life during his lifetime.In addition, 240 bamboo slips were unearthed from the tomb, with ink script on them, which recorded in detail the situation of the chariots, horses, soldiers and armor used for funerals.Including bronze ritual vessels, musical instruments, and lacquer scripts on suitcases, the total number of characters is 12,696, which is the largest number of text materials unearthed from pre-Qin tombs since the unearthed bamboo scripts in Jizhong in the Western Jin Dynasty. It is of great significance to the study of paleographs.

In 1933 and 1938, the Li Sangudui Tomb of King Chu in the late Warring States period in Shouxian County, Anhui Province (now Changfeng County) was robbed and excavated twice. There is a sealed mound about 200 meters in diameter and 2 meters high on the tomb.Below is a nearly square earth pit vertical pit tomb, 41.2 meters long from east to west, 40.2 meters wide from north to south, and a slope tomb passage at the east end.The central part of the tomb is a wooden coffin chamber, estimated to be about 11 meters long and 9 to 10 meters wide.A vermilion wooden coffin about three meters long, one meter wide and one meter high is placed in the middle.More than 4,000 pieces of cultural relics were unearthed from the tomb, including more than 1,000 pieces of bronze wares.The famous ones are Chu Wang Xiong Zhangjian, Chu Wang Xiong Ken Ding, Chu Wang Xiong Han Ding and Zeng Ji Shirtless Pot and so on.Among them, Xiong Kending, king of Chu, is huge in shape, 59.7 cm high and 60.5 cm in diameter.Another example is the Chu King Xiong Han Ding, which is 53.6 cm high and 45.9 cm in diameter.There are 33 characters inscribed on the cover and 31 characters inscribed on the vessel, a total of 64 characters.Among them is "Xiong Han, King of Chu, received bronze from the battle, and made a 鐈 [qiao Qiao] tripod in the auspicious day of the first month for the taste of the year." According to research, this tomb may be the tomb of Xiong Han, King You of Chu who died in 228 BC.

The royal mausoleum of Wei State in the middle Warring States period in Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province, excavated from 1950 to 1951, is located at the foot of Gongshan Mountain on a high platform with a length of 135 meters from north to south and a width of 150 meters from east to west. There are three large tombs lined up on it. , is the mausoleum of the king and queen of Wei.Among them, Tomb No. 2 (Tomb of King Wei) in the center is the largest.The tomb is square, with the upper opening measuring 15 meters in length and width, and about 17 meters in depth.There are two tomb passages, north and south.The coffin chamber is rectangular, 9 meters long, 8.4 meters wide and 2 meters high.The coffin is placed in the coffin chamber.The outer area of ​​the coffin is covered with sand and stones to prevent robbery.A rammed earth platform is built on the entrance of the tomb, and a hall of enjoyment is built on the platform.The plane of Xiangtang is square, and each side is 27.5 meters long.After restoration, it is a tile-roof building with seven bays and four corners.In addition, two small pits for burying sacrificial jade were found under the scattered water in the southeast of Xiangtang, Tomb No. 1, among which were unearthed jade slips, jade kui and big jade huang.These indicate that the tomb sacrifice has already been produced at this time.Tomb No. 2 was seriously stolen.However, a complete set of copper-imitated pottery ritual vessels was unearthed from Tomb No. 1, including nine tripods, two guis, four pots, four Jians, one plate, and one gong, etc. for the decline.A chamber for chariots and horses was found in the south passage of Tomb No. 1, indicating that the system of building chariot and horse pits beside the large tomb has changed since the Western Zhou Dynasty.

From 1974 to 1978, the tombs of King Zhongshan in the middle period of the Warring States Period were excavated in Pingshan, Hebei, among which the tomb of King Zhongshan□[CUO Cuo] (Tomb No. 1) is the most important.On the tomb, there is a tall seal and hall of enjoyment.Fengtu is 110 meters long from north to south, 92 meters wide from east to west, and about 15 meters high, in the shape of three steps.A hall of enjoyment with a tile roof is built on the sealing soil.To the south of the seal, there are two chariot and horse pits, a boat pit and a miscellaneous martyrdom pit.The burial chamber is a vertical hole in an earth pit, with two tomb passages in the north and south.The coffin chamber is 14.9 meters long from north to south, 13.5 meters wide from east to west, and 8.2 meters deep.There are storage pits on both sides of the coffin chamber for placing funerary objects.Nine bronze sacrificial vessels (columns) of tripods, four pieces of 簠, and 鬲, bean, and pots were unearthed in the west of the Zangqi Pit.Among them, the largest piece of iron-footed bronze tripod from Zhongshan Wang is 51.5 cm high and 42.7 cm in diameter.The abdomen is engraved with an inscription of 77 lines and 469 characters, which is the longest known bronze inscription in the Warring States Period.The same Zhongshan Wang square pot, with 450 characters engraved on the abdomen;The content is rich. In addition to recording the lineage of the Zhongshan Kingdom, it also records that the Zhongshan Kingdom participated in the war against Qi in 314 BC, and "opened up and sealed off the frontiers, covering hundreds of miles and dozens of cities".Make up for the lack of documentation.The tomb also unearthed a large-scale bronze ceremonial guard in the shape of a mountain character unique to Zhongshan Kingdom and a rare bronze Zhaoyu plate.The plate is rectangular, 94 cm long, 48 cm wide, and 1 cm thick.The above is a floor plan of Zhongshan King's Mausoleum with gold and silver mixed in it. In the picture, there are 460 characters of inscriptions, including the edict of Zhongshan King's order to Yingying Mausoleum and the location and size of each mausoleum.It provides important information for the study of the royal tomb system in the Warring States Period.Many bronze products with extremely high craftsmanship were also unearthed from the tomb, such as the gold and silver dragon and phoenix copper scheme seat, the silver double-winged beast, the gold and silver tiger-eating deer vessel seat, fifteen tree-shaped copper lamps, and silver-headed human-shaped copper lamps, etc. , lifelike, extremely vivid.According to literature records, Zhongshan Kingdom was established by the Xianyu people in the north.Some products reflecting nomadic life, such as bronze tent structures, were also unearthed from the tomb.However, a large number of artifacts are consistent with the Zhao and Wei cultures of the Central Plains, reflecting the further integration of the Central Plains culture and the northern minority culture during the Warring States period.