Chapter 7 Chapter Seven Tombs of the Six Dynasties

Wu, Eastern Jin of the Three Kingdoms and Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen of the Southern Dynasties all used Nanjing as their capital, collectively known as the Six Dynasties.This period is the intermediate transition stage between the Han and Tang Dynasties, and it plays a role in connecting the past and ushering in the future in the history of Chinese culture.The mausoleums of the Six Dynasties inherited the mountain-based mausoleum in the Han Dynasty. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were no mausoleum towns, no mausoleum temples, and no walls around the mausoleum. There are new developments. According to literature records: there were 71 imperial tombs during the Six Dynasties period. So far, there are relics on the ground, or about 40 that may belong to the imperial tombs have been excavated, and they are concentrated in Nanjing and Danyang, Jiangsu Province.Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, many surveys were conducted and some of the tombs were excavated.For example, Yongping Mausoleum of Emperor Mu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Chongping Mausoleum of Emperor Gong in Nanjing, Xiu'an Mausoleum of Emperor Jing of the Southern Qi Dynasty in Danyang, Yong'an Mausoleum of Emperor Xuan or Tai'an Mausoleum of Emperor Gao, the Tomb of Marquis Donghun or Hedi Gong'an Tomb, Yongning Mausoleum of Emperor Chen Wen and Xianning Mausoleum of Emperor Xuan in Nanjing , and the tomb of Liang Ancheng Kang Wang Xiaoxiu, etc.

According to the "Jiankang Records" of the Tang Dynasty: 10 of the 11 emperors in the Eastern Jin Dynasty were buried outside Jiankang (now Nanjing), and the tombs of the four emperors Yuan, Ming, Cheng, and Ai were in Yangyang of Jilong Mountain (now Jiuhua Mountain). The mausoleums of Kang, Jianwen, Xiaowu, An, and Gong are located in Zhongyang, and the Yongping Mausoleum of Emperor Mu is located at the southern foot of Mufu Mountain.According to archaeological findings, it can be considered that the area from the east of Jilong Mountain to Zhiyang of Zhongshan Mountain and the northeast of Jiankang City in Jin Dynasty is the mausoleum area of ​​the Eastern Jin emperors.

Most of the tombs of the Qi and Liang dynasties are in Danyang, because their hometown is in Danyang.At the general entrance of the mausoleum area, two large stone unicorns are erected as signs, which are called mausoleum mouths. "Danyang County Chronicles of Qianlong" has a relatively clear record: "Liang Shi Gongqing visited the mausoleum, from the Qinhuai River at the foot of Fangshan Mountain to the Danyang Canal, passed through Xiaogang Port, and went directly to Zhuangling, Xiuling, and Jianling... and two stone unicorns were specially placed on this river. , as a sign, so it is named Mausoleum." Within a radius of about 60 kilometers within the mausoleum, 11 imperial mausoleums of the Qi and Liang dynasties were buried.It can be roughly divided into two districts, north and south, six in the north and five in the south.Among them, there are eight Qi mausoleums and three Liang mausoleums.

Among Liu Song's mausoleums, Liu Yuchu's Ningling Mausoleum and Liu Yilong's Changning Mausoleum are both in the east of Nanjing.The Wan'an Mausoleum of Emperor Wu, the Yongning Mausoleum of Wen Emperor, and the Xianning Mausoleum of Emperor Xuan of the Chen Dynasty were distributed in the east, southeast and southwest of Nanjing.They are not concentrated in one area and do not form a mausoleum area. The tombs of the princes and princes of the clan of the Liang Dynasty are located in the Ganjia Lane area in the northeast of Nanjing. The known ones include Xiao Hong, Xiao Xiu, Xiao Hui, Xiao Yu (dan Dan), Xiao Jing, Xiao Ji and others.Around Xiao Xiu's tomb, the excavated tombs all belong to his family, which shows that the emperors at that time practiced the system of gathering together and burying them like the big families.

The selection of cemeteries in the Six Dynasties was influenced by the art of cemetery and geomantic omens, and they paid attention to "looking at Qi" and "feng shui". Generally, they should be backed by mountains and face plains, and the direction depends on the local landscape situation.Mausoleums are all built at the foot of the mountain, on the mountainside and on the mountain, some facing south, some facing north and east, and there is no certain pattern.The stone carvings in front of the mausoleum are on flat ground, far away from the mausoleum, often not on the same central axis, and the Shinto path is curved.

Most of the mausoleums are pits dug into rocks on the mountainside, and then bricks and stones are used to build tomb chambers and tomb passages, and then filled with soil to make them flat. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, mounds were built on the upper part.The mounds of the Yong'an Mausoleum or Tai'an Mausoleum of the Southern Qi Dynasty in Huqiao, Danyang are square in shape, and are still eight meters above the ground.The tomb of Emperor Xuanning of Chen Xuan at Xishan Bridge in Nanjing is about 10 meters high and more than 140 meters in circumference. The tombs of several imperial tombs that have been excavated are all single-chamber brick structures with slightly different sizes and decorations.In the early stage, it was rectangular in plane, in the middle period, the wall surface was convex into an arc shape, and in the late period, the plane was oval.The interior walls of the tomb are lined with neatly arranged decorative patterns, or molded portrait bricks are used to form murals.A corridor is built in front of the room, and there are two stone gates in the corridor.The forehead of the gate is semicircular, with flat beams imitating wood structure and herringbone arches carved on it.The floor of the tomb is paved with bricks, the front of the well is built, and the drainage ditch is built below, and the bottom of the corridor leads directly to the low-lying land in front of the tomb or the pond to drain the accumulated water in the tomb.The ditches are all over 100 meters long and are built with seven or eight layers of flat bricks.This kind of drainage ditch is rare in mausoleums of other eras and northern regions.Door sealing bricks were built outside the tomb door, and two door sealing walls were added.Then build a retaining wall around the outer wall of the tomb and the stone wall of the tomb.

The brick paintings on the wall of the tomb are made of small bricks one by one, and large ones are made up of dozens or even hundreds of small bricks, and some paintings are as large as two square meters.The picture is relief style, the composition is simple and the image is vivid.The content is rich in themes, including gods and monsters such as green dragons, white tigers, lions, and feathered men reflecting religious superstition, as well as historical stories such as armored cavalry, guards of honor, and seven sages in the bamboo forest.The distribution of the murals in the Xiu’an Mausoleum of Emperor Jingdi Xiao Daosheng of the Southern Qi Dynasty is as follows: there are lions on both sides of the corridor, images of the four gods are placed on the front of the four walls of the tomb according to their orientation, half pictures of the seven sages in a bamboo grove are on the back of the left and right walls, and travel scenes are on the lower part.The surroundings of the brick paintings imitate the gorgeous brocade wall coverings in the court at that time, and use lotus patterns and money patterns to form patterns.The name, orientation and number sequence of the brick painting are depicted on the side of the brick.It can be seen that the construction of the tomb has precise planning from design to construction.Since the authentic paintings of the Southern Dynasties have not been handed down, these brick paintings have become a batch of precious art historical materials.

These mausoleums were seriously robbed in the early years, and not many burial objects were unearthed, only some porcelain, ironware and decorations.Two stone figurines in costumes of courtiers unearthed from Xiu'an Mausoleum are about 90 centimeters high. There are 32 stone carvings in front of the mausoleums of the Six Dynasties, of which more than ten belong to the imperial mausoleums.Among the emperor's tombs, the most preserved stone carvings are the Jianling Tomb of Emperor Wen of Liang Xiao Shunzhi and the Tomb of Xiaoxiu, King Cheng Kang of Liang Ancheng, with eight pieces each.In other mausoleums, there are generally only a pair of stone carvings, and some have only one piece.Stone carvings pay great attention to left-right symmetry and have a certain system.There are four kinds of eight complete pieces, that is, a pair of stone beasts, a pair of Shinto stone pillars, and a pair of steles in the imperial mausoleum; a pair of stone lions, a pair of Shinto stone pillars, and a pair of steles in the royal tomb; , should be a stele or a stone pillar.The difference between the imperial tombs and the royal tombs is that the stone beasts in front of the imperial tombs have horns, one with double horns and the other with single horns, both of which have wings.The stone beast in front of the royal tomb has no horns and looks like a lion. It is generally called evil spirits.Tianlu and Qilin are auspicious beasts that symbolize auspiciousness in legends, and they often appear only for "nobles", so only emperor mausoleums can use them.The lion is the king of beasts, which symbolizes bravery and magnificence, and is suitable for use by subordinates.

The stone beasts are all carved out of a whole boulder, with huge shapes and extraordinary momentum.Most of their postures are with their heads up and down, some crouching and waiting for orders, and some are about to advance and stop. They are full of bones, vigorous and vigorous, and full of vitality, which is completely different from the dull and clumsy style of stone carvings in the Han Dynasty. The stone pillar, or Huabiao, is divided into three parts.The lower part is the base of the column, the upper layer is carved with two intersecting chi [chi eating] dragons with beads inside, and the lower layer is embossed with various animals on all sides.The middle part is a circular column body, and the surface is decorated with straight melon ribs (24-28 lines).There is a rectangular stone forehead on the upper part of the column, engraved with the words of the tomb owner XX, and decorated with dragon patterns and wrestlers on the upper and lower parts.The overall shape is seamless and slim.

The top of the stele is decorated with twin dragons intertwined, and the ring is decorated on the ridge of the stele.The sides of the stele are engraved with patterns of gods and monsters, rare birds, and auspicious animals.The pedestal of the stele is in the shape of a tortoise (fufu), and most of the inscriptions on the stele are blurred. As for the building in front of the mausoleum, there are no traces to be found now. According to the "Book of Southern Qi·The Biography of Shi'an Zhenwang Daosheng": "In the first year of Jianwu, he was honored as Emperor Jing, and his concubine Jiang was the queen. He slept in the temple in the west of Yudao. , the mausoleum is called Xiu'an", it can be seen that there was a sleeping temple in front of the mausoleum, which was used for guarding the mausoleum and offering sacrifices.