Crafting to Serve: Craftsmen and Tomb Construction from the 11th to 14th Centuries in China’s Central Plains Region

Abstract

Tomb inscriptions containing information about tomb-building craftsmen have been found inside imitation wood tombs dating from the 11th to 14th centuries in China’s Central Plains region. These inscriptions are valuable because they provide a different angle from which to analyze the designs and functions of tombs. Scholars have viewed tomb building as a domestic act. If the deceased were pleased with their burial arrangements, then their descendants would be blessed. The inscriptions suggest that this beneficial connection relied deeply on the capacity of craftsmen, whose talent was recognized by patrons. By considering how craftsmanship contributed to religious efficacy, as well as the intermediary role craftsmen played to achieve it, this paper explores how the above-mentioned inscriptions deepen our understanding of the functions of tombs and the roles played by craftsmen in burial practices in terms of historical, religious, and social factors.

Keywords: :

• archaeology
• Middle-Period China
• craftsmen
• merit-making
• imitation wood tombs

Notes

1 Today’s Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Shangdong, Hebei provinces.

2 This term is created by Hong Jeehee in her research to distinguish this new social group from those who are traditionally identified as the literati (Hong 2014, 209).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hui-Han Jin

Hui-Han Jin holds two PhD degrees in Chinese history and archaeology from the University of Minnesota (Twin Cites) and Peking University. She specialized in burial practices in Chinese history and is now an Assistant Professor affiliated to theDepartment of History at National Dong Hwa University in Hualien, Taiwan, R.O.C. [email protected]