Rethinking the origins of Han Dynasty stone-carved tombs

ABSTRACT

Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) stone-carved tombs were constructed from carved stone slabs or a combination of moulded bricks and carved stones, and were distributed in Central and Eastern China. Such multi-chambered stone tombs were very popular among the Han people, but they were entirely new in Han China, and were a major departure from previous precedents. Han Dynasty stone-carved tombs have long been considered as an independent invention within China. However, this paper debates this, arguing instead that the origins and development of stone-carved tombs were related to outside stimuli.

KEYWORDS:

• Han Dynasty
• stone-carved tombs
• Silk Road

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The lands of the Han Empire were divided into commanderies controlled by the central government and some semi-autonomous kingdoms, which were ruled by members of the royal family, and were located mainly in the eastern part of the empire.

2. People in Southern China were relatively conservative and kept on with traditional wooden burials until the late Han.

3. In fact, Segalen was talking about rock-cut tombs in Sichuan Province of China. Segalen (1930, 40–41) was not aware of similar rock-cut tombs in Central and Eastern China, as none of them had been scientifically excavated at the beginning of the twentieth century when he visited China. Although nowadays most scholars believe that the Eastern Han (AD 25–220) Sichuan rock-cut tombs were influenced by their Western Han (206 BC–AD 9) precedents in the Central Plains, Segalen was wise to link Chinese rock-cut tombs with West Asian ones.

4. Liu Sheng’s tomb was found at Mancheng 滿城 of Hebei Province. Like many other rock-cut tombs, the Mancheng tomb was also cut horizontally into a rock hill and has many chambers. What is unusual, however, is that the main chamber is surrounded by an annular tunnel. For the archaeological report, see Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo and Hebei sheng wenwu guanlichu (1980). As suggested and illustrated by Wu (1995, 133), in an Indian rock-cut temple, a stone stupa stood at the rear end of a ceremonial hall and was surrounded by a passageway for the rite of circumambulation. Wu Hung suggests that ‘the builders of the Mancheng tomb must have thought the stupa was a burial device and replicated its features in Liu Sheng’s chamber.’

5. This is reflected in a series of papers. See Rawson (1999, 24–25, 2010, 79–88, 2012).

6. Such tombs have been used since the Neolithic period in present-day Northeast China. For instance, large-scale stone cairns and graves have been found at Niuheliang 牛河梁 in Liaoning 遼寧 Province, where stone was used in many forms. For instance, tomb M1 of location 1 was dug into bedrock to form a pit; see Liaoning sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo (1997). At the bottom of the shaft stones were lined to form a cist, in which the body was buried. The pit was covered by stones as well. The Niuheliang site dates to approximately 6000–5000 BC. Moreover, similar stone-lined tombs have also been found in neighbouring regions. Their dates are contemporary to the Spring and Autumn period (c. 771–476 BC) of Central China.

7. See Miller (2011, 310–311) for a list of stone related tombs in the various kingdoms of the Warring States period.

8. For three of many examples, see Mei (2009) for the existence of early cultural interactions between northwest China and the Eurasian steppe, and the nature of steppe influence on early metallurgy in China; see Wu (2013) for the origins of Shang period (c. 1500–c.1050 BC) chariot, which was closely related to their Steppe associations; see Nickel (2013) for Greek influence on the terracotta warriors of China’s First Emperor.

9. This view, although sometimes being challenged, is held by a number of scholars. See Craven (1997, 35–48); Gupta (1980, 1–4, 187–225); and Mitter (2001, 13–14).

10. More than a dozen rock-cut tombs that belonged to the Chu Kings have been found around the city of Xuzhou. Several of them are dated: the Shizishan 獅子山 tomb, 174 BC; the Beidongshan 北洞山 tomb, 140–129 BC; the Guishan tomb, 117 BC. The Chu King tombs, together with some of the Liang 梁 Kingdom rock-cut tombs, are all earlier than the Mancheng tomb (113 BC), which Wu Hung used as an example.

11. As suggested by Rawson (2010), prototypes of these pieces might have been common bronze weights from Achaemenid Iran in the shapes of crouching lions.

12. Rawson (2006, 75–86) has suggested that the Han incense burners were stimulated by the example of censors employed in the Achaemenid Empire. The Han Chinese only adopted the exotic shape for their censers, and had added Chinese interpretations of its usage.

13. Nickel (2012, 98–107) investigates a group of silver boxes dated between the third and second centuries BC, and argues that although the design of such silver boxes is based on Achaemenid wine vessels, they were made in China rather than imported. More recently a similar silver box and a silver bowl with lobed decoration, which supports Nickel’s argument, were excavated from a Western Han kingly tomb at Dayunshan 大雲山 in Xuyi 盱眙 county of Jiangsu province (for the report see Nanjing bowuyuan 2013).

14. The Shiyuan tomb is one of many kingly rock-cut tombs of the imperial family members who ruled the Liang Kingdom in present-day eastern Henan Province. Most of the tombs were found in the hills near Yongcheng. For the archaeological reports see Henan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo (1996) and Yan Genqi (2001). For details of the Shiyuan tomb see Yan Genqi (2001, 81–247, 95–99).

15. The earliest known example of placing stone animals in the tomb yard was the tomb belonging to Huo Qubing 霍去病 (d. 117 BC), a general who was buried within the imperial tomb complex of Emperor Xiaowu.

16. A lot of scholars have worked on foreign images found within stone-carved tombs. See Wu Hung (1986) for a study of Buddhist elements in Chinese art between the second and third century AD, with some references of possible Buddhist images in stone-carved tombs. See Knauer (2006, 62–115) for a discussion of how the imagery or even the concept of Queen Mother of the West reflected elements from the Western world. See Rawson (2010) for studies on lotus flower and scroll patterns within Han tombs. See Hsing I-tien (2011) for studies on steppe motifs found in Han period stone-carved tombs. A Chinese scholar Miao Zhe has in his PhD thesis (2007) listed a number of foreign motifs in Han pictorial art, concentrating on stone carvings found in tombs. He has made comparisons of motifs of chariots and horse riding, eagle pecking hare, double-headed creatures and unicorns in the West and in Han China. However, he did not mention anything about how and why they were introduced to China, which is the more important but difficult part. There are countless more motifs that represented outside stimuli, which deserve book-scale research.

17. These similarities have also been mentioned by Rawson (1999). See Minns (1913) for more examples of stepped roofs of Lydian stone tombs.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Tongji University [20160589]; the National Social Science Foundation of China [17CG207].

Notes on contributors

Chen Li

Chen Li, DPhil Oxon., is an assistant professor at the School of Humanities, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. His main research interests are art and archaeology of Han China, structures and contents of Chinese tombs, as well as interactions between Central China and Inner Asia.