In the recent hot search, a historical news is very eye-catching, that is, in the Xi'an area of Shaanxi Province, the tomb of Xue Shao, the first husband of Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty, was discovered.
I believe that many people's understanding of Xue Shao comes from the first encounter between Zhao Wenxuan's Xue Shao and Zhou Xun's Princess Taiping in "Daming Palace Words", in which Shakespeare's general line "I have never seen such a bright face, and a soft smile that slowly blooms on his resolute cheeks." For the first time, all the hazy yearning that had been nurtured by my fourteen years of life had a clearly visible image. "It also depicts the image of a handsome man.
However, compared to the netizens looking forward to Xue Shao's restoration map, the author is more interested in the structure in Xue Shao's mausoleum, this high-grade mausoleum with four patios is a brick coupon structure, what is the role of the patio in this mausoleum underground? In addition, in addition to Xue Shao, there are also many tombs of the tang dynasty's imperial relatives and state relatives are patio tombs, such as the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai, the tomb of Prince Yide, and the tomb of Princess Yongtai.
So why did there be more patio tombs in the Tang Dynasty?
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Above_ The tomb of Princess Taiping's horse Xue Shao
First, the patio tomb has many uses, reflecting the unique grand style of the Sui and Tang dynasties
The reason why the patio structure of the Tang Dynasty patio tomb is widely used is because of its many uses, especially the core component of the patio, which has many different uses.
1. The patio structure is convenient for the mausoleum to take soil
Most of the tombs in the Tang Dynasty adopted the structure of patio tombs, and the patio tombs were mainly divided into two parts: ground structure and underground structure.
Most of the ground structure is decorative and representative of the meaning, and the real hidden mystery is the underground structure. The underground structure of the patio tomb is mainly composed of a burial chamber, a tomb passage, a cave, a small niche, a corridor and a patio.
The burial chamber and the tomb passage are equivalent to the general house structure such as rooms and aisles, while the passageway to connect the patio is more like a gate. The number of patios is generally about 1-4, and the number will also vary depending on the identity of the tomb owner. Most of the patios are located at the top of the tomb passages, and most of them are square or rectangular earthen holes, which play a connecting role, allowing the above-ground structure to communicate with the underground structure.
One of the main and most practical uses of patio tombs is to facilitate soil extraction. The patio of the patio tomb is generally more open, and it is more concave than the surrounding tombs and burial chambers. One of the main reasons for the depression is the need for the empty shape of the patio, and another important reason is that its original soil was used when the surrounding burial chambers were built, so the most practical purpose of the patio is to facilitate the extraction of soil.
The tomb of Prince Zhanghuai is located about 3 kilometers southeast of Qianling
2. The number of patios highlights different identities
For the mausoleum, most people think that the tomb is the epitome of ancient architecture, and the patio tomb has the meaning of symbolizing the hierarchical architecture in the feudal hierarchy, and the identity level of the tomb owner can be seen from the number of patios.
There will be a hole between every two patios, because the number of holes and the number of patios are related, that is, the more patios there are, the greater the number of holes. The patio in the tomb of the emperor is painted with two-walled pillars and columns, similar to the ancient palace system.
In the scholar Li Qiushi's paper "On the Shape and Structure of the Tombs of ZhangHuai and Yide", it was once discussed
"In the Tang Dynasty, the gates were divided into several categories from the outside and the inside, namely the gate of the capital city, the gate of the imperial city, the gate of the palace, the gate of the palace, and the gate of the palace, and there was also the provision that 'the temple of The Tai Temple, the Taishe Temple, the palaces, and the gate of the palace were twenty-four halves each.' Therefore, the halberd of Yi De's tomb must be applied to the palace gate and the temple gate. It can be seen from this that the first hole of Yide's tomb is equivalent to the palace gate, the second hole is equivalent to the palace gate, and the third hole is equivalent to the temple gate. The 24 rods of the first courtyard shall be cast outside the palace gate, and the second courtyard halberd shall be the halberd of the temple gate. ”
The passage through the cave is regarded as a city gate, and the several hall doors through which the palace where Prince Yi De lived before his death are also shown in his tomb.
The greater the number of patios, the higher the status of the owner of the tomb, and the passage of the hole is also reflected to a certain extent.
Above_ The tomb of Prince Yide, located in the southeast corner of Qianling in Qianxian County, is the funerary tomb of Qianling
3. The archaeological value of the patio is not low
In addition to its extensive structural uses, the patio is also of high archaeological value, not because the patio is made of gold and silver jewelry, but because the patio is generally built with niches, which at the beginning refer to the place where Buddha statues are placed in Buddhism.
In several patio tombs excavated by the archaeological team, the niches in the patio are placed with a number of exquisite Tang Sancai pieces, including a variety of Tang Sancai artworks with high artistic value, such as pottery sheep, pottery cattle, Huren figurines and Sancai ducks, so the patio is even more eye-catching because of the existence of these artworks.
Above_ Tang Dynasty Hu figurines
Second, there are many causes of patio tombs in the Tang Dynasty, and the topographic society plays a major role
Patio tombs first appeared in the Han Dynasty period, and also mainly existed in the northern regions of China, such as Ningxia Gansu Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, most of which are the excavation sites of today's patio tombs.
First of all, from the topographic point of view, most of the patio tombs are located in the terrain area is mostly a plateau mountainous area with a certain height, compared to the low-lying area, the patio tomb belongs to the shaft earth cave tomb culture in the early days, which is greatly affected by topographic factors, only dry and compact soil can achieve a good patio tomb, and in low areas, it is easy to suffer from natural erosion.
Secondly, many areas of economic development in the Tang Dynasty were affected by the early cultural development, the early development of the northern civilization was high, the political economy and culture were developed, the north compared with the south had a large population, and the land reclamation area was large, so as an early tomb structure patio tomb appeared in the northern region, and the main development area of the Tang Dynasty was in the northern region, which was also an important reason for the multi-patio tomb of the Tang Dynasty.
Above_Tang painted pottery drum, excavated from the tomb of Li Xian of the Tang Dynasty in Shaanxi Province
Another is the influence of the Guanlongshi clan, which held great power at the beginning of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, and the Guanlong nobles' power was also an important reason for the formation of the patio system. The establishment of the Northern Zhou Dynasty prompted the Guanlong culture to become the mainstream culture, and as a result, a series of systems, including the tomb system, also changed, so the patio system was implemented on a large scale from the Sui Dynasty, and to the Tang Dynasty, the princes and grandchildren were buried in the form of patio tombs, and the patio-style burial structure occupied the mainstream.
On the one hand, the formation of the patio tomb shows us the tomb structure loved by the Tang people, on the other hand, the patio tomb also reflects the unique characteristics of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, which is the embodiment of the hierarchy of the Tang Dynasty and the embodiment of the cultural development of the Tang Dynasty.
Text: Rachel
bibliography:
[1] "Cultural Relics", No. 7, 1972, "On the Shape and Structure of the Tombs of ZhangHuai and Yide", Li Qiushi
[2] "China Market", 2009, No. 18, "On the Reasons for the Formation of Ancient Chinese Patio Tombs", Bai Yuliang
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author