The Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute recently released the latest archaeological results, saying that archaeologists found a Tomb of Jin Dynasty murals in Lu County, Shanxi Province, and the murals expressed the concept of praying for the blessing of the family.
Aerial view of the tomb of the Jin Dynasty murals
A diagram of a lion playing a hydrangea in a tomb
Located in the north of Nihe Village, Xiushui Town, Lu County, Yangquan City, Shanxi Province, this Jin Dynasty mural tomb was rescued by the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute in March 2021, together with the Yangquan City Cultural Relics Management Center and the Lu County Cultural Relics Management Center.
The tomb was unturned and 4 people were buried together. The tomb plane is slightly convex, which is an imitation wood mural tomb, and the mural decoration can be found in the tomb door, the main wall of the tomb room, the imitation wood building components and the ticket roof.
The top of the tomb is coated with a layer of yellow clay, which is decorated with white colored dots, and the red color of the sun and moon is left scattered to show the stars. Seven murals are painted on the main wall of the tomb, and the drawing method is black color strokes, gray and black color, including pictures of couple sitting upright, children riding cranes, deer offering ganoderma lucidum, lion play hydrangeas, doorman and companion dog.
Zhang Guanghui, deputy director of the Institute of Chinese Civilization of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, said that this Jin Dynasty tomb is not a common filial piety and feast, but is dominated by baby dramas, Fulu and other auspicious patterns, which enriches people's understanding of the folk beliefs of the Jin Dynasty.
Text/Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xuetao
Photo: Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute
Lu County has repeatedly found Yuan Dynasty mural tombs.
On April 1, 2014, Qingcheng Village, Lujia Village, Lujia Village, Luxian County, Shanxi Province, excavated two round-bag tombs at the Nanping of the farmland capital construction site, and the two committees of the Village Branch of Qingcheng Village attached great importance to it, that is, informed the county cultural relics management department. After excavation and cleaning, it is basically determined that the ancient tomb is a tomb in the Hongwu period at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and there are seven corpses of the second generation buried in the tomb. The tomb is decorated with bucket arches, carved with cloud patterns, and several porcelain bowls and pots unearthed are ordinary folk goods.
From August to September 2018, the Shanxi Institute of Archaeology, together with the Yangquan Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau and the Luxian Cultural Relics Management Institute, conducted rescue excavations of two brick chamber tombs destroyed in Houyuanji, Niucun Town, Luxian County, of which the discovery of the Mingtang cemetery between the two tombs was the most important.
The newly discovered Yuan Dynasty tomb is located 200 meters northwest of Houyuanji Village, Niucun Town, Lu County.
Mingtang is the center of the cemetery, and its nature is the place where the graveyard is sacrificed to the soil after the tomb of the tomb. The discovery of mingtang in the Yuan Dynasty cemetery in Luxian County has been confirmed to be the first case in the archaeological data of the Yuan Dynasty. The two tombs are staggered from north to south, and to the surprise of archaeologists, there is also a Ming Hall in the middle of the two tombs.
▲ Cemetery overlook
▲M2 Burial Chamber (South-North)
▲M2 bucket arch
Among them, the M2 tomb is located on the southeast side of the M1 tomb, which is an imitation wooden octagonal single-chamber brick tomb, which is composed of three parts: the tomb passage, the Yongdao and the burial chamber.
The burial chamber was disturbed, the painting was relatively simple, and the southern part of the tomb passage was broken by modern tombs. Its tomb door erect cheeks, upper forehead, and door hairpin are decorated with vermilion, and the outer side of the standing cheek is outlined with ink lines to the leaning pillar, and the leaning column is not filled with color.
The tomb chamber douli is colored with paintings such as Zhu, ink, and earth yellow color, the top of the tomb is brushed with a thin layer of white mortar, and then the astrological map is drawn in white color, and a total of 7 pieces of burial items are unearthed, the material is divided into stone, porcelain, copper, etc., and the voucher documents have words such as "□□□ Taiding First Year year□□□□ the seventh day of the first day of Gengyin Luzhou Court..."
▲MingTang
The major discovery of this archaeological excavation is the cemetery Mingtang. Mingtang is located in the east of the south side of the M2 tomb road, a square earthen pit with a side length of 1 meter and a depth of 1.16 meters from the current surface, and there are no core tiles and land purchase coupons in the pit.
The construction method is: first place a clay pot in the middle of H1, and then erect a strip of bricks with a width and height and two thick and wide strips of brick on the periphery of the tank and in the middle of the four sides of the pit. Then place a pottery ball on each side of the brick on the south side of the pit. Finally, three layers of smooth bricks are flattened on the strip bricks, and the top is folded. Its top plane is a square enclosed by four strips of brick.
Among them, 1 piece of iron plough is placed on the southeast and southwest brick teeth of the second layer of brick blanks. Clay pots, clay balls and iron ploughs were unearthed in the pit. Among them, the clay pot contains Song Qian, Bagua Mirror and Decaying Millet.
Zhang Guanghui of the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology introduced that the two tombs are staggered from north to south, with clear rankings, and belong to the same family cemetery. In particular, the discovery of the M2 tomb purchase voucher and its chronology provides a basis for determining the specific age of the two tombs.
M2 tomb purchase voucher Zhu Shu "□□□ Taiding first year year □□□□ the seventh day of the first day of gengyin Luzhou court..." and other words. "LuZhou" was established by Emperor Xuanzong of Jin in the fourth year (1220) of Shenglu County, and in the second year of Ming Hongwu (1369), Luzhou was restored as a county. The coupon text "Taiding YuanNian" is suspected to be a false writing of the Yuan Taiding Emperor's "Taiding Yuan Year". According to the "Twenty Shi Shuo Leap Table", the first year of Taiding (1324) was pushed to be the first year of Taiding (1324), which was only September Shuo as Jiashen and the seventh day of the first month as Gengyin, which was consistent with the land coupon text, so the M2 era was the first year of Yuan Taiding.
The M1 shape, decorative style, and funerary items are similar to each other, and the age is not far from it, and it is also among the years of the Yuan Dynasty.
The Ming Hall between the two tombs also belongs to the same period. Mingtang is the geocentric of the cemetery, and its nature is the place where the tomb is sacrificed to the Tsukasa god Houtu in front of the cemetery, and the "Ming Hall" seen in the east of the south side of the Houyuan ji M2 tomb road is also the first case in the archaeological data of the Yuan Dynasty.
In addition, Lu County also has a group of ancient tombs of the Jin Dynasty in Xicheng Wucun. The outside of the tomb is octagonal, with a diameter of 2.5 meters, a wall height of 1.5 meters, a width of 0.65 meters, and is surrounded by bricks with a length of 30 centimeters, a width of 15 centimeters, and a thickness of 6 centimeters. The corners of the tomb are built with brick carved bucket arches, cornices and tile ridges, and on the white stucco surface of the tomb wall, there are 2 graphite paintings and 3 ink paintings. The inner book on the inside of the tomb has the words "Qin he □ July □ Rizao". One coin each was minted with "Daguan Tongbao", "Xining Yuanbao", "Zhidao Yuanbao", and "Yuanyou Tongbao", and 1 small porcelain bowl. Fragments of pottery and silk fabrics have also been unearthed. County-level key cultural relics protection units.