Briefing on the excavation of the tomb of Shaozu of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Song Dynasty in Datong City

Briefing on the excavation of the tomb of Shaozu of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Song Dynasty in Datong City

Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute Datong Archaeological Research Institute

In April 2000, the Institute of Archaeology of Datong City, Shanxi Province, carried out cultural relics drilling within the newly acquired land area of the Yanbei Normal University Expansion Project, and found a total of 11 Northern Wei tombs. Among them, there are 5 brick chamber tombs and 6 earthen cave tombs. The tomb of Song Shaozu, numbered M5, is the only tomb of the Northern Wei Dynasty with a clear chronology and exquisite stone rafters and murals.

The tomb is located 1 km northeast of Caofulou Village, Shuibosi Township, Datong City, and 3.5 km west of Datong City (Photo 1). The area is located in the gentle slope area south of Mapu Mountain and east of the Royal River, with an altitude of 1071 meters. The tombs are distributed in an area of about 5,700 square meters with a triangular plan. From June to September of that year, the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Datong Archaeological Research Institute jointly carried out excavations, and the excavation of Song Shaozu's tomb is reported as follows (because the data is being sorted out and understood, errors and omissions are inevitable, such as discrepancies with official reports, the official report shall prevail).

A burial form and burial utensils

The tomb of Song Shaozu sits north facing south, in direction 198. The total length of the tomb is 37.57, and the bottom of the tomb is 7.35 meters deep from the surface. It is composed of five parts: a sloped tomb passage, two caves, two patios, an arched corridor and a four-corner pointed tomb chamber, and the total length of the three parts of the tomb passage, the cave and the patio is 30.11 meters (Figures 2 and 3).

The sloped tomb is located in the south of the burial chamber, the south entrance is 0.30 meters from the current surface, rectangular, 16.51 meters long, the upper mouth of the tomb is slightly narrower than the bottom of the tomb, the upper mouth width is 1.02, and the bottom width of the tomb is 1.14 meters. The slope is gentle, with a length of 17.02 meters and a slope of 14 degrees. It is filled with yellow-brown five-flowered soil, loose in texture, unmolmed, and contains a large number of white material zombie nodules and fine gravel. The two walls of the tomb passage are straight, and the tool marks left when trimming the tomb wall can be clearly seen in the local area, and the width is 8 cm.

There are two caves, both of which are vaulted roofs of earthen caves. The horizontal depth of the south crossing hole is 1.95 and the width is 1.14 meters. The top collapsed severely, with a residual height of 1.82-2.3 meters, inclined from south to north parallel to the bottom of the slope. The north crossing hole has a horizontal depth of 2.7, a width of 1.14 and a top height of 1.74 meters. A piece of tombstone brick was found in this cave filling, laid flat, with the inscription facing upwards, 0.6 and 0.4 meters from the bottom of the tomb and the west wall, respectively.

Patio Patios Two patios, both rectangular in plan. The south patio is 4.14 meters long and the north patio is 4.81 meters long, which is the same width as the cemetery. The southern and eastern walls of the two patios have corresponding foot sockets from top to bottom, which should have been used by the tomb builders.

The yongdao is located between the tomb and the tomb door, and is connected to the tomb. The plane is rectangular, 2.85 long, 0.90 to 0.96 wide, 1.68-1.74 meters high, the left and right walls are made of two layers of flat bricks, one layer of bricks on the top, five groups of interspersed bonds, a single-layer arched ticket roof, 0.15 meters thick. The bottom of the yongdao slopes from south to north, and the floor tiles are herringbone patterns.

The south entrance of yongdao is set up with a tomb door, the upper end is masonry with a multi-layer arch pointed shape, and the total height from the bottom of the tomb to the top of the tomb door is 2.51 meters. Some of the bricks are plastered with white ash and painted with a scarlet honeysuckle pattern.

The tomb door is set up with a sealed door wall, slightly curved, and is made of a shun and a ding brick staggered seam. It is 1.82 meters high, 1.21 wide and 0.30 meters thick. Because the inner layer is upwards in the coupon hole, it is filled with bricks with the curvature of the coupon hole at the starting place, and the coupon hole is sealed (Figure 4).

The tomb is a single chamber of brick structure, brick masonry is built in the tomb, the plane is curved square, the longest point from east to west is 4.24, and the widest place from north to south is 4.13 meters. The four walls are slightly inclined inward, and the two layers of Ding brick horizontal and one layer of Ding brick vertical masonry alternately rise in a total of seven groups, and then the Ding brick horizontal masonry gradually increases inward and the folding and adduction, forming a four-cornered spire. The gaps are tightly packed with trimmed small bricks. The ceiling height is 4.70 (of which the top thickness is 0.30 meters), and the brick roof is 2.65 meters from the surface. The stone rafters of the three-bay imitation wooden structure are located in the center of the burial chamber (Figures 5 and 6).

To the northeast of the brick tomb roof, there are irregular square robbery holes, about 50x50 centimeters. The burial chamber is covered with silt. The bottom of the tomb is paved with bricks, the east and south sides of the tomb are herringbone-shaped, and the other floors are laid irregularly with half a brick, which is very untidy.

The bricks used in this tomb are all blue-gray rectangular strip bricks, and the specifications are roughly 29 x 14.5 x 4.5 and 30 x 15 x 5 cm. There are a large number of bricks with thin rope patterns on one side, and the hardness is slightly worse and the processing is rough. In tombs, bricks are generally dry, but glued with yellow clay at the starting point.

The vertical cavity is rectangular in plan. It is 4.93 meters long from east to west and 4.92 meters wide from north to south. The four walls are straight and regular, and the tool marks are clear. There are two rows of foot sockets in the southwest corner, and the spacing between upper and lower is 0.4 to 0.5 meters.

Burial tools Only one stone rafter remains, and the material is bluestone. The plan is slightly square and is located in the center of the burial chamber. Measured from the stone rafter wall to the four sides, the east side is 86 from the east wall of the burial chamber, the south side is 142 from the south wall of the burial chamber, the west is 78 from the west of the burial chamber, and the north side is 64 cm from the north wall of the burial chamber. The exterior of the stone rafter is a wooden three-bay single-eaves overhanging hilltop hall building, bordered by the front porch to the south, and is composed of more than 100 pieces of finely carved bluestone components (Figure 7). The top of the stone rafter is 3.48 meters longest from east to west and 3.38 meters wide from north to south, and the position of the cover plate has changed due to collapse and theft. From the floor tiles of the burial chamber to the upper part of the crow's tail, the height is 2.34-2.40 meters. When cleaning the silt in the rafters and the burial chamber, no traces of the coffin were found, the tomb was stolen in the early years, the skeleton was scattered on the rafters and the burial chamber, plus two lime pillows were placed directly on the sarcophagus bed, and it was preliminarily judged that there was no wooden coffin in the coffin.

The front porch is three rooms wide and one deep. The columns are four, 1.03 meters high, and the plane is octagonal. The pillar base is on the top of the circle below, carved with a coiled dragon and a covered lotus. The handle bucket bears the forehead, and the forehead is cast with a bucket of three liters and a herringbone tween. The beam head is draped on the stigma pavement. Six grooves of three herringbone pieces are carved on the forehead, but the stone from the tomb only spells out one herringbone, which coincides with the size of the Ming Dynasty (Fig. 8: Above).

The plan of the rear chamber is rectangular, 2.98 meters long from east to west, and 2.30 meters wide from north to south, and is placed around the bottom of the chamber, with grooves dug in the middle, on which 10 carved and flat stone slabs are erected. The stone slabs are 1.53 to 1.58 meters high, 0.73 to 0.92 wide, and 0.10 meters thick. There are four corner pillars in the four corners, which are combined with the stone slabs of the rafters, forming four solid walls, and the corner columns are square in plan, with sides 0.18 and 1.58 meters high. There are two stone slab doors in the Ming Room, and a tiger head door pillow is placed on each side of the door, and the door mortar is chiseled. The door is 1.03 meters high, 0.42 wide and 0.06 meters thick, and one of them has been overturned. Doors are embossed with door studs, heads and lotus motifs. The lintel is irregularly rectangular in shape, with five carved lotus hairpins. There are 22 carved shop heads on all four sides of the outer wall of the rafter, and there are more than 100 bubble nails, with different shapes and beautiful shapes (Figure 8: Bottom).

There are four triangular shaped north-south longitudinal beams, and six east-west beams (including the eaves of the front porch), which forms a horizontal six-vertical and four-way network beam frame structure, with 16 upper cover plates, divided into three rows of south, middle and north, the south row of stone covers is the top of the front porch, and the middle and north rows are the top of the back room. There is a positive ridge in the middle, and there is a "mountain" glyph-shaped crow's tail on the side (Fig. 11).

In the middle of the stone rafter roof plate, the third piece of imitation wooden tile ridge from west to east, there is a line of inscription, a total of 15 characters, which is "Fifty people in the first year of Taihe used three thousand salts to make a 斛斛" (Figure 12). The first year of Taihe was 477 AD, and "soy sauce" was widely used in cooking at that time, and was called "salt sauce" together with salt, which was a must-have for home diet. The method of making tempeh is detailed in a section in China's earliest and most systematic monograph on agricultural science and technology, Qi Min Yao Shu.

There are two incomplete skeletons on the top panel (another part of the skeleton is scattered in the silt outside the rafters and the west side of the yongdao), and near the skeleton there are silver bracelets, perturbed ornaments and other burial items. One body was identified as a man over 50 years of age and the other a woman of not less than 45 years of age. The two should be the tomb owner Song Shaozu and his wife (Figure 9).

The sarcophagus bed is built inside the stone rafter, the plane is an inverted "concave" glyph, the north side is 2.39 long, 1.88 wide, 0.31 meters high, and the center is 1.03 meters wide, and the coffin bed is carved with continuous honeysuckle patterns and water ripples. The legs of the coffin are carved with heads, flowers and animals. There are two lime pillows in the west of the coffin bed, the plane is oval, the two ends are pointed, slightly upturned, the north side pillow is well preserved, and the south side pillow has been destroyed and deformed (Figure 10, 13).

There are paintings on the east, west and north walls inside the stone rafters, but due to the long-term corrosion of the wet silt, a large number of alkaline crystals are produced on the surface of the stone slabs, resulting in the frescoes being blurred and seriously peeling. The fresco is demarcated by ink lines and is made in the lower part of the four walls. The technique is to first outline the lines with ink lines, and then apply red color rendering, which is a dance and music figure (Figure 23).

Excavated items

After preliminary restoration and sorting, the tomb was buried with more than 170 pieces. On the beautifully carved stone rafter front porch are placed the strangely shaped town tomb beasts and the fully armored town tomb warriors. More painted terracotta figurines stretch from the south side of the front porch to the sides of the stone rafters, forming a large-scale travel procession. There were heavy cavalry "armored mounts" with horses and horses, and there were also light cavalry with war horses without armor and warrior hats in the shape of chicken crowns, and they guarded the pottery ox cart model that symbolized the tomb owner's ride. In addition, there are a large number of infantry, servants, figurines and animals, as well as some models of life (Figure 17).

1. Town Tomb Beast

1 piece is located on the south side of the burial chamber. Specimen 154, 43 cm long and 33 cm high. Clay gray pottery, molded into a tiger shape, the front legs are missing, and the back legs are squatting. There are four rectangular holes in the back of the spine, which should be the place of the mane. The mouth is wide open and the eyes are wide open. Curly animal hairs are represented by ink lines (Figure 14:1, Figure 18).

2. Terracotta figurines

The terracotta figurines are all clay gray pottery and molded. Town tomb samurai figurines 2 pieces. It is placed on the east and west sides of the entrance to the burial chamber. Specimen 1, height 47.3 cm. The head and identity system are put together, and the hands and lower limbs have been lost. He wears a hood and armor. Straps, shawls, arms flattened. The face is red, the eyebrows are thick and raised, the eyes are rounded, and the teeth are exposed (Pic 16:4, Pic 21).

Armor riding equipment is equipped with 26 figurines. It is mainly located on the west side of the burial chamber and the north side of the east side. Specimen 79, length 32.4, height 30.5 cm. Samurai wear hoods on their heads and armored with sleeves. The left hand is held like a horse rein, the right hand is clenched in a fist, the fist is upward, and the original attachment has been lost (Figure 16:6, Figure 19). The horse is clad in armor and is woven from rectangular pieces of armor. He wears a curtain on his head and is decorated with three petals on the top of his forehead. There is a round hole in the part of the jiri, which is the place where the insertion is parasitic.

32 pieces of chicken crown hat samurai figurines. It is mainly distributed in the south of the eastern side of the burial chamber. Samurai wear a black hood and a chicken crown-shaped decoration. Wears narrow sleeves with cross-necked hakama and foot boots. The horse is low in stature and has short, thick legs. Paint scarlet or white and place white or red saddles. The rugs are complete, and some horses use red or black lines to outline the mesh posterior sheath. The tail is mostly lost.

According to the samurai movements, it can be divided into three styles.

Type I 2 pieces. Specimen 103, 30.4 cm long and 31.8 cm high. The samurai placed his hands horizontally in front of his mouth and played it in a blowing motion (Feng 2:1; Figure 16: 1).

Type II 22 pieces. Specimen 131, length 31, height 31.8 cm. The left hand holds the reins, the right hand is bent, and raised high (Rev. 2:2; Ezra 16:3).

Type III 8 pieces. Specimen 96, length 30.8, height 32.4 cm. The left hand is held high and curved, there is a round hole in the hand, and the holding object has been lost. The right hand holds the reins. The knight has a beard (Fig. 16:2, Fig. 2 O).

Male figurines can be divided into three types.

Type I 19 pieces. Close to the outside of the west, north and east walls of the burial chamber. Specimen 62, height 28.8 cm. Wear a round hood with a cable tie around the crown, and the sides of the hat and the back of the hat, all hanging down to the shoulders. Wears a round-necked, narrow-sleeved robe. Hold your hands obliquely to your chest with a round hole in the middle to insert what you are holding (Figure 15:1, Figure 22).

Type II 18 pieces. It is mainly located on the east side of the burial chamber. Specimen 60, height 2.51 cm. The head wears a hood, and the round hole in the middle is the place where the tassel is inserted. Dressed in two crotch armor, rectangular armor pieces are worn into two pieces on the chest and back, and there is a belt around the waist. The left hand is drooping, and the right hand is raised, which should be an infantry figurine (Figure 16:5, Figure 24).

Type III 8 pieces. Scattered on the east and south sides of the burial chamber. Specimen 129, height 25.4 cm. Wear a black hood and a cable tie around the crown. Wear a robe with a slanted collar and narrow sleeves, with red gown edges. The belt at the waist, under the hakama, and the white stripe on the hakama should be suitable for the life of the northern ethnic groups. The hands are arched in front of the chest, there are jacks, and the holding is lost (Fig. 15:3, Fig. 25).

6 female figurines. The northeast corner of the burial chamber [pieces, the remaining 5 pieces are in the rafter chamber, should be close to the body. Specimen 160, height 23.8 cm. Comb in a high bun with a scarf, have a ten shaped line, and sag to the shoulders. Wear a cross-collared narrow-sleeved robe that covers your feet. Fold your hands over your sleeves. The scarf is black, the robe is painted scarlet, and the edges of the robe are white (Pic 15:4, Pic 26).

4 pieces of bearded figurines. Specimen 89, height 25.2 cm. Wearing a round hood and a bearded garment, with a split end on the lower side, a red robe, a pattern on the clothes, and a curved hand and a forward extension as a support (Fig. 15:3, Fig. 27).

3. Animal models

All are clay pottery, divided into half molds.

Horses 12 pieces. Most of them are located on the south side of the burial chamber. Specimen 143, length 39, height 34.2 cm. There is a beautiful pattern on the horse's neck and tether, and a luan bell is tied under the neck. The rounds are complete, and the black vertical and horizontal network represents the conveyor belt, and the intersection of the horizontal and longitudinal belts is embellished with circular ornaments. The saddle is made of leather, and the front of the saddle bridge is high and low. The mud is in a transverse rectangular shape, does not stick to the horse's belly, and extends to both sides. The pattern on the barricade is novel and gorgeous (Fig. 14:6, Fig. 28).

2 pieces of donkeys. Specimen 69, length 31.2, height 22.8 cm. Low and thin. The ears stand upright, and there is a long white bag on the saddle. The tail has been lost (Figure 14:7, Pic 29).

4 pieces of cattle. It is placed on the south and east sides of the burial chamber. Specimen 55, 32.6 cm long and 20.4 cm high. The head has a cage cover, the four legs are short and thick, the horns remain 3 cm, and the curve is natural. Painted in scarlet all over the body, with several small squares outlined by black lines, with a white circular pattern (cover; Figure IV 0: 2).

6 pieces of pottery carts.

There are three types. Type I: Topless 2 pieces. □ type: 2 pieces of turtle armor type roof. DI type: 2 pieces of roll-up roof.

Specimen 48 belongs to type II and is placed on the north side of the burial chamber. The height is 27.6, the width is 15.7, and the length is 29.7 cm. The lid is oval in shape, the top is raised like turtle armor, the rear of the carriage opens two doors, and the carriage has two windows on each side. There are three holes under the window, which should be used for the vertical hardness of the plug rod. The front is 14.5 cm long and 4.8 cm wide, which is the place where the emperor drives the cattle, and there is a groove in the middle of the base that is 2.2 cm wide and 2 cm high, which is used to run through the bearing shaft.

The wheels are made of clay clay and are reddish-black. The hub is 4.4 cm long, the diameter of one end of the carriage for the hub hole used for the shaft is 4 cm, and the diameter of the end of the shaft is 1.8 cm. 16 spokes, length 3.9 cm. The teeth (the rim where the wheels are grounded) are 1.5 to 1.8 cm wide (Figure 4 O: 1, Figure 3 O).

1 camel. Specimen 150, height 17.8 cm. Squatting, white, and severely damaged (Fig. 14; 2).

1 piece of pig. Specimen 92, 18 cm long and 12.2 cm high (Fig. 14:3, Fig. 31).

2 pieces of sheep. Specimen 90, 17.8 cm long and 9.5 cm high (Fig. 14:4, Fig. 32).

2 pieces of dogs. Specimen 13, 13.6 cm long and 6.3 cm high (Figure 14:5, Figure 33).

4. Mock-up

1 piece of mortar. Specimen 91, length 23.2, width 6 cm. The pestle rests on the attached frame for easy take-off and landing. The mortar plate is round (Fig. 41:1, Fig. 34).

Well 1 piece. Specimen 83, planar circular. Caliber 10.6, bottom diameter 8.6, height 8.7 cm (Fig. 41: 4, Fig. 35).

Stove 1 piece. Specimen 82, height 22, width 24 cm. The fire shield is in the shape of a mountain, and the stove is equipped with a cooking pot and a koshiki (Figure 41: 2, Figure 36).

Grind 1 piece. Divided into two pieces: grinding disc and grinding table. Specimen 93, the grinding disc plane is round, 8.8 cm in diameter, the grinding table residue (Fig. 41:3, Fig. 37).

5. Pottery

Cans of 1 piece. It was excavated in the southern part of the rafters. Specimen 168, height 15.2 cm. Handicap, round lip, thick neck, shoulders, bulging belly, flat bottom. The maximum abdominal diameter is 16.1, the diameter is 11.1, and the bottom diameter is 7 cm. There are three water ripples on the neck and abdomen, as well as blurred dark lines, clay gray pottery, and the production process is very rough (Figure 41: 5, Figure 38).

6. Epitaph bricks

It is located in the backfill soil of the cave north of the cemetery.

The tomb tiles are gray, without any ornamentation on the front and back, 30 cm long, 15 cm wide and 5 cm thick. On one side of the brick, 3 lines and 25 characters are inscribed, and the words are painted in red, and the content is "The coffin of Song Shaozu of Dunhuang County, Dunhuang County, the Second Year of the Great Dynasty Taihe and the First Year of the Ding Dynasty", the content of the great dynasty Taihe And the first year of the Ding Wei Youzhou Assassination History Dunhuang Gong Dunhuang County" (figure 39). The first year of Taihe, that is, 477 AD, was a period when the civilized empress dowager Feng Shi and the Xiaowen Emperor Tuoba Hong jointly ruled and society gradually moved toward stability. There are no records of Song Shaozu and his people in the Book of Wei, the Northern History, and the Zizhi Tongjian. Youzhou Lingyan, Fanyang, Yuyang three counties, eighteen counties. Thirty-nine thousand five hundred and eighty mouths, one hundred and forty-four thousand five hundred and thirty-six mouths

7. Miscellaneous

1 stone table, 39 cm long, 30 cm wide and 10 cm high. A stone slab, and a stone offering table are placed on the front porch. A pair of silver bracelets located on the lid plate. In addition, there are 1 small iron mirror, 3 amber ornaments, 3 ceramic plates, and 2 lacquer plates.

3. Conclusion

1. Datong Was called Pingcheng during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and served as the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty for nearly a century from the first year (398) of the Daowu Emperor Tuoba Jue Tianxing to the eighteenth year of Emperor Xiaowen's reign (494). According to historical records, during this period, the Rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty captured more than one million people from Pingcheng and its lands, and frequent emigration from all over the country greatly accelerated the ethnic integration of the Northern Wei capital, and this era feature is also expressed in the tomb of Song Shaozu.

The stonemasons carved the stone rafters of the front porch and the back room with their accurate and meticulous techniques, which not only imitated and inherited the architectural form of the Central Plains wooden structure, but also reflected the unique artistic style of the time. The tomb shape system and a large number of burial pottery figurines reflect that in the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the tomb system in the Pingcheng area has accepted many major contents of the Han and Jin tomb system, and the travel pottery figurine group is centered on a gorgeous ox cart, which is the tradition of the Central Plains burial figurine group since the Western Jin Dynasty. The main figures depicted in the murals are also Central Plains fashion costumes wearing crowns and wide belts.

There are also many aspects of the tomb that show the characteristics of the nomadic economy and the ethnic minority army in the north, highlighting that there are a large number of armored horse armor and chicken crown hat light cavalry in the figurine group, which reflects the characteristics of the Tuoba Xianbei army and cavalry as the main army. There are also realistic camels and donkeys carrying heavy bags, which are new contents that have not appeared in the Han and Jin figurines in the past. The costumes and faces of many pottery figurines also show the characteristics of the Xianbei people. Female figurines comb their heads in high buns, long skirts drag the ground; The male figurines wear a narrow-sleeved robe with a slanted collar and a fresh hat. The male and female figurines are all different in shape and vivid and realistic. In addition, the appearance of the Hu figurines reflects the phenomenon of cultural exchange between the East and the West. The tomb unearthed 4 high-nosed and deep-sighted figurines, whose costumes are different from the figurines, although the limbs are mutilated, but according to the action, they should be trick figurines. According to historical records, in the first year of Emperor Xiaowen's reign (477), there was already a "Four Yi Song and Dance" in the Northern Wei court, which shows that Western music also occupied a very important position in the Northern Dynasty.

2. In recent decades, the main Northern Wei tombs excavated near Datong are: Fangshan Yonggu Mausoleum, located in the south of Liangshan Mountain, 25 kilometers from Datong City, is the mausoleum of the Northern Wei civilization Empress Feng, which was built in the fifth year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (481) and buried in the fourteenth year of Taihe (490). Less than 1 km away from it, the "Ten Thousand Years Hall" of the Void Palace of Tuoba Hong, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, is a tomb of the same period. The tomb of Sima Jinlong, the "General of shizhong town, Shangshu Yuzhen Sikong, the western general of Shizhong Town, and the king of Jizhou", is located in the southwest of Shijiazhai Village in Datong City. "Envoy Jie Pingbei General Huan, Shuo, Yan Three Prefectures Thorn Shiping Town Will "Yuan Shu Tomb, located northwest of Dongwang Village" 1. Through the excavation of the above four places and many small and medium-sized Northern Wei tombs such as Hudong Marshalling Station, Welding Equipment Factory, and Zhijiabao Village, we have clearly realized that: (1) in the Pingcheng area before the relocation of Luo, a long slope tomb with a patio and a hole had appeared in the Northern Wei tombs. Establishing this form and having a clear chronology, the tomb of Song Shaozu is the earliest one of its eras so far. (2) Before the relocation of Luoluo, brick tombs in the Pingcheng area were "mostly north-south, nearly square in plan, with four walls convex outward in an arc shape, and the top was a four-cornered spire", which was very popular in the Central Plains since the Wei and Jin dynasties. The excavation of the tomb of Song Shaozu allows us to understand the construction and system of the northern Wei Taihe early years mausoleum, and at the same time, we can also see the degree to which the Xianbei rulers at that time accepted the culture of the Central Plains. (3) Among the tombs that have been found so far in the Pingcheng area before the relocation of Luoluo, in addition to the tomb of Song Shaozu, only a stone tomb has been excavated from Zhijiabao Village in the southern suburbs of Datong City, but the shape is relatively simple, such as the tomb of Song Shaozu, which has both an exquisite stone rafter chamber and a beautiful sarcophagus bed, and has a clear date, which is very rare in the known Northern Wei tombs.

3. The tomb of Sima Jinlong, discovered in 1965, is only 4 kilometers away from the tomb of Song Shaozu. He was buried in the eighth year of Taihe (484), his wife Ji was buried in the fourth year of Yanxing (474), and the tomb of Song Shaozu was in the first year of Taihe (477), between 474 and 484, a large number of clay figurines, whether in combination or shape, the two tombs are basically the same, showing the same style of the times. Most of the pottery figurines in Sima Jinlong's tomb are glazed, far less delicate and realistic than the painted pottery figurines of Song Shaozu's tomb.

In recent years, the Datong area has unearthed some painted pottery figurines, such as Xihehe Village in the southern suburbs of Datong, YanggaoQiangjiaying Village, yanggaoxia Shenjing Township nearby, according to the painted figure figurines of the face, clothing, movements, etc., it should be the tomb of the same period, but it cannot be compared with the tomb of Sima Jinlong and song Shaozu in terms of quantity or quality.

Excavated in 1975 in the early northern Wei tombs in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, the excavated pottery figurines have similarities with the tomb of Song Shaozu, but these figurines are quite clumsy, only shaping a large outline, lacking in meticulous carving, and the limbs of cattle and horses are thick and the proportions are not coordinated. A total of 115 figurines of song Shaozu have been unearthed from the tomb of Song Shaozu, whether it is cavalry or infantry, whether it is male figurines or female figurines, the proportion of body appearance and body has been quite symmetrical, the shape is also more vivid, and the initial form of the body has been detached from the original form of immature and disproportionate body. The shape of the horse is also very strong and beautiful, not only the saddle is complete, but also the pattern is beautiful. It can be seen that horses have a very important position in the nomadic people of the Tuoba Xianbei ethnic group.

4. The Yungang Grottoes, located in the west of Datong City, are one of the largest surviving grotto groups in China. The stone carving art of imitation wood architecture is vividly expressed here. The excavation time can be divided into three phases. The second period is about 470-490 AD, of which Caves 9, 10 and 12 are all works of this period.

In the middle of the north wall of the front room of Cave 9 and 10, there are carved house-shaped door niches with imitation wooden structures, and the lintels are in an irregular rectangular shape, with five lotus flowers on them. The lintel of the arch on the south wall of the back room of Cave 10 is carved with the upper body of five lotuses equipped with incarnated children. The shape of the stone lintel and the characteristics of the five pieces of the door hairpin in the tomb of Song Shaozu are very similar to the grotto.

A bucket of three-liter herringbone peach appears in many places in the roof niches and gate towers of the Yungang Grottoes, which coincides with the architectural form in the tomb. The straight line of herringbone chess is a basic feature of this period. Over time, herringbone was gradually changed to arc. For example, the Tianlongshan Grottoes in Taiyuan, Shanxi, "the first cave was excavated in the north qi, the colonnade was two, the large bucket mouth on the pillar head was set up with a horizontal frontal analysis of the wooden bearing, the Hangshang carved a bucket of three liters and the herringbone, the chess head roll brake sawtooth roll flap, the shape of the herringbone chess has changed the straight line of the Northern Wei period and eased into an arc"

The excavated tomb of Song Shaozu and the surrounding brick chamber tombs are not far from the tombs of Sima Jinlong and Yuan Shu, and archaeological excavations have once again confirmed that south of Mapu Mountain and east of the Royal River are the burial areas of northern Wei nobles, bureaucrats and other upper-class figures.

Participants in the excavation: Zhang Qingjie, Zuo Yan, Liu Junxi, Zhang Tsunami, Zhang Zhizhong, Gao Song, Gao Feng

Picture: Takamatsu Zhang Tsunami Peak

Photography: Gao Feng

Author: Liu Junxi Zhang Zhizhong Zuo Yan