Lucheng Qiangcheng Tang Tomb
"World of Cultural Relics", 2005.05, Qin Qiuhong
In June 2003, a brick chamber tomb was found during the construction of Qiangcheng Industrial Park in Lucheng City, and when we arrived at the scene, the tomb had been excavated and the artifacts had been destroyed, so the artifacts had to be sorted out for remediation.
Qiangcheng is located in the north of Changzhi City, west of Lucheng City, 5 kilometers away from the county seat. Here is a plain. The tomb is located 500 meters south of the village and about 1,000 meters east of the Handan Long Line.
1. Tomb shape system
The tomb is a brick chamber tomb, sitting north to south, in a direction of 180 degrees. The top of the tomb is 0.75 meters from the surface. The curved edge of the tomb is square, 2.68 meters long from north to south, and 2.56 meters wide from east to west. The tomb roof for the arch has collapsed. Only the north and west walls remain on the four walls, and the residual height is 2.25 meters (from the bottom of the tomb). The burial chamber is made of long strips of bricks, three flat and one longitudinal, bricks 33.2 cm long, 17.6 cm wide and 8 cm thick. Due to the collapse of the south wall, no closed door was found.
The bottom of the tomb is paved with bricks. There is a coffin bed in the room, located in the northeast of the burial chamber, and the coffin bed is 0.55 meters from the bottom of the tomb. Due to the severity of the disturbance, no wooden coffins were found. Three human skeletons are scattered on the coffin bed, which is initially determined to be a husband and wife burial tomb, and the burial style is unknown.
In the tomb, 7 pieces of burial items and 1 epitaph were found. There is an iron object between the epitaph cover and the epitaph, and due to the severe decay, it is impossible to distinguish the artifacts.
2. Burial utensils
Due to the disturbance, this copy was stolen in the early years, and the burial vessel was seriously damaged. Pottery, iron, stone epitaphs, etc. were unearthed in the tomb.
1. Pottery figurines: There are 1 town tomb beast, 2 pottery figurines, and 1 pottery horse.
Town tomb beast: 1 piece, clay gray pottery, squatting, remnant, located in the south of the tomb. The head faces the tomb door and the tail faces the burial chamber. Four-legged squatting, front right foot crippled, beast head crippled, human-faced beast body. The front foot is upright, the four claws are supported on the ground, the hind feet are bent in a crouching shape, the tail is upturned, and the horizontal eyebrows are angry. Bulging eyes, wide nose, high cheekbones, large mouth, red lips. Bearded, slightly crippled ears, long single horns on the head, jagged back. The whole body has fallen off in part. You can see the red neck and the bottom is broken.
Pottery figurines: 2 pieces
Horse Figurine: From the side of the pottery horse, wearing a head, wearing a short right coat, under the pants, standing on a square bottom. Hands in the shape of a lead horse. The right arm is bent, the elbow is bent to clench the fist, and the left hand is clenched in the fist and droops. Fit around your waist. The upper body leans slightly to the right, and looks up to the right, as if leading a horse. Pass height 30 cm.
Squat figurine: head in a bun, wearing a skirt, squatting, with the right arm bent elbow on the right face, and the left hand on the left knee. Lean your body to the left and look right ahead. Pass height 19 cm.
Tao Ma: 1 piece, excavated from the northeast corner of the tomb, slightly ruined. The horse's neck is forward-leaning, the head is slightly high, the mane is draped over the neck back, the tail is short, and the chest is wide and the hips are wide. The bottom is crippled, green throughout, more detached, with a saddle. The residual height is 30 cm and the length is 34 cm.
2. 2 pieces of clay pots. In the northeast corner of the burial chamber, it is made of clay pottery and wheeled. Small mouth, straight neck, rounded abdomen, flat bottom slightly concave. Height 30 cm, caliber 13.5 cm, base diameter 14 cm. Both pieces are the same.
3. Epitaph 1. Bluestone with lid. Located in the southeast of the burial chamber. There is a layer of iron between Zhi Gai and Zhi Shi, which cannot be determined due to serious decay. Zhi cover square, need the top, the bottom side of the length of 40 cm, thickness of 8.5 cm, the top of the cover of the central yin engraved seal book "Zhou Gu Zhang Jun Epitaph", four brakes curly grass pattern. The stone is square with slightly broken edges. Zhibian is 43 cm long and 11 cm thick, and the wen script is written in chinese letters, and the inscription is written in 18 lines, with 18 characters in full lines, for a total of 301 characters. Zhiwen used many words created during the Wu Zetian period.
3. Conclusion
1. Tomb age
The tomb is clearly documented in the epitaph. The owner of the tomb, Zhang Fu, a native of Nanyang, Henan, died at the age of 72, and two wives were buried together. In the third year (692), Wu Zhou Tianzhi was buried with his two wives in the village of Nantri in Luzhou (present-day south of Qiangcheng Village, Lucheng, Shanxi). Due to the serious disturbance of the tomb, the tomb advocated that the bones of Fu and the two ladies should be built first, and the bones of Zhang Fu should be moved to be buried together.
2. Tomb shape system
Zhang Fu's tomb is a single-chamber brick tomb. During the Tang Dynasty, brick chamber tombs in the Shangdang area were more common, mostly rectangular Jomon brick construction, dome, single room mostly. The burial chamber is curved square in plan. It is a single-chamber brick tomb with no ear chambers, small niches, and a coffin bed. 3. Burial utensils
The burial utensils of Zhang Fu's tomb are mainly pottery figurines. The tomb has a relatively complete epitaph, which records the ancestral home of the tomb owner Zhang Fu and praises it. Many texts created during the Wuzhou period appear in the epitaph many times, which is of great significance for the study of the writing of the Wuzhou period.
Although there are few artifacts excavated from the tomb, due to the relatively complete imitation of the zhi, it can reflect the burial customs of the Changzhi area during the Tang Wuzhou period, and has a certain historical value for the study of Tang culture in the Shangdang area.
(Author's work unit; Lucheng City Cultural Management Office, Shanxi Province)