Briefing on the excavation of the tomb of Tang Sun Chengsi and his wife (Part 2)
Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology
[Originally published in Archaeology and Cultural Relics, No. 2, 2005, the original text is longer, reprinted in three parts]
[If cited, please refer to the original text]
III. Conclusion
The tomb owner, Sun Chengsi, was born into a rongma family. His grandfather, Sun Ganren, served as the left general of the Tang Dynasty's Right Jinwu Wei Yifu and Shangzhu Guo. His father, Sun Jingshan, served as a left leopard Taowei, a guerrilla general of Zuo Guoyi in Yichuan Province, and a Shangzhu Guo. Sun Chengsi became the permanent elect of the military department with the door shade. He had two sons who held the post of general of the Folding Chong Province, and three sons who were also regular candidates of the Military Department. Zhiwen provided new information for the study of the Tang Dynasty fu bing and door shadow system.
This is a joint burial tomb, according to two epitaphs, Lady Gao was buried in Gaoyangyuan, Yiyang Township, Chang'an County in the fifth year of the New Century (717), and Sun Chengsi was buried here in the twenty-fourth year of the New Century (736). From the relevant relics, it is speculated that the tomb should have been excavated during the burial of Gao In the fifth year of the New Century, and the vast majority of the excavated artifacts are the funerary products of Sun Chengsi's joint burial. The structure of the tomb is complete, the excavated relics are rich, and the chronology is clear, which provides good information for the chronicle study of Tang tombs.
The types of clay figurines excavated from the tomb are very rich, including twelve-hour figurines, camel figurines, standing figurines, musical figurines, hundred drama figurines and camel horses and other domestic animals. The town tomb figurines do not see the Heavenly King Figurines and the Town Tomb Beasts, only the Twelve Hours Figurines, reflecting the changes in the types of Tang tombs with the burial figurines. The twelve-hour figurine excavated from this tomb is the earliest known example of a Tang tomb in the Liangjing area. The Kaiyuan Ceremony compiled in the twentieth year of the New Century mentions that there are "four gods" in the funeral utensils, and the "four gods and twelve hours" have not yet been combined and said, and the "Tang Six Classics" of Li Linfu and other Feng Shu notes in the twenty-seventh year of the New Century mention "Dangyuan, Dangye, Zuming, and Earth Axis", and the two books record that the tomb system of the same period, the "Dangkun, Dangye, Ancestral Name, and Earth Axis" in the Six Classics should be the "Four Gods" in the Kaiyuan Ceremony, that is, the two heavenly king figurines and the tomb beasts of the two towns. The tomb is dated to the 24th year of the new century, and from the literature, the system and custom of burying the 12th time figurines have not yet been formed. Later, Emperor Xianzong and Emperor Wuzong huichang and Emperor Wuzong hui chang the first year of the imperial history of the imperial history of the shu were both combined with the four gods and twelve hours.
The lower classes dressed as hats and the gall people with nodular vegetation on their necks were found for the first time, and like several other hundred figurines, they were for people's amusement. The Tang Dynasty murals in Dunhuang's 322nd Cave depict the image of a porter wearing a bucket hat, dressed similarly to the pottery figurines unearthed from this tomb. However, the appearance of the daidou figurine unearthed from this tomb is disguised as a lower-class people and makes a funny and funny performance.
A figurine of a man's dress and a woman unearthed from the tomb vividly reflects the custom of "women wearing men's clothes" at that time. Another figurine specimen, M12:161, is missing a head, is small in size, and the dress and posture are similar to the previous piece, but the lower part of the hood remains under the back of the neck, and it is speculated that the hood should have been worn. This figurine was unearthed in the burial path and may have been a funerary object for Mrs. Gao's burial.
Sun Chengsi was a frequent candidate for the military department, without any grade, but the tomb shape system and burial items used were comparable to those of the pin officials, from which it was not difficult to see the custom of competing for thick burials at that time. The owner of the tomb came from the family of officials and eunuchs, and should have used a higher standard burial system with the help of the power of his ancestors. At the same time, this is also related to the fact that the funeral system at that time did not have regulations on the number of ming artifacts. According to the "Tang Hui Yao • Burial", it was only in the 29th year of the new century that the restriction of shu people was fifteen things.
Participants in the excavation: Yue Lianjian, Zhang Quanmin, Wang Jiugang, Li Ming, Hu Xiaoting, Wang Zhihong
Author: Zhang Quanmin, Liu Duyun, Wang Jiugang, Li Ming
Picture: Feng Lirong, Dang Xiaoting, Wang Zhihong
Photograph: Zhang Minghui
exegesis:
Wang Fufei: "Four Gods, Towels, And High Buns", Archaeological Communications, No. 5, 1956.
Tang Hui Wants, Vol. 38.
See Shen Congwen: Studies on Ancient Chinese Costumes, p. 279, Century Publishing Group, Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 2002.