In the ancient tomb group of Yangjiawan Section of Nanfentang Village, Nanfentang Village, the second bid section of Ningshao Expressway in Ningxiang City, Hunan Province, a Song Dynasty husband and wife joint burial tomb and a Han Dynasty tomb have been excavated. In 2007, when the third national cultural relics census was conducted, the cultural relics department found a suspected ancient tomb group in this area. In order to cooperate with the construction of the Ningshao Expressway, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Ningxiang Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics conducted rescue archaeological excavations on the Yangjiawan Tomb Group.
There is a small window between the two burial chambers, commonly known as the "Bridge of The Crossing immortals".
The Song Dynasty husband and wife joint burial tomb has two burial chambers, both connected and independent, and experts have identified as husband and wife tombs side by side. One of the burial chambers has a missing lid, the other is intact, and archaeologists have found a few tiles and pottery pieces in the stolen burial chamber.
"According to the structure and characteristics of this tomb, it can be identified as a husband and wife burial tomb of the Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty tombs are usually relatively simple in shape, the tomb bricks are relatively small, and there are more plain surfaces." Sun Bingli, deputy section chief of the cultural relics section of the Ningxiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism and Sports, told reporters.
It is worth mentioning that there is a small window between the two adjacent burial chambers, commonly known as the "Bridge of The Crossing immortals". In ancient times, the "Crossing the Immortal Bridge" carried the blessing of continuing the marriage after the death of the husband and wife, but it was rare in the joint burial tomb.
"The couple are together when they live, and when they die, they have to come together, leaving a hole in the middle, imagining two loving souls, lying in it and chatting." Sun Bingli introduced.
Less than 500 meters away from the Song Dynasty couple's joint burial tomb, archaeologists also found a Han Dynasty tomb, where more than 10 artifacts from the Eastern Han Dynasty were excavated. Among them, an iron container and an iron tripod, the bottom of the container also has traces of burning, two iron utensils combined together, very similar to modern hot pot.
"This kettle and the triangular bracket are matching utensils, so they are also placed together in the tomb." Yang Ningbo, a researcher at the Hunan Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said that according to the type of these objects and the patterns on the tomb bricks, it is judged that the tomb is a tomb in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "There are geometric ornaments on the tomb tiles, which are more popular from the Eastern Han to the Han and Jin Dynasties, and combined with these pottery, iron kettles and other utensils unearthed inside, we can judge its relatively accurate age." According to experts, the excavation of the Yangjiawan ancient tomb group provides an important reference for the study of the history, folklore and burial customs of the Han Dynasty and song dynasty.
A passage for the souls of husband and wife in tombs
The conjugal soul passage, also known as the conjugal path, is a passage connecting the two tombs of husband and wife. This is a product of the idea that "things die as things live". Some large couples are buried in the same domain as husband and wife, but each has its own tomb and is buried together. In order to allow the souls of the husband and wife to reach each other, a passage is usually dug between the two tombs. And it is generally excavated from the wife's tomb to the husband's tomb, called "opening the door to find a husband". The tomb of Liang Xiaowang of MangzhongShan, Shangqiu, Henan, belongs to this category. The tomb of Liu Wu (no. M1) and his wife Li Fei (no. M2) of the Western Han Dynasty are both Tombs of Yadong. The middle passage is excavated south from the south cloister outside the rear chamber of M2, and the tomb of M1 is located just south of M2. It shows that this passage is excavated from the wife's tomb to the husband's tomb. This passage exists for more than 50 meters. Another example is the Tomb of Guishan No. 2 han located in the northwest suburb of Xuzhou City, that is, the mausoleum of Liu Zhu, the king of Chuxiang, and his wife. The passage between the tomb of the king and the princess is to leave a passage opening on the side of room 7 and the tomb of the princess when the tomb is excavated, and then the south wall of room 3 of the princess tomb (adjacent to room 7) opposite the entrance to the tomb of the king is excavated to the side of the tomb. There is also an oblique passage between the tombs of king Chu and princess in Xuzhou's Nandong Mountain, which is more regular.
Although some small couples' burial tombs also have two tombs, there is only one partition wall in the middle, so a hole is dug in the partition wall to leave a pot door to communicate. In November 2009, in the Ming Dynasty Ji Tai couple's joint burial mural tomb excavated in Xianyang Bin County, Shaanxi Province, a basketball-sized hole was found in the tomb of Mrs. Ji Tai, which is a hole for the souls of the husband and wife to communicate. Licuo Village, Maxiang Town, Xiamen, Fujian Province, also found a Ming Dynasty husband and wife burial tomb with holes. The practice of digging passages or digging holes to keep pot doors for couples to communicate with their souls is a common burial system since the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. This custom was observed from the princes down to ordinary officials and even commoners. To this day, this burial method is still retained in the area of northern Henan and western Henan, and Luoyang is named "burial across the mountain". In northern Jiangsu, because it is not easy to excavate the tomb chamber because of the shallow soil and shallow water, it is often possible to build a wooden board between the two coffins to connect the two coffins together, which is called "Crossing the Immortal Bridge". Some put a red cloth belt between the two coffins, which is equivalent to the concentric knot held by the newlyweds at the wedding.