Experts decode the Tuguhun Tomb Group: will strive to confirm the location of the "Great Khan's Mausoleum"

According to Wuwei Culture, Sports, Radio and Television Tourism:

Original title: An Important Empirical Evidence of the Pattern of Pluralism and Unity of the Chinese Nation

——Decoding the Tuguhun royal tomb group of the Wuwei Tang Dynasty in Gansu

Guangming Daily reporter Wang Bingya and Song Xiqun

In 2021, the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China were announced, and the tomb group of Tuguhun royal family in the Tang Dynasty of Wuwei, Gansu Province was selected, which became the focus of national attention.

Since the discovery of the Wuwei Tuguhun tomb group at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the archaeological community has successively explored and excavated it, and as of the 1990s, the tomb group has unearthed nine epitaphs and hundreds of precious cultural relics.

In 2019, the project team excavated the tomb of Murong Zhi, the King of Tuguhun Xi, which is located on the top of the hill where the Chashan Village of Qilian Town, Tianzhu County, Wuwei City, about 15 kilometers east of the Tombs of Qingzui Bay and Lama Bay, is the only well-preserved Tomb of the Tuguhun Royal Family found so far, which provides important materials for the study of the genealogy of the Tuguhun King, burial customs and other related issues in the later period.

In 2020, the Tuguhun Archaeological Project Team protected and restored the cultural relics excavated from Murong Zhi's tomb, and carried out laboratory cleaning of the excavated coffins. The coffin of Murong Zhi's tomb is intact, the tomb owner is dressed in imperial clothes, the headrest is a chicken singing pillow, a bun, a headband is worn, a gold jaw support is worn, a mask is woven with silk, and a waistband is inlaid with gold braces. Place an ivory wat board in front of you, covered with silk. Next to them are placed plates, bowls, spoons, bottles and other gold and silver dining utensils, pens, ink, paper and other stationery utensils, lacquer, copper mirrors and mirror clothing, powder boxes, wooden combs, bone hairpins and other toiletries, inlaid gold daggers, leopard skin bows, appliqués lacquered wood Hulu, arrows and other weapons and equipment.

"Judging from the shape of Murong Zhi's tomb and the burial items, especially from the gold belt purple robe he wore, the pen and ink paper he was buried with his body, ivory wat board, leopard skin bow Tao, etc., it can be said that it was the standard of the three major members of the Tang Dynasty." Chen Guoke, director of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and head of the Tuguhun Archaeological Project, said: Murong Zhi's tomb is mainly based on the Tang Dynasty burial system, and there are cultural factors such as Tuguhun, Tubo, and northern grasslands, which show the historical process of exchanges, exchanges, and blending of various ethnic groups along the silk road on the mainland, and are an important empirical evidence of the pattern of pluralism and integration of the Chinese nation.

In addition, the left side of Murong Zhi's epitaph is engraved with two columns of characters synthesized using the partial head of Chinese characters, which are initially judged to be Tuguhun ethnic scripts. "From the perspective of strokes, structure, and writing characteristics, this is a relatively mature text. Studies believe that it is similar to the Khitan script but earlier than the Khitan Tuguhun ethnic script, which is the earliest nomadic script found to be based on Chinese characters. Chen Guoke said.

Since the discovery of the tombstone of Princess Honghua in 1915, a number of Tuguhun royal tombs and epitaphs have been discovered in the Nanshan area of Wuwei, mainly concentrated in the area of Qingzui Bay and Lama Bay. The epitaph records that the burial place is mostly "Yanghui Valley", so this area is also known as "Yanghui Valley Mausoleum Area". This is the overall understanding of the academic community on the Tomb Group of the Tuguhun Royal Family in Wuwei Nanshan before 2019.

The newly unearthed epitaph of Murong Zhi in 2019 shows that after Murong Zhi's death, he was "buried in the Tomb of the Great Khan on September 5, 2019" according to the ceremonial system. "The 'Great Khan's Mausoleum' was first mentioned in the Tuguhun Royal Family Epitaph unearthed in Wuwei, and this information directly impacted the academic circles' in the past hundred years that the 'Yanghui Valley' was the inherent understanding of the Tuguhun Royal Family Mausoleum in Wuwei, which can be said to provide a new perspective and opportunity for the study of the history of Tuguhun." Chen Guoke said.

According to the location of Murong Zhi's tomb, relevant historical records, and compared with the excavated documents, experts judged that in the Wuwei Nanshan area, in addition to the "Yanghui Valley" mausoleum area, there was also a "Great Khan Mausoleum" area.

In order to find the "Great Khan's Mausoleum", the project team conducted a systematic archaeological survey of about 400 square kilometers west of the Nanying Reservoir in The Nanshan District of Wuwei, the Binggou River and the Dashui River Basin, and confirmed a total of 23 Tuguhun royal tombs.

The survey clarified the basic layout of the Wuwei Tuguhun royal family tomb group, which can be initially divided into three major mausoleum areas, namely the Chashan Village Area represented by Murong Zhi's tomb (the "Great Khan Mausoleum") area, the Qingzui-Lama Bay Area ("Yanghui Valley" Mausoleum Area) represented by the tombs of Princess Honghua and Murong Zhong, and the Changling-Machangtan District ("Baiyangshan" Mausoleum Area) represented by the Dang Tomb.

In 2021, the project team conducted archaeological excavations on three newly discovered tombs in the Changling-Machangtan area, and unearthed more than 290 burial items. It can be seen from the "Tomb of the Dang Clan of Mrs. Feng Yijun" excavated from the Machangtan M2 in the 27th year of the New Century (739) that the tomb group is the tomb of the Tugu Hun Pengzi family in the early and middle Tang Dynasty.

"Based on the available materials, we speculate that the owners of these three tombs may all belong to the Tugu Hun Pengzi family and are related to each other. Whether in Tuguhun or after returning to the Tang Dynasty, the Pengzi clan is a very prestigious clan within the Tuguhun nation, and most of its clan leaders hold high positions and have prominent statuses, and the entire clan has also made positive contributions to the local political and economic construction. Chen Guoke said.

"The confirmation of the identity of the owner of the tomb can provide a more accurate historical basis for solving the historical mysteries such as the internal composition of the Tuguhun nation and the contribution of the Tuguhun nation to the construction of the Chinese national community." Chen Guoke said, "The discovery of the Pengzi family cemetery is important to remind us that there may be more Tuguhun clan cemeteries widely distributed around the periphery, waiting for us to do more detailed work to clarify its layout characteristics." ”

Chen Guoke introduced that the next project team will be based on the three mausoleum areas, and strive to confirm the specific location of the "Great Khan Mausoleum", through selective excavation, further enrich the cultural connotation of the Tuguhun royal family tomb group, in addition to expanding the scope of archaeological survey and exploration, and strive to clarify the distribution status of the entire mausoleum area and the interrelationship between the various parts. "We are also continuing to carry out the protection and restoration of excavated cultural relics and the collation and research of archaeological data, strive to complete the restoration of cultural relics with high quality, and publish the archaeological report as soon as possible." Chen Guoke said.

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily, Phoenix News