This article was originally published in Geng Shuo and Qiu Luming's compilation of "Ask Pi Songluo: The Ancient Travels of the Central Plains" (Zhonghua Bookstore, 2019), which was originally an essay, written casually, submitted for more than a year, had some new ideas about the individual issues in the text, and the cultural relics involved were also helped by friends.
"Ask Pi Song Luo" book shadow
At this time last year, we conducted a short-term expedition to the land of Heluo in the heart of the Central Plains, and the specific situation, which has been described in the preface of this book and the articles of friends, will not be raped here. I would like to swear with the credibility of the two editors-in-chief that this is not for the sake of laziness. It was a very pleasant trip until I was told: I want to write an article! All the vivid memories under the scorching sun immediately become immortal colors, and it seems that the words indeed mark the death of the subject, and as we have seen this time in many tombstones and epitaphs, its only advantage is that death can be admired for a long time. In order to let Fenghua Xueyue live for a few more days, I became one of the most stubborn members of the drag force (and later learned that it was not the most stubborn). However, my kind heart really can't stand the temptation and ridicule of the devils who have completed the great cause of death, and now let me put down my easy quill pen, pick up the heavy iron chisel, and carve the tombstone of my expedition.
"Jun did not see an ancient stele of the Jin Dynasty Yanggong, and the glans was peeling off the raw berry moss. Nor can tears fall for them, nor can the heart mourn for them. "The main body of ancient Chinese architecture has always been civil engineering, and some special buildings (funerals, memorials) since the Qin and Han dynasties have used stone. The objects of our investigation are mainly the monuments of the Han and Tang Dynasties, one or two thousand years of earth, fire, water and wind, the stone is still peeling off and moss, and the wood can rarely be preserved. The slush claws in the soil need to be carefully identified, and often have to be cleaned up by hand to have a clearer understanding, which is the technique of "finding soil in the soil" that archaeologists often advertise. At our quick glance, the focus of nature is mainly on large rammed earth works (such as city walls, palace foundations, sealing soil, etc.), and more importantly on stone carvings that claim to be immortal. Regarding the inscription, there are more professional friends who pay attention to it, and here I am more familiar with the problem of Han Dynasty stone carving. Since the expedition has passed for some time, the memory of the overall process and specific details can no longer be coherent, and it is not a paper to be written here, and it is not necessary to concentrate on one point and cite the debate. Let the text be the most faithful record of thought, and write wherever you think, and call it "rambling memory". There must be many points that cannot be rigorous, and the problems involved cannot be reviewed and stretched, but the current thoughts promoted by the memories are the flow of accounts, "Zhuang" when thinking of problems, "harmonious" when talking about feelings, and looking forward to the reader.
1. Zhongyue Han Sanque
Schematic of the Structure of the Han Que (taking the Tianmen portrait brick unearthed in Dayi, Sichuan as an example, its doorman is a guard in front of the Que and does not belong to the Que body)
In the "Explanation of Words and Characters", it is said: "Que, the door view is also." The statement in the "Interpretation of the Name" is more in line with the routine of the Han Dynasty scribes: "Que, Que (lack) also." On both sides of the door, the central que (lack) is the Way also. "No matter how the debate is true, que is actually a pair of gatehouses, used to spectacular its doors, so there is often a certain hierarchy. For example, the Son of Heaven uses three ques (each que body has three contiguous parts that are lowered sequentially from the inside out), and there are sub-mother que (two parts) and a single que under it, and the eaves also have heavy eaves and single eaves. The south gate of the Hanjing Emperor Yang Mausoleum, which has been excavated, is a pair of three ques, indicating that the system of the Son of Heaven does exist. Some scholars have discussed (due to the nature of the manuscript, allow me not to check the quotations, the same later), according to the literature, the first place of high-ranking officials above 2,000 stones can be placed in the first place, but the actual use of the tomb is more complicated, and the commoners (generally speaking, there should be no official position in the place of the strong) are also used, and there are also heavy eaves and mothers. In addition to the limitation of status, the limitation of financial resources is probably more important. The inscription of the tomb of The Wu clan of Jiaxiang in Shandong province says: "To create this que, the money is 150,000 yuan." In the inscription of Prince Yashilou (i.e., Shi Que), the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty Shu Commandery (mistaken for Shu Commandery Taishou in the Notes on the Water Classics), it is said: "When the father is buried, the three daughters each pay five million." One woman built a tomb, and two women built a building. "The cost of this stone que is as high as ten million." The Inscription of the Han Tomb is mostly advertised, and the cost or moisture on it cannot be fully believed, but there is no doubt that a pair of exquisitely carved stone que must not be able to be purchased by an ordinary family. However, the gap in tomb images (mainly murals, portrait stones and portrait bricks) on the one hand does not have to worry about excessive flaunting in the ceremonial system, on the other hand, the cost is relatively low (especially the portrait bricks and murals), so it is generally welcomed by the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there is no system to speak of. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty in Sichuan, a large number of molded portrait bricks may already be available as finished products for the bereaved family to choose (free choice is not without routine, and now the country's interior decoration is not much different, and we think we are absolutely free), and the hierarchical system may not be able to talk about. However, we have not seen the three outflows in the tomb images, and it seems that there are still some red lines that people do not touch in the objective system and subjective psychology. Even the Heavenly Gate represented in the tomb (also represented by double que, many have inscriptions) are also child-mother que and single-body que, and the gate of heaven should not have the sin of trespassing on earth, it seems that the hierarchy limits people's imagination.
Tianmen bronze coffin ornament excavated from Chengxian County, Gansu Province (collected from "Han Feng - Exhibition of Cultural Relics of the Han Dynasty in China")
The problem of the burial system is very complicated, especially in the Han Dynasty, especially in the underground part, there are many cases of punishment for the overstepping of the tomb, but basically it appears as a crime of defeat in political struggle. There are rules that may not necessarily be observed, and no rules that are not unrestrained, not optional, but if there is none, like the plate in the Western paradise world, it will come and go. For example, the Book of Han? In the biography of Wang Mang, it is recorded that when Wang Mang liquidated the Dong Xian family, one of the important crimes was that Dong Xian's coffin was painted with four elephants, the left green dragon and the right white tiger, and the supreme being was incomparable, and he violated the system of the Son of Heaven. According to the saying, the four elephants are indeed the symbols of heaven, Dong Xian, you are a male favorite, why paint four elephants on the coffin, there is still a remnant of death, open the coffin naked, and the door is full of doors. However, starting from the tomb of Bu Qianqiu in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty (the tomb of the King of Liang in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty is still considered to be a prince, slightly lenient), it is common to paint four elephants in tombs and even on burial utensils. There are also many celestial charts with complete pictures of the sun, moon, four elephants, and twenty-eight houses, and compared to Dong Xian's naked corpse, it should be whipped. How to explain? Do we take a scientific understanding of this time and another, this place and another place, and draw a temporal and spatial curve of etiquette, or is the crime and the system itself more metaphysical?
Nanyang Qilin Gang Portrait Stone Tomb On the roof of the sun and moon and four elephants (taken from the "Nanyang Qilin Gang Han Portrait Stone Tomb")
Or go back to the Zhongyue Han Three Que, that is, the three pairs of Eastern Han Stone Que that still exist in the Song Mountains. Taimuro Que was built in the fifth year of Emperor An's first year (118), and Qimu Que was built in the second year of Emperor An's Yanguang (123), and the Shaomu Que was probably at the same time as Qimu Que. These can be read directly from the inscription on the que or deduced. The number of Eastern Han Stone Que that can be seen now is not much, but it is not very small, and it is basically a tomb que (the gate of the cemetery), and the Zhongyue Han Sanque is a temple que (the gate of the place of worship). The Taimu (Tai room) temple and the Shaomu temple are dedicated to the mountain and belong to the temples of natural gods; the Qimu Temple is dedicated to Xia Yu's wife and Xia Qi's mother, and according to legend, it is turned into a huge stone here, and it belongs to the ancestral temple of mythological figures (the Han Dynasty probably did not have such a distinction). However, as far as the stone que is concerned, they are not special in shape and image with the stone tomb que that has appeared since the early Eastern Han Dynasty (the problem of the image can be discussed later), and there is no need to talk about it separately.
Shōmuro Que Dong Que (Photo by the author)
Shōmuro Que Xi Que (Photo by the author)
From the perspective of form, Han Sanque has a certain status. In the literature, there is a Li Yeque built during the reign of Emperor Guangwu in Zitong, Sichuan, but its body may no longer exist, and the existing stone and inscription may be due to the false trust of posterity, especially the top cover, which is very strange and cannot be trusted. Press: On our way to northern Sichuan a few days ago, we happened to visit Li Yeque and asked many locals who didn't know, and it was not easy to find it. Reading the inscription of the Qing Dynasty people above, it can be seen that the top cover is indeed a post-match, but the burial and excavation process of the Que body is relatively clear, and it belongs to the "active excavation" of the Qing Dynasty, which has a greater degree of credibility. The body of the que is more like a stone stele, but the upper and lower corners have decorations similar to architectural structures, between the stele and the que. If it is rough, it is the earliest stone we can see so far. The lower part of the front is a detailed account of the qing dynasty's history, and the upper inscription is probably also inscribed by later generations.
Zi Tong "Li Ye Que" (top for the back match, the author of the photo)
Most of the early stone ques existed in Linyi, Shandong: such as Junan Sun's Que, built in the second year of Emperor Zhang's reign (85); Emperor Shengqing's Que of Pingyi, built around the third year of Yuan He (86); and Pingyi Gong Cao Que, built around the first year of Zhang He (87). This three que era, the region is very similar, the latter two que shape system is very similar, are low, less than two meters, single eaves, que body square, simple shape, short bucket arch directly support the eaves, missing the part that is often called que lou later, the image is in the que body, the content is basically the same. Sun's Que only remains in the Que body, which is also a single Que, which is slightly different from the previous two, and is still relatively simple and low.
Emperor Shengqingque of Pingyi (photo by Geng Shuo)
Pingyi Gong Cao Que (Photo by Geng Shuo)
The Han San Que built in the An Emperor period has developed, all of which are single eaves, the que body is wider, the height is three or four meters, the arch part is still not prominent, but the decoration has been complicated, the image is still mainly in the Que body, but also appears in the equivalent of the later so-called Que Lou part, but the images of this part are mostly imitation buildings of Lian Bi, rafters and other relatively simple decorations and structures.
Taimuro Que Dong Que Upper Part (Photo by the Author)
Later Jiaxiang Wushi Que (Huan Emperor Jianhe Yuan year, 147), the structure is more complex, there are also three or four meters high, heavy eaves zimu que, the part of the que lou has been more prominent, the image is full of que body and que lou, there is no distinction between the primary and secondary (but the que body picture is larger).
Jiaxiang Wu clan Que Xi Que (Photo by Wang Lei)
Later Shique was mainly distributed in Sichuan (including Chongqing, which was later separated). The shape of western Sichuan (around Ya'an) and northern Sichuan (around Mianyang) is relatively similar, the que body is tall (five or six meters high), there are complex and prominent bucket arch parts, the volume can be compared with the que body under it, mostly called que lou, mostly heavy eaves, but the upper heavy eaves are smaller, directly superimposed on the lower heavy eaves, it looks more like a single eaves, the image is mostly between the bucket arches of the Que Lou and the upper part of the Que Lou and the Que Lou, typical ones such as Ya'an Gao Yi Que (about the fourteenth year of The Xiandi Jian'an, 209), Fan Minque (about ten years of Jian'an, 205) and Mianyang Pingyang Province Junque.
Ya'an Gao Yique (regent of Pang Zheng)
Lushan Fan Minque (Regent of Pang Zheng)
Mianyang Pingyang Province JunQueyi (Photo by the author)
Mianyang Pingyang Province Junque II (Photo by the author)
Chuandong stone que shape system is more thin and tall, the que body is divided upwards, mostly a single que, and the others are slightly the same as Chuanxi, see Qu County Zhuque.
Quxian Feng Huanque (Photo by Geng Shuo)
Pujiawan Hanque, Quxian County (Photo by Geng Shuo)
The stone que shape system in the Three Gorges area is more thin and tall, and there are single que and sub-mother que, and the outstanding feature is that the volume of the upper and lower eaves is equal, the distance is wider, and it is divided into two-fold que buildings. If the typical stone que in western Sichuan can only be called a single eaves, then this is the standard heavy eaves; if the western Sichuan has weighed the eaves, it can also be called a heavy building, such as the Zhongxian Dingfang Que and the Nameless Que. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the Wuyang Que in Zhong County, there is no heavy building, but it is still very thin and tall, and it can be seen at a glance that it is the Han Que in the Three Gorges area.
Zhongxian Dingfangque (Photo by Qin Zhen)
Wuyang Que in the hall of the Three Gorges Museum (Photo by Wang Lei)
The above is a general impression of the existing stone que shape system in the Han Dynasty, because the material itself is not much, the generalization is also extremely inaccurate, and a few new materials may have to be significantly adjusted, if the image material is put in (although it is not necessarily good to grasp the eyebrows and beards together), the problem will become very complicated. There are also many materials between the stele and the que, which are also particularly interesting. Some readers will dislike that I have talked about too much form above, but this is the most important basis and main knowledge for understanding cultural relics, but only for what purpose.
From the above, the AnDi period in which Han Sanque was located, no matter from the number and shape of the stone que, had a great development. Not only is this the case with the Stone Que, but also with the Eastern Han Dynasty stone people standing in front of the Taimu Que (the problem of the stone people can be discussed later), and the inscription is also the same (there were very few before Emperor An, since Emperor An began to increase, and then it was extremely prosperous in Huanling), and when Mr. Once when Mr. An talked about the changes in the tomb system of the Han Dynasty, he also specifically pointed out the time point of Emperor An. These burial facilities, which had appeared before Emperor An, developed slowly, and emperor An was unstoppable after that, and there is a judgment in the history books: "Since the political decline of Emperor An." "Specifically from the perspective of funeral policy, as we all know, since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the wind of thick burial has been popular, mostly in the early period of emperors and princes, and since the middle period, it has been used by the whole people, laboring and hurting the wealth, destroying the family and the industry, and the world's wind has exceeded. Therefore, since the late Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court has launched a long-term regulation and control policy, emperor Yongshi four years (13 BC) issued an edict prohibiting thick burial, and then the Eastern Han Dynasty Guangwu Emperor, Ming Emperor, Zhang Emperor, He Emperor, and Emperor An all issued edicts on funerals, which seems to have become a consistent national policy of each dynasty. Moreover, judging from the historical records, every emperor of each dynasty since the beginning of Emperor Cheng (the special circumstances of the late Western Han Dynasty naturally could not be taken into account) issued an edict specifically, and Emperor An issued two edicts and funerals in the first year of Yongchu (107) and the fifth year of the first century (118), respectively, and the latter edict also said that "there are lazy priests, and they do not follow them" (throwing the pot to the lower governments and local governments); after that, in the nearly one hundred years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was no more edict on funerals (the emperor was sacrificed again, which should naturally be understood as Cao Wei's policy). The actual situation we see is that the wind of thick burial in the Han Dynasty gradually rose with the promulgation of the edict prohibiting thick burial, and after the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty (probably after Emperor An) flourished, large multi-chamber tombs, exquisite decorations, and various facilities on the ground flourished. In the meantime, it is worth savoring.
The tomb also inscribed the cost of some que (not necessarily true), the Sun que in the early and middle Eastern Han Dynasty was 15,000, the middle and late Wu que was 150,000, and the late prince Ya Que was as high as 10 million. On the one hand, from the perspective of other materials, the late Eastern Han Dynasty flaunted the wind of boasting more and more, deceiving ghosts and scaring people, and there is no need to take it seriously; on the other hand, the inflation in the late Eastern Han Dynasty should be relatively crazy, and later Liu Bei issued a straight hundred dollars (a hundred times the face value), and Sun Quan issued a thousand dollars (a thousand times the face value), which is said to have not seriously disrupted the market economy, which can also be seen.
The images of Han Sanque are the closest to the earlier Pingyi Gong Cao Que and Huang Sheng Qing Que, but because the Que is larger, the picture is more, the content is slightly more, and the architectural decoration (Lian Bi, Rafters) is added to the part similar to the Que Lou. In general, it is only the sun and moon, sacred beasts, travel, hunting, hundred plays, prayers, and feasts that are common in tombs and tombs. There is an image of a person sitting under a tree and a person holding a hoe next to him, which may be a story of filial piety, but it is too simple to confirm. In addition to a tradition formed by the three ques themselves, the position and combination of the images cannot be seen too much information (in memory, the combination of some images of the first que is confused with the other two ques and the relative parts of itself, due to the similar size of the stones that constitute the que, it may be that the position errors caused by the failure of many parties to be compared and studied by later generations when restoring, and it is unlikely to be an error at the time of construction, because there are not many stones, less layering, and simple images, and the possibility of people making mistakes at that time is small).
Some people believe that the two images of people on the Qimu Que (it seems to be a sitting position in the middle, with two waiters on both sides) are the story of Xia Yuhua Bear and the Qimu Fossil, which corresponds to the Qimu Que. Because one image is rambling and very simple, the second is that the entire Han Dynasty image has never had these two themes that can be compared, and there is no list to rely on, and the third two images are in the scene of feasting and drinking and a hundred plays from the overall point of view, I think it is an ordinary character, there is no obvious specialness. This is not to say that we cannot read new subjects, but that we must have reliable titles or unique image factors that can be exclusive to a new subject (there have been some successful examples in this area in recent years, which are more convincing). And overall, the images of the Three Que strictly adhere to the popular routine, which is generally the same as the tombs and tombs of the same period, and does not have the intention to match the object of its sacrifice.
The hundred plays and feasts of Qimu Que and Shaomu Que both have the subject of a person dancing and jumping next to a circular object, which is usually considered to be the earliest Chinese foot-stomping diagram, which is of particular significance. On the Qimu Que, the figure's long sleeves are stretched, the long skirt is swaying, and there is a large round object next to its feet, and the round object seems to have side wheels. The image on the Shōmu que is quite different, one person with long sleeves leaning back like a jump, wearing pants instead of a skirt, the round object under its feet, there is a circle of side wheels, and there is a person sitting next to several cases, and one holding a pole pointing at the round object. These two images have a certain special point compared with the common theme of the Hundred Plays, the round object is in front of or under the foot, and there are already some records of keju in the Han Dynasty, which has some truth. However, there are still some doubts, the reason is that the image factor is too simple, not exclusive, and there is no really confirmed image to compare. Therefore, are the two images the same subject matter, and what kind of subject matter is it? As far as the current situation is concerned, it can be determined that it belongs to the music and dance hundreds of plays, and Keju can be prepared, but it is still necessary to confirm it to be further discovered.
The image of the "Keju" on the Kaimu Que
Image of "Keju" on the Shōmuro Que
There are also images of elephants on the Three Passes, and friends who visited me asked me this question, and it seems that everyone is particularly interested. Both the Shōmu que and the Kaimu que have a giant proboscis beast, which is generally recognized as an elephant, and the image is a little strange. There is also a proboscis beast on the Taimuro Que, which is more strange in form, so some people recognize it as a "mastiff", which I think is a common theme of elephants and is also found in other erques. The image is distorted and strange, on the one hand, it is to portray rough abstraction (the images on the three passes are coarse and abstract), and the main aspect should be that the general craftsmen at that time did not have accurate knowledge of elephants. There has been a lot of discussion in the academic circles about elephant images in the Han Dynasty, and I have done a detailed analysis before, involving many aspects of communication, acceptance, understanding, attachment and application in cultural exchanges.
Elephants on the less roomy
The elephant on the Kaimu Que
The elephant on the Taimuro Que
2. Stone men and stone beasts
The Tang Dynasty people said: "Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the imperial tombs have been preceded by the genus of stone qilin, stone repellent, stone elephant, and stone horse, and in front of the tomb of the people, there are stone sheep, stone tigers, stone people, and stone pillars. "These stone statues in front of the Tang Dynasty mausoleums are indeed the genus of honor guards, but they must be extra careful when pushing them on the Qin and Han Dynasties." Because from the current stone carvings in front of the Han tombs, it seems that there is no hierarchical system, there are two thousand stones in front of the tombs of high-ranking officials, and four hundred stones can also be seen in front of the tombs of small county chiefs, and some even suspect that they are civilians (local heroes without official positions) tombs, and the types and quantities cannot see the institutionalized difference. The Han Dynasty himself also said: "The cypress on the tomb, the stone tiger on the road." "Zhou Li": "Fang Xiangshi, burial day into the circle, beating the elephant." 'The fish is like a good eater of the liver and brain of the dead, and people cannot always order Fang Xiang to stand on the side of the tomb to forbid it, and the fish elephant is afraid of tigers and cypresses, so the tiger and cypress are erected in front of the tomb. "It seems that the stone beasts placed in front of the tombs of the Han Dynasty were probably based on funerary beliefs at the beginning, rather than the tomb system.
Judging from the literature, large-scale chinese elephant stone carvings appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties, especially during the reign of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han. The qin shi huang and the han wu emperor in the record are indeed highly similar in some aspects, especially in the aspect of seeking immortals, they both heard about the adults, and created gold people, all went to the East China Sea to seek immortals, and both sealed Mount Tai (which is said to be related to seeking immortals), and both built Penglai Immortal Island in the garden, and carved huge stone whales. I don't know if it was Qin Shi Huang who influenced Emperor Wudi of Han, after all, people are the First Emperor, although Zu Long is still dead; or Emperor Wudi of Han influenced "Qin Shi Huang", after all, the person who wrote the Book for The First Emperor lived in the era of Emperor Wu of Han, and we believe that when he wrote Qin Shi Huang, Yu Guang was aiming at Han Wu Emperor. In fact, the early large-scale stone sculptures we can see now are from the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, mainly the stone carvings of Kunming Pond and the stone carvings of Huo's tomb (some scholars believe that there may be some misunderstandings about whether it is Huo's tomb).
Huo went to the sick tombstone lying horse (photo by the author)
Huo went to the sick gravestone lying pig (photo by the author)
As scholars have said, the stone carvings of Huo's tomb are only given shape with stone, as a kind of mountain landscape (it is said that his tomb is imitated qilian mountain) scattered in the grass of the sealed soil (I just went to see it, and the feeling is particularly practical), which is not the same thing as the stone carvings standing in front of the tomb shinto that have arisen since the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the stone carvings in front of the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty are probably still a little different from the stone carvings in front of the tombs that have formed a system since the Southern and Northern Dynasties. When it comes to the stone carvings in front of the tombs that rose in the Eastern Han Dynasty, we have to pay attention to the Luoyang area, because one of the Eastern Han stone carvings here has unearthed a lot, and the other is where the Eastern Han tombs are located, to see if this production was originally related to the royal family.
The most likely stone carving of the imperial tomb is the large stone elephant of Mengjin, although this time we have not reached the footprints, but we have to mention. The stone elephant is huge, the shape is realistic, three or four meters high, weighs more than twenty tons, the location is about one kilometer south of the Mountain Tombs District, just in the "Notes on the Water Classics" said that there are stone elephants in front of the Guangwu Emperor's mausoleum, so it is generally used as a stone sculpture of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and may be related to the Eastern Han Mausoleum. Since there is no other era information, it is uncertain whether this statement is correct or not.
Mengjin Stone Elephant (Photo by Mo Yang)
My personal idea is that such a large stone sculpture, if it is a tomb object, can basically only consider the Eastern Han Dynasty. Similar stone carvings have not been found in front of the Western Han Mausoleum, and there is a stone elephant in front of huo's tomb, but with the shape of the stone, it is very rough and small, and it is an isolated case. The Wei and Jin dynasties forbade the broken stone beasts, although there were still some relics, but the shape was mostly small and dull sitting beasts. The Northern Dynasty mausoleums began to restore stone carvings, mostly stone people, occasionally stone beasts, Luoyang area is also a continuation of the Wei and Jin sitting beasts, still small and dull, such as jingling stone lions; Guanzhong Western Wei Yongling has standing stone beasts, the style is simple and rough, the style of the early Tang Dynasty. The Tangling stone beasts are tall and exquisite, but there are no stone elephants, and the region is not suitable. The low, cute stone elephant of song ling is by no means similar to this. There are also tall stone elephants in front of the Ming Tombs, but the style and region are not related. The large stone sculptures of the Eastern Han Dynasty were particularly prosperous, large and exquisite in shape, but these stone sculptures were all in front of the tombs of local officials and powerful people, and they had never seen such a huge person. If it is from the Eastern Han Dynasty, I am afraid it can only be an imperial tomb. However, no other clear stone carving materials have been found in the tombs of the Eastern Han Emperors, so the problem has not been solved.
Tombstone Elephant of Huo Go Sick (Photo by the Author)
Stone Elephant of The Tomb of Emperor Renzong of Song (Photographed by the Author)
The above is from the general trend of the development of stone sculpture in front of the tomb. In terms of specific styles, although the elephant images in the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty are often distorted and strange, they are mostly folk art that cannot see the truth at all, and the financial resources are average. There are also more image elephants in the high-level tombs of the Han Dynasty, and if it is an imperial tomb, of course, it has the ability to make such a tall and exquisite stone elephant.
However, large stone elephants can also be associated with Buddhist art, in addition to possible associations with mausoleums. Elephant is an important beast of Buddhism, and it is found in many Buddhist births and Buddhist stories, and is also a common subject in Buddhist art. In the stone carvings of Kongwangshan in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, there is a tall stone elephant (about two or three meters high), the shape is somewhat ugly, but it is still relatively concrete, and it is generally believed that it may have arrived in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is generally related to early Buddhism.
Stone Elephant of Kong Wangshan (collected from "Kong Wangshan, Lianyungang")
Therefore, the judgment of the era of the Mengjin stone elephant is closely related to its nature judgment. If it is indeed a stone sculpture in front of the mausoleum, the era should be the Eastern Han Dynasty. But if it is Buddhist stone carving, its age is not easy to measure. However, on the one hand, since the Northern Wei Dynasty, there have been many records of the scenic spots of the Luoyang Buddhist Temple, and it is difficult for such a huge stone elephant not to attract attention, of course, the passage of time, the literature is lost, and no one can guarantee it; on the other hand, the location of the stone elephant is indeed close to the Eastern Han Mausoleum, and the Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty does record that there are stone elephants in front of the Eastern Han Tombs. From this point of view, I personally still prefer the Eastern Han Mausoleum, however, after all, it is an isolated case, and if we adhere to the principle of isolated evidence, we may as well take a shelved attitude for the time being.
Speaking of elephants, let's talk about lions, the Eastern Han tombs are also the places where lion carvings began to appear. The most vivid pair of lion stone sculptures that can now be seen is related to Luoyang, although it was found in Shandong, and the inscription on the back of its neck is "A Pair of Teachers and Sons Made by Liu Han Outside the Middle East Gate of Luoyang". A similar example can be found in a pair in front of the Wu clan of Jiaxiang in Shandong, which has the inscription Cloud "In the first year of Jianhe ... Sun Zong was a master and son, forty thousand straight.". Typical Eastern Han Stone Lions have been unearthed in Shenjiaqiao, Xianyang, Sichuan, Lushan Shimaba, sichuan, and Beiguan No. 1 Tomb in Huaiyang, Henan. The characteristics of these stone lions are very obvious, most of them are shorter than the tiger, the head is larger, the cheeks and the back of the neck have the unique mane of the lion, and there is no strange factor, the head has no horns, the body has no wings, and the realistic image.
Liu Hanshi (Photo by Wang Lei)
Wu's Queqian Stone Lion (Photo by Wang Lei)
Lushan Stone Lion (Regent of Pang Zheng)
However, most of the stone beasts of the Han Dynasty are not like this, often with long horns on their heads and wings on their shoulders, generally known as Tianlu and ward off evil spirits, and many excavations have been unearthed in the Luoyang area, which is exactly what we saw in the Yanshi Museum this time (there are also a few wingless and hornless stone tigers, just like there are a few typical stone lions). Some scholars have compared it with the lion-shaped divine beast with long horns on its head and wings on its shoulders in ancient Persia, and believes that it should have been influenced by the West. From the look of it, it does look like it, so I personally tend to agree to a certain extent. However, the region and era of the two are still a little far apart (Persia is about the 5th century BC, five or six hundred years earlier), and it is difficult to find them, and there are still doubts.
Luoyang Sun Qitun Stone Wing Beast (Photo by Wang Lei)
Ya'an Gao Yi Que Front Stone Wing Beast (Photo by the Author)
In fact, there is also a kind of localized walking lion in the Han Dynasty image, just like the elephant that has walked like a elephant. Some scholars have noticed that I have just discussed it carefully. There are many such images in the Nanyang area, and the lattice set is very clear, and the general center of the picture is two tiger-shaped beasts facing each other, one of which stands tall with its chest held high, its mouth opens and presses its claws, and it is indispensable to have a horse-like mane on its head, and a mane like a horse on its head, and a furious crown, and another beast (without mane on the top of the head) bows its head and tail and submits to the front. I think that the beast with the furious crown was the lion that people had transformed according to legend at that time. Just like elephants, lions are mainly paid tribute from the western regions, and should be present in the royal court, but they are not seen by ordinary people. It's just that everyone rumors that there is a foreign beast, like a tiger, with mane on its head, which is more powerful than the tiger and leopard, and the tiger and leopard must clip their tails and honestly be beasts when they see it (in fact, lions may not be able to beat tigers, and foreign beasts are so scary). Everyone does not know what the mane of the lion looks like, of course, it is necessary to extract the material from the familiar horse's mane.
The Lion in the Nanyang Han Portrait Stone (collected from the "Chinese Nanyang Han Portrait Stone Encyclopedia")
This is not my blind thought, the Eastern Han people said that "the master is like a tiger, just yellow, has a hair, and the tail end is as big as a bucket", which is a tiger with a beard. At that time, the lion was also called fox (狻麑), "foxy cat like a castor cat, eating tigers and leopards", which is a big castor cat (虦猫, originally meaning light-haired tiger, probably saying that its coat color is lighter than tiger), and it can also eat tigers. The most concomitant image with the above image is a document from the Northern Wei Dynasty, which says:
The Lion, sacrificed by the Persian king Hu, was obtained by the rebellious thief Wan Qian ugly slave and left in Kouzhong. At the end of Yong'an, the ugly slave was broken, and the first master was reached. Emperor Zhuang said of Li or Yue: "When you hear the tiger and see the lion, you can try it." "So he ordered the tiger to be sent near the mountain county. Gong County, Shanyang and sent two tigers and one leopard, the emperor in Hualin Garden to see it, so the tiger and leopard saw the lion, all of them were blind, did not dare to look up.
Isn't the above image exactly synonymous with "the tiger sees the lion and will fall" and "the tiger and the leopard see the lion, all eyes are blind, dare not look up"? It's just that painting is not using words. Although there are many times there is a great risk in using the literature of later generations, we already have the literature of the Han Dynasty itself in front of us, but it is relatively brief, and the specific logic can also be connected, and this concept of deifying lions should be weaker and weaker the later, and slowly see more and more widely, maybe it is reasonable. However, we still have to be particularly careful. If you study the image and leave the literature behind, you miss these landscapes, it is a crime of negligence; if you abuse the literature and pull hard, it is a deliberate crime.
Originally, I also wanted to talk about the stone people, which is also a kind of production that began to appear in the Eastern Han Dynasty and influenced later generations, mainly related to tombs, but also of other natures, there is a pair in front of the Zhongyue Temple. There are already many studies to refer to, and last year I also just guided a classmate to systematically sort out this problem, and I have some experience. However, the number of words handed to me by the editor-in-chief has been completed here, and it is no editor-in-chief to write again, and I am willing to think so.
Zhongyue Temple Stone Man (Photo by the author)
In fact, there are still many things that have left a deep impression on me during this inspection, and since then I have also decided to walk around and see more, some things are on paper and eventually shallow, and some even on paper. For example, I carefully looked at the so-called hollow portrait brick tomb in the early Luoyang area in the Yanshi Museum this time, and the premise conveyed by the word portrait brick is that it is the same as the typical portrait brick in Sichuan. But when I see these early hollow portrait bricks, the classification of the eyes is different from the classification of language, and I prefer to think of them as portrait stones. It is to replace stone with cheaper bricks, and to replace chiseling with more efficient stamps, which is actually to make the effect of stone, so it is used as a lintel and doorpost. The shape of the door is inconvenient to burn bricks, but also has to be carved with stone, rough look, not easy to distinguish. And the two are originally one, divided into portrait stones and portrait bricks are redundant (this is only to say that the early hollow brick tombs in luoyang area, not to say that other times and other regions are not different). The hollow brick tomb here is actually the use of bricks to imitate a stone rafter, this "stone rafter" and the early portrait stone tomb in Shandong region are both related and different, need to be sorted out separately, and need to be put into a larger system to understand.
This reminds me that the last time I attended the Second Youth Forum on History and Archaeology at Renmin University, an old gentleman who studied the archaeology of the Han Dynasty with high respect asked me for a manuscript, and he was very disgusted that some of the image research now explained too much and talked too much strange theory, and hoped that I would write something to criticize from the method and material. I think this is very important, but I am afraid that I am not up to the task. I think the reason why this gentleman can see these problems is that he has a general grasp of the material and is not deceived (when he comments on the reports of young scholars, he can be said to have a lot of treasures and know the roots). I would like to do one thing, that is, to sort out the main Han Dynasty image materials from the carrier, time and space, combination, theme, grid set, decoration, inscription development and other aspects, so as to provide the necessary basis for more and more people to participate in the use and interpretation of images, which is also a basic responsibility of our archaeological research. I'll let go of the light strokes here now and do this heavy work.
P.S. I have basically visited the stone carvings discussed in the article, but in the past I was more intoxicated with observation, often ignoring taking pictures, occasionally using mobile phones to take pictures, the mobile phone photo effect before last year is more freehand, fortunately there are friends around the wide sponsorship. In the original text, some of the materials involving Luoyang stone carvings I am not sure of myself, I specially asked Mr. Qian Guoxiang for advice on the excavation and collection, and deleted those whose information was unclear in order to be more rigorous. I would also like to thank the above-mentioned teachers and friends.
Attached: Composed two poems during the expedition
The ruins of the Taiji Hall are ancient
The door is high and thin, and the yellow dust wind is rapidly shaded by the flag.
The old business of the Han family is hopeless, and the new ministers of the Wei family are even more luxurious.
Drumming Thunder Armor Riding, Meteor Flying Feathers Chaos Soldier Vehicle.
Palace Wall Dragon Battle Xuan Huang Blood, was it the time to kill the White Snake?
Shizhou Slow Zhongyuan visited ancient times, using last year's Jinling and Hebei rhymes
Wild people leave, swaying here, how many passers-by. The scorching sun was silent, and there was a hint of wind. It is difficult to find traces, and the vague hills are rolling continuously, and they are thrown to the side of enmity. Loess mozzar, recognize the millennium moment.
China, Listen to Iroh, asked Pi Songgao, the assembly was silent. Even year after year, he travels all over the world. Ancient and modern dreams, dreams and dreams, the spirit is full of ink. The darkness burns the rhinoceros again, reading the soul of the time.
Text | Wang Yu