Tomb of Wang Jian

Tomb of Wang Jian

Wang Jian's tomb, historically known as Yongling, is located on Yongling Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. It is the mausoleum of Wang Jian, the Gaozu of Shu Dynasty (907-925)

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In the 1940s, Sichuan Museum excavated Wang Jian's tomb, and found a complete image of Tang Dynasty palace band on the coffin bed. More than 20 cultural relics were unearthed, including rabbit head dragon body posthumous treasure, silver bowl, jade elegy book, amber, Silver Pig and so on. It provides valuable material for the study of architecture, music, dance, costumes, court etiquette and so on in Tang and Five Dynasties, and has high artistic value

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On March 4, 1961, Wang Jian's tomb was announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units

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Historical evolution

In 918, Wang Jian died and was buried in Yongling (Wang Jian's tomb)

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In the Qing Dynasty, because Wang Jian's tomb was misinterpreted by the people as Sima Xiangru's lute stage in the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Jian's tomb was located in the downtown area, but it was not damaged.

In the autumn of 1940, Wang Jian's tomb was first discovered by Feng Hanji because of the construction of an air defense room

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In the spring of 1941, after the establishment of the Sichuan Museum, Fang you and others began to work out the excavation of Wang Jian's tomb

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From September 15 to November 1942, the archaeologists of Sichuan Museum excavated Wang Jian's tomb for the first time

In addition, a rabbit head dragon body posthumous treasure was found in the tomb

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From March 1 to September 1943, the Institute of history and language of Academia Sinica and the archaeological team of the Central Museum conducted the second archaeological excavation of Wang Jian's tomb

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In January 1979, Wang Jian's tomb was officially opened to the public

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Site features

overview

Wang Jian's tomb is round, 15 meters high and 80 meters in diameter. It is built with earth. The base is surrounded by stones. It covers an area of 6.8 mu. There are three brick foundations outside the mausoleum. A pair of brick ramming earth piers are built between the brick foundations in the south. The chamber faces south and has no tomb passage. It is a red sandstone building with a total length of 23.4 meters; The front room is equivalent to Xiandao. On the third ticket, there are two colors of red and green, painted with precious patterns. The middle room is the main room, and Wang Jian's coffin is placed on the coffin bed of the middle room. The coffin bed is of xumizuo type, with half body statues of twelve strong men on both sides, which are used to lift the coffin bed. 24 musicians are embossed on the East, West and south sides of the coffin bed, including 2 dancers and 22 musicians, playing pipa, clapper, clapper, etc There are 23 pieces of 20 kinds of musical instruments, such as Qie, Sheng, Xiao, flute, drum, blowing leaves, etc., and there are dragon, Phoenix, cloud pattern, flowers and other patterns around the musical instruments and on the north side of the coffin bed; there is a royal bed in the back room of the tomb, on which there is a stone statue of Wang Jian

 

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door of a tomb

The door of Wang Jian's tomb is divided by wooden doors in the front, middle and back chambers. The door is still covered with head, ornament and foam nails. The exquisite production of various bronzes shows that it is gilded

 

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Color painting

The top of the coupons in Wang Jian's tomb is painted with azure, and the straight wall is painted with vermilion. On the third coupons, there is a section of painted flowers in red and green

 

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Coffin bed

The coffin bed of Wang Jian's tomb is of xumizuo type, with Minyu plate on the top and three wooden steps. On the wooden steps, there is a coffin. There is a large amount of mercury and all kinds of funerary objects in the coffin. On the sides of the coffin bed, there are relief images of Jiyue, flowers and birds, and Yunlong. The patterns are exquisite, with color or gilding. On both sides of the coffin bed, there are half body stone carvings of "Twelve strong men", or "Twelve Gods", which are used to lift the coffin bed

 

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Twenty four tricks

There are twenty-four pieces of Jiyue in Wang Jian's tomb, which are carved in the door of the coffin bed. There are ten people on both sides of the coffin bed and four people in the south. All of them are women, including two dancers and 22 people playing various musical instruments. There are twenty kinds of 23 musical instruments in total. The musical instruments belong to the kuci music system, and the stone carvings are vivid

 

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Cylinder

The oil cylinder in Wang Jian's tomb is filled with oil and a lamp is placed in it, which is also called "eternal lamp". As a rule, the jar should be placed at the foot of the tomb owner, that is, the south end of the coffin bed. This seems to be a special case

 

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Stone bed

The stone bed of Wang Jian's tomb symbolizes the imperial bed of the emperor in his lifetime. The front end of the stone bed is embossed with dragon and lion like beasts, and the statue of Wang Jian is placed in the middle. In front of the double treasure box, on both sides are the posthumous book box and the mourning book box

 

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Cultural relics

overview

The funerary objects unearthed in Wang Jian's tomb include gold-plated copper nails at Wang Jian's tomb gate, silver scabbard of Wang Jian's tomb, small jade pieces of Wang Jian's tomb, gold-plated copper shop head, rabbit head dragon body posthumous treasure, silver bowl, gold-plated bow shaped copper clasp of Wang Jian's tomb, silver clasp of Wang Jian's tomb volume, silver box of Wang Jian's tomb, gold-plated copper decorative piece of Wang Jian's tomb gate, silver ring of Wang Jian's tomb, silver scratching hand of Wang Jian's tomb, jade mourning volume, Wang Jian's statue, copper shop head of Wang Jian's tomb, silver plate and silver clasp More than 20 pieces, such as jade ring, jade ribbon, amber, silver pig, etc

 

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Research value

The excavation of Wang Jian's tomb provides valuable material for the study of architecture, music, dance, costumes, court etiquette and so on in Tang and Five Dynasties. The unearthed cultural relics have high artistic value. On the East, West and south stone walls of the coffin bed of Wang Jian's tomb, there are 24 musicians playing pipa, Zheng, drum, Sheng, cymbal, konghou and other musical instruments respectively. The characters have beautiful shapes and vivid expressions. They are a relatively complete image of Tang Dynasty court band excavated in China. They are of great value to the study of the establishment, music history and musical instrument history of Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties court band

 

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protective measures

In November 1973, the Chengdu Municipal People's government set up the Wang Jian tomb cultural relics depository

 

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On March 4, 1961, Wang Jian's tomb was announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units

 

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Development and construction

In August 1953, it took 10 months for the Chengdu Municipal People's government to complete the restoration of Wang Jian's tomb

 

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In 1954, the people's Government of Chengdu repaired the door of Wang Jian's tomb

 

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In March 1984, it took five months for Chengdu Municipal People's government to complete the project of protecting Wang Jian's tomb

 

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On April 12, 1990, the cultural relics storage center of Wang Jian's tomb was renamed Wang Jian's tomb museum.

In January 1995, the gate of Wang Jian's tomb museum was completed

 

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In September 1998, with the approval of the State Administration of cultural relics and the approval of Chengdu Municipal People's government, the Museum of Wang Jian's tomb was renamed Chengdu Yongling Museum.

In 2012, the main building of Chengdu Yongling museum complex was completed

 

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In November 2015, the security monitoring and environmental remediation project of Chengdu Yongling museum was completed.

Cultural Activity

In December 1978, the exhibition of the former Shu culture and the cultural relics of Wang Jian's tomb was completed and put on display

 

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In July 1990, it took one year for Chengdu Municipal People's government to complete the comprehensive management and maintenance project of Wang Jian's tomb

 

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In September 1993, Wang Jian's tomb "Yongling cultural relics and historical exhibition of pre and post Shu" was officially launched

 

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In May 1996, the statue of Wang Jian and jade ribbon unearthed from Wang Jian's tomb were identified as national treasures by an expert group of the State Administration of cultural relics

 

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In April 2005, Sichuan Provincial Museum and Yongling Museum jointly held an exhibition of unearthed cultural relics from Yongling (Wang Jian's tomb) with "national treasure home"

 

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In December 2015, Chengdu Yongling Museum opened the exhibition of "pre and post Shu history and culture exhibition"

 

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History and culture

Discovery process

Wang Jian's tomb is an underground imperial mausoleum in China, which is called Yongling in history. There are relatively few records about Yongling (Wang Jian's tomb) in history. In Song Dynasty (11th century), Ouyang Xiu said in the new Five Dynasties history that Wang Jian was buried in Yongling after his death, and Wang Jian's son Wang Yan visited Yongling several times during his reign. In the late Shu (10th century), the emperor Meng Zhixiang also sent officials to repair the tombs of the former Shu, but he did not say where. It was not until the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty (12th century), when Lu you visited Shu, that he said Yongling was outside the daximent of Chengdu, but did not specify the specific location.

In 1940, in order to avoid the Japanese bombing, Tiancheng railway bureau built an air raid shelter near Wang Jian's tomb, and unexpectedly found that it was a mausoleum (Wang Jian's tomb). Due to limited conditions, archaeologist Feng Hanji asked the authorities to temporarily close it. After the establishment of the Sichuan Museum, the official excavation began in September 1942, and the mystery of Wang Jian's tomb was finally uncovered

 

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Visit information

geographical position

Wang Jian's tomb is located in Yongling Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

 

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Opening Hours

Opening hours of Wang Jian's tomb:

Chinese PinYin : Wang Jian Mu