Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng

Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng

The tomb of marquis Zeng Yi is a tomb of marquis Zeng Yi, the king of the Marquis Zeng state in the early Warring States period

Located on the East Tuan slope of leigudun, two kilometers west of Suizhou City, Hubei Province. The tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng is in the shape of "bu". The pit is excavated in the red conglomerate. It is a wooden coffin tomb with a vertical hole in a polygonal pit. There is no graveway, north-south direction. The tomb is 16.5 meters long from north to south, 21 meters wide from east to west, 13 meters deep, and covers an area of 220 square meters.

There are two names in the Zeng state and the Sui state of Ji in the history books. The ancestor is Nangong Shi, the famous founding General of the Zhou Dynasty. Zeng state was an important state in the early Western Zhou Dynasty when the emperor of Zhou enfeoffed and guarded the south.

The ritual instruments buried in the tombs are mainly Guzhen, Bianzhong and Bianpan, which comply with the status of the princes of the Zhou Dynasty. The Jiuding Bazhen should be used by the emperor, and the princes should use Liuzhen, which reflects that the strict ritual and music system of the pre Qin society has appeared cracks in the later period, as well as people's reverence for heaven and earth, gods and ancestors. The 64 pieces of bronze double tone chime bells with complete twelve rhythms (excluding the Bell sent by the king of Chu), the exquisitely carved zunpan and the suitcase with complete description of the name of the twenty eight places (Xi, yinxiu) reflect China's great achievements in art, technology and astronomy in the pre Qin Period. Among them, the unearthed chime bell of Marquis Yi of Zeng is the most complete and largest set of bronze chime bells ever found.

historical background

Suizhou, Hubei Province, the gateway to the Central Plains, has always been an important place for military strategists. In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, it was a necessary place for the state of Chu to visit the Central Plains. From the perspective of topography, SuiZao corridor and Nanyang Basin, as the main points of North and South at that time, were also the intersection of Northern Central Plains culture and southern Chu culture. During the Warring States period, there was once a small vassal state, Zeng state. Because it was so small, there was no record of it in the historical records. However, with the opening of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in 1978, little Zeng began to become famous more than 2000 years later. A total of 15404 pieces of burial objects were unearthed from the tomb: bronzes seemed to have just been put into the ground, lacquer wood was as fresh as new, and ink on bamboo slips was clear, especially the complete set of chimes, chimes and other musical instruments were rare in the world.

Ten thousand cultural relics, represented by chime bells, unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, have shocked the world with their brilliant achievements in culture, art, science and technology. As the owner of the tomb, Marquis Yi of Zeng has also attracted worldwide attention. However, there are no historical records of Marquis Yi of Zeng.

Among the ten thousand cultural relics from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng Dynasty, the most are chariot and horse weapons, which are unprecedented in variety, quantity and comprehensive function. Most of them are long shot weapons, especially long rod weapons, and there are extremely rare spear shaped chariots. These are weapons and equipment used for vehicle warfare, which shows that Marquis Yi Zeng is a military strategist and commander who is good at vehicle warfare.

There are a large number of musical instruments buried in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. There are a large number of inscriptions on music theory and temperament in the inscriptions on bells and chimes, which shows that Marquis Yi of Zeng attached great importance to the manufacture of musical instruments and the study of temperament. There are also a large number of precious bronzes, paintings, sculptures and calligraphic works. A large number of cultural relics are not burial objects, but objects used by Zeng Hou Yi before he was born. Most of them were built by him, which shows that he has a wide range of interests, talents and high artistic appreciation.

Tomb structure

The whole outer chamber of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng is made up of 171 Huge Rectangular timbers, including floor, wallboard and cover plate. It uses 500 cubic meters of finished nanmu. Sixty thousand kilograms of moisture-proof charcoal were filled on the top and around the wooden coffin. On top of the charcoal, green paste mud and white paste mud were built. On top of the charcoal, stone slabs were paved, and then five flower soil was built to reach the entrance of the tomb. The bronze framed nanmu painted main coffin of Marquis Yi of Zeng weighs 7000 kg. The inner coffin is divided into four chambers: East, middle, North and West.

The owner of the tomb lives in the largest East chamber, the wooden coffin of Zeng Hou Yi. The body is wrapped in multi-layer silk fabric. The owner is about 45 years old. The outer coffin has a bronze frame, and the outer coffin is painted with doors and windows and guards. One main coffin and eight accompanying coffins were placed in the east room; thirteen accompanying coffins were placed in the west room; weapons, chariots and horses and bamboo slips were placed in the north room; the middle hall was about the music room and reception hall of the tomb owner, with a large number of ritual instruments built in; a dog coffin was placed in the entrance of the east room to the middle hall. The underground palace is 21 meters long from east to west, 16.5 meters wide from north to south, 13 meters deep from the surface, and covers an area of 220 square meters.

The bronze frame and painted nanmu coffin of Marquis Yi of Zeng weighed 7000 kg, and there were 21 painted coffins. The funerary women were all 13-25 years old.

Mining process

Leigudun, 2km to the west of Suizhou City, Hubei Province, is an excellent place for geomantic omen. It is said that in the Warring States period, in order to quell the rebellion of Yue Jiao, King Zhuang of Chu personally beat drums here and commanded the army to fight. His officers and soldiers fought hard to pacify the rebellion. Because of this fierce battle, the name of leigudun has been handed down to this day.

At the end of February 1978, on a hill in the suburb of suixian county (today's Suizhou City), a radar repair Institute of Wuhan Air Force expanded its workshop in the East tuanpo area of leigudun. The mountain was blasted and a large brown soil layer was blasted out of the red sandstone. Zheng Guoxian, the leader of the factory who came to inspect the work, suspected that it was a large ancient tomb.

On March 10, the joint exploration team was established. On the 19th, Tan Weisi, then deputy director of Hubei Provincial Museum and leader of the archaeological team, together with two technicians, arrived at the scene. From March 20, archaeologists began to drill for the tomb. With more and more probe holes, the scope of the tombs became clearer and clearer. Detection shows that the tomb is 21 meters long from east to west and 6.58 meters wide from north to south, with a total area of 220 square meters. As far as the outer chamber is concerned, it covers an area of more than 190 square meters, which is six times larger than Mawangdui No.1 tomb in Changsha, 14 times larger than Fenghuangshan No.168 tomb in Jiangling, Hubei, and eight times larger than Wangshan No.1 tomb in Jiangling, Hubei, where the sword of King Gou Jian was unearthed. Such a large wooden coffin was the first case in China at that time. This kind of tomb built on rock was the first time found in the south.

As expected, after preliminary exploration, it was found that the upper layer of the tomb had been seriously damaged, and groundwater overflowed, so it was impossible to protect it intact. Tan Weisi suggested that excavation should be started immediately to save the cultural relics to the maximum extent, which was recognized. However, a more worrying situation happened. The explorers found a cave with an area of about 0.5 square meters in the north of the central part of the tomb. Will the cultural relics in the ancient tomb disappear? Heavy doubt with a few despair shrouded the staff on the scene. Tan Weisi and his team leaders carefully cleaned up the cave and found that it was filled with mud and several scattered stone slabs. This is another bad sign that the ancient tomb has been flooded. Many people at the scene were very angry and thought that this is an ancient tomb without excavation value. The cultural relics in it are likely to be excavated and eroded by water, so it is difficult to preserve them well. However, Tan Weisi insisted on excavation. Under his strong advocacy, the exploration team applied to the higher authorities for excavation, which was approved by the Hubei provincial Party committee and the State Administration of cultural relics.

After nearly two months of planning and preparation, the excavation of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng officially began on May 11, 1978. With the remains of the pit filled with earth completely removed, the 47 huge stone slabs covering the tomb completely revealed. Using a large crane, archaeologists uncovered the stone slab and found that under the stone slab was rammed earth about 250 cm thick. Under the rammed earth was a layer of green paste mud 10 cm to 30 cm thick. Under the green paste mud was a thick layer of charcoal. The total amount of this thick layer of charcoal reached 60000 kg. On May 22, the charcoal was removed, and the upper coffin board of the tomb was exposed. Archeologists used a large crane to uncover the stone slab. There was muddy water in the coffin room, and several wooden coffins were floating on the water. At the same time of pumping water, in order to prevent the coffin from damaging the following objects, a crane was used to lift out the floating coffins one by one. Open the lid of the coffin, inside are the remains of some women, aged between 13 and 25. There are 23 such female corpses in the whole tomb. According to experts, these female corpses should have died for the people who were buried with the tomb owner. In recent years, some scholars believe that these women are musicians who usually play songs and dances for the tomb owner Zeng Houyi.

As the water level dropped a little, it was found that this is a wooden coffin tomb with a vertical cavity, excavated in red gravel, with a polygonal plane and no tomb passage. The tomb is 21 meters long from east to west, 16.5 meters wide from north to south, and more than 13 meters deep. There are 12 walls in the wooden coffin. The height of the coffin is 3.1-3.5 meters. It is made up of 171 long wooden boards, reaching 380 cubic meters. According to the orientation, the tombs are divided into four chambers (East, middle, West and North), all of which are rectangular. The width of the three chambers (middle, North and East) is the same, all of which are 4.75 meters.

The main coffin was placed in the east room. The coffin has two layers, both inside and outside, which are made of wood. The coffin is 3.2 meters long, 2.1 meters wide, 2.19 meters high and weighs 3.29 tons. There are 12 copper buttons on the top of the coffin cover, and the bronze frame of the coffin cover is made up of two longitudinal beams and four cross beams. The coffin wall is decorated with openwork, relief, round carving and other techniques, including cloud pattern, triangle pattern, etc., especially the dragon pattern with complex changes, gorgeous colors, strong contrast and smooth lines. What's more strange is that there is a hole under the side of the outer coffin. Some people speculate that this may be specially designed to allow the souls of the people in the coffin to enter and leave freely.

The inner coffin is 2.49 meters long, 1.27 meters wide at head and 1.5 meters wide at foot

Chinese PinYin : Ceng Hou Yi Mu