rock-tombs

rock-tombs

Ancient tombs dug in cliffs or rocks. In China, it existed from the Warring States period to the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties. The cliff tombs of the Warring States period are mainly distributed in Wuyishan area of Jiangxi Province in the form of single cave single burial, single cave group burial and joint cave group burial. The coffins are made of whole wood. The tribe of cliff tomb belongs to one of Baiyue. Most of the cliff tombs in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the Han Dynasty were royal tombs or noble tombs. They generally had a passage, a corridor, an ear room, a middle room, and a back room. A large number of exquisite objects were buried with them, such as the Mancheng Han tombs and the Jiulongshan tombs in Qufu. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties, cliff tombs were popular in Sichuan. Taking Leshan area as a representative, dozens of tombs often gather on a hillside to form a cemetery.

Historical origin

Cliff tomb, commonly known as "man cave", is a kind of tomb form popular in the Minjiang River Valley in the Han Dynasty, which imitates human residence and chisels mountains into rooms. According to Feng yanzhuan in the book of the later Han Dynasty, "chisel cliff stones to make room, and support Gaoyang to raise immortals." This is the earliest record of cliff tombs. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, because of its long history, the cliff tomb was attached to the society and became the "immortal cave" for cultivating immortals and alchemy. Lu You, the great poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, pointed out that the cliff tombs were "the place where the ancient people who got the way hid the elixirs". Therefore, the cliff tombs were covered with the color of seclusion and magic.

In the Han Dynasty, there were some royal tombs which were cliff tombs, such as the mausoleum of King Liang in Mangdangshan, Yongcheng City, Henan Province. It is generally believed that this kind of cliff tomb rose in the Tang Dynasty as an imperial mausoleum, and the adopters were led by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty. The Xuangong site of its Zhaoling Mausoleum was excavated from jiugu mountain in Liquan County, Shaanxi Province. After that, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty mobilized the masses to dig out the mountains with excellent Fengshui nearby. The following Ming Tombs, such as Qian, Ding, Qiao, Tai, Jian, yuan, Chong, Feng, Jing, Guang, Zhang, Zhen and Jian, were also "cliff tombs" of this type.

Regional distribution

Cliff tombs are widely distributed in China: they are known to be found in 13 provinces including Taiwan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan. They are also found in Southeast Asia and the southern Pacific Islands.

As the birthplace of Chinese Taoism, Longhu Mountain not only has profound influence on Taoist culture, but also has the longest history, the largest number and the largest scale of cliff tombs in China.

Key cliff tombs

Jiangkou cliff tomb

Jiangkou cliff tomb is located on the East Bank of Minjiang River, Jiangkou Town, Pengshan County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province. The upper limit of the age of the tomb is the late Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 8 A.D.), the lower limit is no later than the Three Kingdoms (220 A.D. - 280 A.D.), and the cliff tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D. - 220 A.D.) are the main ones.

Jiangkou cliff tomb has high historical value, scientific research value and unique cultural and artistic value. It is a large number, densely distributed and well preserved ancient tomb group. It is the earliest recorded chronological tomb in China. The unearthed cultural relics contain rich historical information about the political economy, living customs, architectural sculpture and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries in Pengshan of Han Dynasty, which is of great significance to the study of society, politics, economy, culture, folk custom and religion in Han Dynasty.

There are six types of tombs in Jiangkou cliff tombs, including boat shaped chamber tombs, shaft horizontal chamber tombs, rock chamber and brick chamber combined tombs, patio tombs and special-shaped tombs, which are divided into single chamber tombs, double chamber tombs and three chamber tombs. Structurally speaking, these cliff tombs are composed of a passage, a gate and a chamber.

Jiangkou cliff tombs, with their large number, well preserved and clear age, have become an indispensable basis for the study of social life, religious belief and architectural art in Han Dynasty.

Temple cliff tomb

On December 3, 2009, the cultural relics survey team of Xichuan County, Henan Province discovered a large cliff tomb group, sipoya tomb group, with a total area of 420000 square meters. This is the largest Han Dynasty cliff tomb group found in Henan Province so far, and the first Han Dynasty cliff tomb found in the Hanshui River Basin. The tombs are located around the SIPO cliff in Qianying village, Siwan Town, Xichuan County. The cliff is 6-15 meters high, and the tombs distributed on the cliff are relatively dense.

The hole is semicircular, with a diameter of 1.8 meters, and a layer of pattern brick is laid at the bottom. At 1.5 meters away from the hole, the hole is exposed and gradually becomes larger, with the widest part reaching 4.5 meters and the highest part reaching 2.2 meters. There are skull and leg bones, a pottery stove, a pottery warehouse, two pottery bowls and two five baht coins left in the cave. The whole cemetery is well protected.

Jintang cliff tomb

On December 25, 2009, Jintang cliff tomb, an ancient tomb group from the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties, was discovered in Jintang County, Sichuan Province. More than 30 precious cultural relics were unearthed. Archaeologists found in these cliff tombs that one of them also escaped the hands of countless tomb robbers in 2000 years. The discovery of this tomb will become a specimen archaeological discovery for the study of the burial customs of cliff tombs in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

From April 2019 to March 2020, archaeologists conducted rescue excavation of cliff tombs in Zhongxing village, Zhao town, Jintang County, Chengdu City. A total of 219 cliff tombs from the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties were cleared. It is reported that more than 600 pieces of copper, silver, iron, glass, pottery and porcelain artifacts were unearthed from the cliff tombs, of which pottery accounted for the majority, mainly including pots, warehouses, bowls, pots, pottery figurines, etc.

Cliff tombs in Northern Shaanxi

On November 20, 2012, a large-scale "cliff tomb" was found in Gaojiapu Town, Shenmu county, Shaanxi Province. Although some of them were well preserved, most of them were seriously damaged by nature and human activities.

There are many Grottoes in Yan'an and Yulin areas in Northern Shaanxi, especially in Ming Dynasty. Taking the Ming Dynasty Grottoes in Yulin area as an example, the representative grottoes are hongshixia grottoes, jinfosi Grottoes in Anya Township, Shenmu Dongshan Wanfo cave, Gaojiabao Qianfo cave and Wanfo cave, and Mizhi Wanfo cave.

On the cliff beside the Wanfo cave in Gaojiapu, we can see that on the cliff as high as 10 meters, "houses" carved with exquisite workmanship are lined up. During the filling, some human bones are exposed, and most of them do not exist. However, on the eaves and lintels of the house, some words are still very visible, such as the epitaph of Guo Gongwang, a scholar of Ming Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, the political, military and traffic center of Northwest China moved from Yan'an to Yulin, and set up Yansui town and Yulin guard, which became one of the nine border military towns to defend Hetao Mongolia. The large-scale cave sculpture in Ming Dynasty is a folk carving art developed with the construction of the Great Wall fortress. Cliff tombs are of great significance to understand the social customs at that time.

Cliff Tomb of Dayun mountain

On November 6, 2013, more than 600 cliff tombs were found in dayunshan area of Sichuan Province, most of which have been stolen.

The cliff tombs that have been cleared are distributed on two mountains. A higher mountain, with a larger slope and a vertical height of about 60-70 meters. On the west side of the mountain, there are more than 370 cliff tombs densely distributed on this side. Separated from the mountain is a small ditch, a round hill, surrounded by large and small cliff tombs, which can be roughly divided into five layers. The whole mountain is like a conical honeycomb. There are more than 230 cliff tombs on this hill.

In addition to the pottery coffin and stone coffin, many pottery figurines with different shapes have been excavated. In some cliff tombs at the scene, there are still pottery coffins.

These cliff tombs, which can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, are of great historical value.

Yibin cliff tomb

On August 24, 2014, four caves suspected of ancient tombs were found at the construction site of Chengdu Guiyang high-speed railway near Gaozhuang bridge in Yibin, Sichuan Province, and a terracotta figure was found in one of the caves. According to the preliminary judgment of Yibin Municipal Bureau of cultural administration, the cave is a cliff tomb in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which is more than 1800 years ago.

On August 24, 2014, five experts from the Provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology arrived at the site and officially began to clean up and excavate the ancient tombs.

With the development of excavation work, three of the four caves have basically revealed their true colors. It can be clearly seen that the door-shaped stones at the entrance of the tomb are exquisite. The internal structure of the tomb can be seen at a glance, including the opening of a small tomb, which was originally thought to be only a small one. Its size is basically the same as that of the other two tombs.

After more than two hours of excavation, the archaeological team has sealed up four cultural relics at the site with sealed bags, including mainly pottery figurines and pieces, and four ancient tombs are cliff tombs in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty. The difficulty in the progress of this excavation work is that there is a lot of soil in the cave. If the excavation is careless, the cultural relics buried in the soil may be damaged. After excavation, the cultural relics in the four caves will be sent to the provincial cultural management units for restoration, and then the research value will be analyzed. Finally, they will be sent back to the relevant units in Yibin for preservation or exhibition.

significance

The characteristic of this kind of tomb is to use the cliff to dig the tomb chamber, which has more concealment and security than the common tomb chamber.

Cliff tomb is a popular burial form in Han Dynasty, which imitates people's house and chisels mountains as rooms. It reflects people's thick burial view that "death is like life" in Han Dynasty.

Due to its long history, the rock mass strength of the cliff tombs is poor, many of the tombs are fractured and permeable; the humidity in the tombs is about 100% all the year round, and the temperature is between 4-30 ℃ in four seasons; the air is not convective and acid rain erodes the air pollution, and the stone carvings such as the eaves of the cliff tombs, stone reliefs, inscriptions, etc

Chinese PinYin : Ya Mu