kaoguxuebao2006-1
A STUDY OF THE WANGYIN CEMETERY
by
Wang Fen
In the Wangyin cemetery in Yanzhou, 899 burials were discovered to be of the early Dawenkou culture, which furnishes abundant information for studying the then social development. Based on the periodization of the burials, the author inquires first of all into the layout and spatial structure of this cemetery; and then studies its formation process in the light of the settlement’s layout, burial manner and funeral objects. By analyzing the number and composition of the population, the author discusses the social structure of the population, and points out that the settlement, burial sector, burial complex and burial group represent respectively four levels of social structure. Taking ethnological evidence into account, he comes to the conclusion that they must have corresponded with the phratry, clan, consanguine family and extended family respectively. The Wangyin cemetery represents a well-developed ancient grass-roots society full of energy and harmony in a transitional period between the old and the new.
A STUDY OF THE XINMANG PERIOD JADE TABLET FOR THE FENGSHAN CEREMONY
by
Feng Shi
Fengshan (the emperor sacrificing to Heaven and Earth) was a grand ceremony in ancient China for demonstrating that the state was granted to the emperor by Heaven and Earth. The feng rite referred to sacrifice to Heaven and the shan rite to Earth. This ritual was first recorded in Guangzi (《管子》) and, evidently, it originated in remote antiquity. From then on, it was evolved step by step and perfected through the reigns of the emperors Qin Shihuang, Han Wudi, Eastern Han Guangwudi, Tang Gaozong, Wu Zetian, Tang Xuanzong to Song Zhenzong. The ceremonies under these rulers were held on Mount Tai except for that conducted by Empress Wu Zetian on Mount Song.
The Wang Mang’s jade tablet of Xin period for fengshan is unearthed from the No.4 building site of Guigong Palace in Han Chang’an City. Both of its ends are missing and the remaining dimension is 13.8 cm in length, 9.4 cm in width and 2.7 cm in thickness. The tablet is made of blackish-livid stone and polished all over. It bears on one side a five-row inscription in intaglio, of which remain 29 complete and 4 incomplete characters, all filled with cinnabar. In shape it is similar to the fengshan instrument described in the “Record on Sacrifice (I)” of the Xu Hanshu (《续汉书·祭祀志上》). In addition to Tang Xuanzong’s and Song Zhenzong’s ones, this is the earliest fengshan instrument and has important academic value.
Referring to literal evidence and other unearthed data, the present paper makes an all-round research on the date and nature of the tablet, the content and writing style of its inscription, and the evolution of ancient fengshan ritual. It comes to the conclusion that this tablet was a Heaven-sacrificing instrument to be used in the fengshan ceremony Wang Mang intended to conduct in the fifth year of his Shijianguo reign (AD 13). According to the original plan it was to be stored on Mount Tai. But the failure of Wang Mang’s ambition led to the tablet to be hidden secretly in the palace and damaged in the flames of war at the end of the Xinmang period.
A STUDY OF THE TANG PERIOD FUNERAL CONCEPT, CUSTOM AND RITUAL INSTITUTION
by
Qi Dongfang
Based on related stipulations of Tang ritual and laws, the present paper studies the burial institution and its practice in the Tang Dynasty. Using historical documents and archaeologically excavated material, the author researches on the practice of the funeral and burial institution in the early and late Tang period, the influence of politics on it, and its relationship with the change of the Tang people’s concept of funeral and burial.
Breaking through traditional archaeological study that pays attention only to cultural relics unearthed from tombs, the author researches into various aspects of the funeral and burial practice, in particular the content of funeral and sacrifice closely related to burial. He points out that due to the change of people’s ideas on funeral and burial in the early and late Tang period, the focus of funeral and burial ceremonies were moved from interment with a great number of luxury objects to holding funeral activities before burial, which led to the qualitative change of burial objects. Thus the paper satisfactorily settles the contradiction between the written records and the archaeological material concerned with the burial institution in the early and late Tang period.
EXCAVATION OF HAN TOMBS AT SHENDINGLING, GUIGANG, GUANGXI
Archaeological Team of Guangxi Zhuang Nationality Autonomous Region
and
Guigang Municipal Office for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments
In 1991, in cooperation with the construction of the Nanning--Wuzhou second-grade highway, 40 odd ancient tombs were discovered at Shendingling, Guigang, Guangxi; among them 19 Han period tombs were excavated.
The remaining burial mounds are not high and have no vestiges of earth ramming, but great amount of livid and black clay has been found in the mound, near the opening of the earthen-pit tombs. The whole group of burials falls into earthen-pit tombs and brick-chambered ones. The former type belongs to the Western Han period and the latter one prevailed at the latest from the middle Eastern Han.
The funeral objects can be classified into pottery, ceramic, bronze, iron, gold and silver, jade, agate, amber, glass, stone, bamboo, wooden and lacquer wares, perforated pearls, and animal shells. The practical utensils include pots, ding tripods, jars and fang square pots, which consist of the main part of the grave goods from the burials of the middle Western Han and before. In the late Western Han period, pottery objects made exclusively for funeral use, such as models of houses and cooking ranges, came into being; they were greatly increased in type and widespread in use during the middle and late Eastern Han. In addition to models of wells, houses and cooking ranges, there occurred models of chickens, ducks, dogs and pigs, which reflect the change of the funeral concept with attention paid mainly to secular wealth rather than to ritual as previously practiced. The typological evolution of pottery and ceramics is shown obviously. For example, the pottery jar with deep belly and model of well, the glazed pottery ding, pot and zun wine-vessel and the bronze ware all reflect clearly their own developmental sequences. The ding and jar are gradually decreased in the capacity of the belly. In decoration, the pottery and ceramics of the early period bear mainly the checkered design, which was sharply decreased and often replaced by the line, ripple and net designs in the late period. Brown- and green-glazed wares became more and more from the early to the late period.
EXCAVATION ON THE TONGREN SITE IN SUIBIN, HEILONGJIANG
Heilongjiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
and
Institute of Archaeology, CASS
In autumn of 1973, the authors carried out an excavation on the Tongren site on the right bank of the Heilongjiang River. This is a group of vestiges with the stratigraphic evidence kept clear, the house remains reflecting bright features in building structure and the objects showing local traits. The foundations of three houses excavated in the central area remain in a good condition and represent two different phases of the same cultural system, which can be called first and second stages of Tongren culture respectively. Similar cultural remains are rather widely distributed in the middle and lower valleys of the Heilongjiang River (including a few localities in Russia). Such archaeological findings were recorded in the valley of Songhuajiang River (Yongji County, Jilin Province) in the south and that of Suifenhe River in the east.
The excavation on the Tongren site made up a missing link in both the spatial and chronological aspects of archaeology in the Heilongjiang River valley, and brought to light a new type of culture. It provided for the first time a benchmark for the division of cultural types, the establishment of the chronological sequence and the ethnic affiliation (Heishui Mohe) of the cultural remains in the Heilongjiang River valley from the 5th to the early 11th centuries.
According to 14C dating, the first stage of Tongren culture corresponds to the time from the Sui-Tang to the Northern Song periods and the second stage to the Southern Song period.