Contents

 

Jia Haisheng,

Wearing Dresses and Making Vessels — The Comprehensive Observation to the

Corresponding Relations of Wearing Mourning Dresses and Making Ritual Vessels

with the Degrees of Kinship and Social Ranks……………………………………(265)

Gao Ming,

On the Date of the Stone Drum Inscriptions………………………………………(311)

Meng Fanren,

Researches on the Mausoleum Sculptures of the Northern Song Dynasty……(323)

Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics et al,

Excavation to Nanzhuangtou Site in Xushui County, Hebei in 1997……………(361)

First Henan Archaeological Team, Institute of Archaeology, CASS,

Excavation to Huizui Site in Yanshi City, Henan in 2002 to 2003……………(393)

 

WEARING DRESSES AND MAKING VESSELS—THE COMPREHENSIVE OBSERVATION TO THE CORRESPONDING

RELATIONS OF WEARING MOURNING DRESSES AND MAKIN GRITUAL VESSELS WITH THE DEGREES OF

KINSHIP AND SOCIAL RANKS

By  Jia Haisheng

Wearing (mourning) dresses and making (ritual) vessels were two ways to set forth the degrees of kinships and the ranks in a hierarchical society. They belonged to Sacrifice Rite and Death and Misfortune Rite, respectively, but they corresponded with each other. If Person A wore mourning for Person B by the rules of Death and Misfortune Rite, then by rules of Sacrifice Rite, he should make ritual vessels for Person B as well. If Person A did not wear mourning for Person B by the rules of Death and Misfortune Rite, then by rules of Sacrifice Rite, he should not make ritual vessels for Person B either. Wearing mourning for a person or not, the materials and tailoring methods of mourning dresses, the duration of the mourning period and the season and occasion for changing or removing mourning dresses were all related to the degree of kinship between the wearer and the death and the wearer's social status; now that both the degrees of kinship and the social statuses of the providers and receivers were reflected by the mourning dresses and ritual vessels correspondingly, the materials and tailoring methods of mourning dresses and the duration of the mourning periods could be used as references to estimate the relations between the makers and the holders of the rital vessels and their respective social statuses.

 

ON THE DATE OF THE STONE DRUM INSCRIPTIONS

By  Gao Ming

The date of the Stone Drum Inscriptions drew attention of the academic field as soon as they were discovered more than one thousand years ago. Some scholars suggested that they were inscribed in the reigns of Kings Cheng or Xuan of the Western Zhou Dynasty; some believed that they were carved in the reigns of Dukes Xiang, Wen or Mu of the Qin State in the Spring?and?Autumn Period or Duke Xian of the Qin State in the Warring?States Period, and some even announced that they were made in the Northern Wei or Northern Zhou Dynasties. The reason why the scholars dated the Stone Drum Inscriptions with so large differences would be that they merely sought for the contents in historic literatures which matched that about hunting and sacrificing in the Stone Drum Inscriptions, while the literatures of different periods had similar contents with that in the inscriptions, and therefore they became the grounds of the different conclusions. This paper suggests that it is insufficient to use only one method of content?matching; the script style is a better standard to estimate the dates. The script style of the Stone Drum Inscriptions sharply differed from that of the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty but strongly resembled the pottery inscriptions unearthed at Xianyang, the tile inscriptions found at Huxian County, the bronze imperial edict plaque and the Xiaozhuan (minor seal script) issued by Li Si, and so on. This hints that these inscription materials were succeeded each other and belonged to a relatively short time span, which was the late phase of the Warring?States Period. In the late Spring?and?Autumn Period, the iron smelting and foundry techniques were rather mature and the iron tools for carving large?sized stone inscriptions had better and better functions and attracted more and more attention of the high?ranked noble people, and therefore the Cursing?the?Chu?State Inscriptions and the seven Stone Inscriptions of Emperor Qin Shi Huang appeared following the Stone Drum Inscriptions. With the references of script style and carving tool, we recheck the contents of the Stone Drum Inscriptions and found that the titles of the monarch of the Qin State appearing in them provided information about their dates. For example, the inscription of the Wushui Drum had the coexistence of Tianzi (the Son of Heaven) and Gong (the Duke) while that of the Ershi Drum bore the coexistence of Tianzi and Si Wang (the Succeeding King). Obviously, the Tianzi in these two inscriptions referred to the King of the Zhou Dynasty, and the Gong and Si Wang referred to the monarch(s) of the Qin State. From Duke Xiang to Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the Qin State had 31 monarchs, but only one of them was titled as Duke at first and as King later, who was King Huiwen. According to Qin Benji (the Basic Annals of Qin) of Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), on the day of Wuwu (the fourth day), the fourth month, the fourteenth year of Duke Huiwen's reign, Duke Huiwen discarded his duke title and entitled himself as King, and changed a new era, the Yearly Chronicle of the Six States of Shiji recorded this event as “changed into a new ‘first year’(325 BCE)”. In the 13 years before the new first year, the title of King Huiwen of the Qin State was Gong and in the 14 years since the new first year, his title was King. Therefore, the Stone Drum Inscriptions would be engraved within the 14 years since the new first year, which was between 324 and 311 BCE.

 

RESEARCHES ON THE MAUSOLEUM SCULPTURES OF THE NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY

By  Meng Fanren

According to the incomplete statistics, the seven mausoleums of the Northern Song Dynasty had almost 1000 pieces of stone sculptures, which was a treasure of stone carving art of the Song Dynasty. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis and elucidation to the masterly engraving skills, the diversified design motifs and artistic features and the characteristics of the stone sculptures of each mausoleum, and then makes typological and chronological researches on the main parts of these sculptures, which were the individual sculpture figures and assemblages belonging to the imperial mausoleum planning rules, set in given orders and combinations and having clear evolution patterns. Based on the comparative studies, the sculptures of these seven mausoleums were divided into six phases: Phase Ⅰ, Yongchang Mausoleum; Phase Ⅱ, Yongxi Mausoleum; Phase Ⅲ, Yongding Mausoleum; Phase Ⅳ, Yongzhao Mausoleum; Phase Ⅴ, Yonghou Mausoleum and Phase Ⅵ, Yongyu and Yongtai Mausoleums. Referred to the evolution of the types of tomb chambers of the mausoleums, these mausoleums were attributed into four stages: Stage 1, Yongchang and Yongxi Mausoleums, the chambers of which were built of bricks with a dome?shaped ceiling, and the sculptures of which belonged to Phases Ⅰ and Ⅱ. Stage 2, Yongding and Yongzhao Mausoleums, the chambers of which might have been built of stone and the sculptures of which belonged to Phases Ⅲ and Ⅳ. Stage 3, Yonghou Mausoleum, the chamber of which was built of stone and stone outer coffin was used, and the chamber was built shallower than the previous ones; the sculptures of this mausoleum belonged to Phase Ⅴ. Stage 4, Yongyu and Yongtai Mausoleums, the chambers of which were built of stone and the passageways were shorter than that of the previous mausoleums, and the sculptures of which belonged to Phase Ⅵ. The mausoleum sculptures of the Northern Song Dynasty centered by the ones flanking the spirit paths were not only artistically valuable but also academically important for the chronological researches on the imperial mausoleums.

 

EXCAVATION TO NANZHUANGTOU SITE IN XUSHUI COUNTY, HEBEI IN 1997

by Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics,Baoding Municipal Administration of Cultural Relics,

Xushui County Office for the Preservation of Ancient Monumentsand School of History and Culture, Shanxi UniversityNanzhuangtou Site located 4 km to the north of Nanzhuangtou Village, Gaolincun Township, Xushui County, Hebei Province is at the western edge of North China Plain, which is 15 km to the east of the foothill of Taihang Mountains and 35 km to the west of Baiyangdian Lake. Trial excavations were conducted to Nanzhuangtou Site in 1986 to 1987; in 1997, Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics conducted excavation to this site, which uncovered 423 sq m. The geological feature of Nanzhuangtou Site is lacustrine deposit, the cultural layer (Layer 5) of which was a dark clay layer 25?65 cm in thickness containing potshards, bone implements and animal remains. The artificial remains found in this layer were ditches, ash pits and hearths.44 pieces of potshards were found in Layer 5, the texture of which was very loose. They could be classified into sandy grey pottery and sandy brownish?yellow pottery; the ones of sandy grey pottery were usually tempered with shell powders and quartz grains, and the ones of sandy brownish?yellow pottery were actually tempered very small quantity of sands. The identifiable types of these potshards were jar, bowl, etc.

A dozen or so bone implements were found in the excavation, which were awls, hairpins, arrowheads, etc. All of the bone implements were made of animal limb bones.The animal bones found in the excavation were mostly very fragmentary, on some of which traces of burning were seen. The identifiable animals were clams, fishes, turtles, birds, mice, hares, dogs, wild boars, sika deer, buffalos, etc. Nanzhuangtou Site, which was about 10 ka BP, is a site of early Neolithic Age discovered the earliest in North China, and also one of the earliest Neolithic sites found to date in North China. Its discovery extended the starting point of Neolithic Age in China to about 10 ka BP, and the excavation and researches to this site will contribute greatly to the issues of origination of agriculture, the histories of the domestication of animals and the pottery industry of China.

 

EXCAVATION TO HUIZUI SITE IN YANSHI CITY,

HENAN IN 2002 TO 2003

By  First Henan Archaeological Team, Institute of Archaeology, CASSThe exploiting and utilization of natural resources is one of the key issues of the researches on the origination of early states in China. Among the various important natural resources, the issue on the resources of materials for making stone tools, on which the survival of early states relied, attracted more and more attention of scholars from relevant disciplines. Surrounding this issue and based on the regional survey conducted by our Sino?Australia joint archaeological team to the area centered by lower reaches of Yiluo River, which is located in the middle of Henan Province, we had a trial excavation to Huizui Site located at Yanshi City, Henan Province in a term from 2002 to 2003.

This site is located in the east and north of Huizui Village, which leans against Mount Song to its south and borders Liujian River to its east, and is about 20 km to the south of Erlitou Site. It is divided into East and West Loci by a gully, the East Locus of which was about 300 m from south to north and 300 m from east to west, covering an area of about 10 ha; and the West Locus, both about 200 m from east to west and from south to north, covering an area of about 4 ha.The excavation revealed that the cultural deposits in the central place of the East Locus were as thick as more than 5 m, which comprised cultural layers of Erlitou, Longshan and Yangshao Cultures from top to bottom successively. The excavated area, which uncovered about 200 sq m, was in the middle slightly to the north of the East Locus, within which about 200 house foundations, ash pits, wells, burials and other remains belonging to Yangshao, Longshan and Erlitou Cultures were found, yielding large amounts of pottery wares and implements made of stone, bone, shell, etc.

This site began to be inhabited since the middle or late phase of Yangshao Culture, and continued during Longshan and Erlitou Cultures. However, not only the remains of Yangshao Culture belonged to its late phase, but that of Longshan and Erlitou Cultures also belonged to their middle or late phases; among them, the remains of Erlitou Culture were that of Phases Ⅱ and Ⅲ but the remains of the early and end of Erlitou Culture were absent.

The excavation revealed that the specialized stone industry was started at the Longshan Age, and went on to Erlitou Period. The main product of the stone industry in this site was stone shovel, the material of which was oolitic dolomite quarried from Mount Song; almost all of the large amounts of raw stone materials, half?done product, stone flakes and dusts left in the site were the remains of stone shovel manufacturing. Well?done stone shovels were seldom seen in the site, hinting that the products of this site were mainly provided to other places; meanwhile, the researches showed that some stone shovels found at Erlitou Site might probably be provided by Huizui people. What noticeable is that the specialized stone tools manufacturing was very possibly accompanied by lime producing. In the remains of Longshan Age and Erlitou Period, large amounts of white calcined  stone were found, most of which were identified as limestone. So large amounts of white calcined stone remains hints that the lime producing in Huizui Site was not only for the demands of local residents but as the stone tool manufacturing, it was also for the demands of the people living in other places. The specialized stone industry was probably just limited in the stage of cottage industry; from Longshan to Erlitou Period, the production mode was not changed too much, but the scale of the latter was much larger, and the stone industry extended to the West Locus. This change might have been related to the increase of the demand to stone tools from the Erlitou Site as the central settlement in Erlitou Period.