From 1972 to 1974, archaeologists excavated Tombs No. 1, 2 and 3 in Mawangdui, Changsha, and proved that these were the tombs of three members of the family of Biaohou Licang, the Prime Minister of Changsha in the Western Han Dynasty. The lacquerware with complicated craftsmanship, beautiful silk clothing, precious bamboo slips and silk documents, fantastic colorful coffin silk paintings, and the immortal body of the tomb owner are known as one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in the world in the 20th century
At that time, more than 3,000 precious cultural relics were unearthed from the three Han tombs in Mawangdui, which became a window for people to understand social life more than 2,200 years ago. On the afternoon of October 6, 2020, I came to the Hunan Provincial Museum. After visiting the basic display on the second floor, I walked into the Changsha Mawangdui Han Tomb display on the third floor with excitement.
1. ? Shocking excavations
Mawangdui is located in the eastern suburbs of Changsha City. There are two earthen mounds remaining on the ground, which look like saddles. , known as the "saddle pile". Later, it was rumored to be "Mawangdui". At the end of 1971, when the 366th Hospital of the Hunan Provincial Military Region was under construction in Mawangdui, it often encountered landslides and flammable gases appeared. After learning the news, archaeologists from the Hunan Provincial Museum rushed to the scene and found that it was an ancient tomb numbered "Mawangdui Tomb No. 1."
From January 16 to April 28, 1972, the Mawangdui Tomb No. 1 was excavated. Later, on the west and south sides of Tomb No. 1, Tomb No. 2 and Tomb No. 3 were discovered. From November 1973 to early 1974, excavations were conducted on Tomb No. 3 and Tomb No. 2 in Mawangdui.
Distribution of tombs
News reports
In these three Among the Han tombs, Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 1 is well-preserved. It is a rectangular pit tomb with a vertical pit and consists of a seal, a tomb passage, a tomb pit and a tomb chamber. The tomb faces south and faces north, with a depth of about 20 meters. From top to bottom, there are sealing earth, rammed earth, white plaster mud and charcoal.
At that time, when archaeologists were cleaning the tomb passage, they discovered a dark hole on both sides. Then, the quick-setting gypsum and grout were poured in. When the gypsum was dry, he peeled it off and saw: it turned out to be two people sitting on their knees! They were originally the gatekeepers of wood carvings, and although the wood has decayed, the shape remains. Today, the "gypsum man" with open arms is placed in the exhibition hall, as if welcoming everyone to the Mawangdui Han Tomb display.
Tomb filling
Kneeling wood carving
2. Art of Living
In the next exhibition hall, the bright and new cultural relics are dazzling. They restore the food, clothing and daily life of Bianhou's family, intuitively showing the aristocratic life in the Western Han Dynasty. At the same time, it reflects the brilliant achievements of the handicraft industry and the prosperity of art and culture at that time. ?
These funerary objects are concentrated in the four side boxes of the coffin room, including pottery, lacquerware, wooden figurines, musical instruments, textiles, bamboo slips, bamboo and wooden utensils, etc.
Among them, a total of 266 wooden figurines were unearthed, which can be divided into six types: crowned male figurines, clothed female maid figurines, clothed singing and dancing figurines, painted standing figurines, painted music figurines, and evil-warming wooden figurines.
Female figurines
Male figurines
Lacquerware*** About 500 pieces were unearthed, including tripods, daggers, boxes, pots, francium, 卮, ear cups, plates, dows, cases, tables and screens, etc., which are well preserved and can be used for identification. Among them, ear cups and plates account for more than half of the total lacquerware.
The ear cups are divided into three types: large, medium and small. Most of the ear cups have the words "Jun Xing Liquor" written on the inner bottom, and the surrounding red paint ground is painted with black paint curling cloud patterns; in some cases On the inner bottom of the small lacquer plate, you can see the words "Kim Sachi". "Xing" here means "hope", expressing the hope that the user can drink and eat happily.
Ear cup
Plate
The large lacquerware unearthed here Some of them are made of wood, and only a few of them are made of wood. The patterns decorating these lacquerware are mostly in red, black, gray-green and other colors, and are divided into lacquer painting, oil paint and needle carving. The main ones are geometric patterns, supplemented by dragon, phoenix and grass patterns.
In Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 1, a total of 7 lacquer tripods were unearthed from the east and south boxes. At that time, when it was first unearthed, a lacquer tripod was filled with lotus root slices! The food in the other six lacquered cauldrons has long since disappeared. However, after a while, these lotus root slices disappeared and turned into a pot of ordinary water, which made people feel very sorry.
Ding and spoon
Basin and basin
In the exhibition hall In the middle, a combination of fans, tables, screens and bamboo mats unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 1 perfectly displays the furniture and furnishings in the house of the tomb owner during his lifetime. Among them, in the center of the front of the screen is a jade jade with a grain pattern, surrounded by geometric square patterns.
In the display cabinet, there is a bamboo smoker cover and a covered pottery smoker. At that time, when it was unearthed, the inner bottom of the pottery furnace was filled with the charcoal-like rhizomes of Mao Xiang that remained after burning. The bamboo fumigation cover has a "truncated cone" shape and is made of bamboo strips 1 cm wide. The top is sealed with brocade and fine silk is applied around it. After the smoker is lit, it is covered with a bamboo cover, which is very particular.
Fan, table, mat and screen
Pottery stove and bamboo smoke cover
The way of displaying musical instruments here is very novel and unique. It combines the painted animal images on the coffins with the musical instruments unearthed from the tombs, creating a contrast between reality and reality, and movement and stillness. At the same time, the structural diagrams of these musical instruments are also depicted on the background wall so that every visitor can see them clearly.
In the Han Tomb No. 1 in Mawangdui, a piece of zi, yun and yun were unearthed, which are quite well preserved and have important scientific value. In Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 3, two bamboo flutes of different lengths were unearthed in the center of the bamboo slips inside the lacquered square case. It has a tubular appearance, with bamboo joints at the upper end, a hollow lower end, and six holes at varying intervals on the surface.
Yu and Se
Bamboo Xiao
In Mawang A total of 98 bamboo baskets were unearthed from the side boxes of Han Tomb No. 1 and Han Tomb No. 3, stacked on top of each other and arranged neatly. Most of the bamboo hoods are relatively complete in shape and are tied with vermilion or blue hemp ropes. Some bamboo hoods also have sealed mud boxes and wooden plaques indicating the names of the items they contain. ?
The items contained in the bamboo hood are mainly clothing, silk fabrics, food, Chinese herbal medicine and various plants. Among them, the largest number of bamboo baskets are used to hold food, and most of them are meat products, including the remains of cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, rabbits, cranes, chickens, ducks, fish and other animals. In addition, there are grains, vegetables, eggs and fruits.
Bamboo hat
Animal bones
In Mawang In Han Tomb No. 1, a large number of textiles and clothing were found, which were unearthed from the six bamboo hoods in the west box, the middle and west parts of the north box, and the inner coffin. The fiber raw material of these textiles is mainly domestic silk, and there are also small amounts of ramie and hemp fabrics.
The straight-lined plain yarn robe on display here has very fine yarn strands. It uses about 2.6 square meters of material and weighs 49 grams, less than one tael. It is said that if it is folded, it can be put into a matchbox, as thin as cicada wings and as light as smoke. It can be seen that during the Western Han Dynasty, China's sericulture, silk reeling, and weaving techniques had reached an extremely high level.
Double-pointed square shoes
Straight-leg plain gauze jacket
3. Collection of bamboo slips and silk slips
Here is a concentrated display of the silk paintings, silk books and bamboo slips unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 3, which are divided into astronomy and geography, medical health care, history and philosophy, and Yin and Yang and the Five Elements. They not only record the most important scientific and technological achievements and ideological documents at that time, but also reflect the knowledge structure, reading habits, cultural literacy and spiritual life of the Bianhou family.
After preliminary statistics, these silk books include the "Book of Changes", "Laozi" and "Warring States Policy", as well as astronomy, calendar, five elements, miscellaneous divination and other mathematical texts, as well as two maps. There are more than 20 kinds of bamboo slips with a total number of more than 100,000 words. A total of 610 bamboo slips were unearthed, which are divided into two parts: "discipline" and "medical book".
Silk script
Bamboo slips
4. ? The eternal life Dream
After visiting the cultural relics unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb, after leaving the three-story exhibition hall, I continued down the stairs. As the light changed, I felt as if I had entered the tomb. The four-story coffins, wooden coffin chambers and immortal ancient corpses unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 1 are presented in sequence.
The tall coffin chamber has a tight structure and is made of 70 wooden boards without using a single metal nail. Among them, the largest wooden board is about 4.8 meters long, about 1.5 meters wide, about 26 centimeters thick, and weighs about 3,000 kilograms. In the coffin room in the center of the coffin room, there are four tightly packed wooden coffins: the first layer is a plain black lacquer coffin, the second layer is a black painted coffin, the third layer is a red painted coffin, and the fourth layer The inner coffin is decorated with brocade.
Tall coffin room
Four-layer coffin
At the end of the exhibition, at the bottom of the rectangular display case, the owner of Mawangdui Han Tomb No. 1 lies quietly there. The body is complete, the hair is still there, the skin lines are clear, the muscles are elastic, and some joints can still move.
Her name is "Xin Zhui", the owner of Han Tomb No. 2 in Mawangdui is her husband Li Cang, and the owner of Han Tomb No. 3 in Mawangdui is her son Li Xi. Today, the remains of her husband and son have long since decayed, leaving her alone.
The cultural relics unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb support most of the Hunan Provincial Museum and have become a must-see exhibition for many people when they come to Changsha. However, in order to show respect for the deceased, photography of ancient corpses is not allowed. In the future, if you have the opportunity, you can go to the Hunan Provincial Museum in person to pay homage to the remains of the old lady "Xin Zhui"...