Imperial Tombs in Tang China (Routledgecurzon Studies in the Early History of Asia, 1)

Imperial Tombs in Tang China, 618–907 This important landmark book examines the religious, political, social and artis...

Author: Tonia Eckfeld

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Imperial Tombs in Tang China, 618–907

This important landmark book examines the religious, political, social and artistic significance of the imperial tombs of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907). It explores, in detail, the finest recently excavated Chinese tombs of the Tang period, focusing on the architectonic form of these mausolea and the content and aesthetics of their magnificent mural paintings. In introducing a selection of imperial, aristocratic and official tombs, the book highlights the fascinating circumstances of burial. The author sets the tombs in the broader context of Chinese culture and discusses such issues as the Tang concept of the soul and the afterlife, the politics of mausoleum architecture, the official status of women and the implications for the living of the burial conditions of family members. This intellectually and visually stimulating book is the first up-to-date, accessible presentation of the Tang tombs. Dr Tonia Eckfeld is Senior Fellow in Art History and Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne. She lectures internationally on the art and architectural history of China, India and Japan. She has conducted extensive research throughout Asia and has received numerous academic awards, including a research fellowship to Harvard.

RoutledgeCurzon Studies in the Early History of Asia

1 Imperial Tombs in Tang China, 618–907 The politics of paradise Tonia Eckfeld

Imperial Tombs in Tang China, 618–907 The politics of paradise

Tonia Eckfeld

First published 2005 by RoutledgeCurzon 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2005 Tonia Eckfeld All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Eckfeld, Tonia, 1957– Imperial tombs in Tang China, 618–907 : the politics of paradise / Tonia Eckfeld p. cm. – (RoutledgeCurzon studies in the early history of Asia; 1) Inculdes bibliographical references and index. 1. China – Kings and rulers – Tombs. 2. China – History – Tang dynasty, 618–907. 3. Tombs – China. I. Title. II. Series. DS719.E35 2004 951'.017–dc22 ISBN 0-203-01962-8 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0–415–30220–X (alk. paper)

2004004780

To my parents

Contents

List of illustrations Chronology of Chinese periods Acknowledgements Introduction

viii xi xiii 1

PART I

Place, form and function

7

1

Ambition and archetype

9

2

Li Xian’s tomb

29

3

Relative status

50

4

Builders and painters

58

5

Passages of rites

68

PART II

Visions of kingdoms

85

6

Palatial quarters

87

7

Pleasures and protocols

105

8

Courtly women

123

Conclusion

136

Notes Index

138 159

Illustrations

Colour plates (between pages 84 and 85) 1 2 3

Xingningling mausoleum Shunling mausoleum Pottery figurines of a military official and a civil official from Li Xian’s tomb 4 Painting of female attendants – Yide’s tomb, rear chamber 5 The passage of Li Xian’s tomb 6 Painting of protection guards – Li Xian’s tomb passage 7 Painting of triple gate towers – Yide’s tomb passage 8 Painting of riderless horse, groom and attendants – Li Shou’s tomb tunnel 9 Painting of Chinese officials and foreign emissaries – Li Xian’s tomb tunnel 10 Painting of a hunting scene (detail) – Li Xian’s tomb passage 11 Painting of a contemplative sage – Wei Hao’s tomb, front chamber 12 Painting of landscape (detail) – Jiemin’s tomb passage 13 Painting of female performers – Li Xian’s tomb, front chamber 14 Painting of four female court attendants – Princess Xincheng’s tomb chamber 15 Painting of a woman with a red shawl – Li Xian’s tomb, front corridor 16 Painting of Watching a bird while catching a cicada – Li Xian’s tomb, front chamber

Figures 0.1 0.2 0.3

Excavation of a Tang tomb Map of China showing the area containing Tang imperial tombs Map showing the locations of the tombs of the first eighteen Tang emperors

2 3 4

Illustrations ix 1.1

Map showing the locations of the tombs of the Western Han emperors 1.2 Stone sculpture of a horse suppressing a foreign man – Maoling 1.3 Reconstructed map of Tang Chang’an 1.4 Stone sculpture of a rhinoceros – Xianling 1.5 Stone relief sculpture of a horse – Zhaoling 1.6 Roof tile – Zhaoling 1.7 View of Qianling mausoleum 1.8 Layout of Qianling mausoleum 1.9 Stone sculpture of an ostrich – Qianling mausoleum 1.10 Stone sculptures of foreign emissaries – Qianling mausoleum 1.11 Map showing the distribution of attendant tombs at Qianling 2.1 Outline genealogy of the Tang imperial family up to the mid-eighth century 2.2 Li Xian’s tomb, Qianling 2.3 Rubbings of Li Xian’s epitaph tablets 2.4 Diagram of Li Xian’s tomb compound 2.5 Diagrammatic layout of Li Xian’s tomb 2.6 Silver-plated bronze mirror from Li Xian’s tomb 2.7 Rubbing of the stone doorway in Li Xian’s tomb 2.8 Plan of Li Xian’s tomb, rear chamber 2.9 Pottery figurines of a groom and horse – Li Xian’s tomb 2.10 Pottery figurines of a groom with Bactrian camel – Li Xian’s tomb 2.11 Pottery figurine of a heavenly king – Li Xian’s tomb 2.12 Pottery figurines of two apotropaic beasts – Li Xian’s tomb 3.1 Stone sculpture of a sheep – Li Xian’s tomb 4.1 Painting of seven Han eunuch officials – Yide’s tomb 4.2 Signature on the ceiling of Yide’s tomb, front chamber 5.1 Yongtai’s epitaph tablet cover and tablet 6.1 Diagrams showing the pictorial programme in Li Shou’s tomb 6.2 Diagram of the pictorial programme in Princess Xincheng’s tomb, east wall 6.3 North–south sectional view of Yide’s tomb 6.4 North–south sectional view of Li Xian’s tomb 6.5 Painting of gate surveillance guards – Li Xian’s tomb 6.6 Painting of a eunuch gate monitor – Li Xian’s tomb 6.7 Rubbing of line incised decoration on Li Xian’s stone outer coffin 6.8 Restored view of the Hanyuan Throne Hall 6.9 Painting of guards and halberd rack – Li Shou’s tomb 6.10 Painting of a rack of halberds – Li Xian’s tomb 7.1 Journey scene – rubbing of a stone lintel from a Han tomb 7.2 Diagram of murals in Lou Rui’s tomb

10 11 13 15 18 18 20 22 24 25 27 30 33 34 37 38 40 42 43 46 47 48 49 56 63 64 73 89 91 93 94 96 97 99 100 103 104 106 108

x

Illustrations 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4

Diagram of the pictorial programme in Princess Xincheng’s tomb passage Diagram of the murals in Yongtai’s tomb, east wall of the passage Painting of a hunting scene (detail) – Li Xian’s tomb Painting of a polo player – Li Xian’s tomb Painting of officials of the Palace Service – Yide’s tomb Painting of a matron, female official and female dwarf – Li Xian’s tomb Painting of a dancer – Li Xian’s tomb Painting of Consort Fang with female attendants – Li Xian’s tomb

110 112 116 118 124 125 129 133

Tables 1.1 2.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4

Stages in the development of Tang tombs Sui–Tang periods and their interest in particular mortuary wares The main Tang tomb types Comparison of four Type 1 tombs Main characteristics in the three extraordinary Type 1 tombs Comparison of the prestige of main characteristics in three Type 1 tombs

28 45 51 53 55 57

Chronology of Chinese periods

c.1700 BC

1050 BC

c.1050 c.1050 770 770 475 221 BC 206 BC 206 BC AD 9 25

Shang dynasty

221 771 221 475 221

Zhou dynasty Western Zhou Eastern Zhou Spring and Autumn period Warring States period

206 BC

Qin dynasty

220 9 AD 23 220

AD

AD

Han dynasty Western Han Xin Eastern Han

220 220 221 222

280 280 263 280

Three Kingdoms period Wei Shu-Han Wu

265 265 222

420 316 280

Jin dynasty Western Jin Eastern Jin

386 420 420 479 502 557 386 386 534

589 589 479 502 557 589 581 534 550

Northern and Southern dynasties Southern dynasties Song Qi Liang Chen Northern dynasties Northern Wei Eastern Wei

xii

Chronology of Chinese periods

550 535 557

577 557 581

Northern Qi Western Wei Northern Zhou

581

618

Sui dynasty

618

907

Tang dynasty

907

960

Five dynasties period

907

1125

Liao dynasty

960 960 1127

1279 1127 1279

Song dynasty Northern Song Southern Song

1115

1234

Jin dynasty

1279

1368

Yuan dynasty

1368

1644

Ming dynasty

1644

1911

Qing dynasty

Acknowledgements

My chance discovery of a folio of photographs of tomb paintings1 in a little bookshop in Melbourne’s Chinatown in 1996 was a tiny event which led me on a greater journey of discovery, both intellectual and actual, to the tombs of Tang dynasty China, built more than a thousand years ago in the seventh to ninth centuries. The pictures of magnificent mural paintings belonging to the tomb of Crown Prince Li Xian (654–684) raised more questions than they answered. Excavation of the tomb, and the few Chinese publications available which documented it, dated from the Cultural Revolution, and my immediate investigations uncovered little to satiate my curiosity about the character, history and purpose of the tomb and the fate of its occupant. What followed was a quest to unlock the mystery and meaning of that tomb. My preoccupation for the next three years took me across the world, and culminated in my doctoral thesis ‘The Tomb of Li Xian: Posthumous Rehabilitation and Political Legitimacy’. That analysis of the Tang dynasty’s use of imperial tomb location, architectonic form and mural decoration to affirm the posthumous status of the deceased and the political legitimacy of the emperor, was the first detailed and thorough study of a single Tang tomb. I was fortunate to receive grants from the University of Melbourne and the Australian Government to support my research, fieldwork in China, and six months as a resident scholar at Harvard University during that period. This work was enriched by my experience as a lecturer in Fine Arts, then Research Fellow in the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies at the University of Melbourne from 2000 to 2002, and was completed while a Senior Fellow there in 2003. Publication of this book has been assisted by a grant from the University of Melbourne. I am grateful to the following people who advised me through my doctoral work: David R. Marshall, Li Liu, Han Wei, Zhang Jianlin and William H. Coaldrake. Dame Jessica Rawson and Lothar von Falkenhausen provided invaluable comments on it. I appreciate the assistance of Jiao Nanfeng, Xiao Jianyi, Du Liping, Peechin Tan and Eugene Wang. The Shaanxi Archaeology Institute, Shaanxi History Museum, and Qianling Museum provided invaluable

1 Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, Tang Li Xian mu bihua, Wenwu chubanshe, Beijing, 1974.

xiv

Acknowledgements

help with data and photographic materials. Without the work of fine archaeologists in China, this book would not have been possible. I thank family and friends for their encouragement, and my father, Reinhold Eckfeld, in particular, for his unfailing support. William Coaldrake, both friend and colleague, shared the passion for East-Asian art and architecture, and made everything seem possible. Translations and photographs are by the author, and diagrams are by Reinhold Eckfeld, unless otherwise acknowledged.

Introduction

Standing at the mouth of a freshly opened Tang dynasty (618–907) tomb, from which rich Shaanxi loam is being removed, I am impatient to see the tantalizing beauty of its buried treasures and grand wall paintings. I am eager to examine its contents for the stories they have to tell. I reflect on the people who came to this place more than a millennium ago when the tomb was being sealed, and recall the words of the Tang poet Zhang Yue (667–730): All who come and go follow this road, But living and dead do not return together.1 I am reminded that tombs are much more than mere containers of bodies and artefacts. They are sites of consolation and ritual celebration, bridges at the boundary of life and afterlife, and repositories for the universal mysteries of death (Figure 0.1). The tombs of eighteen of the twenty Tang emperors to the north of the Wei River in the vicinity of the Tang capital city, Chang’an (present day Xi’an), are monuments as impressive as the mountains inside which most were built2 (Figures 0.2 and 0.3). They were designed as walled cities with underground palaces, above-ground temples, halls, altars, and residences occupied by loyal retainers whose duty it was to maintain the tomb complexes and serve the emperors’ spirits. Extravagantly ambitious affirmations of Tang imperial authority, their scale rivalled that of the great palaces at the capital. Today, passing through the main gateway at Qianling, the best preserved Tang emperor’s tomb, it is awe inspiring to approach the giant mountain peak beneath which, in sealed chambers, lie the bodies of Emperor Gaozong (Li Zhi, 628–683) and his Empress Wu Zetian (Wu Zhao, 625–705). Mammoth stone sculptures stand as sentinels to the left and right of the main road approaching the tomb, with only the foundations extant of Qianling’s other above ground structures. Thus far, only one Tang emperor’s tomb has been excavated – that of Emperor Xizong; small and of inferior quality, it was built when the Tang was in decline in the late ninth century. All other Tang emperors’ tombs remain to be opened, so we must rely on their above ground features for study. In the category of ‘imperial tombs’ there are not only emperors’ tombs, but also those of imperial family

2

Introduction

Figure 0.1 Excavation of a Tang tomb.

members occupying celebrated positions within emperors’ tomb complexes. The tombs of princes and princesses provide us with the best available knowledge of the interior form and decoration of imperial tombs. Three tombs belonging to children of emperors have been conserved and are open to visitors, although modified for cultural tourism. These are at Qianling, belonging to Li Xian (Crown Prince Zhanghuai, 654 –684), Li Chongrun (Crown Prince Yide, 682–701), and Li Xianhui (Princess Yongtai, 684–701). A fourth, at Qiaoling, known as Huiling, in which the body of Emperor Ruizong’s first son (d.741) was interred, may also be opened to visitors.3 Resplendent with illusionistic murals covering every inch of wall and ceiling, these impressive tomb interiors vividly recreate imperial palaces and mansions inhabited by dozens of figures, many life size, providing for the daily needs and festive pleasures of the tomb occupants. Through excavations, the interiors of a number other princes’ and princesses’ tombs are known, as are those of some aristocrats, civil and military officials, and others buried at emperors’ tomb complexes and elsewhere. About fifty Tang tombs containing mural paintings have been excavated in the Xi’an area since 1950, at imperial and aristocratic family cemeteries, their richness and splendour demonstrating the exceptional posthumous privileges awarded to their deceased owners. Most of these date from the seventh or eighth century. These have been

CHENGDU

HAINAN

HONG KONG

GUANGZHOU

Figure 0.2 Map of China showing the area containing Tang imperial tombs near Xi’an.

iver

Xi R

X

LHASA

ve r

0

500

KOREA

TAIWAN

KAIFENG ZHENGZHOU r LUOYANG ive XI'AN iR ua H SHANGHAI Han NANJING WUHAN BAZHOU River tze ng Ya

Wei Rive r

BEIJING

ve r

n Mi er Riv

Ri

er g Riv g

Jialin ia n

DUNHUANG

r

Rive

Ye llo w

Ri Ya n Ri gtz ve e r

Yello w

er Riv

1000 km

N

4

Introduction

12 11 6

5 17 14

4 Fuping

8 9

13 15

16 3

18

10

Pucheng Luo River

Yellow River

1

7 2 Jingyang

Wei River

Qianxian Liquan Xianyang XI’AN

Emperor’s tomb City

Tang emperors’ tombs

1 2 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Title and name Emperor Taizu (Li Hu) Emperor Shizu (Li Bing) Emperor Gaozu (Li Yuan) Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) Emperor Gaozong (Li Zhi) Empress Wu Zetian (Wu Zhao) Emperor Zhongzong (Li Xian) Emperor Ruizong (Li Dan) Emperor Xuanzong (Li Longji) Emperor Suzong (Li Heng) Emperor Daizong (Li Yu) Emperor Dezong (Li Shi) Emperor Shunzong (Li Song) Emperor Xianzong (Li Chun) Emperor Muzong (Li Heng) Emperor Jingzong (Li Zhan) Emperor Wenzong (Li Ang) Emperor Wuzong (Li Yan) Emperor Xuanzong (Li Chen) Emperor Yizong (Li Cui) Emperor Xizong (Li Xuan) Emperor Zhaozong (Li Ye) Emperor Aizong (Li Zhu)

Reign Imperial ancestor Imperial ancestor 618–626 626–649 649–683 690–705 684,705–710 684–690, 710–712 712–756 756–762 762–779 779–805 805 805–820 820–824 824–827 827–840 840–846 846–859 859–873 873–888 888–904 905–907

Tomb name Yongkangling Xingningling Xianling Zhaoling Qianling Qianling Dingling Qiaoling Tailing Jianling Yuanling Chongling Fengling Jingling Guangling Zhuangling Zhangling Duanling Zhenling Jianling Jingling Wenling Heling

Location Lingqian, Sanyuan county Yaodiandong, Xianyang Yonghe village, Xumu in Sanyuan county Jiuzong mountain, Liquan county Liang mountain, Qian county Liang mountain, Qian county Longquan mountain, Xingping county Feng mountain, Pucheng county Jinsu mountain, Pucheng county Wujiang mountain, Liquan county Tan mountain, Fuping county Cuo'er mountain, Jingyang county Jinweng mountain, Fuping county Jinzhi mountain, Pucheng county Yao mountain, Pucheng county Chaijiayao, Lingqian Sanyuan county Tianru mountain, Fuping county Taogou village, Xumu in Sanyuan county Zhong mountain, Jingyang county Zijin mountain, Fuping county Jizidui, Qian county Luoyang, Henan province Heze, Shandong province

Figure 0.3 Map showing the locations of the tombs of the first eighteen Tang emperors.

documented although they were not preserved after excavation, due to practical problems such as the degradation of inferior materials, poor workmanship, erosion, water seepage, rising ground water, and deliberate damage by looters and vandals through the centuries. Study of the tombs’ scale and configuration, fittings and furnishings in metal, wood, ceramic, and stone, all contribute to our

Introduction

5

understanding about the relationship between the entitlement to prestige symbols, social structure and the politics of the Tang. For the reader, I have endeavoured to describe the original state of the tombs as far as can be determined. Interment in a tomb with an external mound, underground chambers, internal fittings and mortuary accoutrements was part of a long tradition in Chinese mortuary practice. Chinese tombs had a long and relatively stable history prior to the Tang period, with their forms and contents reflecting their tomb occupants’ temporal wealth and social standing, as well as what were thought to be his or her posthumous needs.4 Early Chinese tombs have been the subject of study, yet many questions about the tombs of the Tang period remain to be answered. What antecedents inspired the design of the tombs? Who built and decorated the tombs? Who was buried inside them? What was the significance of the location of the tombs? Why were particular configurations and decorative elements used? What functions did the tombs serve? What was the relationship between politics, religion, social status and the construction of a grand tomb? What was thought to happen to people after they died? A number of early textual sources shed light on these questions. The eulogies inscribed on stone epitaph tablets interred in the tombs are the most immediate textual sources, serving as historical documents, and offering insights into beliefs about the afterlife and the soul. These are translated from Chinese for the first time here. The Jiu Tang shu (Old Tang History) compiled in the mid-ninth century, and the Xin Tang shu (New Tang History) compiled in the eleventh century during the Northern Song period, give brief biographical accounts of key figures, and mention the tombs. Other Tang texts are important for illuminating the artistic, official, political and religious situations from the seventh to the early tenth centuries. The Tang lü (The Tang Code) contains the articles of the penal code and Tang commentaries on them.5 Zhu Qingxuan’s Tang chao minghua lu (Record of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty), written in about 840, is valuable for its description of specific painters’ subjects and styles, while Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji (Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties), compiled around 847, is the main source of facts about Tang artists and works of art now lost.6 Court poems record the popular genres, tastes and fashions of the elite during the Tang.7 Together, these Tang sites and sources put us in direct contact with the period’s rulers and ruling class, its civil and military officials, its foreign ambassadors, courtiers, courtesans, eunuchs and body-guards, and with the human tragedies and triumphs which the tombs record. They tell us about the tomb occupants and the poignant circumstances of their deaths, familial relations within the Tang dynastic house and the political climate, courtly intrigues and social mores, artistic conventions and innovations, religious rites and concepts of the afterlife and of the soul. They reveal the use of assassination and execution to engineer imperial ascendancy, the use of tomb building and tomb demolition to reinforce political legitimacy, the subtle and not so subtle differences in tomb location, form and decoration to reinforce social status. They illuminate the official status of women, their rising political power and traditional values, and explain the implications of the burial conditions of family members for the living.

6

Introduction

This book draws on the findings of scholars in China and internationally. The work of Chinese archaeologists, particularly from the Shaanxi Province Archaeology Institute, and their detailed excavation reports have been invaluable sources of data about tombs and sites, including many which it is not possible to view first hand. I have been privileged to work under Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, and gain the benefit of their vast knowledge of the archaeology of Tang China. A number of books compiled in China are useful for their attention to the individual mural tomb paintings and their illustrations of them. Several exhibitions held outside China from the early 1970s on, brought the Tang tombs and their murals to the attention of a wider audience. Mary Fong pioneered the analysis of the subject matter, techniques, and chronologies of the tomb paintings and ceramics. The work of Western Sinologists, including Denis Twitchett, David McMullen, Jessica Rawson and Howard Wechsler survey the Tang period, examine China’s rituals and tomb culture, and assess the political symbols which legitimated its ruling authority. None attempts to create a systematic picture of the Tang tomb type, its evolution and standardized character, although their outstanding scholarship forms the basis for this study. This book opens the tombs to a wide audience for the first time. It is not intended as an exhaustive survey, but it is the first study to explore the Tang imperial tombs in detail. It develops a coherent explanation of the tombs’ form, contents and location, their development, standardization and variations. It is concerned not only to acquaint the reader with the physical character of the tombs but also to illuminate their political, social, religious and artistic significance. It brings to light the paintings lining the tomb interiors and their importance for the ways in which they represent the mural painting repertoire as it was practised at the imperial capital. Amongst the most technically proficient and stylistically eloquent in the entire history of Chinese art, these were thought to be lost, but are here restored to the art historical record. The rationale behind Tang tomb production, and knowledge of its artistic forms, are important background for understanding East-Asian mausoleum building tradition up to the Qing dynasty in China, and in Japan. In this book Pinyin romanization is used for Chinese proper names, titles and terms. Wade–Giles romanization appears where it is more appropriate, for example in quotations from some secondary Western language sources, in which case the Pinyin equivalent is included in brackets afterwards or in an endnote. Traditional Chinese names appear with the surname first, followed by the personal names which are spelled as one word regardless of the number of Chinese characters. Plurals are not indicated in Pinyin. Charles O. Hucker’s English terminology is employed for official Chinese titles unless otherwise stated.8 Dates of reign periods are based on A.C. Moule.9 This book uses the following periodization of the Tang: Early Tang, 618–649, covering the reigns of Gaozu and Taizong; Mid-Tang, 649–756, from the reign of Gaozong to the An Lushan Rebellion; and Late Tang, 756–907, from the reign of Suzong to the fall of the Tang.

Part I

Place, form and function

1


Build an emperor’s mausoleum . . . using the Han [tomb of its first emperor], Changling, as the standard . . . 1

The ideas and circumstances applying to the design and construction of tombs 1000 to 2000 years before the Tang period are known from excavations at the tombs of the following: Consort Fu Hao (Shang dynasty, c.1200 BC) in Henan; the Marquis of Yi (Eastern Zhou, c.433 BC) in Hubei; Qin Shihuangdi (Qin dynasty, c.210 BC) in Shaanxi; Lady Dai (Western Han, c.168 BC) at Mawangdui in Hunan and Prince Liu Sheng (Western Han, c.113 BC) in Hebei. These are all tombs of high status and consist of grave pits or underground vaults, most replicating rooms, mansions or palaces and decorated with images of the earthly life of the deceased and the spirit world or afterlife. Within these, the deceased were provided with likenesses of, or in some cases actual, humans, animals, food, objects for daily use, and ritual paraphernalia. Tang tombs were also designed to cater to the posthumous needs of the deceased and the grandest of all Tang tombs were, naturally enough, those of the emperors. The majestic tombs of the Western Han emperors were the initial source of inspiration for the external form of the Tang imperial tombs. The principles of Sui–Tang city planning as applied to Chang’an, the capital and strategic and cultural heart of the Tang empire, were increasingly mirrored in later tombs, incorporating as standard the characteristics of an axial plan, and the hierarchical organization of space from less important areas in the south to higher status areas in the north.

The first Tang emperors’ tombs The Tang capital, Chang’an, was located in the vicinity of two former dynastic capitals – Xianyang of the Qin (221–206 BC), and Chang’an of the Western Han (206 BC–AD 9). The monumental tomb mound of Qin Shihuangdi (258– 210 BC) stood at Lintong, to the east of Tang Chang’an. The Western Han dynasty had built colossal tombs for its twelve emperors with accompanying tombs for their empresses – nine of these stood in commanding positions on the

10


tablelands to the north of the capital beyond the Wei River, and three others were located to Tang Chang’an’s east and south-east (Figure 1.1). While the Qin dynasty produced a magnificent mausoleum complex for only one emperor, the tombs of the twelve Western Han emperors were testimonies to the longevity their dynasty had enjoyed. To the early Tang rulers, these enduring, highly visible and impressive monuments to the grandeur and power of the Chinese emperors of the past seemed worthy of emulation in order to create symbols reflecting their own dynastic ambitions. The Han imperial tombs served as examples influencing the Tang in terms of their external form. The Han imperial mausoleum complexes consisted of a colossal primary truncated pyramidal mound, usually square, but sometimes rectangular, of rammed earth, beneath which the emperor’s body was laid to rest inside specially dug and decorated chambers. They had numerous pits filled with burial objects, ancillary buildings to support the ritual and maintenance activities at the site, as well as walls, gateways, and processional paths. Each of the emperors’ tombs had an accompanying tomb nearby for his empress, with a mound on a grand but slightly smaller scale than his own. Excavations at Yangling, the tomb of the fifth Han Emperor Jingdi (r.156–141 BC), demonstrate that his tomb had an extensive cemetery for nobles, officials, and their families in front of the tomb on either side of the processional path. Its presence is probably indicative of the more widespread practice of the attendant burial of notaries at imperial mausolea in the Han, a practice followed at a number of the early Tang imperial

Yangling Changling Anling Yiling Kangling Weiling Yanling

N

Pingling Maoling

Han Chang’an Wei River

Xi’an

Baling

Tang Chang’an Nanling

Duling

Figure 1.1 Map showing the locations of the tombs of the Western Han emperors. (Adapted from Ma Yonglei, Zuojin Han Yangling, p. 6.)

Ambition and archetype 11 mausolea. Large stone sculptures of men, animals and mythical beasts were included at the mausoleum complex Maoling, of the Han Emperor Wudi (r.140–87 BC), and its attendant tombs, and became a standard feature at all Tang emperors’ tombs (Figure 1.2). The Tang drew upon, continued and refined these characteristics derived in part from direct inspiration and in part received through the succession of tomb lineage in the intervening centuries between the Han and the Tang. The Tang did develop their own unique modes, however. Where the Han tombs were set out on an east–west axis, with the primary tomb mound to the west facing to the east, the Tang tombs were built on a north–south axis with the primary tomb mound to the north and orientated towards the south, for example. Tomb statuary and external layout came to be well standardized under the Tang in the late seventh century. As a result, Tang tombs became grand statements about the Chinese empire and the Tang dynasty, its rulers and members of its ruling class, and aspects of Tang society. The Jiu Tang shu records that as early acts of State, probably in 618, the first year of his reign, the first Tang Emperor Gaozu (566–635, r.618–626), awarded his grandfather, Li Hu, and his father, Li Bing, the titles of emperor – Jinghuangdi

Figure 1.2 Horse suppressing a foreign man. Stone sculpture at the Western Han tomb, Maoling. 1.68 m high.

12


and Yuanhuangdi, respectively – and ordered the construction of mausolea, Yongkangling and Xingningling, for them. These tombs were designated as ‘ling’ or ‘emperors’ tombs’ in accordance with their occupants’ revised status as imperial ancestors, and divination was carried out to determine their sites.2 The scale of the tombs of the two Tang ancestor emperors was relatively modest. They were built at a time when Tang control was limited to the capital, Chang’an, and a number of other groups had the potential to overthrow them, thus limiting the human and material resources which could be devoted to imperial tomb building.3 Nevertheless, they were bold political statements at the founding of the Tang dynasty. Significantly, Xingningling was built in close proximity to Changling, the tomb of the first Han emperor, Gaozu (Liu Bang, r.206–195 BC), which had been constructed across the Wei River directly to the north of Han Chang’an4 (Plate 1). The proximity of Xingningling to Changling suggests that it was Gaozu’s intention to glorify his own family as the sources of state power, and to boldly declare his ambition that his father be seen as the well spring of a long period of dynastic succession like Han Gaozu.5 Xingningling demonstrates that the organization of Tang imperial tombs had a number of characteristics which were established from the outset. Typically, it is organized on a north–south axis, with a square truncated pyramidal mound to the north of the processional path leading to the tomb. Beautifully carved stone sculptures flank the path; in this case in a south to north sequence there was a pair of pillars, a pair of unicorns, three pairs of men after each of which there was a pair of horses, and finally one of lions.6

Xianling Han imperial tomb design and Tang city planning were strongly linked to mausoleum design and construction in both conceptual and practical terms from the early seventh century, beginning with the tomb of the first Tang Emperor, Gaozu. This influence was likely to have been the result of the appointment of the famous official and architect Yan Lide (?–656) to positions in charge of the design and construction of both the capital city and emperors’ tombs. When the Tang dynasty usurped the Sui dynasty in 618, it took over the existing administrative structures and the capital city begun under the Sui Emperor Wendi in 582. The Sui capital, Daxing (‘great prosperity’), was renamed Chang’an, ‘long peace’, under the Tang in 653, reviving the name of the Western Han capital (Figure 1.3). Daxing had been planned by the famous architect and civil engineer, Yuwen Kai (555–612). He had drawn upon the merits of previous capitals such as Luoyang of the Northern Wei and Ye of the Northern Qi and enhanced these with new ideas in city planning.7 The capital was a large city with an area of 84 km2, symmetrical, organized along a north–south axis, with controlled gateways piercing its outer walls and carefully sited streets running north–south and east–west to form a substantial grid of city blocks. In establishing Daxing, Yuwen Kai had divided the city into three sectors – the residential, the administrative and the palace sectors – each separated by walls. These zones ascended in importance from

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the south to the north with the imperial palace, government office buildings, important religious centres and official residences to the north of the city, with the areas to the south left for commoners. In terms of favourable geomancy, the capital had the high elevation of Longshou Mountain to the north.8 Yan Lide led the Tang development and expansion of Chang’an, maintaining the existing zoning of Daxing. The Jiu Tang shu records that he was also appointed head of the Directorate for Palace Buildings – effectively the Chief Architect and Commander in Chief of the project – to construct Gaozu’s mausoleum, Xianling, in 635.9 This may account for the four key characteristics of Chang’an’s city plan – symmetry, axial plan, north–south axis, and hierarchies of space ascending from south to north – being incorporated as core characteristics of the Tang imperial tombs. Gaozu abdicated as emperor in 626 in favour of his son, Taizong (599–649, r.626–649). Perhaps as a result of this, Gaozu had made no provision for construction of his tomb in preparation for his death, addressing the question just one month before his demise in 635, aged sixty-nine. On his deathbed he gave the following instructions: After [I die] the army should pay attention to the construction of a dwelling place [for me] suitable for an emperor, as a matter of State. In implementing this, observe propriety, [and] learn from the Han [law code] in commencing construction, because daytime is turning into night [I am dying]. In implementing construction of [my] Emperor’s tomb garden [complex] make it [carefully] considered and arrange for restraint in its building.10 After Gaozu’s death, Emperor Taizong gave the imperial edict to build an emperor’s mausoleum with mound, using the Han [tomb of its first emperor], Changling, as the standard, [and] to do the job henceforth with grandeur and richness, but since regulations restrict the time available [take care not to] abuse the meritorious workers and requisitioned [corvee] labour force.11 This was in order to avoid what was thought to be the wasteful excessiveness in the use of labour and financial reserves exemplified by Qin Shihuangdi for his tomb, Qinling, and by the sixth Han Emperor Wudi (r.140–87 BC) for his tomb, Maoling.12 Xianling was built about 55 km north-east of Chang’an, with Yan Lide responsible for its design and construction13 (see Figure 0.3). Despite Gaozu’s wishes, Xianling was not entirely modest in its dimensions – its rectangular mound is 21 m high, and 150 m 120 m at its base. This made it just slightly smaller than Changling which measured 166 m 145 m at the base. It was modest, however, when compared with the Tang emperors’ tombs which followed; the perimeter of the Xianling complex is about 10 km compared with about 60 km at Taizong’s Zhaoling (discussed below), for example.14 There were four gates at the Xianling

Ambition and archetype 15

Figure 1.4 Rhinoceros. Stone sculpture from Xianling mausoleum. 2.34 m high. Xi’an Museum of Steles. (Source: Cheng Zheng, Li Hui, San bai li diaoke yishi guan, Tang shi ba ling shike, p. 37.)

site, each with a pair of standing tigers sculpted in stone, about 2 m high, and additional sculptures – a pair of remarkably accurately portrayed rhinoceroses (Figure 1.4) a pair of ornamental pillars, about 10 m high, at the south gate, and a Buddhist sculpture outside the east gate.15 The pillars had ornately carved crouching dragons (symbols of the emperor) at the base, an octagonal shaft incised with dragon and floral designs, and above, an octagonal capital with a seated lion at its top. It is interesting to note the Buddhist content in the sculptural programme at the site, with a stone relief in the form of a niche occupied by a seated Buddha flanked by attendant bodhisattvas, and donor figures. Today, the condition of the relief is poor and the loss of detail prevents identification of the figures, although it is likely that the primary figure was Maitreya or Amitabha. The image recalls those in niches at Longmen, which were sponsored by members of the imperial family and inscribed with dedications to the memory of deceased royal relatives.16 In 636, permission was given for attendant burials at Xianling. According to the records, permission was given for twenty-five, but an archaeological survey in 1980 discovered sixty-seven.17 Although Taizong had stipulated that the labourers not be abused, the Xin Tang shu records that given the short time frame for construction, they were worked harshly.18

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Imperial tomb, metaphor for imperial power Where the first Tang tombs of the emperor ancestors expressed dynastic aspirations, those which followed proclaimed with increasing audacity and pride the success and continuity of the dynasty. The Tang imperial ancestors’ tombs were used to express Tang power and political legitimacy with a degree of subtlety, relying on references to and parallels with the Han emperors’ tombs to make their point. In the case of Gaozu’s Xianling, despite the declared intention of understatement and restraint, the evident expenditure of human and financial resources demonstrate that this principle was beginning to wane in practical terms. By the time the tombs of the second and third Tang Emperors, Taizong and Gaozong (Li Zhi, 628–683, r.649–683), were commissioned, this diffidence had been abandoned in favour of flagrant statements in the form of tombs of giant dimensions. Unlike Xianling, construction of Zhaoling, the tomb of Taizong, was begun well before his death. Zhaoling was established in 636 and work continued on it until 649. Initially built for his deceased wife, Empress Changsun, Taizong was buried there conjointly in 650. As for Xianling, the chief planner of Chang’an, Yan Lide, was the Chief Architect responsible for Zhaoling’s design and for its refurbishment.19 It is recorded in the Xin Tang shu, that Empress Changsun’s last request was a for a modest burial: There is no point in a substantial burial. For this reason it is my wish that a mountain should do for my burial place. Use no tomb, do not employ a coffin at my death, for my grave goods use ceramics and wood, and in the end when death comes, make arrangements for my funeral without wasteful cost.20 With this she made one caveat: It is also right [however] not to appear to neglect my memory.21 According to a eulogy written by Taizong for her funeral, only about one hundred men were used to cut stone, and the grave furniture was made simply of clay and wood so as not to entice robbers. In this way the Empress’ burial was to be an example to future generations.22 At the time of Empress Changsun’s entombment, the interment of valuable gifts, possessions and mortuary wares may have been limited, but in no way could the tomb be described as humble. The site for Zhaoling was inside the principal peak of the Jiuzong Mountains, 60 km north-west of Chang’an.23 It is an imposing 1188 m high, and is surrounded by a plain, making it seem all the more magnificently prominent. Soon after the Empress’ burial, Taizong had an observation tower built in the imperial park to the north of his palace in Chang’an, from which he could view her tomb. The Xin Tang shu records that one day Taizong invited his Privy Counselor Wei Zheng to view the tomb from the tower. Wei Zheng claimed, ‘My eyesight is bad and I can’t see it.’ The Emperor pointed it out and Wei Zheng replied, ‘Is that Zhaoling?’ To which the Emperor replied that it was.

Ambition and archetype 17 Wei Zheng said, ‘I thought Your Majesty was looking at Xianling. If you are talking about Zhaoling, I can see it.’ The Emperor is recorded to have cried tears at this remark and to have subsequently had the tower destroyed.24 Wei Zheng’s inference was that Zhaoling was more impressive than Emperor Gaozu’s tomb, and that it was inappropriate for more material and emotional resources to be devoted to the Empress’ tomb than to that of the former Emperor.25 As Wechsler argues, the great numbers of attendant burial privileges awarded at Zhaoling, may have gone part of the way to sooth complaints about wastefulness. In addition, the tomb was built over a long period reducing the burden of labour, and most importantly, the Empress’ tomb was to become Taizong’s own, no doubt making it unwise for officials to remonstrate.26 It was probably in 637, the year after his Empress’ death, that Taizong gave the order that Jiuzong Mountain also be used for his tomb.27 He claimed that he wanted an economical burial, saying: ‘The ancients relied on the mountains for their tombs. That truly was advantageous.’28 As Wechsler points out: ‘He specified that only one coffin was to be employed for his remains, and that wooden horses, plaster carriages, and the like were to be used, all in conformity with the ancient idea that grave furniture was not to consist of articles used in real life.’29 Zhaoling was the first Tang emperor’s tomb to be built inside a mountain, with the natural rock peak replacing the usual rammed earth pyramidal tomb mound. The result was impressive and began a custom of building Tang emperors’ tomb with a mountain as the tumulus. Of the eighteen Tang emperors’ tombs built near Chang’an, fourteen were constructed inside mountains. Zhaoling is the largest Tang emperor’s tomb complex at 12 km east–west 10 km north–south. The tomb was built on a north–south axis, and surrounded by a wall with gates. It had a sacrificial altar, measuring 86.5 m 53.5 m, to the north of the tomb peak. To the north of the altar inside the north gate were fourteen stone statues of foreign vassal chieftains who had submitted under Taizong – seven on each side of the approach path. Today, fragments of these sculptures and the inscribed pedestals of three survive – for the Turkish Khan, a king of Qarashar, and a Tibetan leader.30 Significantly, these were vassal leaders, not slain enemies of the emperor, as had traditionally been the case.31 To the north of the figures, three each side, were relief sculptures of Taizong’s six favourite steeds. These reflected Taizong’s fondness for exceptional battle horses, his training in martial skills and horsemanship, and his role as a successful battle leader from his early teens on32 (Figure 1.5). To the south was an offering hall and the south gate, and to the south-west, outside the tomb compound wall, was ‘the lower tomb palace’, occupying an area of 237 m 334 m and surrounded by a 3.5 m thick wall, from which provisions were made for the maintenance of the emperor’s spirit and his ‘spirit home’. It comprised the residences for officials, maintenance staff, including cooks and the like, and female attendants who served Taizong’s spirit.33 Little remains of the buildings at Zhaoling, but a roof tile from the end of a ridge, probably from the offering hall, has been discovered; it is 1.5 m 1 m 0.65 m and weighs 150 kg, giving some idea of the colossal scale used and the

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Figure 1.5 Steed of Tang Taizong. Stone relief sculpture from Zhaoling. 650. Xi’an Museum of Steles. (Source: Wang Wenqing (ed.), Ten Major Museums of Shaanxi, p. 78.)

Figure 1.6 Roof tile, Zhaoling mausoleum. (Source: Wang Wenqing (ed.), Shaanxi wenwu guji dagua, p. 102.)

spectacular impression the tomb complex must have created34 (Figure 1.6). Historical records say that the underground mausoleum was chiselled out of the rock, with five stone doors along its interior length, the tomb chamber about 75 m below ground level, and rooms to the east and to the west of the coffin chamber containing stone boxes of grave goods.35

Ambition and archetype 19 By the time Zhaoling was developed, Chang’an was the most populous city in the world, with more than one million residents in its 84 km2 area.36 Zones within the city blocks were set aside for housing, markets, temples, parks, and so on, with canals, pools and lakes providing water and drainage. At the outset of the Tang the most impressive structures at Chang’an would have been its grand palace pavilions, multi-storey pagodas, monumental gate towers and massive city walls. The construction of a colossal tomb within a mountain, surrounded by impressive sculpture and architecture, and substantial walls, would have made a considerable impact, especially when the key external features of this city for the deceased corresponded to those in which they had resided at the capital. Taizong made provision for loyal officials, family and meritorious individuals to be buried at the site. This was later extended to include their close family members.37 About 200 subsidiary tombs were given the special privilege of being located at Zhaoling, 167 of which have been identified in archaeological surveys to date. These reflect the variations of tomb form in the early to mid-seventh century. While a number of the subsidiary tombs there have been flattened, it can be determined that the most common type had rammed earth mounds covering them in the form of circular cones, several high status tombs had square truncated pyramidal mounds, two used existing hills for their mounds, two had hillshaped mounds with breast-shaped hillocks in front, and one tomb was built with no mound.38

The archetypal Tang imperial tomb By the late seventh century, the elements of external imperial tomb layout, which had been initially drawn from the basic Han configuration and combined with core principles of Sui–Tang city planning, became well standardized. The Tang imperial tombs of the late seventh century established a systematized vernacular which was to be influential in mausoleum architecture throughout East Asia in the successive periods. Qianling, the tomb of Emperor Gaozong (d.683) and Empress Wu Zetian (Wu Zhao, 625–705, r.690–705), is the archetypal Tang emperor’s tomb in terms of its external layout and system for sculptural decoration which were repeated at subsequent Tang emperors’ tombs39 (Figure 1.7). The Jiu Tang shu records that, like his forebears, Gaozong made a, perhaps by now token, deathbed request for a frugal burial.40 Despite this, confirming what was now a pattern for Tang emperors, his tomb was completely extravagant, expressing sovereign power through its imposing natural setting and grand scale, the parallels between the tomb’s design and urban planning and the subject matter of the stone sculptures along its processional path. To this day it remains unsurpassed. Gaozong was buried in 684, and his wife, Empress Wu Zetian, who became the only female to rule China at the head of her own dynasty, the Zhou, an interregnum to the Tang from 690 to 705, was interred within his mausoleum in 706, the year following her death. Since she had been Emperor and had not ordered the construction of a tomb for herself, it can be assumed that Wu Zetian

Figure 1.7 Qianling, the tomb of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, seen from the south.

Ambition and archetype 21 always intended that she should be buried inside Qianling. This preference would have been with good reason – joint burials were considered felicitous, and Qianling would certainly have seemed adequate for the aspirations of even the most ambitious of rulers at that time. Qianling is located on the cone-shaped limestone Liang Mountain, 1049 m above sea level. It is massive and majestic, and with the plateaus of Leopard Valley to the east and Sand Canyon to the west, its high elevation is exaggerated and it rises with great dramatic effect. The top of Liang Mountain consists of three peaks. The northern peak is the highest one, which was used to contain Qianling’s ‘underground palace’ where the bodies of Emperor Gaozong and his Empress Wu Zetian are interred. The two lower and smaller southern peaks, known as the Naitou Hills, at the southern end of Qianling, had towers on them, and were used to form a natural gateway to the mausoleum at the beginning of its processional path. Like Zhaoling, the construction of Qianling within a mountain, integrated the social environment with the natural one, symbolically imbuing the tomb with the potential to endure as nature endures. The entrance to the underground tomb passage is part way up the mountainside on its south face. Geomantically, the tomb was affiliated back to nature, it harmonized with the landscape, and did not suffer from destructive micro-climatic forces. In this way the tomb was nestled in a climatically favourable way and protected from the harsh weather coming from the north. In practical terms its height gave it a sense of being more easily defended and of extending control through geographic dominance and high vantage over its southern reaches. Continuing the established pattern, Qianling mirrored the imperial capital in its organization, heightening its expression as a symbol of the sovereign power of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian. Like Chang’an, Qianling was enclosed by walls which were perforated by gateways. At Qianling there were originally two walls – an inner and a perimeter wall. The primary tomb mound and underground mortuary palace of Gaozong and Wu Zetian were to the far north of the mausoleum complex, mirroring the palace sector of the capital. This underground palace, to the north of the mausoleum complex, corresponded to the position of the Daming Palace, the imperial palace residence of Gaozong and Wu Zetian in life, perhaps adding to its efficacy as a home for the dead Emperor and Empress.41 Above ground, this area was surrounded by a wall, 2.4 m thick and approximately square in shape with four gateways – one in the centre of each wall (Figure 1.8). The tomb complex’s inner sector north and south walls were 1450 m long, the east wall was 1582 m long and the west wall 1438 m; a total perimeter of 5920 m, enclosing an area of around 2.4 km2.42 This was almost as large an area as that occupied by the Daming Palace – the Daming Palace’s north wall was 1135 m long, its south 1674 m, its east 2563 m and its west 2256 m.43 Each of Qianling’s inner sector wall gateways was 2.7 m wide and faced a cardinal point. These were named after the directional animals – the ‘black snake–tortoise gate’ to the north, the ‘scarlet bird gate’ to the south, the ‘green dragon gate’ to the east and the ‘white tiger gate’ to the west. This paralleled the

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Ambition and archetype 23 axiality of Chang’an town planning, with gateways facing the four directions. At Chang’an, the main gateway to the south of the imperial city sector was also called ‘scarlet bird gate’ (Zhuque men) and the main gateway to the north of the palace sector was also called ‘black tortoise–snake gate’ (Xuanwu men). Between the ‘scarlet bird gate’ and the ‘first gate’, which stood to the complex’s far south, lay the processional path on a north–south axis. This sector corresponds with Chang’an’s imperial city which had Chengtianmen Street, as its central axis.44 The second, outer wall at Qianling was an effective demarcation between the imperial and residential sectors of the tomb complex. The first gate to the complex was within this wall, to the far south of the Naitou Hills. It is recorded that hundreds of houses surrounded Qianling, many of their householders engaged in the upkeep of the mausoleum.45 The systematized form of the processional path at Qianling became the model for the imperial tombs of the Tang and later dynasties.46 Qianling’s processional path begins at the south, and corresponds to the capital’s imperial passageway. It is flanked by a series of stone sculptures, consisting of a pair of octagonal stone pillars (intended to ward off evil), a pair of horses with wings, a pair of ‘phoenixes’ (which were a symbol reserved for the royal family), five pairs of horses with grooms, ten pairs of officials modelled after the emperor’s body guards, Emperor Gaozong’s 6.3 m high seven tiered stele recording his achievements, Empress Wu Zetian’s 6.3 m high uncharactered stele,47 two groups of foreign emissaries and a pair of lions. There was a pair of lions outside each of the four gates of the inner wall, and outside its north gate there was an additional pair of horses. The pairs of sculptures flanking the path are symbols of civil and military power – some literal in their correspondence to key elements of imperial administration, others symbolic. The ‘phoenix’ sculptures are demonstrations of the expressive value of these sculptures at a symbolic level (Figure 1.9). At Qianling, realistic images of ostriches replaced more fanciful figurations of mythical phoenixes, setting a precedent which was subsequently followed at Ruizong’s Qiaoling (712), Xuanzong’s Tailing (756), Suzong’s Jianling (762), Dezong’s Chongling (805), Xianzong’s Jingling (820), Muzong’s Guangling (824), Wenzong’s Zhangling (840), Wuzong’s Duanling (846), and Xuanzong’s Zhenling (859).48 Although ostriches were little known in China, two were delivered as tributes to the Tang court, both in the seventh century. In 620 a mission from the Khan of the Western Turks presented an ostrich, and in 650 another was presented on behalf of the rulers of Tukhara; significantly, this second bird was subsequently offered by Gaozong to the deceased Taizong at Zhaoling.49 The inclusion of this real-life exotic element in the sculptural programme of the tombs served as a reflection of the power of the Tang emperor who could attract such impressive tributes from distant lands, and perhaps recalled Gaozong’s offering to Taizong. Traditionally there were no fixed rules for the various articles of tribute. Products were delivered to court according to the specialities of particular regions, the ‘qualities’ of the articles being an important aspect in the act of giving.50 Accordingly, all such rare, novel and exotic elements in art were a sign of the greatness of China and

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Figure 1.9 Phoenix in the form of an ostrich on the processional path at Qianling mausoleum. Stone sculpture. c.683.

the Chinese emperor, not of the foreigners who sent them, or of the places from which they came. After Qiaoling, it would seem that direct knowledge of the appearance of ostriches was lost, since representations of ostriches at the imperial mausolea from the mid-eighth century on were awkward and inaccurate. Their continued inclusion in sculptural form on the processional paths at Tang imperial tombs through to the late Tang period is testament to the potency of their symbolic value, and of the influence of Qianling as the standard for later emperors’ tombs. The sculptures of horses and grooms, military guards, and foreign emissaries were more literal in their correspondence to arms of the imperial administration. The imperial stables, the Left and Right Guard of the Emperor, and the Court of Diplomatic Reception, were among a number of state departments directed from the imperial city of Chang’an. The Court of Diplomatic Reception hosted foreign dignitaries and envoys and handled state mourning ceremonies under the Tang.51 Receptions for foreign dignitaries at the capital were held inside the Guangyang or Chengtian gatehouses at the entrance from the imperial city to the palace city.52 At Qianling the sculptures of foreigners, are similarly located close to the underground palace, just outside the inner wall’s ‘scarlet bird gate’ in front of the guardian lions.


Figure 1.10 Foreign emissaries. Stone sculptures at Qianling mausoleum. c.683.

The representation of foreign emissaries was a reflection of the dynasty’s far-reaching power and international standing. At Qianling, there were sixty-one sculptures representing envoys from outlying areas of the Chinese empire (Figure 1.10). The figures are about life size, in contrast to the colossal 4 m high sculptures of imperial guards armed with swords. Their body language is respectful, standing submissively with hands clasped before their chests as a mark of reverence; they lack weaponry and wear civilian clothing. Now headless, their identity can only be ascertained by their clothing and in some cases inscriptions on their backs. Their modest scale, large number and location all attest to the comparative superiority of the interred Chinese rulers. Their presence is also a reflection of the increased significance of international relations, diplomacy and the more frequent appearance of foreigners at the Tang court in the latter half of the seventh century. The sculpted figures of foreigners can also be considered as symbols of subjugation and submission associated with presentation, sacrifice rituals, and the release of foreign leaders in dedication to deceased emperors during the Tang.53 This is exemplified by the case of the king of Kucha who was brought to the capital in 649. After being dedicated to the spirits of the dead emperors, he was released and awarded the title of Great Army Commander for the Militant Guards of the Left. In another case, after the death of Taizong, Gaozong triumphantly celebrated the capture of Ashina Helu, the leader of the Western Turks, with the introduction of a new ceremony, making a preliminary offering of the royal captive to the spirit of Taizong at Zhaoling, after which the foreigner was spared from death.54 In 666, Korean captives were also presented for sacrifice at Zhaoling, after which their lives were spared.55

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Attendant tombs The attendant tombs ( peizang mu) at emperors’ tomb complexes subscribed to the same design principles established by emperors’ tombs, although on a much smaller scale with fewer and lower grade mortuary entitlements. Burial in an attendant tomb was a privilege restricted to members of the royal family, meritorious ministers, successful generals, their wives and descendants. Attendant tomb rights were an exceptionally high privilege and an expression of strong relationship to the ruler. This is indicated by the limited number of attendant tombs built in the seventh and early eighth centuries. As already stated, there were 67 attendant tombs in the vicinity of Gaozu’s Xianling, 167 at Taizong’s Zhaoling and 17 built at Qianling, for example (Figure 1.11). The significance of attendant tomb privileges was established strongly at Taizong’s Zhaoling. Taizong gave permission for a number of meritorious officials instrumental in the founding of the Tang dynasty, confidants, close relatives and others from the upper strata of society to be buried in attendant tombs near his own. Others were granted burials at Zhaoling under the subsequent regimes of Gaozong and Wu Zetian. The occupant’s name, rank and year of interment is known in 57 of the 167 tombs identified there. While old theories that civil officials were buried to left of Zhaoling mausoleum and military officials were buried to the right have been proved unreliable, the presence, scale and decoration of particular graves at the complex is a significant sign of their occupants’ imperial favour.56 The most impressive attendant tombs at Zhaoling belong to Princess Xincheng (Taizong’s daughter by Empress Changsun), who was buried with the rites of an empress in 663, and Wei Zheng (Privy Counselor, Marquis of Zeng) buried in 642; Taizong’s most respected minister with whom he ascended the tower to view Zhaoling. Next in grandeur were those of Princess Changle and her husband Commandant Consort Changsun Chong, buried in 643, and Princess Chengyang and her husband Commandant Consort Xue Guan, buried during 670–673. Li Ji (Minister of Works, Grand Preceptor to the Heir Apparent and Duke of Xiong) was buried in 670 after his death at the age of seventy-six in 669. Yun Shi has suggested that he was granted the elevated status of a large tomb at Zhaoling under Gaozong’s regime due to his support of Gaozong and other members of the imperial family in replacing the Empress Wang with Wu Zetian.57 Not all the original tombs remain. Some were destroyed during the Tang period, as posthumous downgrading and the severing of ties could also be made through the removal of graves. In 710, Emperor Ruizong reduced the status of two deceased members of the Wu family who had been powerful under Wu Zetian. He removed the posthumous titles of Wu Sansi and Wu Chongxun, had their coffins broken open, corpses exposed and the tombs flattened.58 This demonstrates the relation between ownership of an imperial tomb, the political situation, and the perpetuation or abrogation of a tomb occupant’s social standing. At Qianling, five of the seventeen attendant tombs have been excavated; they belong to Crown Prince Li Xian (Zhanghuai), Crown Prince Yide, Princess


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Yongtai, Prime Minister Xue Yuanchao (685) and General of the Left Guard Li Jinxing.59 Yide and Yongtai were Emperor Zhongzong’s children by Empress Wei, Yide having been Emperor Gaozong’s Imperial Grandson-heir in 682. The tombs of Yide and Yongtai were constructed in 705–706, at the same time as that of Li Xian; all three were reburials at the Qianling complex. Li Xian was reburied

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twenty-two years after his death, and Yide and Yongtai five years after their deaths which occurred in 701.60 Like the exteriors of the Tang emperors’ tombs, the compounds, interiors and contents of attendant tombs were also developed according to a system. Su Bai surveyed Tang tombs in the Xi’an area noting key stages in the development of tomb form.61 These stages and their significance to tomb development are summarized in Table 1.1. Table 1.1 Stages in the development of Tang tombs Stage 1: Early Tang (618–649) Similar to Sui Tang characteristics not well formed Stage 2: Mid-Tang (649–756) Gaozong and Wu Zetian to Ruizong (649–712) Characteristics of Tang formed Xuanzong’s reign (712–756) Characteristics of the Tang well developed Stage 3: Late Tang (756–907) Decline Simplification and repetition

This chapter has explored the antecedents and sources of inspiration for the early Tang imperial tombs, the evolution of the archetypal Tang emperor’s tomb, and the ways in which the use of earlier sources reinforced ideas about dynastic ambition and success. It has traced the evolution of Tang emperors’ tombs from the relatively modest mausolea of the Tang imperial ancestors established at the beginning of the Tang dynasty, to the construction of tombs within a mountain at the tomb of the second Tang emperor, Taizong, and the archetypal mountain tomb of the Tang’s third emperor, Gaozong, where layout and statuary were highly systematized. There were seventeen attendant tombs built at Qianling, a number of which have been excavated. Although far fewer in number than at Zhaoling, several, which date from the early eighth century, demonstrate the magnificent interiors of the Tang imperial tombs near the height of the style. Li Xian’s tomb is described in Chapter 2.

2

Li Xian’s tomb

[He was] permitted to have an accompanying burial inside Qianling mortuary city.1

As no Tang emperors’ tombs prior to the decline of the Tang have been excavated, the few attendant tombs at imperial mausoleum complexes that can be entered provide us with the best available examples of Tang imperial tomb interiors. The tomb of Crown Prince Li Xian, excavated in 1971–1972 and found to be well preserved and largely intact, is one of these. Li Xian was born 654 and died in 684, his tomb was constructed at Qianling in 705–706 and renovated in 711. This was an era when lavish resources were devoted to the production of sumptuous tombs for selected members of the imperial family, and his tomb reflects a stage in which Tang tomb characteristics were quite well formed. This chapter establishes the strong political motivations for the construction of Li Xian’s tomb, and describes the original character of the tomb to illustrate the architectonic form and decoration of a representative example of a high status Tang imperial tomb.

Li Xian Li Xian was the sixth son of Emperor Gaozong and his second son by Empress Wu Zetian (Figure 2.1). ‘Li’ is the name of the Tang imperial family and he was given the name ‘Xian’, meaning ‘virtuous’, at the age of 20.2 He was given the posthumous name ‘Zhanghuai’, meaning ‘cherish the rules’, in 711. He held many titles, including Prince of Yong (Yong Wang), attaining his highest rank, Heir Apparent Crown Prince (huang taizi ) to Gaozong from the age of 21 in 675 until 680 when accusations of treason were made against him and he was deposed. Li Xian’s mother, Wu Zhao, posthumously known as Wu Zetian, is central to understanding Li Xian’s fate. She rose from relative obscurity as the daughter of a provincial official to become the only female ever to rule China in her own right. She had become concubine to Emperor Taizong (Gaozong’s father) at the age of 14. By the age of 24 she was a widow and, as was customary, became a Buddhist nun. By the age of 26 she had returned to the palace to become Emperor Gaozong’s

6th son

Li Chongjun HA 706–707

3rd son d Li Chongmao r.710 as Wenwang under Empress Wei (widow of Zhongzong)

4th son

4 sons

a

e

8th son

30 sons

Xuanzong 685–762 HA 710, r.712–756

3rd son

f

Ruizong 662–716 r.684–690 (4th son of Wu Zetian) Restored 710–712 6 sons

Figure 2.1 Outline genealogy of the Tang imperial family up to the mid-eighth century.

Li Chongrun (Yide) 682–701 HA Grandson 682

1st son

5th son

Gaozong 628–683 HA 643, r.649–683 8 sons 7th son

Taizong 599–649 r.626–649 14 sons 9th son

Li Hong Li Xian (Zhanghuai) Zhongzong 656–710 651–675 654–684 HA 680, r.684 HA 656–675 HA 675–680 (3rd son of Wu Zetian) (1st & 2nd sons of Empress Wu Zetian) Imperial heir 698 Restored 705–710

Li Zhong HA 652–656

1st son

Li Chengqian HA 635–643

1st son

Li Jiancheng HA 619–626

1st son

Gaozu 566–635 r.618–626 22 sons 2nd son

c

b

HA = Heir apparent r. = reigned

r.690–705 (Zhou Interregnum)

Empress Wu Zetian 625–705

Li Xian’s tomb

31

consort and by the age of 30, through plot and subterfuge, Wu Zetian effected the imprisonment and execution of Gaozong’s existing Empress to become Empress herself. By the age of 35 she had effective control of the empire, which she maintained throughout her husband’s periods of illness, and held on to power after his death in 683. The Empress continued to rule with Li Xian’s younger brothers, first Zhongzong and then Ruizong as puppet emperors. She eventually deposed Ruizong and rose to a status equivalent to that of an emperor with the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 690.3 Throughout Li Xian’s life, his role vacillated between that of chosen future emperor and rival to Wu Zetian’s power behind the throne. As early as 662, at the age of eight, he was a figurehead for groups objecting to Gaozong’s policies. Petitions were brought to the young prince by clergy objecting to Gaozong’s decree of the observance of obeisance, which decreed that all Buddhist and Daoist monks and nuns pay homage to the royal family and observe filiality.4 He was invested as Prince of Lu in 655, Prince of Pei in 661 and Prince of Yong in 672.5 In 675, at the age of 21, he was designated Heir Apparent Crown Prince to Gaozong after the sudden death of his elder brother, Li Hong.6 According to the Tang Histories, Li Xian had a reputation for being intelligent, scholarly, judicious and open.7 They record that Li Xian began well and won praise from his father in 676, the same year he presented his Hou Han shu (Later Han History) commentary to the throne. From 677 a strong group of notable senior officials were appointed to posts in his entourage. In 679 the Emperor became incapacitated and Li Xian took charge of court affairs. It is recorded that he dealt with matters wisely and promptly, winning great praise, thus becoming a potential rival for Wu Zetian who had her own aspirations to govern.8 Soon after, his reputation began to deteriorate. The beginning of Li Xian’s demise was reflected in events of 679. He was told that his mother had been advised by one of her intimates (an office bearer, Ming Chongyen, who was skilled in fortune telling) that the Heir Apparent Crown Prince did not have the ‘look of a future emperor’ and was ‘less noble than his younger brothers’. When Ming Chongyen was murdered later that year, by ‘bandits’ who were never apprehended, Wu Zetian believed Li Xian responsible. Her view was based on accounts from a palace maidservant with whom the Heir Apparent Crown Prince was believed to have had an ‘improper liaison’. Although proof of this was lacking, the Empress was recorded as having been ‘naturally suspicious’.9 Wu Zetian reprimanded Li Xian through letters and had two works composed for his benefit. These were Xiao zi zhuan (Biographies of Filial Sons) and Shaoyang zhengfan (Model of Government for an Heir Apparent). Both works were written by her Scholars of the Northern Gate. By this stage rumours began to circulate around the palace that he was not indeed her son but the son of her sister, Lady Hanguo, who had entered the imperial harem, joining Wu Zetian in the 640s.10 Pressure against the Heir Apparent Crown Prince heightened early in 680, when Li Xian rejected the advice of one of his secretaries to end the liaison with his palace servant. At that point Wu Zetian seized the chance to have a formal enquiry into his affairs. In searching his residence, the investigators found hundreds of suits of armour in his stables which they reported as evidence of

32

Li Xian’s tomb

treason. Gaozong, although having had earlier reservations about Li Xian’s suitability, was willing to pardon him, but on Wu Zetian’s insistence had the armor publicly destroyed and in 681 Li Xian was demoted to the status of a commoner. After sequestration in Chang’an he was exiled to Bazhou in Sichuan in 682 or 68311 (see Figure 0.2). His position as Heir Apparent had been taken in 680 by his younger brother, the future Zhongzong. When Gaozong passed away late in 683, Zhongzong lasted as emperor for only eight weeks, to be replaced by the younger Ruizong early in 684. In 684, General Qiu Shenji was sent to Bazhou by Wu Zetian, who was Ruizong’s regent at the time, in order to conduct a search of Li Xian’s residence.12 The General had him locked in a room and forced him to commit suicide.13

Commemoration of Li Xian Li Xian’s body was buried in a commoner’s grave in Bazhou, and almost immediately shifts in imperial power caused changes in the ways in which he was commemorated. In 685, one year after his death, his former title, Prince of Yong, was posthumously restored and he was officially mourned, but his body remained in its remote location through the following periods of Wu Zetian’s effective control from 684 to 689 and legitimised rule from 690 to 705. Li Xian’s political role was controversial. Was he a rogue prince, as Guisso describes him, or was he the victim of a strategic plan by Wu Zetian to eliminate competition and hold power for herself ?14 Given his demotion and exile, it is certain that he was perceived as a problem by his father and a threat to the throne by his mother. If it were not for Wu Zetian’s creation of her own dynasty and the ensuing problematisation of that by historians, it could be argued that Li Xian’s role was clear. He was Heir Apparent Crown Prince from the age of 21. At 26, under Gaozong, he was removed from that position. After his downgrading, his brother, the future Zhongzong, became Heir Apparent and Zhongzong’s young son, Chongrun (the future Crown Prince Yide) was installed as Imperial Grandson-heir (huang taisun).15 The Tang lineage could not have been more clearly defined and patrilineal succession more secure. On the other hand, Li Xian’s demotion and premature death have been used to vilify Wu Zetian. Although Gaozong was willing to pardon him, Wu Zetian was not. It has been conjectured by a number of historians that Wu Zetian poisoned her eldest son, Li Hong, and intentionally framed her second son, Li Xian, in order to seize the throne herself.16 Such a view casts Wu Zetian in the mould of a ruthless and ambitious usurper, and an unnatural woman who railed against the established patriarchal conventions in imperial ascendancy. It casts Li Xian as the victim of an evil monster–mother prepared to kill her own progeny to satisfy her lust for power. Continued reference to Wu Zetian’s handling of Li Xian, years after his death, points to differing views about his role and sympathies about his fate.17 The controversy ended with the exhumation of Li Xian’s body after his mother’s death in 705, and its reburial in 706 in a grand imperial tomb reflecting his rehabilitated princely status18 (Figure 2.2). This took place under orders from

Li Xian’s tomb

33

Figure 2.2 Li Xian’s tomb, Qianling.

his younger brother, Emperor Zhongzong, who had resumed the throne in 705 upon Wu Zetian’s forced abdication, and reflects the dramatic shifts in political power at that time.19

Li Xian’s epitaphs In the Tang dynasty epitaph tablet inscriptions were long biographies about personal brilliance, high social status and excellence in official service to the state. Such epitaphs were a privilege of high officials, who generally came from the Tang aristocracy.20 The aim of the epitaph tablets was to eulogise the deceased, rather than to present a strictly factual biography. According to Angela Schottenhammer, their purpose was to introduce the deceased to the other world as exactly the kind of person he had been during his lifetime. As the other world was supposed to be something like a mirror of life, in which the deceased should be granted the same place in the hierarchy that he had obtained in his life-time, misrepresentations and falsifications would soon be unveiled and fail in their purpose.21 It is likely therefore, that the activities of the deceased, historical dates, names and occurrences were factual, but that aspects of moral conduct and other virtues may have been exaggerated. David McMullen has pointed out that during the Tang: Most of the texts consist of very brief resumes of their subjects’ official careers . . . They are often vague on the chronology of appointments in their subjects’ careers and refer at best obliquely to major political events or to social and military problems. Only rarely do the epitaphs show . . . flexibility of form and content, and the ability to include anecdotal material and personal statements . . . .22 Within Li Xian’s tomb there were two carved stone epitaph tablets, each with a carved stone cover. Written five years apart – one in 706 and the other in 711 – they are important sources of information which tell us as much about the times

34

Li Xian’s tomb

in which they were written as about Li Xian23 (Figure 2.3). The epitaph tablets reveal the successive improvements to Li Xian’s posthumous status and reflect changes in the political outlook and the increased confidence of the Li ascendancy in the period following Wu Zetian’s rule.24 The epitaph tablet cover carved for his reburial in 706 under Zhongzong, identifies him as Prince of Yong, Li Xian (Yong wang Li Xian). The 711 epitaph tablet cover identifies him as Crown Prince Zhanghuai (Zhanghuai taizi) indicating his subsequent elevation in status following Ruizong’s accession to the throne.25 The auspicious name Zhanghuai (‘cherish the rules’) which came into effect twenty-seven years after his death, associates his memory with honourable and law-abiding attributes. Although he resumed the title of Crown Prince (taizi), he did not regain the title of Heir Apparent Crown Prince (huang taizi), a rank normally given to the eldest son of a reigning emperor, which had been awarded to him by Gaozong.26 Further examples of improvements to his posthumous status lie in the descriptions of his lineage, in renovations to his tomb and in his wife’s burial. The 706 epitaph (a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 2.3 Rubbings of Li Xian’s epitaph tablets: (a) 706 epitaph tablet cover, (b) 706 epitaph tablet (20 90 90 cm), (c) 711 epitaph tablet cover, (d) 711 epitaph tablet (20 90 90 cm). (Sources: Zhang Hongxiu (ed.), Tang dai muzhi wenshi xuan bian; and Wenwu, 1972:7, p. 25.)

Li Xian’s tomb

35

declares Li Xian’s restoration to the imperial family lineage, saying that ‘the succession was broken [and] the original dynastic line was constrained’ until Li Xian was ‘brought back into the line of descent via the tomb’. It also states that Li Xian was the sixth son of Gaozong. This was revised in the 711 epitaph which describes Li Xian as the second son of Gaozong, which he was by Wu Zetian. Genealogy was important in the Tang period, and these statements were significant betterments of his standing.27 Renovations were made to the tomb in 711, when the new epitaph tablet and cover were made and the body of Li Xian’s wife, ‘Fang from Qinghe,’ was interred beside his in the tomb’s rear chamber. She had died in that year aged 53, and is recorded as having been an excellent wife who remained on good terms with Li Xian’s siblings. In the epitaph cover and inscription, she retained the title Imperial Consort ( fei ) which she had been awarded in 674. These improvements were significant, not only because they enhanced Li Xian’s image but also because they were a positive reflection on his whole family. In political terms, the 706 epitaph was critical of Wu Zetian and the 711 version was bold in its assertions of Tang rule. The Tang had been restored without Wu Zetian’s opposition, but in 706 her Wu family clique was still evident in government. The 706 epitaph was written and sculpted anonymously with the ‘Great Tang’ dynasty named on the epitaph tablet cover, but no dynasty named on the epitaph tablet. Li Xian had been perceived as a rival to Wu authority, and this may be an indication of judicious caution, given tensions and power struggles in government at that time. It was not reticent in its attitude to the deceased Wu Zetian, however, describing her as ‘the formerly imperial Wu Zhao [who] seized power as a despot’ and had ‘surrendered the throne by abdication.’ The 711 tablet by contrast, names Lucan, the Grand Master for Bright Official Emoluments with Silver Seal and Blue Ribbon (yinqing guanlu dafu), Preceptor (shi) to Li Xian’s son, Shouli, and Supreme Pillar of State (shang zhuguo), as the author.28 Lucan was well known as an opponent of the Wu family and is recorded in the Xin Tang shu as having spoken in favour of Li Xian under Zhongzong.29 Its sculptor, the Prince of Qi, Li Fan, was Ruizong’s fourth son and known to be against the Wu family.30 This tablet states that Li Xian was demoted, exiled and died as a result of defamatory rumours spread about him to Emperor Gaozong. It credits the conferring of his title Prince of Yong as being given by Li Zhishi under instructions from Wu Zetian who is only credited with the status of Empress Dowager (huang taihou), the standard official designation for the mother of a reigning emperor, rather than as the ruler of her own dynasty as she had been.31 It can be argued that Ruizong’s regrade of Li Xian to Crown Prince and new honorific name marked renewed Li family confidence six years after Wu Zetian’s demise and the 711 epitaph was a public statement of it.32 It ‘retrospectively corrected’ the history of the Zhou era with a view to strengthening perceptions of the Li line through those years.33 Epitaph tablets were carried in the funeral procession along with burial objects, and after the funeral they remained in the sealed tomb. The public exhibition of these epitaph tablets and the reading of them at the funeral rite would have made them powerful political statements at that time,

36

Li Xian’s tomb

while their interment in the tomb gave them the potential to stand as official historical records in perpetuity.

Li Xian’s tomb Li Xian’s imperial tomb was built 3 km to the south-east of the Qianling primary mound. The description of the form, decoration and contents of the tomb, which follows, establishes the character of his mortuary complex as an architectonic whole, in, as clearly as can be known, its condition in the early eighth century.34 Like Chang’an, Li Xian’s tomb had three sectors – in this case, an outer sector, an inner-walled compound, and a palace sector located underground. Externally, Li Xian’s tomb consisted of a pair of watchtowers, pairs of stone sculptures, a compound wall with gate and watchtowers, a processional path, a tomb garden, and a pyramidal tomb mound (Figure 2.4). Internally, on a long axis, there was a descending passage and tunnel, four light wells, six side niches, a front corridor, a square front chamber, a rear corridor, and a square rear coffin chamber (Figure 2.5). The tomb interior was fitted and furnished with four stone lintels, a wooden door, a stone door, two pairs of stone epitaph tablets each with an epitaph tablet cover, a stone coffin platform, a stone outer coffin, wall and ceiling murals, and mortuary objects including numerous pottery figurines. These key components are consistent with other Tang imperial tombs, although there were variations from tomb to tomb in the award, or not, of particular elements, their dimensions, and number, depending on the tomb occupant’s status and the resources devoted to the tomb’s production. The outer sector of Li Xian’s tomb compound began with watchtowers; these were located 50 m to the south of the tomb mound.35 A stately processional path was aligned on a north–south axis connecting the tomb’s watchtowers, inner gate and underground entrance. A pair of carved stone rams stood immediately before the inner gateway, to indicate that the tomb belonged to a member of the nobility. Recently, an octagonal stone pillar was uncovered near the site, indicating that there was probably a pair of ornamental pillars in addition to the stone rams. The rams almost certainly date from 706, while the pillars most likely date from the time of the tomb’s renovation in 711, when Li Xian was posthumously upgraded from Prince to Crown Prince, as such pillars are usually associated with emperors’ tombs and, in special cases, those ranked just below emperor. The inner compound was equivalent to Li Xian’s imperial or administrative compound, and, appropriately, was surrounded by a protective wall of rammed earth. It measured 180 m north–south and 143 m east–west, enclosing an area of 2.6 ha; today, only the lower parts of the east, north-east and west sections of the wall remain. As was generally the case for tombs of members of the Tang imperial family below the rank of emperor and empress, access to this tomb compound could be gained only through the single gateway in the centre of its south wall. This south gate was flanked by a pair of watchtowers which would have been manned by armed guards who had the duty of ensuring that only those authorized

Li Xian’s tomb

37

143 m Perimeter walls

Garden compound

Approx. 2.6 ha

43 m

11 m 11 m

Burial mound 18 m high

180 m

43 m

Underground tunnel and passage

Tomb entrance Watch towers

Stone sheep

Processional path

10 5 0

N

10

20 m

Figure 2.4 Diagram of Li Xian’s tomb compound.

to do so could pass.36 Within the rectangular compound walls there would have been a beautifully landscaped garden akin to an imperial park. The most significant external feature of the tomb was its truncated square pyramidal mound of tamped earth, near the centre of the compound, 18 m high, 43 m square at the base and 11 m square at the top.

Plan

Passage 2 Tunnel 3

Side niches

Robbers hole

Vent shafts 1

Side niches

l

Tunn e

4

4

Corridor

Wooden door

Fron t

Wooden door

Front corridor

Vent shafts

Ventilation shafts 2 3

Side niches

1

Section from south to north

age

Pas s

Front chamber

Front chamber

Tomb

Stone door

5 43 2 10

5

10 m

Rear chamber

Stone outer coffin

Epitaph from 706 from 711 tablets

Rear corridor

Stone door

Stone outer coffin Rear chamber

Mound

Rear corridor

Figure 2.5 Diagrammatic layout of Li Xian’s tomb: (upper) section from south to north, (lower) plan. (Based on data in Wenwu, 1972:7, pp. 13–25 and 45–58.)

Tomb entrance

Tomb entrance

N

Li Xian’s tomb

39

The tomb interior Beneath ground level lay Li Xian’s grandly proportioned and magnificently decorated ‘princely palace’. The 71 m long tomb interior, which continued the north–south axis established by the processional path, had its floor, walls and ceiling lined with kiln-fired bricks. The walls and ceilings were further coated with a 10 mm thick layer of mud mixed with straw, covered by white clay mixed with cotton fibre and finished with a 2 mm thick layer of carefully smoothed lime plaster sized with peach and other fruit gums, as a ground for its illusionistically painted murals – magnificent scenes of landscape and architecture inhabited by dozens of figures, many life size.37 The use of mural paintings in tombs had a long history from the Western Han on, through the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, to the Tang.38 At the time Princess Xincheng’s tomb was built, in 663, the paintings were done directly on to the brick wall as they had been in the Han period, so the early eighth century case was a significant technological advance, with further advances evident by 710 in the tomb of Crown Prince Jiemin, for example, where some surfaces of paintings of clothing and weapons were raised with decorative designs.39 A rich palette made from a variety of pigments was applied to the white ground. Some were derived from plants or were man-made, but most were made from minerals, including orpiment, minium, red clay, crimson vitriol, and realgar for red, orpiment, litharge, and gold powder for yellow, malachite and choline copper for green, azurite, lapis lazuli and ultramarine for blue, lead, vitriol, kaolin, chalk, mica, talcum, gypsum and quartz for white, charcoal for black, and brown lead for dark brown. Gold leaf, silver leaf and pearl powder were also used in the most luxurious tombs.40 The effect was of a self-contained kingdom with expansive parkland estate, gateways, a walled administrative sector, an imperial audience hall and Li Xian’s private inner palace, all fully equipped with companions, guests, officials, guards, attendants, concubines, and supplies (see Figure 6.4). The real space was substantial in its own right, and the illusion of depth created in the murals further enhanced the effect. The underground space began with the passage, a 20 m long descending section about 3 m wide with walls increasing from 1 m to 6.5 m in height. This large space evoked a vast open space, of outdoor activities, foreign affairs, ceremony and security. An expansive mural of hunting began the east wall, and opposite, on the west wall, was a lively scene of polo playing in a rugged landscape. The middle section of the passage was marked with the directional animals of the east and west – the dragon and the tiger – in the upper band, with three foreign ambassadors and three Chinese officials on each side, level with the viewer. A General and Honour Guards of the Crown Prince stood at the north end of the passage, just before a trompe-l’oeil gate tower, 6.5 m high and about 3 m wide, through which one had to pass to progress to the tomb tunnel. The walled administrative sector of the tomb was made up of an 18.5 m long descending tunnel with four light wells penetrating its barrel vaulted ceiling and three storage niches on each side for ceramic burial objects.41 The entry to the

40

Li Xian’s tomb

tunnel appeared fortified with illusionistic representations of a simple guardhouse manned by gate surveillance guards at its mouth. The psychological effect of passing the paintings of guards heightened the sense of control achieved through the reduction in real space in the tomb tunnel. Beyond the guardhouse, there were two murals of halberd racks, in parallel to the case in real palaces and aristocratic mansions where it was usual to have racks of halberds inside the main gate, for defence and as a sign of the occupant’s high status. Other murals in the tunnel were of eunuchs and palace maidens in acts of palace administration, supply and maintenance. The tunnel ceiling was decorated with floral designs. Beyond the tunnel, a eunuch door monitor was painted on the right wall before the tomb’s wooden door as if controlling entry to the tomb’s horizontal front corridor and front chamber. The door, badly rotten by the time of excavation in 1971–1972, was originally decorated with a pair of gilded door knockers, had a gilded copper lock, and was covered with studs and sheets of gilded copper fixed by copper nails. One metre inside the door, were six pieces of lead of various shapes – round, square, rectangular and oval – weighing 65 kg in total; today, their purpose is unclear. There were also a cross bow and arrows with iron heads, probably for the symbolic protection of Li Xian. Upon excavation of the front corridor, archaeologists discovered a circular silver-plated bronze mirror decorated with auspicious animals and a poem on a paradise theme42 (Figure 2.6). This was not the original location of the mirror, which had most likely been dropped by looters who had

Figure 2.6 Silver-plated bronze mirror from Li Xian’s tomb. Early eighth century. 17 mm thick, 24.5 cm diameter. Qianling Museum. (Source: Wang Wenqing (ed.), Ten Major Museums of Shaanxi, p. 123.)

Li Xian’s tomb

41

entered the tomb in its early years through a hole dug in the south-east corner of the second light well. (The light wells, passage and tunnel were filled after the funeral rites, as part of the sealing of the tomb.) The presence of the mirror points to the interment of other finely crafted treasures, now lost, intended as articles for Li Xian’s use in the afterlife. The front corridor, 14 m long, 2.1 m high and 1.7 m wide was adorned with mural paintings of eunuch and female attendants, female musicians and entertainers. The 6 m high front chamber was 4.5 m square, with murals to a height of 2.65 m around the walls, and its ceiling rising to a pointed dome. The murals in this chamber were among the most beautiful in the tomb with convincing near life size images in a garden pavilion. These were mainly of women of high status and included Matron officials with a male and female dwarf, palace favourites, dancers, musicians and entertainers amusing themselves in a pavilion with cinnabar red painted posts, brackets and beams within a palace garden. The ceiling was painted as a domed sky with the Milky Way, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the toad and rabbit pounding medicinal herbs.43 The highest status area within the tomb was its most inaccessible sector, corresponding to the most private areas of Li Xian’s inner palace. This sector began with a low stone door, and consisted of the rear corridor and coffin chamber. The rear corridor was 9 m long, 2 m high and 1.7 m wide, and beyond it was the secluded rear chamber, just slightly larger than the front chamber, at 5 m square. There were three semi-circular stone lintels at the portals to the tomb chambers, with this section containing a fourth in its corridor as well as the rest of the tomb’s stone fittings – the door, an outer coffin, a coffin platform and two pairs of epitaph tablets. For tombs up to and including the Tang period it was comparatively rare for a tomb to contain all of these. Stone doors and stone coffin platforms were particularly rare, permitted only to members of the royal family and officials of Grade 2 and above.44 Li Xian’s tomb is one of a small number in this category, along with those of Yide, Yongtai and Li Shou (577–630, buried 631) for example.45 The stone door, just inside the rear corridor, consisted of a step, stone architrave, lintel and semi-circular arch, and two doors panels, all beautifully decorated with delicate incised line carving46 (Figure 2.7). The door panels were each inscribed with a eunuch official while the back of the doors were quite plain. The doors’ edges, the jambs and step were exquisitely carved with broad bands of peonies in swirling arabesques. At the left and right ends of the step there was a roaring lion’s head in frontal view, while the beam had two lions each chasing a flying horse, and the semi-circular lintel had a design of two phoenixes. The rear chamber created the illusion of a secluded garden in which the very highest status woman, probably Imperial Consort Fang, is portrayed relaxing in privacy, surrounded by her retinue of female and eunuch attendants. The ceiling again represented the heavens, though this was in large part destroyed by robbers who scraped off the gold leaf used to represent the sun, the moon and the stars.47 Despite the damage caused by looting and deterioration through the years, the original burial arrangement of the rear chamber can be determined through a number of observations made in the 1972 excavation report about the remaining evidence of coffins and human remains (Figure 2.8). Li Xian’s stone outer coffin

42

Li Xian’s tomb

Figure 2.7 Rubbing of the stone doorway located in rear corridor of Li Xian’s tomb. 706. 212 cm high. (Source: Ars Orientalis, vol. 17, 1987, figure 4.)

stood on a stone platform to the west side of the rear chamber. Originally, it had held burial articles, later pillaged by robbers who prized open the stone slabs at its south end. Within the stone outer coffin was a wooden inner coffin containing Li Xian’s body. The wooden coffin was badly rotten at the time of excavation, but there were still skull fragments and two leg bones in the north-east corner of the stone outer coffin. Human bones were also found on the floor of the rear chamber, including a leg bone excavated outside the west wall of the outer coffin and presumed to belong to Li Xian’s wife. Some smashed pieces of rib, vertebrae and a shoulder bone were discovered in the rear corridor, probably having been flushed there by water. The tomb contained only one stone outer coffin in the shape of a house, including a simulated ceramic tile hip roof, and it is probable that in 711 Fang’s body was placed with Li Xian’s inside the stone sarcophagus. The stone outer coffin was 2 m high, 4 m long and 3 m wide, consisting of 33 large stone slabs with 8 for the coffin platform, 20 for the walls and 5 for the roof.48 It was incised with line drawings which simulated architectural details including

Li Xian’s tomb

Stone outer coffin

43

Leg bone found between west wall and outer coffin

South end of outer coffin prised open

Bones found in rear corridor

706 epitaph cover and tablet as found in 1971

Wooden inner coffin rotten skull fragments and two leg bones found here

711 epitaph tablet and cover as found in 1971

Human bones found on the floor N

1

0.5

0

1m

Figure 2.8 Plan of Li Xian’s tomb, rear chamber. (Based on descriptions in Wenwu, 1972:7, pp. 13–14.)

doors with arabesque peony borders and windows. Dexterously drawn eunuchs and beautiful female attendants were incised around the sides of the ‘house’. Dramatic images of a flying lion and a flying horse were above the north and south doors, while amid swirling cloud designs, flying finches prepare to nest as they carry twigs in their mouths. The tomb was unusual in containing two stone epitaph tablets and covers. The 706 epitaph tablet and cover were located in the right side of the rear corridor just before the portal to the rear chamber (Figure 2.3a and b). The cover consists of nine characters and the epitaph of about 1600 characters in 40 columns. The 711 epitaph tablet and cover were located in the rear chamber to the east of the outer coffin, in line with the rear corridor (Figure 2.3c and d). This cover consists of 16 characters and the epitaph of about 1100 characters in 34 columns. In 1971, the 706 tablet cover was found face up on the floor of the rear corridor, and the epitaph tablet was propped vertically to the east side of the corridor with its inscription

44

Li Xian’s tomb

facing the wall. It is likely that both the 706 tablet and cover were placed vertically against the wall when they became redundant in 711, and that the 706 cover had fallen to the floor later. The 711 epitaph tablet and cover were found separated so that both could be read.49 The 706 tablet and cover each measure 90 cm square and each is 20 cm high. The 711 tablet and cover are 87 cm square and each is 17 cm high. The two epitaph tablet covers use the same style of ornate seal script (zhuanshu) which was standard at that time, the 706 version in relief, the 711 version in more simple intaglio. The eulogies on the epitaph tablets were carved using elegant standard script (kaishu). Fine incised line decorations were carved on both epitaph tablet covers in two square bands around the seal character inscriptions. The 706 tablet cover has the twelve calendrical animals on the horizontal plane and arabesque peony patterns on the bevelled edges of the tablets. The 711 tablet cover has swirling cloud designs on the horizontal plane, and clouds, flying birds and lotuses on the bevelled edge. There are incised designs on the vertical sides of the epitaph tablets with arabesque peony patterns on the 706 tablet and what appear to be swirling cloud designs on the 711 tablet.

The ceramic mortuary wares Wang Renbo studied Sui–Tang mortuary wares excavated in the Xi’an area, and noted six main subjects which were popular.50 Those are tomb guardians, including warriors, heavenly kings (tian wang), apotropaic beasts and the twelve calendrical animals; ceremonial figures and attendants, primarily consisting of ox-drawn carts, horses and camels, mounted warriors and hunters, grooms and musicians; servants; animals; utensils for everyday life; and architectural models. Wang Renbo’s view of Tang interest in particular funerary wares is summarized in Table 2.1. There were 600 items of pottery stored in the six side niches of Li Xian’s tomb, mostly made of earthenware clay. Their subject matter reflects all six categories identified by Wang, and typifies the interests of the Wu Zetian and Zhongzong period. Long before the tomb was excavated in 1971–1972, grave robbers had smashed almost all the objects and put the pieces into complete disarray. This made it impossible for archaeologists to determine the exact arrangement of the ceramic mortuary wares, although they did give a superficial account of some of the contents stored in the niches in their 1972 excavation report.51 The first pair of niches contained standing human figurines, singers and dancers, male and female equestrian figurines, pigs, dogs, sheep, cows and other animals. The second pair of niches had sancai or tricolour standing human figurines, singers and dancers, pigs, dogs, sheep, cows, chickens and large sancai horses and camels. The third niches had sancai military official figurines, civil official figurines and guardians in the form of warriors and apotropaic beasts, as well as a colour painted canister in the form of a Buddhist pagoda and green glazed flowerpots. The use of earthenware in Li Xian’s tomb reflected a new norm, low-fired ceramics proliferating in the eighth century, after the extensive use of high-fired ceramics in the seventh century.52 The objects in the tomb were of a type of clay body commonly used in that period – light in colour, with a pale straw yellow tint due to the iron

Li Xian’s tomb

45

Table 2.1 Sui–Tang periods and their interest in particular mortuary wares Reign

Dates

Popular mortuary wares

Beginning of Sui to Gaozong

581–683

●

Wu Zetian and Zhongzong

684 –710

Ruizong to Daizong

710–779

Dezong to the end of the Tang

779–907

Ceramics Interest in travel and ceremony, for example tomb guardians, and ceremonial paraphernalia associated with the travels of the deceased, especially ox carts and ceremonial attendants ● Ceramics, including sancai (tricolour wares) ● Emphasis on travel and ceremony, for example groups of ceremonial attendants, horses with riders (which gradually replaced ox carts), standing horses with grooms ● Ceramics ● More emphasis on domestic life, for example youthful servants, garden villas, rockeries ● Ceramics was less popular ● Elaborate gold, silver, brocade and embroidered ornaments After Xianzong (r.805–820) ● The number of ceramic objects decreased while metal and wooden sculptures became more popular ●

content.53 The aesthetic and technical quality of the examples in Li Xian’s tomb ranged from roughly finished low temperature fired bisque ware, to fine and decorative glaze ware.54 Most of the objects were mass produced using press moulds, with the pieces modelled together by hand. For human figurines, two separate moulds were used to make the heads, with the resulting pieces being joined together and a shank added at the neck which could be inserted into the body before final modelling and finishing. Since the heads frequently had identical features, the figures were made more expressive through small adjustments to the positions of the head. Horses and camels followed the same principles, though more moulds were needed to produce them; they varied simply, according to the attitude of neck and position of the legs. Surface marking which added to the detail and decorative effect was created through stamping, scratching, carving and applique techniques. Colour decoration, when applied, was often in the form of sancai glazes, in combination or not, with coloured paint; paint was also used as a finish in its own right. Sancai lead glazes had been in use for around thirty years by the time Li Xian’s ceramic tomb wares were produced. The earliest known Tang sancai pottery dates to 675, and was discovered by archaeologists in the tomb of Li Feng, in Fuping County, Shaanxi.55 Sancai production occurred in only a few areas of pottery manufacture during the Tang; they were the metropolitan areas of Chang’an and Luoyang, and in Gongxian.56 By the early eighth century, the technique of sancai glazing was well established, with large quantities of objects produced with increasingly well controlled forms, detail and finishes. Firing was done in two stages and the use of white slip before glazing helped to create a clearer, brighter quality

46

Li Xian’s tomb

of colour than would have been the case if the glaze had been applied directly to the body, since the iron content of the clay would have discoloured the glaze.57 In high status tombs the sancai figures could exceed 1 m in height, as was the case in a number of examples in Li Xian’s tomb. These were significant examples, as by the middle of the eighth century sancai mortuary figures were no longer made. The large scale sancai wares in Li Xian’s tomb included those on a travel theme such as groom figures, camels and horses. Among these were a number of sancai groom figures 59 cm high, made from the same mould. The one in Figure 2.9 with hair plaits wound up at the ears, wears a yellow under shirt, green robe with the lapel turned back, a belt and boots. His hands are positioned as if holding the reins of a horse and there are holehrough the fists, indicating that leather reins may have originally been strung through them. The horses were about 75 cm high and 80 cm long, with sancai, yellow or reddish brown glaze, and brown saddles. Figure 2.10 shows a bearded foreign groom. The 54 cm high figure stands as if holding reins and wears a pointed hat, and a similar costume to the horse groom described above. The accompanying 83 cm high, 66 cm long brown glazed Bactrian camel has its two humps exposed through a green glazed rug, its tail raised and its neck arched back proudly. Protective figurines included civil and military officials, heavenly kings and guardian beasts. There were two sancai civil official figures, each 118 cm high, with noble faces and a refined demeanour; Plate 3 (right) shows one. The civil officials stand erect on contoured platforms, hands clasped before them wearing the tall and elegant hats of officials, long robes which extend to the ground with

Figure 2.9 Groom and horse. From Li Xian’s tomb. 706. Sancai earthenware pottery. 59 cm high and 75 cm high. (Courtesy of Qianling Museum.)

Li Xian’s tomb

47

Figure 2.10 Groom With Bactrian camel. From Li Xian’s tomb. 706. Sancai earthenware pottery. 54 cm high and 83 cm high. (Courtesy of Qianling Museum.)

full sleeves and plain collars, and have elaborate shoes which are turned up at the toes. The two military official figures, designated as such by the flying birds on their hats, were each 117 cm high, also on platforms, with hands clasped; Plate 3 (left) shows one. In contrast to the civil officials, the military officials have stern expressions, with bulging eyes, broad noses and full lips. They wear knee length jackets, pants and boots suitable for riding. The inclusion of a pair of heavenly kings (tian wang) in Li Xian’s tomb reflects the supplanting of warrior guardian figures which occurred in the mid-seventh century.58 The 120 cm high heavenly kings in Li Xian’s tomb are similar to these earlier versions found in Tang tombs of the late seventh century, with the difference that they are freer in pose and have humanoid pedestals, though they are less dramatic and less refined than those produced closer to the mid-eighth century. The two figures mirror each other. The one in Figure 2.11 wears a helmet with turned up ear flaps, elbow length shoulder guards, a turned up collar guard, breast plates, a midriff guard and split-front thigh protectors. Beneath the armour, he wears a knee length jacket and pants, which are full above the knee, due to his tightly strapped shin protectors. He is of foreign appearance with bulging eyes, large nose, bushy eyebrows, handlebar moustache and goatee beard, and has a ferocious expression. He stands on a pedestal, his right foot suppressing

48

Li Xian’s tomb

Figure 2.11 Heavenly king. From Li Xian’s tomb. 706. Sancai earthenware pottery. 120 cm high. (Courtesy of Qianling Museum.)

a dwarf in half human, half animal form. His left hand rests aggressively on his hip and his right hand is raised as if he may have originally held a halberd. The use of heavenly kings in tombs paralleled the increasing portrayal of such images in Buddhist temples, as demonstrated in the Fengxian Temple group at Longmen, carved under Gaozong’s orders during 672–675, and reflects the influence of Indian art authenticated from India through the increased activities of Buddhist pilgrim and missionary monks, as well as trade and diplomatic activities during the seventh century.59 Janet Baker has argued that the inclusion of heavenly kings figurines in selected upper class tombs was a sign of the occupants’ favourable imperial connections and loyal support of the ruling house in the Tang period from the late seventh century.60 In Li Xian’s tomb’s two apotropaic beasts sit on contoured pedestals of a type largely standardized by the eighth century61 (Figure 2.12). One, 90 cm high, has a lion’s face and body, with two horns on the head and wings from the shoulders. The other, 100 cm high, has a human face, lion’s body, horse’s hooves, one horn and wings. The single innovation in the pair from Li Xian’s tomb is the use of paws on the lion faced beast; hooves had been the norm since the Sui period.

Li Xian’s tomb

49

Figure 2.12 Two apotropaic beasts. From Li Xian’s tomb. 706. Sancai earthenware pottery. 100 cm and 90 cm high. (Courtesy of Qianling Museum.)

Other significant ceramic objects included a canister in the form of a Buddhist pagoda, described in the excavation report as broad at the base and narrow at the top, made of white clay, decorated with purple-red, bright red, yellow and blue paint. There were also two flower pots with flat rims and an emerald green glaze, one plain and the other with horizontal line marking around it. Both have straight sides which flare evenly to the top, and have a hole in the base.62 Li Xian’s tomb stands as a representative example of the physical form, contents and decoration in the grand tradition of imperial Tang tomb building. Like earlier Chinese graves of the ruling class, the tomb was designed to resemble a palace inhabited by officials, dignitaries, guards, attendants and animals and it contained images of provisions needed to sustain life.

3

Relative status

[He] sank to the netherworld so that he [regained] his outstanding reputation and [lived in] richness and splendour, lushness and fragrance.1

Increasing standardization in the early eighth century provided great scope for making powerful statements through subtle distinctions in the status of particular imperial tombs. Variations in the location, size, furnishings and decoration of imperial tombs were used not only to convey social standing, these variables were manipulated for the purposes of asserting the political authority of the ruling elite. The award of a tomb at an imperial necropolis to a member of the imperial family was a means to define the posthumous position of an individual within that family. To be denied a tomb was effectively to be excluded from the family and this could reflect on the standing of surviving family members. Crown Prince Li Xian, Crown Prince Yide, and Princess Yongtai all suffered premature deaths during the period of Wu Zetian’s control, and were buried in commoners’ graves distant from the capital and its imperial cemeteries. Early in the second reign of Emperor Zhongzong, following the abdication of Empress Wu Zetian, each was awarded a burial in a grand mausoleum attendant to Qianling. Their tombs are three principal subsidiary ones at that imperial necropolis and were built simultaneously in the years 705–706. Comparison of the three mausolea provides a fascinating and tangible demonstration of the use of the form and fittings of tombs to award hierarchical distinctions in status to particular imperial family members and thereby to create potent symbols of the Emperor’s hegemony.

Tomb standardization and status Su Bai completed the most important work on the encoding of hierarchical distinctions in Tang tombs. He developed a model of the typology of Tang tombs in the Xi’an area, which delineates particular norms of tomb form and correlates these to the rank of the tomb occupant.2 This typology is founded on the analysis of a vocabulary of external and internal architectonic elements, fixtures, furnishings and decorations employed in tombs from those of emperors to those of the common people.3 His conclusions are listed in Table 3.1.

Relative status 51 Table 3.1 The main Tang tomb types Type and description

Rank band

Ling: Triple chambered tombs

Emperors

Type 1: Twin chambered tombs with square and arc-square brick chambers

Used exclusively for people ranked above ordinary officials and ministers, that is, members of the imperial family of Grade 1 and above, and highly ranked officers given special merit

Type 2: Single chambered tombs with square and arc-square brick chambers

Grades 1 to 3 tomb chamber approximately 4 m square

●

Rank sub-divisions

Grades 1 and 2 stone coffin platforms ● stone doors ●

Grade 3 stone doors

●

Grades 4 and 5 ● tomb chamber less than 3.5 m square ● brick coffin platform Type 3: Tombs with single chambers, earth dug, no brick lining, mainly for Grades 6 to 9

Grades 4 and 5 ● tomb chamber less than 3.5 m square ● brick coffin platform ● brick floors ● larger chambers than the lower grades Grades 6 to 9, and some unranked

Type 4: Single chambered rectangular ‘earth holes’

Common people

Type 5: Vertical pits, vertical holes with openings at the side and half open tombs

Common people

Although no Tang emperors’ tombs have been excavated (apart from the meagre quality, small scale late Tang tomb of Emperor Xizong, dating from 888), it is speculated that these normally had three chambers on a single axis, and contained jade epitaph tablets.4 Of the Tang imperial tombs which have been excavated, the highest in status are those with two chambers. In the Han and Song dynasties, for example, twin chambered tombs could be used by ordinary people, but in the Tang their use was strictly reserved, to be awarded under special circumstances only by favour of the emperor. Type 2, 3, 4 and 5 tombs were in standard use. The exceptional privilege of receiving a twin chambered tomb is

52

Relative status

indicated by their limited number. Twenty Type 1 tombs are known to exist and were produced during the reigns of Gaozong, Wu Zetian, Zhongzong, Ruizong and Xuanzong, that is from 649 to 756. The tombs of Zheng Rentai (664), Princess Fangling (673), Li Xian (706) Yide (706), Yongtai (706), Wei Jiong (708) and Duke Li Ren (710) are in that select category. Each tomb occupant was especially distinguished. Zheng Rentai, a trusted general of Gaozu was given a tomb attendant to Zhaoling.5 Princess Fangling was the sixth daughter of Gaozu and her tomb is attendant to Xianling. Wei Jiong, the brother of Zhongzong’s Empress Wei, had died in 692 during Wu Zetian’s reign and was reburied in a twin chambered tomb in 708; he was awarded the posthumous title Prince of Zhunyang.6 Duke Li Ren, reburied in 710, was Zhongzong’s cousin who helped him to recover the throne, but was killed confronting Wu Zetian’s nephew, Wu Sansi, and was posthumously demoted by Wu Zetian.7

Three elite twin chambered tombs Of all the twin chambered tombs, those of Li Xian, Yide, and Yongtai were particularly distinguished. All three have significantly larger front chambers than the other seventeen known Type 1 tombs, and each has a stone outer coffin and four stone lintels with arched tops, in contrast to standard Type 1 tombs which do not have stone outer coffins, and seldom have stone lintels.8 These characteristics were a very high honour and a clear expression of extremely elevated status above that normally associated with emperors’ subordinates. Table 3.2 gives an indication of the superiority of these three exceptional Type 1 tombs, compared with Duke Li Ren’s standard Type 1 tomb dating from 710.9 Duke Li Ren was the cousin of Zhongzong and Ruizong, and lost his life in support of the Li-Tang restoration. When Ruizong resumed the throne in 710, he restored his title and gave him a luxurious burial, yet his Type 1 tomb did not exceed the size or the number of stone fittings awarded to Li Xian, Yide, and Yongtai.10 There are a number of factors common to Li Xian, Yide and Yongtai which account for Zhongzong granting them extraordinary mausolea privileges and the right to reinterment at Qianling. All had met untimely deaths after having fallen foul of Wu Zetian and all were posthumously reinstated with honours by Zhongzong when he became Emperor again after Wu Zetian’s abdication. The ranks of Crown Prince and Princess were restored to his children, and the posthumous honorific names Yide (‘good virtue’) and Yongtai (‘forever tranquil’) were given to them, replacing the names Li Chongrun and Li Xianhui. In addition, Yide was given a posthumous marriage to an official’s daughter and they were buried together, and the body of Yongtai’s husband, Wu Yanji, was interred with hers. Li Xian’s position in the imperial family has been discussed in Chapter 2. Yide and Yongtai were the eldest son and seventh daughter of Zhongzong, and the grandson and granddaughter of Gaozong and Wu Zetian, so all three were members of Zhongzong’s immediate family and direct descendants of the Tang emperors. Their positions are important in understanding the tombs as symbols of Zhongzong’s Li-Tang restoration. In life Li Xian and Yide had held firm

Yide

Yongtai

Li Ren

Crown Prince

Princess

Upper Grade 1 (Duke)

Note a Height not known due to tomb collapse.

Li Xian/ Zhanghuai

occupant

Tomb

Prince/ Crown Prince

Rank

710

706

706

706/711

Year

Table 3.2 Comparison of four Type 1 tombs

55 6.5 m high 5 5.3 7.1 m high 5.3 5.4 5.5 m high 4.5 4.5 ?ma

4.5 4.5 6 m high 4.45 4.54 6.3 m high 4.7 4.9 5.3 m high 3.15 3.3 ?ma

Rear chamber

Front chamber

Stone

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

door

Stone

0

4

4

4

lintels

Stone

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

outer coffin

Stone

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

coffin platform

54

Relative status

positions in the scheme of Tang patrilineal ascendancy. Li Xian had been Heir Apparent Crown Prince, and as a young child, Yide was appointed to a significant position in line to the throne. Of Yide, the Jiu Tang shu records that In the second year of the Kaiyao reign period [682], when Zhongzong was Crown Prince, Chongrun was born at the Eastern Palace (Dong gong). Gaozong was delighted and when Chongrun was one month old, issued a general pardon. He then changed the year title from Kaiyao to Yongchun. That year Chongrun was given the official title Imperial Grandson-heir [huang taisun], and a new government office with official government categories was opened.11 The title Imperial Grandson-heir conferred by Gaozong upon the boy at his birth, established Yide’s entitlement as second in line to the throne while his father remained in place as Heir Apparent. Gaozong even established a fully staffed official residence for the infant to commemorate the occasion. These unorthodox proceedings, one year after Li Xian’s demotion and a year before Gaozong’s death, probably indicate that Gaozong was aiming to secure consolidation of the patriline at a time when his health and political control were weakening. The common opposition of these three members of the royal house to Wu Zetian and her regime was an important factor in earning them grand mortuary honours. There has been considerable discussion of their opposition to Wu Zetian resulting in the premature demise of each. Li Xian’s role has already been discussed. The Tang Histories record that in 701, Yide was beaten to death and that Yongtai and her husband were killed under Wu Zetian’s orders, after secretly criticizing the Zhang brothers ‘easy access’ to the Empress’ private apartments.12 Yongtai’s epitaph tablet inscription indicates that she and her husband were poisoned. Yide was 19 years old at the time of his murder and Yongtai, was aged 17. Their dissenting roles make their tombs logical sites for the investment of antiWu, pro-Li family sentiments. While Li Xian, Yide, and Yongtai were all given special honours through their tombs’ forms, only the tombs of Yide and Yongtai were given the special designation of ‘ling ’, a term usually reserved for emperors’ tombs.13 According to their forms, the tombs of Yide and Yongtai were actually one level below an emperor’s tomb, making their designation as ling all the more significant. It was not only in designation that Li Xian’s tomb was inferior to those of his nephew and niece. Given that Tang tomb status was established by virtue of size and quantity, and that mortuary entitlements were stringently regulated in the early eighth century, it is evident that Li Xian’s tomb was superior to standard Type 1 tombs, but the lowest in status of the three exceptional Type 1 tombs.14 This indicates that each of the three was distinctive as a permanent public demonstration of supreme elevation in varying degrees. Table 3.3 summarises the individual variations in the key elements shared by these three exceptional Type 1 tombs.15 Analysis of the data indicates that Yide’s tomb is significantly longer and has more ventilation shafts. The tombs of both Yide and Yongtai were provided with eight side niches and eight incense burners, two more of each than for Li Xian’s

Table 3.3 Main characteristics in the three extraordinary Type 1 tombs Li Xian’s tomb

Yide’s tomb

Yongtai’s tomb

Designated ‘ling’

No

Yes

Yes

Tomb complex dimensions

N–S 180 m E–W 143 m

N–S 256.5 m E–W 214.5 m

N–S 363 m E–W 220 m

Tomb mound

Truncated square pyramid



Mound dimensions

Base: 43 43 m Apex: 11 11 m Height: 18 m

Base: 56.7 55 m

Base: 56 56 m

Height: 17.92 m

Stone sculptures

1 pair sheep 1 pair pillars

1 pair lions 1 pair pillars 2 pairs men

1 pair lions 1 pair pillars 2 pairs men

Interior tomb length

71 m

100.8 m

87.5 m

Passage length

20 m

26.3 m

23.35 m

Ventilation shafts

4

7

6

Chambers

2

2

2

Square or arcsquare sided chambers

Square

Square

Arc-square

Front corridor length

14 m

20.3 m

20.8 m

Front chamber dimensions

4.5 4.5 6m

4.45 4.54 6.3 m

4.7 4.9 5.35 m

Rear corridor length

9m

8.45 m

7.25 m

Rear chamber dimensions

55 6.5 m

5 5.3 7.1 m

5.3 5.4 5.5 m

Side niches

6

8

8

Wooden door between tunnel and front corridor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Stone lintels

4

4

4

Stone door in rear corridor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Epitaph tablets

2 pairs 1 pair in rear Rear corridor pair chamber 90 90 20 cm, (incomplete) Rear chamber pair 87 87 17 cm

1 pair in tunnel 1.19 1.19 m

Stone outer coffin

Yes

Yes

Yes

Incense burners

6

8

8

56

Relative status

Figure 3.1 Stone sculpture of a sheep. One of a pair at Li Xian’s tomb, Qianling. 706.

tomb. The tombs of Yide and Yongtai have pairs of sculpted stone lions, men and pillars flanking the processional path where Li Xian’s had a pair of stone sheep – a sign normally consistent with a noble’s tomb – with a pair of pillars added, probably in 71116 (Figure 3.1). Overall, these differences indicate that of the three, Yide’s tomb is the most prestigious, followed by that of Yongtai, then of Li Xian. Further analysis shows that the chambers of Yongtai’s tomb are arc-square in shape, which Su Bai asserts signify higher status than square chambers, and have the largest floor area of the three. This is not cause to elevate Yongtai’s tomb above that of Yide, however. Su Bai records that the high rank of brick tomb owners is reflected in the taller dimension of the tomb chamber. The chambers

Relative status 57 of Yide’s tomb are the highest, with Li Xian’s second and Yongtai’s the lowest. The combined volume of Yide’s chambers are the largest, with that of Yongtai and Li Xian being similar. Thus the relative status of the three tombs may be summarised as given in Table 3.4. Table 3.4 Comparison of the prestige of main characteristics in three Type 1 tombs Li Xian’s tomb

Yide’s tomb

Yongtai’s tomb

Shape of tomb mound

Equal

Equal

Equal

Mound dimensions at base

3rd

1st

2nd

Tomb length

3rd

1st

2nd

Light wells

3rd

1st

2nd

Chambers

Equal

Equal

Equal

Square or arc-square chambers

Equal 2nd

Equal 2nd

1st

Front chamber dimensions

Height 2nd Area 2nd Volume 3rd

Height 1st Area 3rd Volume 1st

Height 3rd Area 1st Volume 2nd

Rear chamber dimensions

Height 2nd Area 3rd Volume 2nd

Height 1st Area 2nd Volume 1st

Height 3rd Area 1st Volume 3rd

Side niches

2nd

Equal 1st

Equal 1st

Incense burners

2nd

Equal 1st

Equal 1st

It is evident therefore, that since the practice of distinguishing selected tombs with the Type 1 form had been quite well established as a mark of very high honour since Gaozong’s rule, and given the small number and highly selective use of Type 1 tombs, Zhongzong’s granting of twin-chambered mausolea to Li Xian, Yide and Yongtai was a clear expression of the extreme elevation of their social status at the time of their burials at Qianling. The tombs celebrated the posthumous rehabilitation of the tomb occupants and reconnected them to the imperial family, along with their respective spouses. Their memories were venerated through the most lavish and publicly demonstrated means of grand tombs superior to any awarded below the rank of emperor. Of the three, however, Li Xian’s remained the lowest in status, despite renovations to his tomb under Ruizong in 711. This indicates the preferential position given to Yide and Yongtai as the beloved children of Zhongzong, and with the memory of their untimely deaths fresh in the imperial consciousness. As all three tombs were political symbols of the restoration of Li family ascendancy, the more favourable status awarded to Yide and Yongtai, by Zhongzong was a means for him to assert his own line. In reinforcing the idea of his own political legitimacy, it was necessary that his children’s tombs take precedent status over that of his older brother Li Xian.

4


. . . the Minister of Works designed a kingdom at the boundary [of this life and the next] . . .1

The proximity of the Tang imperial tombs to Chang’an provided access to the capital’s resources and its accomplished artists. This influenced the subject matter, and enhanced the scale, quantity and quality of the works in the tombs. Tang Chang’an was one of the largest and most important cities in the world – an important commercial centre with a burgeoning economy, and the terminus of a number of national and international trade and travel routes. The Chinese empire had become increasingly secure under the successive regimes of Taizong, Gaozong and Wu Zetian, although there had been conflicts in border regions with Turkic, Tibetan and Korean neighbours. As Chinese military security was upheld, large fiscal and human resources were available for expenditure by the state. Tomb production in the Tang period was a means for the influential family clans to demonstrate their social position. In the case of imperial tombs they were a visible manifestation of imperial authority. The questions of who funded the tombs’ construction, who conceived their design and decoration, and who supervised and carried out the work, have important implications.

State patronage Whereas the common graves and aristocratic tombs of Chang’an’s public cemeteries were privately commissioned and paid for, the tombs of imperial family members at the imperial cemeteries, were imperially commissioned and sponsored by the state with the work administered by the official bureaucracy, carried out by public works programmes and funded from the public purse. State sponsorship added to a tomb’s value as symbol of social status, and offered greater potential for extreme grandeur and therefore for its efficacy as a sumptuous dwelling place for the soul. The strongest value of state sponsorship was for the state itself, however, through the use of tombs as symbolic expressions of Tang imperial authority. All the Tang emperors’ mausolea were imperially commissioned; Xianling, Zhaoling and Qianling have been discussed in Chapter 1. Gongling and Shunling

Builders and painters 59 are examples of other imperially commissioned tombs built by the state. Both were sanctioned public assertions of the ruler’s political legitimacy, and of the high status of the tomb occupants as well as that of their families. Gongling, the tomb of Li Hong (651–675), was built under Gaozong’s orders in 675. It was awarded the status of ling, that is, the status of an emperor’s tomb, and Li Hong’s consort was buried at the site in a large tumulus of her own. Li Hong was the eldest son of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, and Gaozong’s first Heir Apparent; Li Xian was the second. Gaozong had planned to abdicate in his favour, but Li Hong died suddenly at the age of twenty-four. He made protest to Emperor Gaozong over the fate of two princesses, the daughters of a murdered imperial concubine, who had been left secluded in the palace and remained unmarried until over the age of forty. He died shortly after, with his mother, Wu Zetian, suspected of having him poisoned. Li Hong was buried according to the rites of an emperor, given the posthumous title of ‘Xiaojing Huangdi’ (‘Supreme Emperor Showing Filial Piety’) as though he had been Emperor, and his wife was given the title ‘Ai Huanghou’ (‘Mourning Empress’) as though she had been Empress.2 His large high status tomb complex was a lasting mark of supreme respect from the Emperor. Shunling is the tomb of Wu Zetian’s mother, Lady Yang (Plate 2). At Shunling, state sponsored improvements to the tomb enhanced the image of Lady Yang, Empress Wu and the Wu clan. The tomb was built in 670. In 684, after Gaozong’s death, Empress Wu raised her mother posthumously to royal rank, and in 689 awarded her imperial status as an Empress Dowager. With each promotion, Empress Wu ordered the tomb statuary to be increased, resulting in a total of three sets of sculptures flanking the processional path to the tomb mound. It had been built as an aristocrat’s grave, upgraded to a higher rank, then redesignated with the highest status of ling.3 The first modifications occurred in the same year as Li Xian’s forced suicide, Zhongzong’s deposition from the throne and Ruizong’s installation as puppet emperor by Wu Zetian; the next, shortly preceded the establishment of Wu Zetian’s own dynasty, the Zhou, in 690. Each improvement bolstered the standing of Wu Zetian’s clan, with the final upgrade in 689 refiguring the dynastic lineage, just as Gaozu had done for his father and grandfather at the establishment of the Tang. The construction of the tombs of Crown Prince Yide, Princess Yongtai and Crown Prince Li Xian in 705–706, were state sponsored as imperial commissions by Emperor Zhongzong, and the 711 renovations to Li Xian’s tomb, were also likely to have been state sponsored, since Emperor Ruizong’s augmentation of his brother’s honours is acknowledged in the epitaph tablet of that year. At times, family members would have almost certainly played a part in determining the decoration of the tombs in accordance with the tastes of the deceased, and it can be speculated, for example, that Li Xian’s son, Li Shouli, played a role in deciding the decoration of his father’s tomb. Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet confirms Li Shouli’s active role in the burials of his parents, and any involvement in deciding the subject matter of the murals and other elements of the tomb’s construction and decoration would have been in his interests, since any improvement in

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his father’s posthumous status would have had positive implications for his own social standing.

Officials, artisans and corvee labour As we have seen in Chapter 1, completion of an imperial tomb required high levels of planning and organization. It involved the summoning and overseeing of a large labour force to carry out structural works, and skilled artists and artisans to decorate the interior walls and produce decorative internal fittings and furnishings. Work carried out in the construction and development of the tombs required the contributions of workers with a range of skill levels – from highly accomplished designers to low-skilled labourers. State funding, supervision by members of the official bureaucracy, the use of corvee labour and highly capable artisans working according to courtly tastes, were government authorized expressions of respect for such honoured deceased. It is possible to develop a general view of how work on the tombs was carried out, although the specific identity of the workers on the tombs largely cannot be determined since the records are limited. While there were no art academies during the Tang dynasty, there was a Directorate of Imperial Manufactories (Shangfang jian) which employed large numbers of registered craftsmen and their families as palace artisans.4 There were also state registered craftsmen under the government Agency of Palace Buildings, numbering as many as 34,850 by the time of Emperor Xuanzong’s reign (712–756). In general, these registered artisan families were not allowed to change their occupations and were required to serve the state, some artisans working as architects and supervisors.5 Other craftsmen were liable for corvee, as were the illiterate classes who contributed labour to the state in addition to taxes. Under the control of government departments and scholar-officials, peasants were routinely conscripted to carry out the labour of production on tombs and other major sites such as imperial buildings, Buddhist rockcut temples, and freestanding temples.6 Members of ordinary peasant families were utilized for their skills in manual labour, spinning, weaving, tool making and utensil manufacture. Workforces in the form of slave labour were also used.7 Tang period records indicate the participation of the official bureaucratic administrative system in project supervision and the use of conscripted labourers for the heavy work in the construction of royal tombs. Two epitaph tablets in the Luoyang Museum have records about Gongling’s construction. In 675, Li Zhong was appointed as official in charge of building Li Hong’s Gongling. As Governor of Puzhou, he was able to commandeer around 30,000 peasants from Shaanxi and Henan Provinces as a labour force. Work continued day and night to transport earth for the mound, and, given that there were regulations governing the length of the working day in the Tang dynasty, it can be speculated that this treatment of the workers was excessively harsh.8 Tai Zhen was appointed to seal the tomb, and, in the tenth month of 678, to build up the tomb mound with more earth. When Gaozong died in 683, Tai Zhen was given the honour of constructing Qianling.9

Builders and painters 61 Public works for tomb production were at times a heavy burden on the people and the use of corvee labour was not always without its problems for the government administration. This was especially the case when the scale of imperial tombs was large, the construction projects were numerous or the official in-charge cruel. As already noted, the labourers at Gaozu’s Xianling were worked harshly during an oppressively short schedule for the tomb’s completion. A recurrence of this problem is recorded in the Xin Tang shu, which makes the explicit statement that Li Hong’s Gongling was honoured with the privileged status of a ling. The cost of construction was vast sums. The people, bitter and dissatisfied, threw stones at the officers in-charge, some workers fleeing.10 This record makes it clear that to build the tomb, the Tang rulers spent vast resources and utilized a large labour force with the result that a group of workers, unable to bear it any more, mutinied. It has been calculated that the 18 m high mound of Yide’s tomb, for example, was constructed with about 29,500 m3 of rammed earth, work on that tomb alone requiring 100 men’s labour for a whole year. Excavation of Yide’s tomb required the removal of about 1500 m3 of earth from its 100.8 m long interior with its chambers, niches and corridors.11 In addition to this, the tomb chambers were lined with kiln fired bricks, the surfaces for the paintings were prepared with reinforced clay coated with lime plaster, paintings were produced, work had to be finished on stone door furnishings and outer coffins, and hundreds of ceramic funerary objects manufactured. In 705–706, when the construction of the three substantial tombs for Li Xian, Yide and Yongtai was carried out in the vicinity of Qianling, in addition to renovation work on the primary mausoleum site and above ground temples and halls for Empress Wu’s burial, there must have been heavy exploitation of what was very likely a reluctant workforce. The use of large numbers of supervising officials, artisans and labourers on these tombs reflects the fact that Emperor Zhongzong considered it of great importance to honour the memories of his family members through the provision of suitable mausolea, and that he had the power of the state at his disposal to demonstrate that publicly.

The painters Mural painting was the prevalent form of painting during the Tang period, finding its expression in temples, palaces and public buildings as well as in tombs. About fifty Tang tombs containing mural paintings have been excavated in the vicinity of Xi’an since the early 1950s. This indicates that the tombs were significant sites of painting activity in the Tang. The majority of those tombs found to contain mural paintings date from the mid-Tang. Since all paintings in freestanding buildings have been lost, these tomb murals are the best available record of the mural art form at the capital where the best artists would have resided and the finest works would have been produced.

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The use of murals in Tang tombs was reserved for the highest social elite, with the number, scale, technical and aesthetic quality and content of the murals in accordance with the status awarded to the burial. Huge expenditure, the influence of famous talented artists and the employment of large numbers of painters were assertions of the patron’s power, and tributes to the tomb occupant’s rank. Production of the paintings took place in a number of stages, and involved the participation of both artists and artisans. The Lidai minghua ji indicates that before work commenced for murals, a number of preparatory sketches were made, the final versions being produced on silk. These were probably created in workshops where apprentices worked under a master, and tracings of them were produced for copying on to the wall surface.12 Paint on wall murals in the rear chamber of Yide’s tomb has been partially washed off as a result of water damage, showing that, after preparation of the walls, the order of work for mural production consisted of under drawing, then colour painting, followed by outlining (Plate 4). The under drawing was done in freehand using charcoal to mark the shapes for subsequent painting. This was in contrast to the case of extant Tang Buddhist mural paintings in the Mogao temples at Dunhuang, for example, where patterns for the paintings were drawn out on paper, pricked with a needle, then ink dotted through the holes on to the sized white wall surface in readiness for the colour painters. In the tombs, the colour was usually applied in two tones – a pale and a stronger one – in order to suggest form. The outlines, painted in reddish brown brushwork of fairly even thickness with the ends tapering to a point, were fluid and added to the expression of three-dimensional form. This was not a calligraphic style, though it was closer to the ‘flowing silk’ or ‘orchid leaf ’ style of brushwork, than the stiff ‘iron wire’ of Buddhist art. The under drawing, colour painting and outlining seem to have been done by different people, and the quality of work on each of these tasks varies. The finest work in the murals is evident in the under drawing, with the technically best drawing and painting in the faces, then the costumes. The quality of draughting in hands and shoes was at times rather inferior. The outline work was more skilfully executed than the colour work, but in general lacked the finesse of the under drawing. This evidence indicates that there was a division of labour on the murals in order to effectively complete the required steps of production and it is apparent through examination of the paintings that lesser workers or apprentices worked under master artists, probably with a hierarchy of workers, appointed to tasks according to their skill level. It is also evident that better skilled artists were assigned to work on higher status tombs, although the quality of paintings could also vary from mural to mural within the one tomb. Typically, the murals in less important parts of the tombs, such as the tunnels, were less competently produced than those in the chambers. This is evidence of numbers of artists or artisans in the production of the paintings, especially in large tombs, or when work was conducted at a number of tombs simultaneously. Such problems of aesthetic incoherence as a result of a number of artists working on the one mural programme are recorded in the Lidai minghua ji. A case is cited where the Duke of Yen complained to Emperor Xuanzong that the preparatory

Builders and painters 63 work for a mural painting of the various Scholars of the Hall of Magnificent Rectitude to go in an imperial palace, looked unfinished as a result of a variety of painters having worked on the pictures. He beseeched Xuanzong to order that the work be redone by the master Faming alone.13 In other cases, the active role of a discerning supervisor in reviewing the progress of mural development is suggested by corrections made during execution. This is evident when viewing the original of the Hunting Scene in Li Xian’s tomb, for example, where the charcoal under drawing shows that the position of one horseman – the first in Figure 7.5 – was moved from the left of the most southerly tree in the original composition to its right in the final version. The forced cooption of painters is indicated by one mural in the tunnel of Yide’s tomb, which Wang Jianqi has suggested bears evidence of negative feelings amongst the painters working on the tomb about the state’s forced use of artisans.14 The image of Seven Han Eunuch Officials (Figure 4.1) is damaged with a large number of circular depressions, each about 5 cm in diameter, marking the bodies and heads of the figures. All the indentations are within the range of a standing worker’s elbow height. It is possible that the painting may be a group portrait of eunuch officials unpopular with the workers. Wang Jianqi has expressed the view that these marks are evidence of a deliberate act of vandalism

Figure 4.1 Seven Han Eunuch Officials. From Yide’s tomb tunnel, west wall. 706. Pigment on plaster. 166 cm high 140 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

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on the part of workers leaving the tomb at the end of the project.15 These unusual depressions are limited in area and were targeted at this particular mural. The damage was done when the mural was fresh, since the plaster and supporting clay preparatory ground were still plastic enough to depress, leaving only a circular crack at the edge of each hollow, with the pigments of the painting remaining unspoiled. It is likely that aristocrats, scholar-officials and master artisans all participated in the production of the tomb mural paintings. There can be no doubt that highly skilled artisan painters would have been present at the tomb site, with lesser artisan painters and workers under their supervision. It can be speculated that high social status may not have precluded some painters from working at tomb sites, albeit reluctantly, although others may have been fortunate enough to be able to restrict their efforts to the studio. One need only recall the case recorded by Yen Zhidui, an official under the Liang, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and the Sui. In his Family Instructions for the Yen Clan he describes the case of a brilliant scholar with unsurpassed ability in painting who was forced by his patron to paint the walls of a temple, to live with other craftsmen and to toil measuring and painting the walls.16 Certainly, the tomb mural artists were among the best available, although today, their individual identity is obscured, as signatures associated with wall paintings in China are rare, either because signed works have been lost, or perhaps it was common practice of artists not to sign their work. The identity of one artist who produced murals in the imperial tombs at Qianling is evident from a signature on the ceiling of the front chamber in Yide’s tomb, and his signature links the tomb painters to the foremost painters of the day (Figure 4.2). The artist signed his name in standard script with black ink: Yang Bian [-lu?].17 [I,] Yang Bian [-lu] wish to present this [wall painting] forever as my offering.18

Figure 4.2 Signature in Yide’s tomb, on the ceiling of the front chamber. 706. Pigment on plaster. (Source: Kaogu, 1973:6, p. 381.)

Builders and painters 65 Yang Bian’s signature corresponds closely to the name of Chang Bian, mentioned in Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji.19 According to Zhang, Chang Bian excelled in [painting] landscapes, which resemble those of General Li [Sixun].20 Fontein and Wu have convincingly argued that since the rare character ‘Bian’ is identical with that in the signature, and the characters ‘Yang’ and ‘Chang’ are very similar in structure, the artist who signed his name in Yide’s tomb and the one cited in Zhang’s record are the same, an error having been made in transcription of Yang Bian’s name in the repeated copying of Zhang’s text in later centuries.21 As Fontein and Wu point out, the signature of a famous artist ‘establishes for the first time a clear connection between the murals in the tombs and the artists whose names were considered worthy of inclusion’ in the Lidai minghua ji.22 The artists who produced imperial tomb murals would have worked on a range of major public art commissions. Fontein and Wu assert that the language in which the inscription is couched is reminiscent of Buddhist and Daoist dedicatory inscriptions found on stelae of the period.23 From the Lidai minghua ji it is clear that there was no strict distinction between artists working on secular and religious projects.24 Furthermore, it has records of two temples which were renamed for Yide and Yongtai in 705 and redecorated by famous artists. A temple originally built in the Sui dynasty was renamed ‘Yide Temple’, by Zhongzong in order to give extra blessings to his son, at which time it was repainted.25 Zhang recorded: The divinities on two walls in the second storey of the [great] triple gate and the scenes from the Gandavhyuha [the Avatamasakasutra, in which Gautama Buddha gives an exposition on true enlightenment] on the east and west of the middle triple gate are all very fine. In the cloister corridor to the west of the [great] triple gate are landscapes by Chen Jingyen. The paintings in the great hall are extremely fine, but the name of the artist has been lost.26 Of the Yongtai temple which Zhongzong had rededicated and redecorated for his daughter, Zhang recorded: In the hall and the western cloister are paintings of the sage monks by Li Ya. On the hanging door in the eastern cloister are paintings by Yang Qitan. In the vihara to the east is an Annihilation Scene [of Buddha’s entry into Nirvana] painted by Zheng Fashi.27 Wang Renbo has argued that since the redecoration of the two temples took place at the same time as the construction and decoration of the attendant tombs of Yide and Yongtai at Qianling, it is possible that these artists exerted some influence on the subject matter, technique and style of the tomb paintings.28 The artists named were famous for their paintings of palaces, costumes, carriages and landscapes – subjects which are in evidence in the Qianling attendant tombs. These parallels in subject matter add weight to the argument that the tomb mural

66 Builders and painters designers were amongst the famous artists of the day or at least were closely influenced by them.29 It is known that aristocratic or scholar-official artists played a direct role in the design and production of art for mausolea, and it is likely that the style and content of their work also influenced other artists.30 We have already seen that members of the upper class were utilized in the production of mausolea and significant public works of art in the early Tang. The brothers, Yan Lide and Yan Liben (600–674) are two examples of senior officials who worked under Taizong and Gaozong, producing works of art at the imperial request.31 Yan Lide was not a painter, but before becoming a court architect and working on the supervision of the construction of imperial mausolea, he was in charge of designing garments, headgear, palanquins, parasols and fans during Gaozu’s reign.32 Yan Liben was a painter and designer, with the major extant examples of his work for an imperial mausoleum being the relief sculptures, Six Steeds of Taizong, which were produced for Zhaoling (Figure 1.5). Yan Liben was an aristocrat who bemoaned his cooption at the behest of Taizong. It is recorded that Yan Liben was ‘greatly chagrined, and presently gave up painting all together, warning his sons and disciples against the study of painting’ when courtiers ‘made the mistake’ of shouting ‘summon the Master Painter’.33 Nevertheless, he personally produced numerous examples recording his firsthand observations at court. These included paintings of the Emperor, officials, scholars, foreigners, and heroes such as Taizong’s younger brother, Yuanfang the Prince of Guo, who slew a tiger with a single arrow.34 The Lidai minghua ji records that Yan Liben worked on mural paintings: In the seventeenth year of the Zhenguan era (643) he [Yan Liben] was commanded to paint pictures of Twenty-four Meritorious subjects in the Cloud Affronting Pavilion . . .35 He is also recorded to have designed wall murals, subsequently painted by others.36 Zhu Qingxuan in his Tang chao minghua lu (Record of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty), written in about 840, records of Yan Liben that Whenever he painted human figures, ceremonial caps and crowns, or chariots and costumes, his work was inspired and subtle.37 The Thirteen Emperors scroll, held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has been attributed to Yan Liben.38 The composition and style of the paintings of court officials in the 705–711 tomb of Crown Prince Li Xian, and the 724 tomb of Crown Prince Huizhuang follow patterns which can be seen in The Thirteen Emperors scroll. At least some of the murals showing court life were likely to have been directly designed or executed by officials or aristocrats who excelled in painting and were ordered to work on the tomb mural programmes with more realistic results due to their close observations of life at court.39 The authentic re-creation of a courtly environment would have made the tombs appropriate for the posthumous occupation by high ranking individuals.

Builders and painters 67 Other Tang aristocratic artists listed by Zhang Yanyuan in the Lidai minghua ji included General Li Sixun (651–716) who was a member of the imperial family and was famous for his pre-eminent ability in landscape painting, and his son Li Zhaodao (active 670–730), Yuchi Yiseng (active 650?–710) who was a member of the Khotanese royal family and talented in the representation of foreigners, and Chen Yi who was a portraitist and personal friend of Emperor Xuanzong. The majority of works by the above-named artists are believed to be no longer extant, though there may be links between their grand works of the imperial tradition and the tomb murals. The tomb of Li Xian, which was constructed during the lifetimes of Yuchi Yiseng and Li Sixun, contains splendidly observed and lifelike portraits of six foreign emissaries, as well as expansive landscapes as backgrounds for its hunting and polo scenes. The tomb of Crown Prince Jiemin, built in 710 when Li Sixun was active, contains the earliest paintings of landscape in its own right; in the blue and green style for which Li Sixun was famous, they occupied large sections of the east and west walls of the tomb’s passage, and it is tantalizing to think that these could be the work of his hand.

5

Passages of rites

Drummers, trumpeters and armed escorts were sent with the coffin, from the capital right up to its delivery at the tomb site.1

Traditionally, the tomb served as a staging point at the intersection of this life and the next, a limitrophic space where a physical body, which had lost its qi or life force, could be laid to eternal rest. In terms of an afterlife, the functional space of the tomb and its mortuary accoutrements were for the maintenance of the deceased in the form of a contented spirit. It was a large artificial estate and palace in parallel to the earthly world, where the deceased would enjoy eternal repose and suffer no hardship. It was also a site for the enactment of death rituals. In Tang China, rituals for the dead were conducted according to relationships in life and were for the benefit of both the deceased and the bereaved. Death rituals transformed the deceased into a venerable ancestor and helped to hold a complex and diversified society together.2 Ancestor rituals, controlled by officials, were the preserve of rulers, nobles and officials and associated political authority with access to the gods.3 The use of tomb sites for rituals, and the association of these with temporal and spiritual authority is a universal phenomenon reflected in the Great Pyramids of Cheops at Giza, the mausoleum of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus, Hadrian’s Tomb in Rome, the proposed Tomb of Pope Julius II, Humayun’s tomb in Delhi or Westminster Abbey.4 In the early Tang there was uncertainty about the relationship between tomb production and the afterlife. This ambiguity can be surmised from a comment made by an official, named Feng Lun, to Emperor Gaozu: If there is no consciousness after death, then expensive burials are a terrible waste; if the soul has consciousness and [the tomb] is broken into, how could it not be pained?5 Insights into the funeral ceremony and belief in the existence of the tomb occupants’ spirit after death are available from the epitaph tablets. These eloquently written eulogies deepen our understanding of the lavishly painted illusionistic mural decoration of the Tang tombs, give evidence for the belief in the

Passages of rites 69 continued existence of the soul after the body had lost its life force, provide insights into what was thought to happen after death, and outline the purpose of interring precious, decorative and useful objects within the tombs of the Tang ruling class. Burial rites were an essential part of funerary practice from the beginning of the Tang, and clearly had benefits for the living, as well as being thought to have benefits for the dead. The Jiu Tang shu gives a seventh century example of an offering ceremony at an imperial tomb. According to the perhaps apocryphal account of Emperor Taizong’s visit to his father’s mausoleum, Xianling, Taizong descended from his palanquin and approached the tomb’s offering hall on foot; the hall had been completely encircled the previous day by yellow banners. The Emperor wept profusely at the entrance and made a double obeisance, then entered the hall, where he personally attended to the sacrificial offerings of meat and wine, and examined clothing and personal possessions of Gaozu and his Empress, which were stored there. He is said to have been so moved that he fell prostrate, and before returning to Chang’an, granted pardons, relieved the local residents of a year’s tax, distributed gifts and upgraded those in-charge of the tomb’s protection and management.6 This is an example of a ritual for the dead which had direct benefit for the living through renewed liberty, improved social standing and increased material prosperity.

Han concepts of the soul Analysis of early Chinese ideas about death and what endures after death contribute to our understanding of the Tang tombs as efficacious mortuary sites. Archaeological evidence from early China shows that there was continual production of objects and imagery catering for the perceived needs of the deceased in an afterlife, as well as symbols and images in graves and tombs demonstrating widespread Daoist beliefs, of which there is no single conclusive interpretation.7 Early burial remains of the Shang and Zhou periods have provided evidence of the ancient Chinese belief that the dead need sustenance in the afterlife, and that ritual practices could aid the preservation of the soul. Most scholarly attention has centred on the Han period, when China was unified as an empire but not yet subject to the influence of Buddhism. In Han times, elaborate practices were utilized, such as the burial of the corpses of high ranking individuals in jade suits with the expectation of protecting the body and soul. Today, Han views of the relationship between the body, the soul and the tomb, have been the subject of scholarly discussion. Ying-shih Yü claims that according to traditional Chinese conceptions of the afterlife, something of the person survived after death. In broad terms it can be said that body and soul were not considered to be inseparably parted upon death. According to Yü, one of the primary goals of Chinese funerary rites was to keep the corpse and spirit together during the initial stages of death.8 He outlines the dualistic concepts of body and spirit: Ancient Chinese generally believed that the individual human life consists of a bodily part as well as a spiritual part. The physical body relies for its existence

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Passages of rites on food and drink produced by the earth. The spirit depends for its existence on the invisible life force called ch’i [qi ], which comes into the body from heaven. . . . the body and the spirit are each governed by a soul, namely, the p’o [po] and the hun.9

Upon death, that is when the spirit could not be ‘summoned’ back to the body, the hun and po were thought to go in opposite ways – the hun soul swiftly up to heaven, and the po soul down to earth at a much slower pace.10 In this way, the early Chinese tombs did more than accommodate corpses. They were a staging point for the progress of the hun and the repose of the po. According to Michael Loewe the Han view was that the spiritual, natural and animal worlds are subject to the forces of yin, yang and the five elements. Human nature was thought to have three constituent elements – one bodily and two spiritual – consisting of the xing or physical form, the hun and the po. It was thought that what happened to the spirit of a deceased person could be influenced by divination. Upon death, ideally, the hun left the body to live in the paradise of Shangdi’s hierarchical kingdom. The po stayed with the corpse as long as it was provided for by descendants. If provision was not made for the po, Loewe asserts that it was thought to become a gui or angry ghost.11 Wu Hung used the phrase ‘the great boundary’ to equate to the ancient Chinese word ‘daxian’, which refers to death in which bodily functions and living experiences cease.12 He interpreted a number of narrative scenes in Han tombs as representations of the ‘great boundary’ concept.13 This led him to describe the imperial coffin in Han times as a ‘symbol and piece of mortuary equipment’. It encapsulated the great boundary concept and ultimately assumed the practical purpose of becoming the ruler’s underground home beyond the boundary.14 Such a function was universal in ancient times and parallels that of the pyramids of Egypt or the kofun of early Japan, for example. K.E. Brashier has questioned the widespread interpretation of hun–po dualism, most plausibly arguing on the basis of his interpretation of Han dynasty textual evidence that the sources used to justify that [view] . . . do not clearly distinguish between a heaven-bound hun and an earth-bound po at death . . . hunpo dualism at best belongs to the realm of scholasticism and not general belief on death. Most non-literati and some literati sources tend to use these terms generically and interchangeably and usually refer to a single entity distinct from the body. Finally, great efforts were made to keep this entity housed in the tomb with the body at death.15 There is no evidence of the belief in multiple souls in the Tang period, although there is evidence of the concept of the soul. Epitaph tablets inscriptions indicate that in the Tang period people believed in the existence of one soul which resided in the tomb or grave.

Passages of rites 71

Buddhist rebirth Buddhist notions of karma and transmigration introduced a radically new way of thinking to China about the connection of the physical remains of the body to the afterlife. The concept of rebirth in another body undermined the ancient notion that the dead can be made physically comfortable by the way they are buried. During the Tang, Buddhism was for the most part respected and sponsored by the state, although it did have periods when it was out of imperial favour. Daoism was given precedence over Buddhism by Taizong, who advanced the contention that the imperial family was descended from Laozi.16 Buddhism was promoted to a pre-eminent position by Wu Zetian, and in 711 Ruizong placed Buddhism and Daoism on an equal footing. Daizong (r.762–779) was committed to both Buddhism and Daoism, and from 842 to 845, Wuzong instituted a period of persecution of Buddhists and their institutions.17 A complex range of Buddhist doctrines existed in the Tang period, and concepts associated with transmigration of the soul varied between particular Buddhist schools. In Theravada Buddhism the path to a better rebirth, and ultimately enlightenment and release, was an ascetic path in which the individual, having renounced material attachments, held himself aloof from society. Interment of the physical body in a grand tomb was not a necessity. In Mahayana Buddhism, higher rebirth could be attained by the laity, without renunciation of family or a worldly life, but in this tradition also, the need for expiation of sins and the concept of transmigration of the soul undermined the assumption that the dead needed material goods, or that the actions of the survivors could have an effect on where the souls of the dead would go. In broad terms, Kenneth Ch’en has outlined five states of existence in Buddhist thought: deity, man, animal, hungry ghost and denizen of hell. The first two states are considered favourable and the last three, evil. According to the karma of the past, a living being undergoes repeated rebirths, assuming a different existence in each. The ultimate goal was ‘nirvana’, which can be described as either release from this cycle or existence in a blissful condition of enlightenment.18 Despite the popularity of Buddhism its views on death did not deeply permeate imperial mortuary customs, although a number of objects and wall mural paintings inspired by Buddhism are evident in the tombs. The use of Indian inspired ceramic heavenly kings as guardian figures in the tombs became widespread from the mid-seventh century, supplanting warrior guardian figures (Figure 2.11). The use of heavenly kings paralleled the increasing portrayal of such images in Buddhist temples, as demonstrated in the Fengxian temple group at Longmen, carved under Gaozong’s orders in 672–675. Their inclusion in the tombs was more a sign of the occupants’ favourable imperial connections or loyal support of the ruling house than a mark of religious significance, however.19 Selected Buddhist items were evident amongst the wares included in the tombs, such as the ceramic container in the form of a pagoda in Li Xian’s tomb, but these were not pervasive.

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In the case of Li Shou’s tomb Buddhist influence was more strongly apparent. His tomb corridor murals contained an image of a flying celestial figure ( fei tian) hovering above the honour guards, and a scene of a Buddhist temple (Figure 6.1e and f ). The plurality of religious systems at the time is demonstrated by the inclusion of a painting in his tomb of a Daoist temple on the wall opposite the Buddhist one. The tomb of Commander-in-chief Wei Hao, dating from 708, has a series of paintings along its walls of Daoist sages engaged in individual meditation (Plate 11). Emperor Daizong’s sister, Princess Hezheng, a devout Buddhist and practitioner of Daoism, asked to be buried in Buddhist robes under a pagoda.20 Nevertheless the inclusion of such themes in the imperial tombs, was above all else a reflection of the personal preferences of the tomb occupant. The exception rather than the norm, their presence seems to confirm the plurality of Buddhist concepts alongside other ideas. Buddhism, in the imperial tombs, was subordinate to traditional Chinese systems of belief about the afterlife, and its popularity did not undermine the demand for tombs fitted in elaborate and extravagant ways as if the soul would reside there.

Tang concepts of the soul revealed through epitaph tablets The idea that there was a belief in a single soul which resided in the tomb is confirmed by analysis of Tang dynasty eulogies which were read aloud to the assembled mourners at funerals and then interred permanently within the confines of the sealed tombs in the form of elegantly inscribed stone epitaph tablets. Such epitaph tablet inscriptions include that of Princess Yongtai, and those of Li Xian as Prince of Yong (706) and as Crown Prince Zhanghuai (711) (Figures 5.1 and 2.3). These records provide important information about what was thought to exist of a person after death, and give insights into the purpose of the mural paintings as illusionistic forces transforming the underground tombs into dioramic architectural spaces paralleling the palaces or mansions of the Chinese capital. Ownership of the tomb and its contents, and the giving of tributes to the deceased, were important transactions centred on the grave site and conceived in materialistic terms. The inscribed eulogy of Princess Yongtai recited to mourners at her State funeral ceremony, stated that this treasured archway holds forth in storage numerous [gifts] given by the Emperor [Zhongzong, her father] 21 ensuring that she would have her needs catered for in perpetuity. When her tomb was opened by archaeologists in 1960, in addition to hundreds of ceramic articles, it was found to contain a number of gold adornments – possibly gifts from Zhongzong. As Li Xian’s 706 epitaph tablet eulogy explained: the funeral ritual was ‘an outward sign of making offerings to the spirit’. The interment of a vast array of objects in the side niches and chambers of a tomb was likewise intended to satisfy the perceived needs of the deceased in

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Figure 5.1 Yongtai’s epitaph tablet cover (in foreground) and epitaph tablet (behind). Yongtai’s tomb. 706.

the afterlife. As Li Xian’s 706 epitaph tablet cover declared: These tomb contents belong to the deceased Prince of Yong of the great Tang dynasty. And, as his 711 epitaph tablet cover, revised upon the interment of the tomb’s new joint owner, Imperial Consort Fang, states: These tomb contents belong to Crown Prince Zhanghuai together with Imperial Consort Fang from Qinghe of the great Tang dynasty. It is also evident that a grand funeral rite was thought to assist the transformation of the deceased into spirit form. Li Xian’s 706 epitaph states clearly that he was transformed into a spirit after death, saying: ‘He went on a long journey, died and became a spirit [which we] now eulogise.’ The same epitaph also states that the birth [of his] spirit is made phenomenal here, [although he did] not [become] Emperor and [he was] not a sage . . .

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A luxurious tomb was thought to contribute to the spirit’s continued existence in a contented, and therefore, benign, form. The second epitaph tablet produced for Li Xian when his tomb was renovated in 711, discusses the movement of the soul from one burial place to another. It states that ‘his soul went back to his old home when divination [was carried out for a] new burial place’, and that upon burial in the new tomb ‘he sank to the netherworld . . . [regained] his outstanding reputation and [lived in] richness and splendour, lushness and fragrance,’ becoming ‘immortal like metal and stone’. Li Xian’s example is not unique; the eulogy inscription read at Princess Yongtai’s funeral is further indication that the spirit of the deceased was thought to dwell in the tomb. It states forthrightly: ‘her spirit [is] contained in this grotto’. The inscriptions clearly demonstrate that the tomb was intended to function as a personalized paradise mirroring the best aspects of the earthly world. The 706 epitaph tablet of Li Xian, for example, describes his tomb as ‘a mansion residence’, ‘a vassal kingdom’, ‘a heavenly official residence’ and ‘a recreation garden of trees’. These phrases are explicit and give insights into the meaning of the imagery in the tomb as more than superficial decoration. They do not merely refer to what is represented in the mural paintings, but explain what the paintings mean on a deeper level, that is to say, they explain their symbolic and ritual function in terms of the afterlife of the individual now transformed into spirit form and residing within the tomb. The epitaph tablet inscription confirms that the expansive landscape at the tomb’s passage entrance, painted in 706, represents Li Xian’s kingdom – an artificial estate and palace in parallel to the earthly world, where the deceased would enjoy eternal repose and suffer no hardship. Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet inscription says that his soul returned to his original residence after his name was cleared by Zhongzong. In this context, the guards and guard-house painted at the mouth of the tomb tunnel, mark the entry to his princely palace, and the scenes in the tomb’s front chamber personify women courtiers in his recreation garden. In 711, when the tomb was renovated, the garden of his mansion residence was recreated on the east wall of the tomb’s rear chamber with a scene of his wife, Consort Fang, with attendants. The number of guards and attendants, the size and type of the guard-house, the number and breed of animals, and the expansiveness of the landscape in his possession in the tomb, for instance, were all signs of social standing developed in accordance with the official status held by Li Xian in life, or that reconferred upon him posthumously. Li Xian’s lavish underground tomb is a re-creation of his princely palacemansion fitted for an existence in eternity. The epitaph tablet inscription and the production of the tomb in the form of a luxurious abode are the strongest indications that Li Xian’s spirit was thought to have continued to exist beyond his death.

Tang burial rites The rituals governing imperial burials had a secular rather than a religious basis. They were made by people, for people. As Wechsler has explained, the ‘emotional, sensory, and aesthetic elements of ritual satisfied corresponding human needs.

Passages of rites 75 Rites were made not for the gods or the deceased but for living ritual actors’.22 Imperial funerary rites were drawn from the ritual codes, which were Confucian in character and conformed to a scheme in which the emperor was held to govern people on earth, with heaven as both the ultimate controlling power and the source of imperial authority. The conduct of rituals and the administration of government were both considered to be mediating activities for fostering human harmony and refinement.23 In this context, rituals were considered essential tools for cultivating moral values and improving social conduct since they regulated human emotions, kept people within bounds and ordered relationships.24 Descriptions of early Chinese funerary rituals can be found in the Zhou li (Rites of the Zhou Dynasty) and the Li ji (Book of Rites), written in the Eastern Zhou period, and the Yi li (Cermonial and Ritual ), Shi ji (Historical Records), Han shu (History of the Former Han) and the Hou Han shu (History of the Later Han), all compiled during the Han period.25 The fundamental form and principles of these older practices persisted into the Tang era, when many commentaries on them were written.26 The Li yi zhi (Monograph on Rituals) in the Sui shu (Sui History) was compiled in the Tang dynasty.27 There were three ritual codes produced in the Tang period, the Zhenguan li (Zhenguan Ritual Code) of 633, the Xianqing li (Xianqing Ritual Code) of 658 and the Kaiyuan li (Kaiyuan Ritual Code) of 732.28 Of these, only the 732 code survives in full.29 The 633 and 658 codes were rejected and the Kaiyuan li, of 732, was a combination of the earlier two. It had directives for just over 150 rites, covering officials of the sixth grade and more senior.30 The 633 code had a section for imperial funerals, but this was removed from the 658 version, and was also left out of the 732 code – so today, the situation of exactly what funerary rites were followed remains unclear. The result of the removal of codified funerary rites in 658 was that whenever an imperial funeral was to take place the procedures had to be drafted anew, until 806, when the dynasty officially permitted directives for imperial funerals to be preserved for future use.31 From about 710, the Li yi shi, or commissioners for rites, managed the drafting of imperial funeral rites for members of the imperial family.32 David McMullen’s study of the available records of the death rites of Emperor Daizong (d.779) provides insights into the death rites conducted for an emperor during the Tang, while information recorded on individual epitaph tablets gives us insights into what took place at other imperial funeral ceremonies.33 In summary, available records of Daizong’s funeral rites reveal that his obsequies had clear stages held in a series of venues – the imperial palace, the tomb and the imperial ancestral temple. Emperor Daizong’s mourning rites took place within two stages consisting of 13 days then another 12. Mourning dress was abandoned after a total of 27 days, when the Heir Apparent, Dezong, acceded to the throne. At the outset, Daizong’s body was laid in state in the Great Inner Palace, and his last statement – on his death rites and the dynastic succession – was read. In terms of preparation for burial, a ceremony for ‘calling back the soul’ was held soon after death, the corpse was washed and laid on a special couch, the mouth was plugged, the hair groomed and the nails cut.

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The body was given a first or ‘lesser’ dressing into grave clothes, followed by offerings, and then a second or ‘greater’ dressing followed by further offerings. An inscribed funeral banner and a ‘temporary spirit home’ covering for the deceased were set up, and the corpse was encoffined. Divination completed arrangements through the selection of the abode of the deceased and an auspicious day for burial. It was seven months after Daizong’s death that his body was moved to his imperial mausoleum, Yuanling, at Tan Mountain 65 km north-north-east of Chang’an. The eulogy was prepared and the epitaph tablets inscribed. Moving of the coffin could then begin, at which point offerings were made to the ancestors. The carriage, horses and grave goods were brought in readiness for the commencement of the procession to the tomb and the coffin was mounted on to the carriage and ornamented. Offerings were made for the departure and dispatch of the deceased, then the procession, led for a short distance by the new Emperor Dezong, made its way to the tomb, with 50 proxy weepers and 200 hearse drawers; there was song accompaniment and the grave goods were carried visibly in the ordered line of progress. McMullen translates Daizong’s ‘Drawing Song’ as follows: The threefold offerings for the Departure Sacrifice are over. One hundred strong guards have come to court. Making way for the imperial route, they have moved to the front palace; The carriage with the coffin mounts the Wei River Bridge. A chill frost has settled on the feather awning; Pipes and flutes lament as they call in the open fields. Already heading towards a new capital city, Who says that the road to heaven is far?34 Further burial rites were conducted at the tomb, with sacrifices for the peaceful repose of the soul of the deceased. The mourners lined up in set places along the tomb’s processional path, and amid formal weeping the coffin was removed from its carriage and placed on a bier, then on a funerary couch in the tomb. Offerings were made and the grave goods were installed in the tomb, after which the tomb doors were sealed and back-filling of the tomb with earth began. Prayers were made to the Earth God (Houtu). Finally, a tablet was installed in the ancestral shrine, and two auspicious sacrifices were made before it, then the mourning ended. The words inscribed on the Tang dynasty epitaph tablets are testimonies to the profundity of the death rite and what was thought to happen to the deceased beyond it. The eulogies read at the funeral rite deal with the human as well as the transcendent experience and are important sources of information on individual funeral ceremonies. The epitaph tablet of Princess Yongtai, while not comprehensive in its detail, does give an eloquent illustration of the solemnity, pomp, spiritual feeling and emotional impact on the occasion of her reburial six years after her death, with the body of her husband, in an attendant tomb at Qianling. Excerpts from the tablet describe the funeral as a ritualized event, and explain its

Passages of rites 77 purpose in both an historical sense and what may be termed posthumous social cohesion. At the outset of the eulogy it says of the occasion: [Today we undertake] the solemn ritual of heaping the soil; the mound [has been built,] beat the drum, as an act of earnest hospitality the ritual act rejoins her with her spouse. Then in honour of her very high status: [Raise] the bright emerald green [kingfisher] feather [banners] that is to say, to accompany her corpse to the grave site use the type of banners normally reserved for the escort of a ruler when he went on tour outside the capital.35 It points out the reason for the grand funeral and eulogy in historical terms, that is, to ‘correctly present words with respect and deference about the dark history . . . This was the reason making it necessary to enact this ritual’, it continues. Yongtai’s premature death as a young woman in 701, under orders from her grandmother, Wu Zetian, her inauspicious burial, exhumation and reburial is addressed by saying: ‘The fall [from favour under Wu Zetian] postponed the [use of ] hot water to wash her hair.’ Her husband, Wu Zetian’s great nephew, Prince Wu Yanji, suffered a similar fate. Of his situation it says: ‘Today, music eulogizes his fall from consciousness . . . The Prince now joins his wife in burial.’ Li Xian’s epitaph tablets illustrate some of the details of the funerary rites conducted for his reburial. His 711 epitaph tablet includes brief details of his exhumation: Under orders his heir, Shouli, went to Bazhou to receive the coffin and escort it back to the capital, [since it was] now permitted to have an accompanying burial inside Qianling mortuary city. Drummers, trumpeters and armed escorts were sent with the coffin from the capital right up to its delivery at the tomb site. His earlier, 706, epitaph pays fuller attention to aspects of his funeral ceremony, which resembles the type later followed for Daizong, and captures some of the immediate atmosphere of the occasion. It states that the relevant official ‘organized a trunk of the paulownia tree [for a coffin, and] a humble carriage and clothing’ for Li Xian’s burial. Notaries, including ritual specialists, mourning family members, officials and perhaps foreign dignitaries, lined up in rows for the procession to restore Li Xian’s body to the grave, and ‘the five ancestors [were] enacted to guide his spirit’. A high official who had served in the court of Gaozong ‘conducted a ritual for a regulated state home’, and ‘sent a dispatch to heaven [to determine the correct] time and a fine day’ for the funeral rite. The tomb site was divined, excavated, prepared and painted in ‘the vision of a kingdom’, until the day when the ‘tranquil outspoken speech’, that is his eulogy, was read in the front courtyard of the tomb compound where the guests lined up, and

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listened to the speech and the poems read. The ceremony was described as a ‘grand ritual occasion’, and ‘a refined state ceremony’. With all united, it was conducted with the dignity and status appropriate to the solemn burial of a former Crown Prince. The ceremony, the epitaph states, was ‘an outward sign of making offerings to [Li Xian’s] spirit’, and the tomb restored ‘the refinement [of his] lineal descent after a period of waiting’. The rite concluded spectacularly, but sadly, as evening went down, with music, colour and song: ‘jade rings and metal gongs, banners flutter . . . the singer has enlightened everybody with his song’, at which point all were requested: ‘remove ourselves from the sweet osmanthus grotto, . . . slacken the tent and decamp’. The imperial tomb was a site for reverence of the deceased by the living through the fulfilment of Confucian funerary obligations. It was a secular space for the conduct of imperial funeral rites and on-going state mourning ceremonies to provide for the social requirements due to a member of the imperial family. It was a tribute from both state and family, and the tomb as a ritual site would have reinforced the acknowledgement of the status of the deceased. Imperial ritual performances such as those described earlier, would have been organized by the state bureaucracy according to Confucian principles, and controlled by Confucian scholars trained and expert in the propriety of the dynastic ritual codes.36 Part of the ritual was to introduce the deceased as a revered ancestor through offerings to the former ancestors and the establishment of a personal tablet for the deceased in the ancestral shrine. This is certain to have reinforced kinship continuity, and in the case of the Tang imperial family, to have enhanced the legitimacy of Li family rule, especially after Wu Zetian’s interregnum, for example. As James L. Watson asserts, ‘death did not terminate relationships between agnatic kinsmen’.37 According to Watson, in the traditional Chinese view, it was patrilineal kinship that survived beyond death; matrilineal ties (through one’s mother) and affinal links (through marriage) were generally terminated upon death. Ancestor worship was the concrete expression of this preoccupation with the patriline.38 Mausolea were one means used to publicly demonstrate the Tang imperial ancestral cult. Another public manifestation was in the form of imperial ancestral temples in the capitals at Chang’an and Luoyang. These temples are the clearest demonstration of the use of ancestor worship for the assertion of political authority from the outset of the Tang era.

Ancestral temples The Tang imperial ancestral cult can be traced back to the third month of 618, nine or ten weeks prior to Gaozu’s accession, when he established his ancestral temple in the old Li family mansion, south of the imperial city in Chang’an. This cult was maintained by later emperors, with some negotiation as to why and how many ancestors should be venerated.39 One noteworthy shift which demonstrates

Passages of rites 79 the importance of the ancestral cult to the assertion of political authority was Wu Zetian’s establishment of a temple in 688 at Luoyang, dedicated to her Wu family ancestors. Traditionally, the number of shrine rooms in ancestral temples was set out in the Li ji.40 The Li qi says: the Son of Heaven had 7 shrines in his ancestral temple, a prince of a state, 5; Great officers, 3; and other officers, 1.41 Soon after establishing the Wu ancestral temple, she attempted to increase the number of its rooms to seven while simultaneously decreasing those in the Li-Tang family temple to five; this was rescinded due to objections at court. In 691, she succeeded in increasing the rooms at her ancestral temple to seven and downgraded the Li-Tang temple by allowing offerings in only three rooms. In 705, upon the Tang restoration, the seven room configuration was restored in the Li family imperial ancestral temple in Chang’an.42 These are important examples of the manipulation of ancestor worship for political purposes at that time. Ancestor worship extended to dynastic houses. The earlier tradition of the Descendants of the Two Kings was maintained in the Tang. Two days after ascending the throne in 618, Gaozu issued an edict that a descendant of the Northern Zhou and of the Sui should perform rites for the two former houses. In 628, Taizong ordered temples to be erected for this purpose. In 682, Gaozong changed the dynastic houses to the Zhou and Han. In 705, they were returned to the Sui and Northern Zhou.43 This was a case of adopted political ancestors adding an extra aura of authority and sense of longevity to political legitimacy. The 682 and 705 changes reflected shifts in the political power base between the period of Wu Zetian’s rule and the reinstatement of government under the Li-Tang house. Gaozu ‘installed’ a series of his Li family antecedents as ‘Tang ancestors’ upon his establishment of the dynasty. Wu Zetian likewise retrospectively revised the construction of dynastic line. In 689 she consecrated Gaozu as the founder of the Tang, Taizong as second emperor, followed by her father (whom she gave the posthumous title tai huang or ‘Greatest Emperor’).44 During the reigns of Zhongzong and Ruizong, Li Xian’s tomb marked his partial rehabilitation and, in accordance with the model of changes to the imperial ancestral temples, reasserted the original scheme of Tang ascendancy for the purposes of strengthening the Li family’s political legitimacy against the Wu.

Geomancy The use of imperial ancestral temples for political purposes was a demonstration of the deliberate move away from ancient ideas in funerary practice to new, intellectually devised forms and ceremonies in the Tang. Another indication of this was in the form of early Tang reforms in the use of divinatory traditions for determining when and where to bury.45 Li Xian’s epitaph tablet inscriptions provide a specific example of divination being used to determine an auspicious site for

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construction of his tomb, as do the death rites of Emperor Daizong. Certainly the Tang was a period when newly reviewed theories on geomancy were encouraging the development of more practical secularized views on burials, graves and siting of graves. Modernization in the use of geomancy for burials commenced under Emperor Taizong, when he requested that the official Lü Cai (600–665) evaluate the diverse divinatory manuals.46 The result was Lü Cai’s imperially sanctioned text, Yin yang shu (The Book of Yin and Yang), the earliest detailed critique on the theories of grave geomancy. Lü Cai’s theories paid particular attention to remembrance of the dead, due respect for the rank of the deceased and preservation of the monuments through the selection of stable sites. Grave geomancy traditionally involved the selection of an auspicious site and time of burial by a divination expert. Divination had been practiced since the Shang dynasty or earlier. The first classic burial manual has been attributed to Guo Pu (276–324). By the early Tang, people were commonly consulting geomancers for advice on when and where to bury their parents in the hope that they might find a site that would lead them to live longer or get rich or powerful.47 At the time of writing Yin yang shu, Lü Cai recorded that there were about one hundred and twenty schools of geomancy, each with their own theories about what brings good or bad fortune, and what must be avoided. By his own description, his attitudes on the proper application of geomancy contrasted with many of the schools he assessed. While we lack detailed documented evidence of them, he expressed the view that ‘it is a distortion to apply Yin Yang ideas to the luck of burials’.48 Lü Cai noted that The Classic of Filial Piety instructed: ‘Divine for a burial place before burying the dead’.49 His primary considerations in reiterating the classic’s directive were that the burial site should be suitable for the living to visit constantly in remembrance of the dead and that places where the earth was unstable, liable to erosion or water damage should be avoided, because these would lead to the accelerated deterioration of the grave.50 These views indicate a move away from ‘superstitious’ ideas which persisted in mortuary practice up to that time, towards more practical ideas. Lü Cai’s discussion suggests that problems had existed, with a lack of consistency in burial practices and some aspects of divination. He outlined traditional burial customs in his work, especially the grading of funerals by rank, and the time of burial, offering some suggestions which traditional practices should be adhered to and which dispensed with. He cited the Zuo Chronicle, explaining that kings were encoffined on the seventh day after their deaths and interred after seven months. Senior officers were buried after a season and other officers and common people after a month. The purpose of the regulated delay, he argued, was to allow time for allies and colleagues to attend the funeral and properly manage the business associated with it. Lü Cai’s support of these traditional rules is an indication of his dislike of some divination practices. In Yin yang shu, he states: ‘it is evident that there are rules on when to bury and there is no need to divine to choose a year or month . . .’51 After pointing out inconsistencies of divined ‘best time’ for burials, actual practice, and problems created in a series

Passages of rites 81 of historical incidents, Lü Cai concludes, ‘an examination of the Book of Rites and the Zuo Chronicle shows that it is not necessary to select a particular hour for burial.’52 This is likely to have helped override existing complex and perhaps contradictory beliefs concerning divination for the nomination of a burial time and supported the timing of high status funerals according to practical worldly considerations. While a burial position with ‘good qi’ may have been popularly believed to maintain the vapour of the emperor thereby favourably affecting his descendants, Lü Cai argues that ‘fortunes and longevity have nothing to do with whether burials are held at good times or whether graves are in lucky sites . . .’53 He cites The Classic of Filial Piety and The Book of Changes to promote the idea that the welfare of one’s heirs is due to the benevolence one shows in life as well as their own actions.54 In summation, Yin yang shu outlines many superstitious ideas which influenced burial practices in the early Tang period. Lü Cai’s conclusions lessen the weight of complex beliefs about divination and emphasize more practical social considerations as the Tang progressed.

Angry ghosts and appeasement of the dead Lü Cai’s text while moving toward more practical considerations about burial than in the past, is testimony to the persistence of the popular belief that maintenance of the ‘vapour’ of the deceased could favourably affect his or her descendants – a critical consideration for imperial tombs in terms of the success of the dynasty. This is confirmed by Dai Fu’s book, written in 771, Guangyi ji (Great Book of Marvels), a compilation of more than 300 accounts of possession by spirits. The story of Yuchi Jiong in particular, indicates that the tomb could appease the soul of the deceased and avert calamities by abating any negative influence on the living. The stories of the Guangyi ji proclaimed that the tomb is a dead person’s home, equipped according to family means with a staff of guards, attendants or servants, and a stock of domestic and personal property. The goods inside were the absolute property of the dead owners and to steal them was an offence, both against the state criminal code and the dead. The Tang epitaph tablet covers inscribed with large seal script characters confirm this view. Theft potentially incurred statutory punishments as well as the risks of pursuit and revenge. The Guangyi ji expresses the idea that while there is a boundary between the living and the dead, that boundary can sometimes be fragile and flawed, with mortals and spirits moving across those boundaries.55 A dignified burial and proper rites were thought to be efficacious in averting calamities instigated by an angry ghost. This suggests that imperial tombs and the associated burial rites were thought by some to appease the tomb occupants’ souls and abate any negative influence of the dead on the living. The selection of a site and the ritual power invested in it, made the tomb interior a powerful place where metaphysical purposes were served by the apparently literal imagery of large scale painted dioramas. The Guangyi ji gives an interesting example which gives weight

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to this factor as a further motivation for imperial reburials, such as those of Li Xian, Yide, Yongtai and Wu Yanji, Wei Jiong, and Wei Hao, in suitably grand tombs. This case is of Yuchi Jiong, of the Northern Zhou, an old general who committed suicide at Ye in 580. His was the last challenge to Yang Jian who established the Sui dynasty. Tang Emperor Gaozu had replaced the Yangs and recognized Yuchi Jiong’s challenge to them. Accordingly, he acceded to a descendant’s request to have the general reburied and honoured him with an imperial grant of silk.56 Another case recalling Yuchi Jiong was in the late Kaiyuan period. Zhang Jiayou died in 741, and his biography was recorded in the Jiu Tang shu. In the twenty-fifth year [737] he became prefect of Hsiang-chou [Xiangzhou]. Since the beginning of Kai-yüan [Kaiyuan], ten or more Hsiang-chou prefects had died or suffered demotion. Chia-yu [Jiayou] learned from his enquiries that Yü-chih Chiung [Yuchi Jiong] had been regional commander of Hsiang-chou at the end of the Chou [Zhou] and had lost his life in the national emergency. So he set up a memorial temple to the spirit as a way to seek its blessing. After three annual assessments his appointment was changed to general of the Left in the Chin-wu [Jinwu] guards. Wu Ching [Wu Jing] became prefect of Yeh-chün [Yejun] after him and further invested the spirit with ceremonial robes. From then on prefects suffered no more troubles.57 A memorial temple was built dedicated to seasonal sacrifice to Yuchi Jiong. In this way the martyred patriot’s spirit was thought to be appeased with a sacrificial cult. The inscriptions written for the memorial temple are known. One is an inaugural stele by Yan Zhenqing (709–785), with a preface by Yan Boyu, which stood in the precincts of the Yuchi Jiong Temple in Anyang for many centuries: In the T’ang Wu-te [Wude] period the court ordained his reburial. They honoured the dead, they mourned the long departed, for state rites had been wanting in former times. They marked the tomb, they remembered the man, for heaven’s grace now flowed forth in a later age. In the year ting-chou of K’ai-yüan [737] . . . the prefect of Hsiang-chou, Master Chang Chia-yu [Zhang Jiayou] . . . raised a temple to this loyal and pure-hearted man, established sacrifices with ritual offerings. When he had first alighted from his carriage to inquire about the local customs they had complained in the prefecture of malevolent hauntings. He said: ‘If any common man or woman who dies by violence can wreak trouble, how much more, then, can the duke of Shu, whose words and deeds were an example to all! . . . Holders of the prefect’s post, though privileged to draw a high stipend, have neglected to perform due rites of celebration: it was right and proper that they should suffer calamities! I, therefore, have laid out my own salary, and a lofty temple has risen in splendour. I have moved in a “stone from another hill,” and a magnificent stele completes the words of praise. As long as hills and valleys stand firm they will evermore record his mighty heroism.’58

Passages of rites 83 The accounts in the Guangyi ji, in this way are unequivocal in providing evidence of eighth century interest in stories of historical individuals in ghostly form having influence over the living. The story of Yuchi Jiong gives credence to the assertion that the production of Li Xian’s tomb and the conduct of rituals dedicated to him were in part motivated by the view that these could appease his perhaps restless or angry spirit. Formal imperial funerals indicate the conduct of rituals which were Confucian in character. The strength of Confucian ritual tradition and increasing trends to rationalize burial practices are evident throughout the Tang, and indicate that imperial tombs were suitable sites for the expression of political ideas by and for the living at that time. Elements of ancient Chinese ideas about the soul persisted into the Tang period, and Buddhist ideas were also popular. Epitaph tablets mention the continued existence of the soul and record the use of divination practices for the selection of auspicious tomb sites. This is incontrovertible evidence that the spirit was thought to exist after death by some in the Tang period, and that the tomb was designed as a locus to serve the needs of the dead.

Plate 1 Xingningling mausoleum – part of the processional path. The remains of the tomb mound can be seen just beyond the far statue of a horse, to its right, with Western Han imperial tombs on the horizon. Stone pillars and statues of men are buried beneath ground level at the site.

Plate 2 Shunling mausoleum of Wu Zetian’s mother.

Plate 3 Military official (left) and civil official (right). Li Xian’s tomb. 706. Sancai earthenware pottery. 117 cm and 118 cm high. (Courtesy of Qianling Museum.)

Plate 4 Female attendants. Yide’s tomb rear chamber, east section of the south wall. 706. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 5 The passage of Li Xian’s tomb. (Source: Zou Zongxu (ed.), Qian nian gudou Xi’an, pp. 132–3.)

Plate 6 Protection guards. Li Xian’s tomb, east wall of the passage. 706. Pigment on plaster. 195 cm high. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 7 Triple gate towers. Yide’s tomb, west wall of the passage. 706. Pigment on plaster. 280 cm high ⫻ 220 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 8 Riderless horse, groom and attendants (detail). Li Shou’s tomb, west wall of the tunnel. 631. Pigment on plaster. Overall dimensions, 197 cm high ⫻ 132 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 9 Chinese officials and foreign emissaries. Li Xian’s tomb, east wall of the tunnel. 706. Pigment on plaster. 185 cm high ⫻ 253 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 10 Hunting scene (detail, second section). Li Xian’s tomb, east wall of the passage. 706. Pigment on plaster. Total length of Hunting Scene: 890 cm. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 11 Contemplative sage. Wei Hao’s tomb, west wall of the front chamber. 708. Pigment on plaster. 111 cm high ⫻ 80 cm wide. Shaanxi Archaeology Institute Museum. (Source: Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua, p. 77.)

Plate 12 Landscape (second section). Jiemin’s tomb, east wall of the passage. 710. Pigment on plaster. 100 cm high ⫻ 150 cm wide. Shaanxi Archaeology Institute Museum. (Source: Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua, p. 112.)

Plate 13 Female performers. Li Xian’s tomb, east wall (south section) of the front chamber. 706. Pigment on plaster. 168 cm high. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 14 Four female court attendants. Princess Xincheng’s tomb, east wall of the chamber. 663. Pigment on plaster. 230 cm high ⫻ 125 cm wide. (Source: Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua, p. 6.)

Plate 15 Woman with red shawl. Li Xian’s tomb, east wall of the front corridor. 706. Pigment on plaster. 168 cm high. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Plate 16 Watching a bird while catching a cicada. Li Xian’s tomb, west wall (south section) of the front chamber. 706. Pigment on plaster. 169 cm high. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Part II

Visions of kingdoms

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. . . his mansion residence is a vassal kingdom . . .1

The imperial tombs provide us with a large body of authentic datable paintings of the Tang period, from which we can assess tastes in themes and subject matter, conventions and innovations in the sequence of the tombs’ pictorial programmes, and the aesthetic devices used to construct the paintings. The wall paintings define spaces, not so much fitting the architectonic form of the tombs as visually shaping them. They establish hierarchies of space within the tombs and develop the illusion of expansive interiors, as if to create kingdoms extending far beyond the limits of the excavated underground spaces. The fifty or so Tang tombs in the vicinity of Xi’an, found to contain mural paintings, reveal the development, standardization, and decline of the form. Much of the subject matter in the Tang imperial tombs was not new, but ‘traditional’ for mortuary painting, since it had been in use from at least the first century in China. Subjects which persisted into the Tang from earlier times included guards and officials (discovered in the Eastern Han Tomb Number 1 at Wangdu, Hebei Province, c.2nd century, for example), a fortified residence (in the Eastern Han Tomb at Pinglu, Shaanxi Province, c.1st century), processions, music, dancing, equine themes and watchtowers (in the Eastern Han Tomb at Helinge’er, Inner Mongolia, c.145–220), hunting and camels (in brick paintings in the Wei and Jin tombs Number 5 and Number 6 at Jiayuguan Pass, Gansu Province, c.220–316).2 The images in the murals are not impressionistic or dream-like – they are literal, confidently expressed and clear, evoking the tangible. They are not like the later Song journey paintings or the escapist Yuan landscapes of the disaffected literati painters. It is perhaps because they belong to the abstract existence of the netherworld, that their content and style of representation was necessarily so ‘of this world’. Neither are the paintings diagrammatic or didactic in the manner of the Buddhist paintings of that time known to us through the Mogao temples near Dunhuang, for example. The paintings are predominantly of figurative subjects, many life-size, which characterize the classic features of the Tang style – interest in volume, with a sense

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of weight, balance and sculptural form brought to life through the use of three-dimensional modelling, strength of line and richness of colour. The figures portrayed appear to be individual likenesses rather than generalized types, and careful attention was paid to capturing particular ethnicities, characters, ranks, and professions. The three-quarter view was preferred as the most usual, although, frontal views were also part of the standard repertoire. In early Tang murals, the figures sometimes stood in simple architectural settings, with the background surrounding the figures left plain and unpainted. A sense of depth was created by the overlapping of figures with the placement of those at the rear of a group higher on the picture plane. By the eighth century, architecture became a prominent element in the mural programmes. Linear perspective was not known, and a rudimentary form of axonometric drawing was used, though it had no set conventions, and orthogonal lines frequently diverged, with the effect of expanding the sense of space in the painting. As in earlier periods, animals were important subjects for painting, especially horses and cattle, but also camels, and exotic hunting dogs, cheetahs, falcons and hawks, for example. In the early seventh century, landscape was used as a background to scenes of hunting and other activities, but by the early eighth century, landscape had become a fully realized subject in its own right.

What is a traditional Tang dynasty tomb pictorial programme? The situation of what was a standard pictorial programme for an imperial tomb in the seventh century is best indicated by the tombs of Li Shou (631) at Liaocun Village, Sanyuan, and Princess Xincheng (663) at Taizong’s Zhaoling mausoleum complex.3 The tombs of both Li Shou and Princess Xincheng are single chambered Type 2 tombs, and their pictorial programmes are echoed in later Tang tombs. Li Shou was a heroic Li warrior who rebelled against the Sui dynasty and helped found the Tang. He was Gaozu’s cousin and he gained a ministerial post at the beginning of the Tang. Under Taizong, he proved himself to be a great militarist holding the successive titles of Prince of Yongkang and Prince of Huai’an.4 His tomb is one of the earliest substantial Tang tombs excavated thus far in which the extensive wall mural paintings were found to be in well preserved condition. Li Shou’s tomb belongs to the stage when the system of Tang tomb form and decoration was not well developed. He was of Lower Grade 1 rank, and his tomb is 44.4 m long, with a single chamber 3.8 m by 3.9 m in size, a stone door, stone lintel, five light wells and two side niches.5 His tomb was appropriate for a high profile leader and defender of the Tang. Although some murals are incomplete due to deterioration through the centuries, the overall pattern of Li Shou’s tomb mural programme is clear. It progressed from south to north, from outdoor scenes to interiors (Figure 6.1a–i). The 16.8 m long passage had 2 m high murals. On the east wall, the mural was in two bands – the upper, a lively hunting scene with mounted hunters riding

(d)

(f)

(i)

(h)

(g)

Figure 6.1 Diagrams showing the pictorial programme in Li Shou’s tomb. Originals completed in 631. (a) plan; (b) south–north section; (c) east wall of passage: Hunting (upper register), Processional outing on horseback (lower register); (d) Gate tower (tunnel entry at south-facing wall of passage); (e) Three men, flying celestial figure, honour guards and attendants (east wall of corridor south of the stone door); ( f ) Buddhist temple scene (east wall of corridor north of the stone door); (g) Daoist temple scene (west wall of corridor north of the stone door); (h) Leading horses out of the stable (west wall of coffin chamber); (i) Mansion (coffin chamber, north wall). (Source: Wenwu, 1974:9, pp. 75–83.)

(e)

(c)

(b)

(a)

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towards the north in pursuit of wild boar and deer, the lower, a formal equestrian procession with dozens of bannermen riding towards the south. On the west wall was a scene of honour guards, and a groom waiting, as if for Li Shou, with a large white saddled but riderless horse. The 2.46 m high 17 m long tunnel had at its entry a trompe l’oeil gate tower through which one had to pass to reach the inside of the tunnel, where there were paintings of an officer, personal guards, and racks of seven halberds, followed by agrarian scenes of ploughing, sowing, cattle leaving a pen, and, led by a young man, an ox cart with a young woman passenger. In the 2.3 m high 6.8 m long corridor on the east there were numerous female and male attendants, and a senior military official accompanied by two guardsmen, with a flying celestial figure hovering above. Given the presence of the Buddhist celestial it is possible that the military official was Li Shou. After the stone door in the tunnel there was a Buddhist temple scene on the east wall and a Daoist temple scene on the west, both with monks. The coffin chamber symbolically provided for Li Shou’s private needs, with a scene on the west wall of a stable well-stocked with fine horses, and workers filling his granary with sacks of grain, and on the north, his impressive walled mansion, with halberd racks and guards at its gateway, and female musicians and entertainers performing inside for his perpetual amusement. Princess Xincheng was Taizong’s twenty-first daughter, and, according to the Xin Tang shu, she was buried according to the rites of an empress.6 The pictorial program of Princess Xincheng’s tomb is more formal than that of Li Shou, but also reflects a standard pattern which continued from the late seventh century well into the eighth. The tomb is 50.8 m long, with eight side niches, a stone door, and a single chamber 4.84 m high and 4.74 m square. In the 14.8 m long passage, hers commenced with the green dragon and white tiger, then a small gateway inside which was an impressive procession of thirty-eight armed honour guards. An empty palanquin, ox cart and saddled horses stood ready for her use. The 2.5 m high tunnel had two racks holding six halberds each with two guards in its second section, and female and male attendants in its first, third, fourth and fifth sections. The 2 m high 5 m long corridor and the coffin chamber were an exclusive space, occupied by murals of high ranking female attendants of Princess Xincheng’s Palace Service, carrying precious and utilitarian objects, including scroll paintings, rare fruits, buns, a lotus bloom, a fan, a candlestick and a fly whisk (Figure 6.2). What is evident in the seventh century murals in the tombs of both Li Shou and Princess Xincheng are organized sequences which progress from outdoor scenes, through a regulated sector, to the more secluded settings of personal living quarters. From south to north, each tomb’s mural programme reflects a gradual change in emphasis from courtly pomp or aristocratic excursions to private comfort appropriate to the tomb occupant’s status. As Type 2, single chambered tombs, this development shows three major sections: (a) the passage, (b) the tunnel and (c) the corridor and coffin chamber. This is suggested by changes in the physical form of the tomb interiors and the dominant character of the pictorial programme of the murals in each of the tomb sections. Images in the first zone

Figure 6.2 Diagram of the pictorial programme in Princess Xincheng’s tomb, east wall. Originals completed in 663. (Source: Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua, p. 191.)

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in both feature processions with horses and honour guards. The second zone contains halberds, guards and lower ranking attendants who are represented as if to supply the needs of the deceased. The third zone is painted to resemble a mansion or pavilion and is filled with companions, entertainers and higher ranking attendants to ‘serve’ the deceased. Li Shou’s tomb, with its hunting and equestrian scenes, is closer to that subsequently developed in the standardized princely tombs of the first half of the eighth century, such as that of Li Xian. Princess Xincheng’s, with its strong emphasis on formality and its numerous paintings of female court attendants is part of a larger tradition of high status Tang tomb mural painting later echoed in the pictorial programme of the mausolea of Prince Yide and Princess Yongtai, for example. The pictorial programme of Li Xian’s tomb has been discussed in Chapter 2. Yide’s mural programme, which was also found to be well preserved upon excavation, is longer and grander than Li Xian’s, and represents the most impressive example of a Tang tomb interior, discovered to date (Figure 6.3). The paintings of the tomb passage begin with large scale images of the dragon and tiger (the directional animals of the east and west), followed by colossal triple gate towers, beyond which, on each side, are as many as two hundred honour guards, three saddled riderless horses and several chariots. On each side of the tunnel there are four keepers with their hunting cheetahs, followed by two groups of twelve guards and two racks of twelve halberds, four keepers with their hunting falcons, two more groups of guards with halberd racks, two groups of seven eunuch officials, and a chariot with attendants. The corridors and chambers are filled with images of the women of Yide’s Palace Service. The pattern of interior organization seen in the tombs of Li Shou and Xincheng was extended in the Type 1, twin chambered tombs, which have four sectors. The regulated interiors of the tombs of Li Xian, Yide and Yongtai also progress hierarchically from south to north, in zones delineated through differentiations in the tomb’s three-dimensional form, physical boundaries, and painted decoration (Figure 6.4). Typically, the first zone is the descending tomb passage, its high walls with lively outdoor scenes forming an expansive entry space (Plate 5). The tomb tunnel is the second zone – a confined space with a barrel vault shaped ceiling, just sufficient in height to walk through, created a more controlled sense of space representing the administrative sector of a palace compound. This section includes the side niches and the light wells. It descends part of the way into the front corridor until a wooden door restricts further access. The third zone, after the wooden door, extends in the horizontal section through the front corridor and front chamber to the beginning of the rear corridor. This space echoed the architecture of palace halls. The third zone ends with the physical barrier of a stone door. The fourth zone is comprised of the rear corridor and the rear chamber resembling private palace chambers, and contains the mortal remains of the tomb occupants. Thus, these tomb interiors were all developed in a hierarchical progression along a north–south axis, in which the most restricted space was to the north; it was also the deepest section of the underground palace beneath the truncated pyramidal mound. Doors and doorways formed physical divisions to

Figure 6.3 North–south sectional view of Yide’s tomb showing the pictorial programme on the east wall. (Source: Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, Tang Yide mu bihua.)

Figure 6.4 North–south sectional view of Li Xian’s tomb showing the pictorial programme on the east wall. (Source: Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, Tang Li Xian mu bihau.)

Palatial quarters 95 punctuate the tomb along its axis of descent, with images of guards stationed at each point of transition. The pictorial program of the wall murals defined the spaces divided by the tombs’ physical forms and transformed the ritual site according to the entitlements of the tomb occupant. Distinct characters of the zones were created through the illusionistic manipulation of space and the psychological impact of particular subjects in the painting programme. In Type 1 tombs, subject matter progresses according to a broad hierarchy leading from excursion scenes in the open landscape, through a series of regulated gateways and passages to the secluded spaces of an inner court.

Murals of guards and the sequential development of space The most explicit use of the pictorial programme to regulate the hierarchy of space is in Li Xian’s tomb, where there are three sets of guards painted on its walls. Each has a particular role in parallel to the role of real life palace guards.7 These are followed by two sets of door attendant officials inscribed on stone fittings. These images of guards and officials exemplify the sequential development of, and orderly control over, the flow of movement within the tomb. The Protection Guards at the north end of the passage conclude the first zone (Plate 6). The portrayal of guards in the tomb marks a closure from the subject matter of the wild open spaces in the hunting and polo scenes, while emphasizing Li Xian’s high status. The eighteen body guards and their General, to whom Li Xian lost entitlement in life, were afforded him in death. The scene of The Protection Guards on the east wall is comprised of three trios of men – all bearded and moustached wearing red headscarves tied around the buns on the top of their heads. They wear light coloured, calf-length round necked, long sleeved robes, and brown boots. Each wears a leather belt from which hangs a sheathed sword, a bow concealed in a cheetah or tiger tail, a long woven quiver lacquered red and black, to contain arrows, and a bushy fox tail.8 The third figure in each group carries a long staff, which may have had an emblem or flag at the top, although these areas are now obscured due to the deterioration of the mural surface. A couple of the men have individually styled purses hanging from their belts. The General stands before the unit leaning on his long sheathed sword. He is a massive figure in dark green lapelled jacket with black headscarf and boots, and a bronze tally attached to his belt. His posture is strong, stable and decidedly martial; his demeanour is relaxed, but at the ready. In the Tang dynasty, a Crown Prince was entitled to guard units. Their organization paralleled the Imperial Guard, though the officers held lower ranks. The Crown Prince’s Guard was comprised of Protection Guards, Road Security Guards, Gate Surveillance Guards and Palace Guards.9 The Protection Guards in Li Xian’s tomb are fewer than those to which a Crown Prince was entitled. Since these murals were completed for his status as Prince of Yong, they lack the sheer number of military found in Yide’s tomb, which includes dozens of infantrymen, cavalry and charioteers.

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Gate surveillance guards mark the beginning of the tomb tunnel and designate a change from the first zone outside the tomb’s palace compound, to the second zone within the palace gates (Figure 6.5). There are six gate surveillance guards, three each on the east and west walls. The function of such gate guards was to control the coming and going of authorized personnel and commodities. Gate guards were assigned on a rotational basis, but by the early eighth century, the rotational system was in decline.10 The Da Tang liu dian records that the Gate Bureau was ‘responsible for the opening and closing of the gates to the capital, to the palaces and gates to the halls.’11 The Tang lü records that all cases of unauthorized entry of the gates of the imperial palace were punishable by two years of penal servitude.12 Article 58 of the Tang lü indicates that a similar system existed for emperors’ tombs. Imperial guardsmen were stationed at ling and ancestral temples to protect them, those persons permitted to go in or out having their names listed on a register.13 These guards recall Li Xian’s entitlements, but also stand as permanent representations for the regulation of movement within the tomb. The figure in a red robe, seated to the north on the west wall, holds an ivory tablet and is the highest ranking, in charge of the other five. The Gate surveillance guards murals manipulate the space in several ways. The tunnel is a narrowed area with a low barrel vault ceiling. The painting shows

Figure 6.5 Gate surveillance guards. Li Xian’s tomb tunnel, west wall of the first section. 706. Pigment on plaster. 170 cm high 250 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Palatial quarters 97 guards on duty in a simple post and lintel construction timber gatehouse. Their realistically figured presence creates a sense that they can control the movement of others. The presentation of an illusionistic gatehouse also has an impact. It has been drawn using what approaches the axonometric views used today in technical drawing. The introduction of simulated architectural forms makes a distinction between the confines of the tunnel and the wide expanses represented in the open landscapes of the passage. The building has been given the illusion of being three-dimensional and the gatehouse on the east wall appears to have more rooms behind it. Interestingly, the horizontal receding parallels give the impression of converging behind the viewer, adding to the effect of space within the picture. This enhances the sense of mobility of the guards within the picture plane and contrasts with the viewer’s increasing limitation of movement in the confined space of the tunnel. The Eunuch gate monitor is the final guard painted in the mural programme, symbolically controlling the tomb’s interior space (Figure 6.6). He was figured on

Figure 6.6 Eunuch gate monitor. Li Xian’s tomb tunnel, last section, east wall. 706. Pigment on plaster. 170 cm high. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

98 Palatial quarters the east wall just before the wooden door leading to the third sector, his presence heightening the sense of importance of those sections at the tomb’s northern end. He wears a round collared, belted, yellow-brown robe, and boots. His hair is tied on top of his head in a black scarf. He holds a fish shaped tally in his right hand with a key attached to it by a long thong. The index finger of his left hand points to the tally, while his vision is directed at the position where a person would stand on the threshold of the wooden door, waiting to pass. Eunuch gate monitors, attached to the Gates Service of the Palace Domestic Service, were responsible for opening the entrances to the imperial residence in the morning, locking them at night, and for checking on the legitimacy of all comings and goings through the gates.14 The Tang lü records that to pass into the palace sector of the capital one had to have a tally, one’s name recorded on a special register, or both.15 The sub-commentary to article 364.1 in the Tang lü, records that Tallies for the gates of the imperial palace or an imperial audience hall refer to opening the gates of the imperial palace or an imperial audience hall at other than the prescribed times. It is required to compare the two parts of the fish tallies and only then to open the gates. The punishment for counterfeiting the tally is the same as for counterfeiting the tally for dispatching troops.16 The gaze of the palace gate keeper and his pointing index finger indicate that the viewer required a tally that had to be matched with his own before he or she could proceed to the tomb’s corridors and chambers. The gate tally had the key attached to it for the convenience of cross-checking. The door monitor’s body faces up the tomb tunnel to the administrative sector of the tomb, while his attention is focused on protecting the interior beyond the door. This gives the impression that those permitted beyond the wooden door are passing to a different and superior scheme. This is reflected in the subjects of the paintings in the northern end of the tomb. Two further physical divisions occur in the tomb. The first is the stone door in the rear corridor which was inscribed with two eunuch officials, marking the highly restricted entry to Li Xian’s private apartment (Figure 2.7). The second was the stone outer coffin in the form of a house; it is inscribed with linear decoration including doors with a eunuch and female official standing before them, to protect Li Xian and Consort Fang as they lay in repose (Figure 6.7).

Architectural elements as signifiers of status Tang Buddhist timber frame architecture is illustrated in visual records such as the incised drawing of a temple hall on the stone tympanum over the west portal of Da Yan Pagoda (dating from c.701), or in the paintings of Amitabha’s Western Paradise in the Mogao temple grottoes near Dunhuang, in which palatial and courtly environments for the Buddhist purpose of habitation by enlightened and

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Figure 6.7 Rubbing of the line incised decoration on Li Xian’s stone outer coffin, showing a eunuch and a female attendant. 2 m high. (Source: Wenwu, 1972:7, p. 23, figure 1.)

celestial beings are evoked. Actual examples include Fo Guang Temple, built in 857 in the Wu Tai Mountains, which stands as the oldest wooden structure in China, while Horyu-ji, built in the early seventh century near Nara in Japan, based on the Chinese Buddhist style, is the oldest from the period in East-Asia. The imperial tomb murals, however, are significant for providing the best evidence of Tang palace style timber frame buildings in the form of gateways, gate towers, halls, and pavilions. All volumes of the court compiled Yingshan ling (The Tang National Building Law) have disappeared.17 The earliest surviving treatise on building standards, the Yingzao fashi (The State Building Standards) which dates from 1103 in the Song

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period, gives an indication of the established use of building practice to consolidate control by the state. The tomb murals, therefore, are useful indications of the use of architectural elements according to official entitlements in a prescribed scheme of building standards. The imperial tombs routinely have a gate tower painted at the tunnel mouth. The tombs of Yide and Yongtai represent schemes superior to others, with imposing additional gate towers in the tomb passage near the tomb entrance on the east and west walls, after the dragon and tiger. These are portrayed as impressive structures with brick construction at the lower level, timber post and beam upper storeys and ceramic tile roofs. Yongtai’s tomb has a pair of single gate towers (que), while, significantly, Yide’s has a pair of triple gate towers (sanchu que) followed by a pair of single gate towers (Plate 7). From the Western Han period (206 BC–AD 9) on, three types of gate tower were in use – ordinary officials could use a simple single gate tower, feudal lords and high officials were entitled to use a double gate tower, and the emperor used triple gate towers.18 Triple gate towers were included in Western Han mortuary paintings, and in the Tang dynasty, these remained the entitlement of an emperor. These great gate towers are important status symbols setting the tomb of Yongtai above those of others known to date, and Yide’s above all others, except those of emperors. The most explicit actual use of the triple gate tower was at the Hanyuan Throne Hall (Hanyuan dian) of the Daming Palace (Daming gong) (Figure 6.8). The Hanyuan Throne Hall was the most important hall in the Daming Palace, since it was used for imperial audiences and for ceremonies marking such important occasions as the New Year, the Winter Solstice, the investiture of a new emperor and the emperor’s birthday.19 According to archaeologists’ reconstructions, triple gate towers were evident at the east and west ends of the Hanyuan Throne Hall. The flanking pavilions were known as the Flying Female Phoenix to the west and Perching Male Phoenix to the east, and had bell and drum towers nearby. In this way the vista in Yide’s tomb passage would have paralleled that viewed when standing on the Longwei Path, which was a long stairway, before the Hanyuan Throne Hall.20 Whilst the actual size of the towers in Yide’s murals is not great, an imposing effect was created through the adoption of a somewhat primitive form of linear perspective. Although distorted and exaggerated, this

Figure 6.8 Restored view of the Hanyuan Throne Hall. (Source: Zou Zongxu (ed.), Qian nian gudou Xi’an, p. 70.)

Palatial quarters 101 gives a sense of the architectural form receding into the picture plane. Each mural of the triple gate towers has two viewpoints – a low viewpoint drawing attention up to the guard rooms at the top, with a second viewpoint looking down on the verandah and pylon sections of the towers. The verandahs have been tilted up to afford a better view of them. This multi-angled view creates the impression of unseen superior might (the guards are not visible), while simultaneously suggesting limitations to the power of the guard room occupants given the higher authority of the Crown Prince. The tower roofs are hipped. It is likely that this was the highest status roof type at the time, given that hip roofs appear in the grandest of gateways in the Tang murals at Dunhuang, and according to the Yingzao fashi, hip roofs were reserved for palaces and mansions alone.21 These impressive symbols of an emperor’s residence are in contrast to the simple gatehouse at the commencement of the palace sector in Li Xian’s tomb tunnel. It represents a column and beam structural type, held together by mortise and tenon joints without any bracketing joints. It is known that this simple type of construction was widely used for military regimental buildings, storehouses, and domestic buildings in the Song period.22 The intimacy of the space and partially relaxed demeanour of the gate surveillance guards at the open mouth of the tunnel provides a sense of access and permission to enter under controlled circumstances, as opposed to the impressive pomp, intimidating height and powerful presence of the gate towers in the tombs of Yide and Yongtai. It also indicates an inferior scheme in terms of architectural symbolism. The architectural details represented in the tomb chambers are also noteworthy. The form represented in the chambers conforms to the square shaped pavilion building type described in the Song Yingzao fashi. These pavilions had a pyramidal or conical roof which usually was equally hipped on all sides, and the roof was supported by columns without walls.23 While most of the paintings in the chambers are of figures before plain backgrounds, Li Xian’s rear chamber includes a landscaped garden in the background, showing the potential of the pavilions as fine places to pause and enjoy the scenery. The chambers of the imperial tombs have red painted columns, beams, and bracket sets of the following types: column top, corner and intercolumnar. Even in these details, however, there were differences from tomb to tomb. For example, the situation in the tomb chambers of Xincheng and Li Xian is similar with their brackets sets at one tier in height, while both are inferior to the case in Yide’s tomb where they are two tiers in height. The implication of this difference is in the ability of the brackets and beams to support a more impressive roof. In buildings of similar size, increasing the number of steps in the bracketing units would have enabled the construction of larger overhanging eaves.24

Halberd display as an heraldic emblem of the ruling class Halberds were an important heraldic symbol for the Tang ruling class. The entitlement in the official system to display racks of halberds at the palace or mansion gate was given correspondence in the tombs, with their number strictly

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regulated. Halberd racks were included in the tomb murals of the following individuals, for example: Li Shou (14 halberds), General Li Hui, dating from 689 (12), Princess Xincheng (12), Princess Yongtai (12), Crown Prince Li Xian (14), Crown Prince Yide (48), Madam Xue, dating from 710 (10) and Crown Prince Huizhuang, dating from 724 (18).25 The tradition of using halberds as a signifier of status began in ancient times when guards of honour armed with wooden halberds marched ahead of officials on tour.26 During the Sui and Tang dynasties, a system of displaying halberds in front of gates developed as a means to show power. According to the Xin Tang shu, halberd racks were placed at Buddhist and Daoist temples, palaces, halls, offices of governors and mansions of male officers above the third rank. The earliest documented regulations are in the Da Tang liu dian and date from 741, the last year of the Kaiyuan period. Further official regulations on halberd entitlements were published in 747, the sixth year of Tianbao, and in 789, the fifth year of Zhengyuan. In the 741 regulations, there were six ranks in halberd display: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and the maximum, 24.27 Twelve halberds were the entitlement of those of the first rank, and eighteen were the entitlement of Crown Princes; the Eastern Palace, that is the Crown Prince’s palace in Chang’an, had eighteen halberds. Twenty-four halberds were placed at the gates of temples and palaces. The tombs of Li Shou and Li Xian both had fourteen halberds, indicating that they are of the same rank, and that the halberds in Li Xian’s tomb were painted in 706 in accordance with his status as Prince of Yong, rather than as Crown Prince (Figures 6.9 and 6.10). There are two racks of painted red wood each with seven halberds, in each tomb. The halberds are distinctive – Li Shou’s with red, white, yellow and blue streamers attached, and Li Xian’s with banners decorated with lions’ faces, from which red and white streamers hang and flutter in the wind in a lively and spirited fashion. The tombs of Xincheng and Yongtai, both had twelve, indicating that their official rank was Grade 1. The entitlements of aristocratic women to halberds, according to rank, is significant during the Tang, and is a testimony to the serious political power of women not only during the period of Wu Zetian’s rule, but also before and after it. In the early Tang, the comment on halberds by Taizong’s daughter Xiangcheng (married to Xiao Rui) who was offered a new mansion, is striking. She said, ‘Just redecorate the old mansion and display two sets of halberds at the front gate.’28 The two halberd sets referred to, were for Xiao Rui and for herself, according to their respective ranks.29 According to the Tong dian: During Zhongzong’s era, Empress Wei asked for titles to be given to ladies in their own right, rather than through their husbands or sons, and the allowing of halberd display according to their ranks, using the same display system.30 The Princesses Taiping, Changning, Anle, Yicheng, Xindu, Ding’an and Jincheng had their own officers within their residences, and halberds were placed in front of their residences.

Palatial quarters 103

Figure 6.9 Guards and halberd rack (detail). Li Shou’s tomb. 631. Original dimensions, 172 cm high 111 cm wide. Pigment on plaster. Tomb tunnel, east wall below the first light well. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Yide’s tomb has paintings of four halberd racks, each containing twelve halberds – that is forty-eight in total. This is by far the largest set yet discovered in a Tang tomb and the only case known so far where four halberd racks have been used. The standard number of racks was two. This distinguishes Yide’s tomb as well above that of an ordinary Crown Prince and as far superior to any other in the Tang system. According to Li Qiushi, the twenty-four halberds in the first ventilation shaft are equivalent to those placed at a palace gate and the halberds in the second shaft are equivalent to those placed at the gates of the halls.31 In the early Tang period, conventions were established in mural paintings which determined the organization of the Tang imperial tomb interiors used through much of the remainder of the dynasty. A set repertoire was used to

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Figure 6.10 Rack of halberds. Li Xian’s tomb tunnel, east wall, second section. 706. Pigment on plaster. 212 cm high 180 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

demonstrate the official status of the tomb occupant – including guards, architectural elements and halberds. As was the case for tomb form, these symbols were strictly regulated to be consistent with rank. They not only reflected the status which the tomb occupant had held in life, but also that which he or she would enjoy in the eternal repose of their afterlife.

7


. . . brightness shone in his afterlife in the underworld . . .1

Beyond preoccupations about rigidly delineated official rank, and the triumphs and tragedies of court politics, the tombs were designed to reflect idyllic afterlives to be enjoyed by the deceased imperial family members. Many of the themes in the imperial tomb murals are innovative illustrations of courtly protocol, or represent personal pleasures and the leisure activities of the aristocratic elite. Procession and excursion scenes were important in mortuary art as early as the Han period and can be linked to ideas about death ritual and progress of the soul. Their use in the Tang period combined traditional ideas with secular concerns. They recalled imagery from earlier Chinese mortuary art which portrayed imagined journeys of the soul, and recreated elements of funeral or court protocol, while expressing an upper class flamboyance in which prestige expressed social superiority. In the late seventh century, these were well standardized, and in the early eighth century, new themes were added to the standard protocol repertoire, and innovative themes were painted, illustrating personal interests to suggest an ideal existence in a paradisic environment.

Han procession and excursion scenes In Han tombs, procession and excursion scenes were carved on lintels, the walls of tomb chambers and stone outer coffins.2 The use of standard elements in these scenes included a leading horseman, a covered leading horse-drawn carriage for wives, a ram or horse-drawn wagon left empty to transport the ‘invisible soul’ of the deceased, and a hearse, as well as animals symbolising the directions and gatetowers.3 Wu Hung notes that journey scenes with chariots had multiple meanings in Han mortuary art. They were used to reflect the official rank of the tomb occupant, events in his life, funerary processions or imaginary tours taken by his soul.4 The use of animal-drawn carriages at funerals was recorded in the Yi li, which outlines a series of rites conducted in the ancestral temple of the deceased’s family on the day before burial, in which a hearse and one or more chariots used by the deceased were displayed in the temple courtyard. Such chariots have been

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discovered in Han tombs, including Pingling, the mausoleum of the Han Emperor Zhaodi (Liu Foling, r.86–74 BC), in which two lacquered wooden canopied funeral chariots were interred – one drawn by two sheep and the other by four camels (the earliest evidence of camels found thus far in China). The Yi li stipulates that on the day the hearse delivers the coffin to the graveyard, it be accompanied by a carriage with its passenger seat left unoccupied.5 Wu Hung relates these guidelines on ritual practices to Han ideas about the progress of the soul. One of the most explicit demonstrations of this is in the Eastern Han tomb located at Cangshan in southeastern Shandong Province, dated to 151, in which inscriptions annotated the relief carved stone murals. The journey represented in the Cangshan tomb is a bipartite one, in which a funerary procession is shown making its way to the grave and then an imaginary tour takes place, with the deceased enjoying himself in the grand outdoors of an idealized world. The stone tomb lintel in Figure 7.1 is another example which uses a journey picture to depict funerary ritual or imaginary tour of the soul in the afterlife. As Wu Hung describes it, such scenes show the juxtaposition of . . . a temporal sequence from the world of the living to the world of the dead, with the transition between the two realms being established by the funerary procession.6 Gate towers and the directional animals were traditionally used in Han scenes as symbolic markers establishing the orientation of movement within the scenes into or out of the tomb space.7 An inscription on a second century stone sarcophagus from Guitoshan, Sichuan, for example, identifies the pillar-gate as ‘the Gate of Heaven’ – the entrance for the soul into the afterlife.8 It can be speculated that these elements were used to demonstrate the transformative process of ritual. As Watson explains, rituals are repeated because they are expected to have transformative powers. Rituals change people and things; the ritual process is active, not merely passive.9 In this way the processions illustrated the soul’s release from the graveyard through the gate towers and into the cosmos itself designated by the tiger and dragon. This is consistent with the concept of the tomb as a boundary between this existence and the next, and gives meaning to the tomb as the site of ritual processes and as an aid to the progress of the soul.

Figure 7.1 Journey scene. Detail of a rubbing of a stone lintel from a Han tomb. 206 BC to AD 220. 223 cm long 34 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Pleasures and protocols 107 Much remains to be discussed about the development of excursion themes in funerary murals of the post-Han period. It is clear that processions and grand tours continued as popular themes depicted on the walls of tombs, although the representation of a soul’s journey in the afterlife is demonstrated less explicitly. This is the case in the Northern Qi tomb of the high official Lou Rui, dating from 570, for example, where journey scenes were portrayed on the east and west walls of the 21 m long passage10 (Figure 7.2a). The west wall is divided into three registers, the lower register showing four musicians blowing long horns and a group of armed guards followed by three riderless horses being led in a formal procession in the direction of the tomb chamber. The surviving section of the middle register portrays a lively procession exiting the tomb in which two saddled but riderless stallions gallop amid a large group of armed equestrians, some bearing banners on poles (Figure 7.2b). The upper register continues the theme of a journey in wide open spaces, with equestrians and a small number of figures on foot, followed by loaded camels. The west wall of the coffin chamber shows a hearse pulled by an ox, followed by mourners (Figure 7.2c). The format of the murals in Lou Rui’s tomb repeats the concept which found its visual expression in Han tombs – that is, a slow sombre funeral procession of mourners leading into the tomb (passage, lower register), the hearse delivering the corpse to its resting place (coffin chamber) and then a more joyful excursion on horseback leading out of the tomb (passage, middle and upper registers). It can not be known for certain whether or not the deceased takes part as a liberated spirit in the last scene on the upper register of the tomb passage, but his presence is suggested through the symbolism of the riderless horses in the middle register.11

Tang procession and excursion scenes In the Tang dynasty procession, excursion and other outdoor scenes were developed into a number of genres. Two procession and excursion subjects – a funeral procession and hunting – were present in the early Tang tomb of Li Shou. The pictorial programme on the east wall of the tomb passage is quite clear, and part of the original appearance of the west wall is known. The east wall was divided into two registers (Figure 6.1c). The lower register is a long procession progressing out of the tomb, with mounted guards, a riderless horse, and a group of attendants. The upper register is a lively hunting scene, in which groups of men ride energetically through the landscape, chasing quarry of deer and boar in all directions. The west wall shows a procession facing out of the tomb, which includes mounted guards and a groom leading a riderless saddled horse, followed by male attendants (Plate 8). Whether Li Shou’s journey paintings represent a favourite pastime from his life and his funeral procession, or the imagined activites of a contented spirit in the afterlife cannot be determined for certain. The riderless horse may be a sign of social status expressed through livery entitlements, it may reflect part of the funeral procession in which a symbolic space was reserved for the deceased, or be at the ready to transport Li Shou’s spirit in or to his afterlife. The symbol of the riderless horse may encapsulate all of these ideas.

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(b)

(c)

Figure 7.2 Diagram of the murals in Lou Rui’s tomb. Originals completed in 570, Northern Qi period. Lou Rui’s tomb is near Taiyuan city, Shanxi Province: (a) Upper register: Excursion. Middle register: Procession. Lower register: Funeral procession. (west wall of tomb passage – original 21 m long), (b) Procession (shown in (a) middle register) enlarged, (c) Funeral procession with hearse, mourners and guards (west wall of tomb corridor and coffin chamber – original 15.5 m long). (Source: Wenwu, 1983:10, figures 4 and 63.)

The broader situation in the early seventh century is obscured since only a small number of early Tang tombs have been excavated with such paintings in fair condition. It should be noted, however, that the murals have a strong martial quality – with fleeing animals being shot with arrows by fast riding horsemen, and

Pleasures and protocols 109 alert armed guards on horseback – reflecting era when the Tang dynasty was being established through battles and military victories, in which Li Shou had played a part. The tomb of Princess Changle is a mid-seventh century example which is highly imaginative in its approach to the development of an excursion theme. Changle, the fifth daughter of Taizong, died suddenly at the age of 23 and was buried in an attendant tomb at Zhaoling in 643.12 The 1.75 m high 4 m long mural most likely evokes a tour of the deceased, with a magnificent red lacquered wooden chariot drawn by a pair of fleet footed horses galloping at full speed. A coachman drives the chariot with an elderly bearded gentleman and a young woman in the passengers’ compartment. The vehicle flies airborne amid a sea of swirling clouds in which there are floating celestial beings and below them a giant lion faced fish. By the late seventh century, the form of procession and excursion scenes became well defined, and their character suggested the worldly and the secular. Based on surviving evidence from the tombs of Princess Xincheng, Zheng Rentai (664), Li Zhen (665), Ashina Zhong (675) and Li Feng (675) it is clear that funeral procession themes alone predominated at the southern start of the tunnels and in the tomb passages, with the general direction of movement toward the mouth of the tomb at the south.13 These scenes, produced in a period when the empire was relatively stable, have an ambience of peaceful order. They are comprised of officials, guards, attendants, mourners, ox-drawn carts, riderless horses, camels and in one case a palanquin. Compared with the case in Han times, the late seventh century situation is highly secularized. These are worldly images in which the presence of transportation reflects aristocratic entitlements in ritualized funeral processions without figuration of a subsequent imaginary tour by the spirit of the deceased in the netherworld. The riderless horses, carts, unburdened camels and palanquins recall the unoccupied carriages reserved for the deceased which were described in the Yi li, but by the Tang, their purpose is for the display of lavish and auspicious ritual. In terms of the afterlife, however, it cannot be discounted that the vehicles were intended to represent livery entitlements for the benefit of the soul of the deceased during occupancy of the tomb in the same way that images or replicas of attendants, food, animals and homely comforts were provided. Princess Xincheng’s tomb contains a well preserved mural of a late seventh century high status formal funeral procession (Figure 7.3). The first images to the far south of the passage, are the green dragon on the east wall and the white tiger on the west, both of which are now almost totally lost; their positions designate the procession scene as taking place within the graveyard or palace compound. After the directional animals each wall has two guards carrying halberds, in front of a gate. Behind the gate, there are two groups of five guards with swords, each group with an officer, and followed by a pair of riderless saddled horses lead by grooms. Next, the east wall has an open empty palanquin carried by four bearers, while the west wall has a closed ox-drawn carriage and finally there are attendants and large groups of protection guards. All figures in the scenes face out of the tomb, proceeding upward to its entrance.

Figure 7.3 Diagram of the pictorial programme in Princess Xincheng’s tomb passage. Top: east wall. Bottom: west wall. Originals completed in 663. (Source: Kaoguyu wenwu, 1997:3, p. 17, figures 13.1 and 13.2.)

Pleasures and protocols 111 Where the late seventh century was a period of standardization of traditional tomb mural themes, the early eighth century represented a period of aggrandizement of these, and of the innovative interpretation of others. The procession scenes in the tombs of Princess Yongtai and Crown Prince Yide follow that formalized in Princess Xincheng’s (Figures 7.4 and 6.3). The pictorial programme in the southern-most ends of the tomb passage commences with the dragon and tiger of the east and west, followed by gate towers, then processions and honour guards.14 The scenes of Yide’s tomb passage are the most flamboyant of any, containing around 200 men – infantry, cavalry and charioteers – in large groups, wearing formal robes. With flags fluttering in the breeze the fan bearers proceed solemnly along. The scene in Yide’s tomb passage concludes with two sets of three similar horses with two sets of three chariots, while Yongtai’s has pairs of saddled riderless horses in front of halberd racks. The directional animals and gate towers are markers or signifiers which give meaning to the scenes. Where in Han art they established boundaries between this life and the next, in the Tang examples, they seem to denote boundaries in the mundane realm. In addition to their prestigious symbolism as palace entrances, discussed in the previous chapter, their purpose in mortuary art may have been to resemble the entrance to a real graveyard. The primary Qianling mausoleum had two sets of triple gate towers constructed at its entrance, and Li Xian’s tomb had one pair of gate towers in front of the walled tomb compound, for example.15

Innovative protocol scenes In contrast to the expansive formal procession scenes in the tombs of other princes and princesses, Li Xian’s tomb contains two protocol scenes which are innovative interpretations of the themes, each with a small group of foreign dignitaries, Chinese officials and honour guards. These representations influenced later tomb murals including that of Crown Prince Huizhuang (Li Wei), the second son of Ruizong. Chinese Officials and Foreign Emissaries were painted in the passage on the middle sections of the east and west walls beneath the directional animals, in what can be described as the beginning of ‘structured space’ within the tomb (Plate 9). Foreigners had become a subject of interest in the seventh century ceramics, metal wares, sculpture and painting, but these are the earliest known paintings of foreign dignitaries at court or attending an imperial funeral. Each painting is comprised of three foreigners with three Chinese officials. The foreigners are positioned to the south facing north, towards the tomb palace entrance gate, with the Chinese officials standing closer to the north, in a superior position in the spatial hierarchy.16 All the foreigners stand bowed forward subserviently, their hands clasped reverently before them, except one who carries an ivory tablet denoting official status. The Chinese officials by contrast, engage with one another, their bodies turned away from the emissaries. Their triangular groupings form a compositional barrier between the foreigners and the court, heightening a sense of who is ‘Chinese and alien’, ‘superior and vassal’. The effect is to demonstrate the prestige of the Tang court, and Li Xian in particular on the wider world stage.

Figure 7.4 Diagram of the murals in Yongtai’s tomb, east wall of the passage. Originals date from 706, 23.7 m long. (Source: Wenwu, 1964:1, p. 10, figure 4.)

Pleasures and protocols 113 It is not possible to determine the identity of the foreigners, if indeed the paintings are portraits, and the nationality of the emissaries remains problematic. It is probable that the east wall shows a Roman,17 tonsured with moustache, in belted monastic robe and black boots, a Korean or Japanese wearing feathered hat, red-collared short robe and pants,18 and a Mongolian in a long robe, overcoat and leather trousers. A Greek, a Persian and an envoy from Gaochang (present day Xinjiang) are portrayed on the west wall.19 The most important foreign visitors during the Tang period were envoys, clerics and merchants engaged in matters of politics, religion and commerce.20 Such contacts expanded to their height during the seventh century. It is also possible that these scenes show part of the funeral procession in which, according to the protocol for royal funerals, foreign dignitaries followed the courtiers.21 This has been described in the Xin Tang shu. On the occasion of an emperor’s visit to a ling, the officials in charge, the five classes of royal family, the three classes of in-law family members, envoys and other subordinates, all went together. When they reached the underground palace of a ling garden compound, the officials, other subordinates, royal family and messengers stood on both sides of the processional path or in front of the place where the living emperor was resting. In the two paintings of envoys in Li Xian’s tomb, the envoys stand on both sides of the tomb passage, facing the tomb chambers as if walking toward them, in correspondence to the standard ritual used to visit a ling or worship the tomb occupant.22 Whether an innovative representation of the funeral rite or illustrating an aspect of business protocol conducted at the Crown Prince’s court, the presence of ‘exotic foreigner vassals’ at Li Xian’s court indicated his official role in a climate of favourable trade and strategic diplomatic relations at that time. The representations of foreigners in Li Xian’s tomb show a progression from earlier types in tomb murals and tomb sculptures. The tombs of Li Zhen (665) and Ashina Zhong23 (675) included paintings of foreign grooms leading cartpulling oxen. As we have already seen, foreign envoys were represented in external sculptures at Zhaoling and Qianling, and foreign visitors and residents of the capital through migration, trade or missions were frequent subjects in decorative arts and ceramic tomb wares. Hand scroll paintings were also produced which became famous representations of the foreigners who came on tribute missions to Taizong’s court. Examples by Yan Liben, now known only through copies, include: Emperor Taizong in a Sedan Chair Greeting Three Envoys from Tibet, a hand scroll, originally mounted in 641;24 Western Barbarians Bringing Tribute of Various Kinds, such as Strange Animals and Stones, to the Emperor;25 and Foreign Rulers Bringing Tribute.26 Compared with all of the above examples, the paintings in Li Xian’s tomb demonstrate a heightened attention to physiognomic types, details of national costumes, gestures and expressions. The Turkic grooms painted in the tombs of Li Zhen and Ashinar Zhong reflected the use of introduced skills in service of their masters at court. The ‘barbarians’ on funerary wares and decorative objects showed the cosmopolitan nature of life in the Chinese capitals.27 Yan Liben’s work recorded the unique and, what must have seemed the curious, appearance of the visitors who came

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to court from distant countries. The fourteen foreign emissaries sculpted in monumental scale at Zhaoling and the sixty-one at Qianling are indicative of foreign submission to the Chinese rulers, and have resonance from Gaozong’s ceremonies when foreigners were brought for sacrifice but their lives were spared in partial reenactment of archaic rites in which foreign kings had been sacrificed on Chinese emperors’ tumuli. The foreign envoys in Li Xian’s tomb murals, however, are distinctive as official guests at court and reflect the refined conduct of diplomatic relationships at a time when China was at a height of power and expansion. Although it can be speculated that these detailed murals were painted as distinctive portraits, records are scant in this regard and the models for the images can no longer be determined.28

Hunting scenes The hunting theme which was another traditional standard in the repertoire of tomb murals was given innovative interpretations in the early eighth century. Examples have been discovered in the tombs of Li Xian and Wei Hao (708). Li Xian’s tomb passage east wall is dominated by an expansive hunting scene which has the key difference from that in Li Shou’s tomb in that there is no quarry and not a single hunter takes aim (Plate 10). The mural takes the character of a great day out, and of sport for aristocratic pleasure rather than for the purpose of martial training in peacetime. It is convincingly realistic in style, with a spirit of high energy and sense of drama with horses racing across the expansively conceived picture plane in the direction of the tomb’s entrance. It conveys a sense of excitement in an atmosphere of informal but privileged royal enjoyment set in an unrestricted space outside the confines of a palace or graveyard. Unlike the procession scenes in the tombs of Xincheng, Yide, or Yongtai, for example, it is located in the pictorial programme before the spatial markers of dragon and tiger. The large entourage of hunters ride at full gallop, with two rows of armed protection guards, above and below the main group. They hold flags aloft, the colours representative of their troops. Some riders have the round collars of the Han and others the turned lapels of the Hu people.29 The action is lively; two riders gesture with hand signals – one with the last three fingers of his right hand and another with the first two of his left – to communicate without the use of voice while riding at full pace. Magnificent horses gallop at full speed, all four feet off the ground. Cheetahs, dogs, hawks and falcons are mounted at the front or back of their tamers’ saddles and represent prestigious exotics used to hunt deer, boar and the like. The cheetah was imported from Persia, where it was domesticated and used in hunting. Descriptions of cheetahs mounted behind riders at the hunt are found in classical Persian literature.30 According to Schafer ‘the scarcity of literary allusions to hunting cheetahs in the texts of that age indicates that their use must have been restricted to court circles, and for a very short period’.31 This makes their inclusion in the mural all the more significant as signs of extravagance within the most

Pleasures and protocols 115 privileged class. The value of hunting hounds is indicated by them being sent to court as tribute on a number of occasions.32 Falconing was known to the Chinese from the third century BC on and the sport continued to be popular in the early Tang – especially under Taizong who enjoyed using falcons. In the seventh century Gaozong ordered an end to falconing which he regarded as frivolous, and ordered an end to hawks and falcons as tributes.33 The Hunting Scene indicates that the use of falcons and hawks was again popular after Gaozong’s demise. The inclusion of these luxurious elements indicates a privileged existence at court far from the hardships Li Xian suffered in exile. Strong energetic horses were signs of power given their importance in the farreaching Tang military campaigns. Breeding grounds and stud farms were set aside for their production and many people were employed in their care and the planting of special grasses for their fodder.34 The horses of Li Xian’s hunting scene represent the best of the type used for light cavalry. The Hunting Scene gives a good indication of the equestrian accoutrements in use at that time. The equestrian gear for each horse includes two metal stirrups which enabled riders to sit more securely. The men wear suitable apparel – loose pants and narrow sleeved shirts – and sit high in the saddle, as was the case in the Tang as a result of the use of tall types of saddle. Particular to the Tang, was the downward slanting cantle which facilitated easier mounting and dismounting. Under the saddles are pads, generally made of felt, but in The Hunting Scene they are made of prestigious tiger-skin, cheetah-skin and leather, with a short mud screen beneath. In order to secure the saddle and saddle-pad, straps were run around the horses chest, girth and rump.35 Other gear includes items prevalent since Qin times: the bit, neck-strap, brow-strap, nose band, throat-latch and cheek-bar. The apricot-leaf ornament frequent on the nose and upper cheeks in Tang times are absent in the horses of The Hunting Scene, although they do appear on horses in the Polo Game on the opposite wall. As already mentioned, all horses except one have bound tails as was common during the Tang. Beyond the passion for hunting, this scene displays best quality equine bloodstock available at that time and carries a resonance of The Six Steeds of Taizong at Zhaoling. The difference, however, is that the horses are shown being used for recreation in peacetime with the potential to be utilized for warfare. At Zhaoling it was the role already lived out by the heroic battle horses of the first half of the seventh century which was being celebrated. This change was a sign of the relative peace and stability of the empire inherited by Zhongzong from Wu Zetian’s reign. At the rear of the main group, five horsemen ride at full gallop past a line of trees. With them are two camels for bearing loads, which have been shown running – the earliest evidence of an artist’s attempt to show camels in quick movement (Figure 7.5). Camels were sought after at the Tang court and came as tributes, commodities and as war booty. Like the imperial horses, the vast Tang imperial camel herds were presided over by hordes of officials, each herd comprised of some seventy camels and many were kept on the grassy plains of Shaanxi Province. Camels were also held in small numbers by private gentlemen, who used them for riding and as beasts of burden.36 One camel is a one-humped Arabian, a light limbed running breed, and the other is a two-humped Bactrian, a strong beast of burden.

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Figure 7.5 Hunting scene (detail) fourth section. Li Xian’s tomb, east wall of the passage. 706. Pigment on plaster. Total length of Hunting Scene is 890 cm. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Camels were essential at that time for trekking the ‘silk routes’ from the northwestern frontiers of China along the edge of the Gobi Desert to Samarkand, Persia and Syria. These treacherous roads could only be traversed because of the Bactrian camel which could sniff out subterranean springs for thirsty merchants and predict deadly sandstorms.37 As the Bei shi (History of the Northern Dynasties) recorded: When a wind is about to arrive, only the old camels have advance knowledge of it, and they immediately stand snarling together, and bury their mouths in the sand. The men always take this as a sign, and they too immediately cover their noses and mouths by wrapping them in felt. This wind moves swiftly, and passes in a moment, and is gone, but if they did not so protect themselves, they would be in danger of sudden death.38 The capacity of the camel to endure desert conditions and carry large loads gave it a valuable role in trade and warfare. One camel carries a large metal cooking pot and the other branches for a fire, while the last horse carries some sacks, presumably of grain, in order to provide repast for the hunters at the conclusion of their enjoyable day out. This section anticipates a cosy fire, warm food and perhaps the sociable predictability of heroic story telling about riding prowess, skill in

Pleasures and protocols 117 weaponry, artful hunting and humorous events. The portrayal of a hunting party without prey emphasizes the event as a leisure activity, and as such, an elite preserve. The scene creates the sense of a happy existence through graphic representation of a sociable ride, stylish equestrian gear and fashionable pack animals, and stands in contrast to the hardship of Li Xian’s demotion and exile. Most importantly of all, to the right of the scene, in front of most other riders and banner bearers, and preceded only by a small group of scouts, there is one man wearing a long grey jacket. He rides a majestic dark-maned white horse slightly larger than the rest. This is likely to be an image of Li Xian, dressed in subdued colours suitable for camouflage in hunt, rather than courtly robes. Unfortunately, the mural is now damaged and the head of the figure destroyed. The horse is similar to the riderless one in Li Shou’s tomb – the master’s strong dark-maned white horse, well saddled, held by a groom with attendants and fan bearers (Plate 8). In Li Xian’s Hunting Scene, this horse is distinctive as the only one with a flowing mane and long unbound tail.39 The horse’s grooming is a clue to the identity of the rider as Li Xian, and it parallels the riderless type in the formal procession scenes not only in Li Shou’s tomb, but also in those of Princess Xincheng, Princess Yongtai and Prince Yide. Evidence of a tomb occupant’s portrait is rare in the Tang, and those known are quite formal portraits, such as that of the official, Gao Yuangui, who was buried in 756. Gao’s portrait shows him formally seated in a chair with a male and female attendant standing on his right and left.40 While more portraits may yet be discovered and it is not known whether others existed but are now lost, the inclusion of Li Xian’s image in the hunting scene is worthy of attention. The pictorial programme of Li Xian’s tomb is exceptional because it contains no riderless horses, and the presence of an equestrian portrait of the tomb occupant is the most likely reason for this divergence. The inclusion of Li Xian’s image in an excursion scene gives weight to the sense of the tomb as an idyllic home for the dead. The inclusion of Li Xian in the excursion scene, recalls Tang courtly poetry of the early eighth century when parting poems emerged as a genre. The court poet, Li Chao (644–713) was famous for his verses on the subject. The closing lines of one of his poems offers a sentiment which is echoed in The Hunting Scene: After parting, out beyond the green mountains, I gaze toward you among the white clouds.41 Stephen Owen points out that this poem describes in sentimental terms the final separation which ‘may leave friends staring at the landscape, emptied of the traveler who is then out of sight’. Most explicitly, the illusionistic painting parallels descriptions in the final poem of Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet inscription which conceives a paradise in which his soul was anticipated to dwell, by drawing upon landscape imagery – with the capital to the south, a vast field to the west, auspicious purple clouds and white mist and a lush and fragrant natural environment. Yide’s tomb also contains murals on a hunting theme, but here they are reduced to a sedate procession of tamers walking with their cheetahs, hounds and falcons, far removed from the dynamics of the chase. These murals, in the

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confined space of the tomb tunnel, are even less martial in character than Li Xian’s Hunting Scene, and they are not sentimental and have a strong emphasis on the display of the rare trained birds and animals as prestige symbols.

Polo playing In the early eighth century, scenes of polo games comprised a totally new subject within the category of excursion scenes. There were scenes of polo playing in the tombs of Li Xian and Jiemin, with that in Li Xian’s, significant as the earliest known painting of polo playing in China42 (Figure 7.6). This scene, nearly 10 m in length was located on the tomb passage’s west wall, opposite The Hunting Scene. The direction of movement ascends the passageway, ‘exiting’ the tomb, with the long field of action leading to a rider who has slowed his horse and turns his body to hit the small red puck with a backhand stroke. Prior to the excavation of the tombs of Li Xian and Jiemin, there were very few records of polo from the early or mid-Tang. It is likely that polo originated in areas of Turkey or Persia and entered China by way of India and Tibet.43

Figure 7.6 Polo player. Li Xian’s tomb, west wall of the passage. 706. Pigment on plaster. 196 cm high 158 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Pleasures and protocols 119 Polo began to become popular around or probably after the time of Taizong who is said to have remarked: When we heard that the western tribesmen like to hit ball, we ordered our followers [in the army and perhaps others at court as well] to learn and practise it.44 Although this statement of Taizong’s fostering of the game may be a later attribution, it is an indication that the practice of polo playing arose in the seventh century with the intention of military training in peacetime. The representation of polo in this way was a flaunting of the ‘cosmopolitan’ as well as the demonstration of martial capability, here softened into sport. The standard way of playing polo in Tang China was with two teams of sixteen riders; the players wore embroidered jackets and had elegantly decorated horses, and during the game a military band played tunes on the sidelines. The object of the game was to hit a ball, probably made of wood encased in leather, through goal posts, 3 or more metres in height and narrowly spaced at about 0.3 m apart.45 There are no goal posts in Li Xian’s mural, and the dress is informal – so this is likely to be a friendly practice match rather than a competition. Like the lack of prey in The Hunting Scene, this lack of goal posts, is a flaunting of the luxury of leisure time and recreational activity. The mural illustrates a sport popular among young aristocrats, and in particular the imperial family’s interest in the game. Enthusiasm for polo was greater in the capital than anywhere else and it provided entertainment as much as anything else. Emperor Ruizong’s delight in it is recorded: His Majesty went to the ball field at the performing grounds and ordered both the civilian officials and the military officers whose rank was third grade or higher to hit ball and to play the tug-of-war game in opposing teams . . . Those who were physically weak or old either tripped or otherwise fell on the ground, having a hard time in getting up. The emperor, the empress, and the ladies-in-waiting looked on and roared with laughter.46 Later records of the Liao period talk about imperial banquets following polo games. In terms of the pictorial programme in Li Xian’s tomb this was certainly the case. Some of the horses and riders are now incomplete and others completely lost due to damage to the west wall’s surface, but it can be ascertained that there are around twenty aristocrats on horseback in the scene. Two teams, one in light clothing, the other in dark, ride at full speed, with other riders as spectators. Men in the costumes of the Hu and Han people, play harmoniously on the same teams, amid the rocky, undulating landscape. During the Tang, donkeys or mules were sometimes substituted for horses, their reduced speed enabling a much smaller field space to be used for the game, and versions of polo on foot, for women and children, were also adapted for playing in small courtyards.47 The men portrayed here demonstrate

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a brave demeanour and high levels of practical skill; the vast field of action in this case, indicates elite sportsmanship in the game, while the athleticism of the riders with their fast young horses celebrates peak physical condition derived from excellence in training, selection and breeding of both man and beast. Liu argues that polo’s demise in the Ming Dynasty occurred as a result of criticisms by the refined, urbane and genteel non-aristocratic scholar-official class, who considered the vigorous game as ‘inappropriate, pointless, harmful, and even risky’.48 The Polo Game combines the action and glamour of elite sport with the material status of valuable well bred speedy and agile horses. It shows a fashionable, excitingly dangerous game where the aim was not to score goals, but to be flamboyant in joyfully peaceful times.

Contemplative sages Contemplative sages communing in the outdoors was another new theme which arose in the innovative period of the early eighth century. Wei Hao, the brother of Zhongzong’s Empress Wei, was executed under Wu Zetian and reburied in 708 with the posthumous honorific title of Commander-in-Chief of Yangzhou, awarded by Zhongzong. In the tomb’s front and rear chambers are murals of mature male scholars wearing loose fitting comfortable robes (Plate 11). Each is beneath a different variety of tree; most stand, a couple sit – one curious individual sitting Buddha-like behind a tree, eyes closed in meditation. The presence of this theme in Wei Hao’s tomb corresponds with the rise of what Stephen Owen describes as ‘the virtuous man disillusioned’ in which the virtuous man contemplates and renounces either directly or allegorically, the corruption of the world and its impermanence; grieved or outraged by what he sees, he condemns the world of evil and transience, sings his sorrows, and may, as a final gesture, seek to become a hermit or immortal.49 It can be speculated that these reclusive types reflect a sagacious tendency on the part of Wei Hao and his circle, perhaps as a moral means of escape in response to the politically corrupt times of the period. As Chen Zi’ang (661–702) describes: Dwelling in the forest, long sick, Wood and water wipe clear my lone purity. Calmly I lie, observing the Change of things, Depressed by eternity, brood on Non-life. Green spring no sooner sprouts into being, Then Red Fire, summer’s element, is at its peak. From this time on, the passing and the falling – Stirred to sighs, when shall I find peace?50 The tomb of Su Sixun, dating from 745, contains a mural of six sages each before a tall tree.51 While Su Sixun was not a member of the imperial family – he held

Pleasures and protocols 121 a number of official posts, including a senior appointment in the Bureau of Eunuchs – the relatively unrefined paintings in his tomb provide evidence that this theme was developed into wider usage and continued into the mid-eighth century.

Landscape as possession Where landscape had been an adjunct to the core subject matter in the various outdoor scenes discussed earlier, it was in the tomb of the third son of Emperor Zhongzong, Crown Prince Jiemin who was buried in 710, that it became the primary focus of a tomb mural painting.52 Prior to Jiemin’s tomb, landscape elements served as cues to define the setting, serving as ‘visual punctuation marks’ to aid contiguity within and separation between scenes. The use of outdoor scenery had contributed to the sense of the tomb interior as a paradisic idyl, but here, as a subject for painting in its own right, the viewer is placed directly within the landscape without the schematic intervention of a courtier, equestrian figure or sage. Before Jiemin’s tomb, the method of painting rocks and mountains in hunting and polo scenes, was rather primitive, although these elements had been gaining increasing attention.53 In chapter two of the Lidai minghua ji Zhang Yanyuan points out that landscape painting began with Li Sixun (651–716) and Li Zhaodao (active 670–730), but did not make great progress until the mid-Tang. The landscape paintings in Jiemin’s tomb confirm this view. In earlier paintings, the trees and plants were individuated in type and character, but trees and bushes floated in space lacking any suggestion of roots entering the ground. Branches truncated abruptly in order to minimize the complexity of their design; the five trees at the end of The Hunting Scene (Figure 7.5) are examples of this. Simply drawn rocks were formed by the use of firm outlines of even width with ‘rat-tail’ endings, and shading of heavy blue-green with some occasional brown. The rocks were made up of flat overlapping faces, while longer contours undulate slackly. Jiemin’s landscape murals are impressive, taking up a major portion of both the east and west walls of the tomb passage54 (Plate 12). Jiemin’s murals develop the style, colour, technique and scale of earlier landscapes, and are comprised of the same elements, but here the stones, rocky outcrops, small hills, plants and trees have taken on greater significance. They have monumentality, and are now the main interest in the paintings, instead of being mere adjuncts to show location and the progression of time or space in a larger narrative. The landscape of rugged rocks and hillocks from which gnarled ancient pines grow is conceived as a continuous whole.55 Bold outlines give weight to the features painted in yellow ochre, blue and green. An occasional bird occupies a high branch; small in scale by comparison with the tree, it gives a sense of expansive free space as far as the eye can see. This is consistent with the attitude to landscape expressed in courtly literary tradition at that time. Stephen Owen has written at length about a new set of values in relation to estates and gardens at the time of Zhongzong’s second reign.56 Poetry in the early eighth century celebrated court excursions to the estates of lesser princesses and courtiers. Nature, expressed on the verge of wild and domesticated, became

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‘a space of private withdrawal without the renunciation of public life’.57 Nature became possession in these murals. The early eighth century idea is illustrated by Han Yu’s nostalgic poem, ‘Visiting the Mountain Estate of the Princess Taiping’:58 Back in those years the Princess wanted spring as her own: on purpose she put terraces and kiosks right up to the city’s gates. If you would know how many flowers she looked at before her – all the way to Mount Zhongnan belonged to no one else. Landscape was conceived as an appropriate utopian setting for an ideal existence. Through possession of nature or its proxy in the form of its painted image, the holding of highest public office could be conjoined with the tranquillity, seclusion and harmony of a private life. The function of landscape in the tomb was a conscious expression of this for the benefit of the deceased. Zhongzong was very fond of poetry about nature estates and composed such poems along with his courtiers on the occasion of excursions to these pleasure gardens of the rich and famous. As it was expressed by Zhang Yue in ‘An Account of the Eastern Mountain’, recording an imperial picnic of Zhongzong and his courtiers on 18 January 710: Here are rocky tarns and bamboo slopes, a study among the pines and a plot for herbs. Rainbow springs shoot lightning, and cloudy trees moan emptily. All a blur, it seems like a dream; across difficult paths, one forgets all devices. He may be called a Kui or Long of hill and vale, or a Chaofu or Xu You in cap and robe.59 In this way, nature was now added to the catalogue of Tang aristocratic possession, and landscape as a form was attributed with the transformative effects of converting officials to become recluses of the wilderness. This is not an uncontrolled wilderness, however. Such spaces, which were weekend retreats for royalty, aristocrats and court officials, demonstrated the privilege and prestige of imperial family members through ownership and the pursuit of pleasure in the idyllic garden estates. In the tomb murals, the symbolic value of representing the estates was that they stood as tropes for paradises beyond the boundary. The transformation of traditional journey and procession pictures into innovative excursion themes which celebrate the pursuit of personal pleasure continued on well into the eighth century. A mural, dating from 724, on the east wall of the passage of Crown Prince Huizhuang’s tomb, is an example of this. Partially obscured due to deterioration, it is a travel scene of carriages escorted through pine trees by cavalrymen.60 Further investigation into the development of this theme will be possible as more evidence comes to light through future excavations.

8

Courtly women

She served the brothers and sisters of Li Xian with respect and was a good wife.1

Pictorial representations of males and females were physically separated in imperial Tang tombs, with men to the south, and women to the north. The tombs’ corridors and chambers correspond to palace or mansion interiors and the women therein represent officials engaged in the supervision and provision of supplies and personal services for the tomb occupant. In the inner quarters of selected tombs, eunuchs accompanied the women in the murals. The size and type of service retinue present in a tomb was in accordance with the status awarded to its primary occupant. Although such murals were relatively formalized, they have stories to tell through the ways individual women were represented and the activities they undertake.

Palace services Deferential and attentive service by women to the tomb occupant is the primary theme in the corridors and chambers of tombs belonging to princes and princesses. The tombs of Xincheng, Yide and Yongtai indicate the standard scheme. Princess Xincheng’s tomb has a large retinue of female palace attendants in the murals north of the first light well through to the rear chamber (Figure 6.2). Yide’s tomb murals are filled exclusively with women in the corridors and chambers. The murals of Yongtai’s tomb are incomplete, but extant sections parallel the case in Yide’s tomb, so the two mural programmes are likely to have been similar. The attendants represented are consistent with the official entitlements of the deceased according to rank. The women represented in Yide’s tomb, for example, correspond to officials described in the Da Tang liu dian, which records the intricate system of household management for Tang palaces.2 It had been the practice to formally appoint women to official and other positions within palaces from the early third century under Emperor Ming (r.226–239) of the Wei dynasty. This continued under Emperor Wen (r.581–604) of the Sui dynasty when many new positions were created, and during the Tang when the system of positions within the imperial palaces remained close to that of the Sui. From Tang times on these female court

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Courtly women

attendants were organized hierarchically into Six Palace Services (Liu ju) – General Palace Service, Workshop Service, Ceremonials Service, Wardrobe Service, Food Service and Housekeeping Service – each with specified realms of responsibility and each headed by a matron. In the Tang period the Crown Prince’s palace was administered along parallel lines to that of the Emperor, with only the number and status of female officials diverging from that pattern.3 The women in Yide’s tomb murals correspond to particular official positions within the Palace Services. The women carrying round fans in the tunnel belong to the Housekeeping Service, while those with charcoal and firewood belong to the Workshop Service4 (Figure 8.1). Those holding candles, vessels and bowls on the walls of Yide’s coffin chamber and Yongtai’s front chamber are also officials of the Housekeeping Service.5 Yide’s retinue accorded with his status as Crown Prince, and those of Yongtai and Xincheng demonstrated their high rank as Princess ( gongzhu) and Elder Princess (zhang gongzhu) respectively. In Li Xian’s tomb, the waiting maids are engaged in the supply of his physical needs and entertainment, and they are accompanied by a small number of eunuchs who are supervising officials. Compared with the larger than life size figures in the three aforementioned tombs, the half-scale female attendants in the

Figure 8.1 Officials of the Palace Service. Yide’s tomb front chamber, north section of the west wall. 706. Pigment on plaster. 180 cm high 210 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

Courtly women 125 front corridor of Li Xian’s tomb comprise a numerically smaller retinue.6 They supply material necessities, luxuries and services indicated by the objects they carry: a rooster, pail, ewer, basin, steamed buns, flowering potted plant, potted bonsai, wrapped legged vessel and wrapped musical instruments including a bamboo flute, clapper and lute (Plate 13). Not all the women carry objects – some strike dancers’ poses and others are present in a supervisory role. The women in the front chamber are about life size and include beauties sauntering in a garden, musicians and dancing girls. On the southern wall of the front chamber there are two Matrons, each accompanied by a subordinate female official and a dwarf (Figure 8.2). The Matrons are positioned at either side of the entryway to the chamber as if to oversee the women in the chamber. The images in the rear corridor are of women in preparation – one woman, perhaps a performer or concubine, looks in a mirror and applies lipstick, while another carries a flute still wrapped in its cloth cover; these women are also accompanied by supervising matron and eunuchs officials. Li Xian’s tomb murals include eunuchs as well as serving women. The presence of eunuchs in the inner apartments of Li Xian’s ‘residence’ points to the use of another, lesser, department than that in Yide’s tomb – perhaps the Office of Female

Figure 8.2 Matron, female official and female dwarf. Li Xian’s tomb, south wall (west section) of the front chamber. 706. Pigment on plaster. 169 cm high 106 cm wide. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

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Courtly women

Services (Yiting ju) or the Domestic Service of the Heir Apparent (Taizi neifang ju). Both these services were assigned to the Palace Domestic Service (Nei shi sheng), which was an agency of palace eunuchs and to a lesser extent palace women who were in general the only persons outside the emperor’s immediate family allowed in the innermost personal living quarters of the palace, where they provided intimate personal service for the emperor, his empress and the various lesser wives.7 The Office of Female Services was headed by a eunuch who kept registers of palace women, directed their work and provided supplies required by the palace, while the Domestic Service of the Heir Apparent was staffed with eunuchs responsible for personal attendance on the Heir Apparent and his harem.8 In the seventh century, the number of eunuchs in the Palace Domestic Service had been less than 100. During Zhongzong’s reign their number rose dramatically to more than 3000, rising to 4000 under Xuanzong, and about 4,600 by the year 820. In the Tang dynasty, boys were stolen from the south and southwest of China, castrated and sent to the capital by provincial officials as part of their annual tribute, for restricted use in the imperial domestic service. In the mid-eighth century, they could be procured in slave markets in the south and south-west of China, sold by their parents, and used in private households. By the ninth century, they were again available only through tribute to the imperial domestic service. The large number of eunuchs in the paintings in the imperial tombs constructed under Zhongzong’s imperial orders reflects their increased number in the post-Wu Zetian period, and the favour eunuchs received at court at that time, perhaps because Zhongzong and surviving members of the Li family had endured long periods of confinement left to the company of their eunuchs and attendants.9 Paintings of eunuchs continued in the tombs in significant numbers throughout the eighth century; the ninth century situation is not yet clear.

Beautiful women In Emperor Taizong’s time, a high ranking official criticized the elaborate hairstyles of the court women, describing them as impractical for ordinary women, and urging the palace ladies to set a less frivolous example. Taizong is said to have replied, ‘Are the women in the palace expected to be bald like monks?’ Without exception the women represented in the imperial tombs are aesthetically pleasing, with all the cosmetic signs of aristocratic status and delicate beauty. They have beautiful faces made-up with red lipstick, touches of rouge, fashionably painted eyebrows and magnificent coiffures.10 While styles of the early Tang were flat, like the Sui, those of the mid-Tang were showy, high and dramatic, and those of the late Tang, more subdued and understated, often in hanging styles.11 The most flamboyant belonged to the mid-Tang, when high buns were the favourite for women of the nobility or the imperial court, in preference to hanging buns or flat buns which at that time were popular amongst the middle and lower social classes. High buns were produced by combing natural hair over a hair piece attached with hairpins to create an organic whole, or tying

Courtly women 127 up the hair with black silk ribbons and then coiling the hair into the desired bun shape. Most of the women portrayed in mid-Tang tombs wore the ‘spiral bun’ style, created by tying the hair with silk ribbon and then coiling the hair on top of the head in the shape of a conch shell, a style also popular among women of petty official families and urban dwellers.12 ‘Fashion leaders’ wore the ‘twin-tassel bun’ which became very popular at court in the late Tang, while Matrons wore a ‘single-sword’ or a ‘twin-sword’ bun, styles restricted to the Tang court at that time and later adopted by the noble and common classes (see Figure 8.2 and Plate 16) To achieve the ‘sword’ styles, artificial hairpieces were attached to a bun with natural hair combed over; sometimes gems, jade flowers or strings of pearls were added to this as adornment.13 One exceptionally extravagant style was the ‘conic bun’ – with an accentuated coil high on the head, tied with black ribbon and decorated with pearls and gems – which became smart among the women of Chang’an in the mid-eighth century. Shaped and hanging earlocks became a stylish feature added by women in the late Tang court.14 Dress was an important part in the beautification of the women. Each year, thousands of bolts of high quality fabric were sent to court for imperial use, including the clothing of court women. Silk, the most expensive of cloths, was woven into gauze, crepe, chiffon, twill and other fabrics, and decorated by dyeing, printing, embroidery or woven designs; cotton and wool were also used.15 The fine quality of the cloth is suggested by the perhaps apocryphal account from near the end of Taizong’s reign, of Xue Yaoying, a favourite concubine of the Prime Minister, Yuan Zai, who was said to have dressed in a chiffon garment which weighed only about 40 g and when folded did not even fill the palm of a hand.16 In the imperial tomb murals, the attendants and their supervisors wear the finest of aristocratic women’s costumes consisting of either a skirt, high-bodiced jacket and shawl, worn with fine shoes boldly turned up at the toes, or a pantsuit worn with head scarf and slippers. The early Tang tomb of Li Shou includes female musicians in his mansion wearing long gay vertically striped blue and red dresses with shawls. Striped garments for women continued to predominate in the tombs murals of Yang Gongren (640), Duan Jianbi (651), Li Zhen (660), and Princess Xincheng in which the court attendants’ striped skirts are topped by elaborately embroidered jackets with elegant narrow long sleeves which can extend over the hands, and sheer shawls (Plate 14). By 668, this fashion began to change – in Li Shuang’s tomb of 668, striped and plain skirts appear in equal numbers; in Princess Fangling’s tomb of 673, plain skirts were in the majority; and, from the early eighth century to the end of the Tang, plain colours were almost exclusively preferred by upper class women. Pantsuits were fashionable for Tang women from the mid-seventh century on. The tunnel of the attendant tomb at Zhaoling of Duan Jianbi, the niece of Emperor Taizong, has an early painting of a woman wearing a pantsuit. The female attendant wears green and red striped trousers and embroidered red slippers.17 Women wearing pantsuits were included in the tomb murals of Li Shuang, Princess Fangling, Li Feng (674) and Ashina Zhong (675), and pantsuits clearly remained haute couture for court women through to the end of the Tang period.

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Such fashionable garments were influenced by foreign men’s equestrian attire, but were distinct from male attire in the quality of fabric, decorative textile patterns and elegant slippers worn. The pantsuits consist of striped or plain pants, a round collared long robe or lapelled long jacket with a purse hanging from a belt, and slippers. Textiles were a major consumer good in Tang society and the possession of them was an important mark of material well-being and hence social status. The dresses and shawls are made of fine quality light silk hanging elegantly, and enhancing the feminity of the figures. In Li Xian’s tomb murals most of the women wear garments plain in colour, some with soft two-tone gradations; only a few wear striped pants or skirts. Red, yellow, green, blue-green and white are the predominant colours. Serving more than aesthetic ideals, these colours symbolized a dress code introduced in 630 under Taizong, in which particular coloured robes designated official ranks. It was laid down that high officials of the first, second and third grades should wear purple robes, those in the fourth and fifth grades should wear bright red robes, officials in the sixth and seventh grades should wear green robes, and those of the eighth and ninth grade had to wear bluish-green robes.18 Most of the women in the murals are, according to their costumes, between the fourth and ninth grades. The women portrayed in the tombs are beauties, elegant, sophisticated and demure. Sometimes, they are coquettish, as evident in the murals of waiting maids in Governor Yang Gongren’s tomb (at Zhaoling, 640), and the dancers in Governor Li Zhen’s tomb (at Zhaoling, 665) whose lithe bodies are arranged in playfully sexually provocative stances. In Li Xian’s tomb, a number of young women, most in three-quarter view from the left, right or behind, display their bodies for the viewer.19 The ‘beautiful woman’ is typified by the figure of a young woman on the west wall of Li Xian’s front corridor who provocatively displays her body (Figure 8.3). Her left arm is raised, hand to forehead showing off her form as she gazes dreamily skyward, while her right hand flutters the end of her golden shawl as if to flag attention to herself. As she does so, the wrap slips from her right shoulder to reveal her flowing silk dress and a hint of cleavage. She appears the instigator in a flirtatious encounter rather than a passive object of desire. Vermilion lipstick and red rouge on pale cheeks heighten the sensuousness of her charming face. The erotic potential of this and other dancers in the tomb murals is enhanced by the interpolation of modest figures such as the reserved figure in green dress on the east wall of the front corridor, whose red shawl is primly wrapped around her slim body with her arms tightly folded about her waist (Plate 15). Such paintings recall the poems of the celebrated Tang courtesan, Zhao Luanluan, who lived in the entertainment quarter of Chang’an. She wrote Five Lyric Outcries from the Boudoir including the poem ‘Succulent Breasts’: A whiff of powder, damp with sweat, rare jade turning pegs: Aroused by spring, they glisten, gleam, sleek as silk floss rains.

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Figure 8.3 Dancer. Li Xian’s tomb, west wall of the front corridor. 706. Pigment on plaster. 127 cm high. (Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum.)

When, fresh from the bath, her sweet scent man teases with a touch, Those magical buds feel shivery wet – those dusky purple grapes!20 Standing close to the picture plane, there is an immediacy in the way these figures are presented. They appear before the viewer without intervening architectural elements, screens, plants or figures, which commonly served as devices of separation in representations of women of the Northern Wei period, for example.21 Without a proxy spectator within the picture plane, it is as if the scenes were for the sole viewing pleasure of the tomb occupant. Li Xian’s paintings are human in scale, making them all the more life-like and the presence of eunuchs contrasts their emasculation with the Prince’s implied potency. Rather than cautioning against misconduct, the seductive quality of the women celebrates sensuality and romantic love at a time of relative liberation for females.22 Desire and seduction were themes for painting in pre-Tang times, as

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exemplified by Gu Kaizhi’s fourth(?) century hand scroll painting, Nymph of the Luo River.23 The nymph is a desired and wondrous woman who ‘moves with the lightness of wild geese in flight’, with the ‘grace of soaring dragons at play’, whose ‘radiance outshines the Autumn chrysanthemums’, who ‘floats as wafting clouds do’ and so on.24 She is sensual, attractive and Gu Kaizhi expresses male adoration of her. The nymph is neither a political nor moral symbol, but an object of visual appreciation and sexual desire. Without didactic content, her female body has been aestheticized and eroticized. Wu Hung argues that Gu Kaizhi invented an iconography for the ideal woman which strongly influenced the Tang case, but it is evident that the Tang further developed this to include ideal types which were not only desirable, but also authoritative and selfpossessed.25 Tang eulogies frequently compare the physical appearance of women to ‘glistening jade’, ‘crystal and jade’, ‘rainbows’, or ‘hibiscus blossoms’. and describe ideal women as not only ‘beautiful’ and ‘graceful’, but ‘bright and clever’, ‘talented’ and ‘intelligent’, and widely read.26 This independent quality is best exemplified by poetic metaphor in the mural Watching a Bird while Catching a Cicada (Plate 16). The two women to the left of the tree are engaged in their observations of the natural world, oblivious to all else. The woman to the left, in green dress and red shawl, unselfconsciously adjusts a long hairpin in the back of her chignon coiffure while gazing at a swooping bird. Like the men in the hunting and polo scenes this reflects an enjoyment of the outdoors and natural environment – in this case in contemplating the freedom of the uncaged bird. The central figure, in pants and long jacket, watches a cicada which sits on the slender tree trunk before her. The cicada, a symbol of purity and freedom, was a frequent subject in Tang poetry. A poem ‘On the Cicada’ by the poet Luo Binwang (c.640–684) is an example:27 The western Course: a cicada’s voice singing; A southern cap: longing for home intrudes. How can I bear those shadows of black locks That come here to face my Song of White Hair? Dew heavy on it, can fly no farther toward me, The wind strong, its echoes easily lost. No one believes in nobility and purity – On my behalf who will explain what’s in my heart?28 The cicada can slough its skin, perch on a tree and sing freely to its heart’s content; it knows the right time to appear and never emerges during Winter. The young woman watching it is not frivolous, but seems to be in thoughtful reflection – perhaps considering the ideal condition which that cicada symbolizes. These beauties are in the intimate settings of secluded gardens at the height of the Summer season. Trees are in leaf, and the women are full and rosy-cheeked like Summer peaches and plums ripe for the eating. The paintings have a resonance with well known poems of the era, such as one by Chen Zi’ang (661–702) dating from late in Gaozong’s reign or during Zhongzong’s short first reign. Chen

Courtly women 131 wrote criticizing Gaozong’s neglect of his palace ladies in favour of his Empress Wu Zetian. Rude and wild, Mu, Son of Heaven, Longing to meet with the white clouds. His palace ladies always resent his leaving, And that Tiered Wall has blocked their moth eyebrows. Each day more addicted to Jade Terrace’s joys, He does not grieve for the season of peach and plum. In vain they fall on the green moss, gone, As white hair grows behind the curtain of gauze.29 The point here is that just as peaches and plums are of transient ripeness, concubines must be appreciated while in the ‘full flower’ of their beauty. In the paintings, their beauty and desirability is not merely recorded, it is celebrated. The concubines were present to stir sexual appetite and then satisfy it. The lower level of propriety in the paintings in the corridors and front chamber of Li Xian’s tomb is in contrast with the case in Yide’s tomb, for example, and may be the result of influence on the content of the mural programme from Li Xian’s surviving son, Shouli, whose tastes are known. The Jiu Tang shu records Shouli as having been poorly educated and debauched, keeping more than sixty female and male concubines, and being overly fond of singing and drinking.30

Virtuous women Erotic scenes had been included in tombs since at least Han times, to denote carnal pleasure, suggest rejuvenation rather than death, and emphasize the continuation of the lineage through sexuality.31 This was suggested in Li Shou’s tomb mural programme which begins with hunting in the tomb passage, and concludes with dancing girls and female musicians in his coffin chamber and inside his stone outer coffin. This linear development of space was paralleled in Li Xian’s tomb mural programme, which progresses – like an ideal day in the life of a prince – from hunting and polo, to official engagements, food, and entertainment by performers or concubines. It was accepted for heirs apparent during the Tang to have more than one consort, so it is not surprising to find that the scenes of the corridors and front chamber reflect entertainments designed for Li Xian’s perpetual gratification. The corollary of the pictorial sequence is the expectation that there be scenes of the greatest sensual pleasure in the tomb’s rear chamber. This expectation is not realized in Li Xian’s tomb, however. Not all the women portrayed in the tomb murals were engaged in service or seduction. The rear chamber of Li Xian’s tomb is decorated with decorous scenes of a high status palace lady in a garden of the inner court attended by a matron, lesser women officials and eunuch officials; these final murals break the sequence established in the preceding sections of the pictorial programme, and manifest the propriety of women. The most logical explanation for this divergence in the

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pictorial programme is that the paintings of service and seduction date from 706, when Li Xian was buried in the tomb, while those of propriety date from 711, when the tomb was refurbished and the body of Li Xian’s wife, Consort Fang, was interred alongside his in the rear chamber. Analysis of the murals shows that those in the rear chamber differ from the majority in the tomb in their inferior technical execution and quality of draughtsmanship, and in their distinctive composition. They appear to have been completed with linework and colours applied simultaneously, consistent with the work having been executed hastily, as would have been necessary when the tomb was reopened briefly for Consort Fang’s interment. The drawing of faces, hands, hair and drapery is rough and unskilled compared with that in other parts of the tomb. Depth is expressed by the overlapping of figures and through the use of linear perspective, with the foreground figures larger than those in the background, in contrast with the rest of the mural programme where the figures are of a fairly consistent size within each mural. Li Xian’s son, Shouli, may also have exerted influence over the content of the rear chamber murals. While the Jiu Tang shu makes much of Shouli’s licentiousness, Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet inscription, gives a favourable view of him. With reference to the death of his mother, Consort Fang, it records that he was ‘very sad’, that he ‘mourned and mourned’, and was ‘faithful, loyal and in a desperate state’. Shouli’s filiality toward his mother may be the strongest reason for the divergence of the rear chamber paintings from those in the preceding sections of the pictorial programme. After all, from 711 on, the tomb became the eternal resting place for Consort Fang along with Li Xian, and the rear chamber, therefore, needed to have an atmosphere suitable for her occupancy! Today, the theme of the rear chamber is best indicated by the painting which survives on its 5 m long east wall. Despite the deterioration of large patches of the mural’s plaster surface its overall scheme is still apparent (Figure 8.4). The principal figure is an older woman seated on a stool, and to her right is a younger standing woman who appears to be a supervising Matron.32 To their left are two female attendants wearing pantsuits and two groups of attendant palace ladies, and in the foreground there are three eunuch officials. Red timber pillars, beams and bracket sets indicate that this garden of trees, shrubs and artificial rocks is in a courtyard of the Prince’s inner palace. The women are set back in the scene and the eunuchs stand to the front, their presence forming a barrier which visually distances the viewer from the women, thus creating a greater sense of propriety than in the scenes of the corridors or front chamber. This is a cloistered space where the women are protected, and the focus of attendance is on the seated woman. The woman at the centre of the painting is mature in age, and appears deep in thought, perhaps mourning. She does not occupy herself in frivolous or entertaining activities, and sits as if she has spent long and patient hours reflecting in this way. She is the only formally seated figure in the tomb’s mural programme, which suggests that she is Li Xian’s wife, Consort Fang. Two similar images in the coffin chamber of a Wei Family tomb (date uncertain), of a mature aristocratic lady seated on a four legged stool who can be identified as that tomb’s owner, support this interpretation.33

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Figure 8.4 Consort Fang with female attendants. Li Xian’s tomb, east wall (north section) rear chamber. 711. Pigment on plaster. c.2 m high. (Courtesy of Qianling Museum.)

Consort Fang was from a prosperous family which held very high social status in the military service and civil bureaucracy.34 She is described in Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet as having being sequestered until the age of ten, and as being ‘gentle and soft’, and having ‘fully cultivated her four virtues’.35 She married Li Xian in 674 at the age of about 16 and was given the title Imperial Consort to the Prince of Yong (Yong wang fei). Li Xian’s disgrace had serious consequences for her, and for his immediate family, who were deemed tainted. The Jiu Tang shu records that Li Xian’s eldest son was executed in 690, that his youngest son died of sickness, and that Shouli, his second son, was kept imprisoned for a decade or more in a palace with the five sons of Ruizong, during which time he was beaten frequently.36 What became of Consort Fang after Li Xian’s demise is not recorded, but the 711 epitaph records that They [Consort Fang and Li Xian] respected each other and had a harmonious marriage. She [Consort Fang] served the brothers and sisters of Li Xian with respect and was a good wife. When Li Xian was exiled there came sudden disaster. She tried hard to maintain her dignity and worked hard to observe propriety.

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Courtly women On the sixteenth day of the sixth month in the second year of Jingyun [711], she [Consort Fang] died in her private residence in Xinghua li37 in the capital at the age of 54.38 On the nineteenth day of the tenth month [of 711] she was buried in the existing tomb of Crown Prince Li Xian according to the rites of protocol.

The seclusion of the seated woman and her attendants probably reflects the situation for Consort Fang after Li Xian’s exile and death. It emphasizes ‘womanly virtue’ through the recreation of what was thought to be the ideal domestic arrangement of Chinese palaces at that time. As Patricia Ebrey has pointed out, the physical separation of the sexes was given high value in Confucian tradition. The Li ji (Book of Rites) recommended that men and women spend most of their time apart and avoid physical conduct.39 Such traditional views were upheld in the Tang primer Analects for Girls: Inner and outer each have their place. Males and females gather separately. Women do not peek through the walls, nor step into the outer courtyard. If they go out, they must cover their faces. If they look out, they conceal their forms.40 Such separation would have presented some difficulties for the lower classes, but not for a wealthy elite whose household organization could incorporate the demarcation of inner and outer quarters and the regulation of the comings and goings between them. Whilst women were relatively liberated in the Tang dynasty with freer marriage rules than at other times, Consort Fang’s loyalty and devotion to her husband in widowhood would have been considered a virtue, since the belief that it was preferable for a woman to marry only once had very old roots.41 As the Li ji says: Faithfulness is the basis of serving others, and is the virtue of a wife. When her husband dies a woman does not remarry; to the end of her life she does not change.42 Since marginality could continue after death, Consort Fang’s burial, favourable eulogy and portrayal as a virtuous widow were important steps in her posthumous rehabilitation. Beverley Bossler has pointed out that Tang eulogists ‘treat virtue as . . . a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation’.43 This means that Consort Fang’s virtue had value as a ‘transferable commodity’ for Shouli, since acknowledgement of her virtue would have enhanced his own social standing. The heightened decorum in the rear chamber also had positive implications for Li Xian’s posthumous rehabilitation. Li Xian’s body lay within a wooden coffin encased in a stone outer coffin to the rear chamber’s west side. The paintings dating from 706 were designed to reflect Li Xian’s high social status through his entitlements to a princely Palace Service, like other royal tombs, as well as

Courtly women 135 his privileged enjoyment of perceptual delights. The rear chamber murals of 711, by contrast, were more didactic in function. The portrait of Consort Fang as principal wife and honourable widow belongs to a different genre, which in this case pays respect to Li Xian’s memory, while enhancing his spiritual and moral conduct through the presence of his virtuous Consort in the posthumous realm for all eternity.

Conclusion

The grand imperial tombs of the Tang dynasty are significant as records of the social system, religious beliefs, political circumstances and artistic tastes of their time. We have explored the ways in which the location, form and decoration of the Tang imperial tombs were used to make bold statements about the dynasty, and particular individuals who governed it and served it. The tombs celebrate lives and life itself. With their impressive walls, towers, statuary and mounds, chambers, mural paintings, tomb furniture, tomb wares and epitaph tablets, the tombs are robust commemorations of the lives of the deceased tomb occupants. The tombs were a means to assert the social standing of the tomb occupant, as well as that of his or her family, and by virtue of their locations, the tombs had the potential to maintain affiliations or even reconnect the deceased to his kinship group. The mural paintings within them are explicit illustrations of the lifestyles and activities of the elite strata of Tang society, including their fashions, pastimes, protocols and the practical arrangements for staffing and organizing particular parts of the imperial court. The tombs were palpable expressions of the belief that a person’s soul could continue to exist for all time in an ideal realm of leisure and pleasure. The tomb reinforced this as a site for the enactment of rituals and the continuous offering of tributes. It is clear that, like the tombs of earlier periods, Tang tombs encapsulated the great boundary concept and served as homes for the dead beyond the ‘great boundary’. The painted tomb interiors evoked a paradisic environment for the occupancy of the spirit of the deceased. In the imperial tombs, this often included an outdoor estate, and a grand palace or mansion, fitted out with pavilions and connecting corridors inhabited by all sorts of officials, protective guards, companions and servants, and supplied with animals, food and useful articles, all replicated in pottery, stone or paint. These ideal settings for the repose of the soul were secular images of paradise which mirrored the daily life of members of the imperial family or aristocrats, including lavish comforts, luxuries, status symbols and a certain glamorous ambience. The construction of imperial tombs was a manifestation of political power through the expenditure of vast sums and the harnessing of labour forces in thousands. Like the emperors of the Western Han, the Tang emperors ordered the production of impressive and enduring monuments embellished with

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palpable symbols of glory and achievement. From the very beginning of the Tang, the production of colossal imperial mausolea and cemetery complexes were testaments to dynastic ambition, and as the dynasty continued, they became monuments to its strength and longevity. Tombs were constructed in honour of predecessors, relatives or officials, in order to glorify their own clique. The calculated and highly refined manipulation of standardized elements for this purpose was most blatantly evident in the Wu Zetian and post-Wu Zetian periods. The recently excavated Tang tombs also shed new light on the history and development of Chinese architecture and painting. The external and internal form of the tombs, their fittings, and the illusionistic murals decorating them, emulate real architecture and provide valuable information about building types which do not survive from that period. The mural painting decoration of the Tang imperial tombs was no doubt designed by or at least strongly influenced by leading artists of the day. The paintings reveal an exceptionally high level of technical quality and realism. New subjects emerged, including foreign people, animals and clothing, and landscape became a subject for painting in its own right. It is through the tombs, therefore, that we have a well preserved corpus of paintings which record the repertoire of subject matter, style and techniques of mural painting, which was the prevalent form of painting at that time, used widely in above ground buildings, now lost. In this way, the Tang imperial tombs, intended as a metaphysical bridge between this life and the next, serve as a bridge for us to the rich and glorious past of the great Tang dynasty.

Notes

Introduction 1 Stephen Owen, The Poetry of the Early T’ang, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1981, p. 390. 2 The last two Tang emperors, Zhaozong and Aizong, were buried in Henan and Shandong Provinces due to the decline and fall of the Tang dynasty. 3 The first son of Emperor Ruizong, Crown Prince Li Xian (not to be confused with Li Xian, the sixth son of Emperor Gaozong) was given the posthumous honorific name of Emperor Rang (‘the Emperor who gave way’), since as Heir Apparent to Ruizong he had passed the succession to his brother who became Emperor Xuanzong (r.712–756). This tomb was excavated in 2001. 4 For an introduction to these sites and a survey of mortuary objects dating from the Neolithic to Han periods, see Jessica Rawson (ed.), Mysteries of Ancient China, New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties, London, British Museum Press, 1996; and Jessica Rawson (ed.), The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, British Museum Press, 1992, chapter 1 and the appendix on tombs. 5 See Wallace Johnson (trans.), The T’ang Code, Volume I, General Principles, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1979, and The T’ang Code, Volume II, Specific Articles, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1997. 6 See William Reynolds Beal Acker (translator and annotator), Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1954; William R.B. Acker (trans.), Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting, Volume 2, Chang Yen-yüan Li Tai Ming Hua Chi, Chapters IV–X, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1974; and Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, Early Chinese Texts on Painting, Cambridge, MA, Harvard–Yenching Institute, 1985. 7 See by Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1977; op. cit. (note 1); and The End of the Chinese ‘Middle Ages’, Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1996. 8 Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1985. 9 A.C. Moule, Chronological Tables of the Rulers of China 221 B.C.–A.D. 1949, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1957.

1 Ambition and archetype 1 From an imperial edict by Emperor Taizong. Jiu Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 72:22, p. 2396. 2 Ibid., 1, p. 1. Yongkangling is in Lingqian, Sanyuan County, and Xingningling is in Yaodiandong, Xianyang, Shaanxi. To date these tombs have not been the subjects of a thorough archaeological survey.

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3 Denis Twitchett, The Cambridge History of China, volume 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part I, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 160–161. 4 The location of Changling is at Youdian, Xianyang, Shaanxi. Like the Tang imperial tombs, it is not entirely symmetrical, with the tomb mound off-centre to the west of the processional path. 5 It may also have been designed to directly associate the Li clan with the Han clan, since, under Gaozu, the Li family established a perhaps spurious claim to descent from a notable Han clan. See Twitchett, op. cit. (note 3), p. 151. 6 In 2001, only the unicorns, horses and lions were visible. During my fieldwork there in that year, a local farmer reported direct knowledge of the other statues, which remain buried. Interestingly, the horses are similar in style to The Six Steeds of Taizong at Zhaoling, by Yan Lide’s brother, Yan Liben (600–674). 7 See further: Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Chinese Imperial City Planning, Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. 8 On Chang’an and geomancy see Victor Cunrui Xiong, Sui-Tang Chang’an, A Study in the Urban History of Medieval China, Ann Arbor, MI, The University of Michigan, 2000. 9 Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 1), 77, p. 2679. Xianling is located at Yonghe Village, Xumu in Sanyuan County, Shaanxi. 10 Ibid., 1, p. 18. 11 Ibid., 72:22, p. 2568. 12 Ibid., 63, p. 2396; and 72:22, p. 2568. 13 Ibid., 77, p. 2679. 14 Howard J. Wechsler, Offerings of Jade and Silk, Ritual and Symbol in the Legitimation of the T’ang Dynasty, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1985, pp. 149–151. 15 The stone sculptures at Xianling are illustrated in Cheng Zheng and Li Hui, San bai li diaoke yishi guan, Tang shi ba ling shike (A Sculptural Museum Within Three Hundred Li, Stone Carvings at Eighteen Tang Dynasty Imperial Tombs), Xi’an, Shaanxi renmin meishu chubanshe, 1994, p. 131. 16 See further: Amy McNair, ‘Early Tang Imperial Patronage at Longmen’, Ars Orientalis, 24, Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, 1994, pp. 65–81, and Liu Jinglong, Longmen shiba pin (Twenty Stone Inscriptions of Longmen Grottoes), Beijing, China Esperanto Press, 1995. 17 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 14), p. 151. 18 Xin Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 102, p. 3972. 19 Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 1), 77, p. 2679. 20 Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 18), 76, p. 3471. 21 Ibid., 76, p. 3471. 22 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 14), p. 152. 23 In Liquan County, Shaanxi. 24 Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 18), 97, p. 3871. 25 Wechsler draws attention to this record in Wechsler, op. cit. (note 14), p. 156. 26 Ibid., pp. 156–157. 27 Ibid., p. 152 and pp. 267–268. 28 Translation in ibid., p.152. 29 Ibid., pp. 152–153. 30 Yun Shi, ‘Zhaoling’, Wenwu, 1977,10, p. 60. Interview with Zhang Jianlin, Xi’an, 22 March 2004. Excavations were conducted at Zhaoling’s north gate from 2002 to 2004. 31 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 14), p. 153. 32 He led a battle at the age of 15, which rescued Sui Yangdi. See Twitchett, op. cit. (note 3), p. 187. 33 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 14), p. 154. 34 Yun Shi, op. cit. (note 30), p. 60; and Wang Wenqing (ed.), Shaanxi wenwu guji dagua, Xi’an, Sanqin chubanshe, 1998, pp. 100–101. 35 Yun Shi, op. cit. (note 30), pp. 60–62.

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36 Chang’an city measured 8.7 km 9.7 km. Xiong, op. cit. (note 8), p. 42. On the population of Tang Chang’an see ibid., pp. 197–201. 37 Wechsler, op. cit (note 14), p. 153. 38 Yun Shi, op. cit. (note 30), pp. 60–62. 39 Discussion here is necessarily restricted to Qianling’s external features, as it has not yet been excavated. The only Tang emperor’s tomb to have been excavated is Jingling, that of its third last Emperor Xizong (r.873–888) – a modest and insignificant tomb dating from 888. On Xizong’s Jingling, see further: Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua (Newly Excavated Mural Paintings from Tang Tombs), Chongqing, Chongqing chubanshe, 1998. 40 Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 1), 5, p. 112. 41 The Daming Palace was built under Taizong for Gaozu, though Gaozu never lived there. It was renovated extensively in 662 under Gaozong and became the residence for him and his court. 42 Luo Zhewen, China’s Imperial Tombs and Mausoleums, Beijing, Foreign Languages Press, 1993, p. 84. Note: Luo Zhewen contains two typographical errors in the area, and the length of the west wall of Qianling’s inner sector which have been corrected here to read about 2.4 square km (instead of 240,000 m2) and 1,438 m (instead of 2438 m). 43 Su Bai, ‘Sui Tang Chang’an cheng he Luoyang cheng’, (‘The Cities of Chang’an and Luoyang in the Sui and Tang Dynasties’), Kaogu, 1978, 6, pp. 409–425. 44 On numerological influences on Chang’an’s grid plan and axiality, see Xiong, op. cit. (note 8), pp. 39–40. 45 Luo Zhewen, op. cit. (note 42), p. 84. 46 For example, the Song dynasty imperial tomb complex at Songling, in Gongxian, Henan Province. 47 Her will is said to have read: ‘My achievements and errors must be evaluated by later generations, therefore carve no characters on my stele.’ Ibid., p. 84. 48 See Cheng Zheng, op. cit. (note 15), and Ann Paludan, The Chinese Spirit Road, The Classical Tradition of Stone Tomb Statuary, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1991, p. 236. 49 Before this, ostriches were only known by repute, since one had been sent as a tribute as early as AD 101. The Persians called the ostrich the ‘camel bird’, which when translated by the Chinese became the common name for ostrich in East Asia. Edward H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, A Study of T’ang Exotics, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, University of California Press, 1963, p. 102. 50 The Li ji (Book of Rites), Book IX, Jiao de sheng (The Single Victim at the Border Sacrifices), chapter XI, section 1, part 7, says: There were no fixed rules for the various articles of tribute. They were the different products of the different territories according to their several suitabilities, and were regulated by their distances (from the royal domain).

51 52 53 54 55 56

Legge, James (trans.), The Sacred Books of China, The Texts of Confucianism, Part III, The Li Ki, I-X, Delhi, Varanasi and Patna, Motilal Banarsidass, 1966, p. 420. Xiong, op. cit. (note 8), p. 113. Ibid., p. 60. Ann Paludan has expressed the view that such figures stood in place of accompanying burials of foreign dignitaries who may have preferred to be buried in their land of origin. Paludan, op. cit. (note 48), pp. 119–120. Ashina Helu became leader of the Western Turks after the death of Emperor Taizong. He had been a general, and a governor-general in Gansu, under Taizong. Twitchett, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 279–280. Schafer, op. cit. (note 49), pp. 41–42, and p. 289. Yun Shi and the Zhaoling wenwu guanli suo, ‘Zhaoling pei zang mu diao cha ji’ (‘Report on a Survey of Attendant Tombs at Zhaoling’), Wenwu, 1977, 1, p. 34.

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57 Ibid., pp. 33–40 and 49. Empress Wang was deposed, imprisoned and executed, and Wu Zetian became empress in her place in 655. See Chapter 2. 58 Li Qiushi, ‘Tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti’ (‘A Discussion of Some Problems Concerning the Forms of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, pp. 50 and 58. 59 The other attendant tombs at Qianling belong to Shangjin (Prince of Ze), Sujie (Prince of Xu), Li Shouli (Prince of Bin, Li Xian’s son), Princess Yiyang, Princess Xindu, Princess Anxing, Jishan (Prince of Tejin), Liu Shenli, Lu Qinwang (Minister of the Left, Head of the Royal Coachmen Archers), Yang Zaishi (Left Royal Coachman Archer), Liu Rengui, and Gao Kan (General of the Left Military Guard). Zhang Yongxiang (ed.), Qianling, Shaanxi, Shaanxi lüyou chubanshe, 1989, no page numbers. The five excavated attendant tombs at Qianling have yielded over 4300 cultural relics and 200 mural paintings totalling more than 1300 square metres in area. The tomb of Yongtai was excavated in 1960–1962 and the tombs of Li Xian and Yide, in 1971–1972. The tombs of Xue Yuanchao and Li Jinxing yielded little upon their excavation in 1971. Xue Yuanchao served under Emperor Gaozong in a succession of prestigious offices in the Chancellery and Secretariat. He was disgraced in 664 and banished to China’s far south. He was reprieved by amnesty in 674, and was immediately appointed to high central office becoming a powerful influence on Gaozong. Xue Yuanchao (buried in 685) was one of three highest ministers appointed to investigate the allegations against Li Xian. He was forced to retire in mid-683 due to ill health. See Twitchett, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 269 and 271; and Li Xixing and Shaanxi History Museum, Tang mu bi hua zhen pin xuan cui (The Cream of Original Frescoes from Tang Tombs), Xi’an, Shaanxi renmin meishu chubanshe, 1991, preface. 60 Yide had first been buried in a grave in Luoyang. The daughter of Cheng Pengcui was buried with him at Qianling. They were given a ‘ghost marriage’. ‘Ghost marriages’ were sometimes arranged for unmarried people, as it was considered unnatural to be without a spouse, in death as in life. See James L. Watson, and Evelyn S. Rawski (eds), Death and Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA and London, University of California Press, 1988, p. 9. 61 Su Bai, ‘Xi’an diqu de Tang mu xingzhi’ (‘The Typology of Tombs in the Xi’an Area’), Wenwu, 1995, 12, pp. 41–50. It should be noted that Chang’an was reinstated as the imperial capital and administrative centre of the expansive Chinese empire after thirty years of Luoyang’s use as the capital, from 671 to 701. See further: Su Bai, op. cit. (note 43), pp. 409–425.

2 Li Xian’s tomb 1 From Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 2 Li Xian was known as ‘Mingyun’ or ‘Ren’ from his birth in 654, ‘De’ from 672, then ‘Xian’ from 674 until given the posthumous name ‘Zhanghuai’ in 711. Jiu Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 36, p. 2831, and Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 3 See ibid., 6, pp. 115–134 and Xin Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 4, pp. 81–105. For an English language biography of Wu Zetian see C.P. Fitzgerald, The Empress Wu, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, Australian National University and F.W. Cheshire, 1968. For a detailed analysis of her political role see R.W.L. Guisso, Wu Tse-t’ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T’ang China, Washington, Western Washington University, 1978. 4 Gaozong’s edict: ‘We wish now to order Taoist and Buddhist monks and nuns to do obeisance before emperor, empress and crown prince, as well as their [own] parents. [Since] sometimes we fear the loss of deeply rooted feelings it is proper to have the officials concerned discuss the matter critically and memorialize.’ Ibid., p. 32.

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5 ‘Wang’ is translated here as ‘Prince’ according to Hucker’s definition of the title in the Tang period. ‘Wang’ can be translated as ‘King’ in reference to foreign rulers in the Han to Qing periods, or Feudal Lords of the Zhou period. See Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, California, Stanford University Press, 1985, p. 562, entry no. 7634. Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 36, p. 2831. Li Xian’s 706 epitaph tablet says he was conferred as Prince of Yong in 672, while his 711 epitaph tablet gives the year as 671. 6 Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 7 Li Xian’s biography is in Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 36, pp. 2831–2834; and Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 3), 81, pp. 3590–3592. 8 Denis Twitchett (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, volume 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part I, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 270–271; and Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 22–23. 9 Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 86, p. 2832; and Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 23–24. 10 Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 86, p. 2832. 11 Ibid., 86, p. 2832; Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), p. 41; and Twitchett , op. cit. (note 8), pp. 270–271. 12 First year of the Wenming period, under Ruizong. 13 681 is given as the year of Li Xian’s demotion in the Jiu Tang shu and Xin Tang shu. The Jiu Tang shu and Xin Tang shu give the year of his exile to Bazhou as 682, while Li Xian’s epitaph tablet of 711 gives the year as 683. Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 36, p. 2832; Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 3), 81, p. 3591; and Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 14 Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 24 –25. 15 Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 36, p. 2834. 16 See Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), p. 23. 17 An example of this is in a commentary written in 690 on the Da yun jing (Mahamegha, Great Cloud Sutra) pieced together from fragments collected by Aurel Stein at Dunhuang, which expresses contemporary justification of Li Xian’s demotion as a form of legitimation for Wu Zetian’s usurpation of the throne. The necessity for its widespread circulation points to popular sympathy for Li Xian. See Tonia Eckfeld, ‘The Tomb of Li Xian: Posthumous Rehabilitation and Political Legitimacy,’ PhD dissertation, The University of Melbourne, Australia, 2000, pp. 23–24. 18 His body was entombed in the second year of the Shenlong reign period. Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 36, p. 2833. The Shenlong reign period dates from 30 January 705 or 21 February 705 to 7 February 707 or 5 October 707. 19 Zhongzong reigned twice: 3 January 684 to 26 February 684 (deposed) and 23 February 705 (restored) to 3 July 710 (died). 20 Angela Schottenhammer, ‘Characteristics of Song Epitaphs’, in Dieter Kuhn (ed.), Burial in Song China, Heidelberg, Würzburger Sinologische Schriften, 1994, p. 253. 21 Ibid., p. 254. 22 David McMullen, ‘The Death of Chou Li-chen: Imperially Ordered Suicide or Natural Causes?’ Asia Major, 2, Part 2, 1989, p. 24. 23 Epitaph tablets had been inscribed with personal biographies of the deceased since Han times. Prior to the Tang they commonly contained little more than the name, dates of birth and death and social status of the deceased. See Schottenhammer in Kuhn, op. cit. (note 20), p. 253. The practice of producing epitaph tablets in the form of carved square stone tablets made in pairs, consisting of an epitaph tablet cover and an epitaph tablet, dates back to the Northern Wei period (386–534). Mary H. Fong, ‘T’ang Line-engraved Stone Reliefs from Shensi’, Ars Orientalis, 17, Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, 1987, pp. 41–71, p. 45. The cover was normally carved in seal characters, either incised directly into the stone, or in relief. Nine or sixteen characters was a common number employed, but as many as thirty characters (e.g. Li Ji’s 669 epitaph tablet cover) were also used. The cover was a brief statement that the epitaph belonged to a named tomb occupant or occupants of a particular title and status. The cover normally had bevelled edges on its upper face, these and its vertical edges

Notes

24

25 26 27

28 29

30 31 32

33

143

embellished with floral designs, the calendrical animals or the directional animals. The simple square-sided epitaph tablet was a longer biography written in hundreds or thousands of commonly used characters. The epitaph, with its covering tablet on top, was placed in the tomb chamber or in the corridor near the tomb chamber entrance. Empress Wu Zetian abdicated on 21 February 705 and the Tang dynasty was restored under Zhongzong on 23 February 705. It is recorded in the Tang Histories that in 705 Wu Zetian was ill. Zhongzong entered her palace, Wu Zetian rose, he invited her to abdicate and without a word she turned and went back to bed. She died on 16 December 705. Zhongzong (26 November 656 to 3 July 710) was Gaozong’s seventh and Wu Zetian’s third son; Ruizong (22 June 662 to 13 July 716) was his eighth and her fourth son. Each had held the throne briefly after the death of Gaozong (Zhongzong 3 January 684 to 26 February 684, and Ruizong 27 February 684 to 16 October 690), though control had always remained in Wu Zetian’s hands. After Wu Zetian’s abdication (21 February 705) Zhongzong was restored as Emperor reigning from 23 February 705 until 3 July 710. Zhongzong’s 15 year old son by a concubine, Heir Apparent Li Chongmao, ruled briefly from 8 July 710 to 22 July 710. He was deposed by Wu Zetian’s daughter, Princess Taiping who installed her brother Ruizong on the throne. Ruizong reigned from 25 July 710 until he abdicated in favour of his son Xuanzong on 8 September 712. On 8 September 712 Ruizong became Regent and on 30 July 713 he retired as Regent. Twitchett describes the period of the Tang restoration as one of a ‘fierce power-struggle played out against a worsening financial and administrative situation’. See Twitchett, op. cit. (note 8), pp. 321–327. These dates are based on Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 56–57. Ibid., p. 57. According to the 711 epitaph tablet, the name Zhanghuai and title of Crown Prince were posthumously bestowed on 19 April 711. See Hucker, op. cit. (note 5), p. 262, entry no. 2863; and p. 484, entry no. 6239. Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Qian xian wenjiao ju, Tang mu fajue zu, ‘Tang Zhanghuai taizi mu fajue jianbao’ (‘A Brief Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of the Tang Crown Prince Zhanghuai’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, p. 19. For a discussion of the Tang veneration of aristocratic pedigree and the evidence of this in epitaph tablets, see Beverly J. Bossler, Powerful Relations, Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (960–1279), Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1998, chapter one. The translation of Shu Lucan’s titles are mine, based on Hucker, op. cit. (note 5), entries no. 7980, 7981, 5202 and 4990. For example, the Xin Tang shu records that when Wu Chongxun (Princess Anle’s husband) died, Zhongzong ordered that his tomb be a ling or equivalent to an emperor’s tomb. Lucan said: ‘Although Chongxun is close, he is not as close as the Prince of Yong. Now, the Prince of Yong’s tomb has not been called a ‘ling’, so how can Chongxun’s be called a ling?’ See Li Qiushi, ‘Tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti’ (‘A Discussion of Some Problems Concerning the Forms of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, p. 50. Ibid., p. 50. For Li Fan’s biography see: Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 3), 81.6, pp. 3601–3602. Hucker, op. cit. (note 5), entry no. 2860. In changing the dynastic name from Tang to Zhou in 690, Wu Zetian forced Ruizong to go through a ritual abdication. She demoted him to Imperial Successor (huang si) and made him change his surname from Li to Wu. See Pulleybank’s Preface in Guisso, op. cit. (note 3), p. viii. The Tang restoration was to some extent tentative under Emperor Zhongzong. In 706 Zhongzong’s Empress Wei, in league with her lover Wu Sansi (Wu Zetian’s nephew), made intense efforts to have Princess Anle installed as Heir Apparent. Anle was the only surviving child of Emperor Zhongzong and Empress Wei. Empress Wei’s faction exercised considerable power and was against Ruizong and his sister, Princess Taiping. It has been speculated in the Jiu Tang shu that in 710 Emperor Zhongzong’s death was the result of poisoning by Empress Wei. [ Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 9, p. 150.] When the imperial succession went to Li Chongmao, Zhongzong’s last remaining son by

144

34 35 36

37

38

39 40 41 42 43 44

45 46 47 48

Notes

a concubine, with Empress Wei as regent, the future Xuanzong staged a coup, killing Empress Wei and Princess Anle. Ruizong then ascended the throne. See Twitchett, op. cit. (note 8), pp. 321–328. These details are based on the excavation report in Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Wenwu, 1972,7, op. cit. (note 27), pp. 13–25, and Li Qiushi, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 29), pp. 45–58, supplemented by first-hand observations during field work in 1997, 1998 and 2001. The watchtowers were 4.5 m high and 5 m2 at the base. In general, members of the Tang royal family had only a south gate at their tombs. Exceptions include Princess Xincheng’s tomb at Zhaoling, which has a north and south gate. Emperor’s tombs were given four gates. Interview with Professor Zhang Jianlin, Xi’an, 23 April 1997. Jan Fontein and Wu Tung, Unearthing China’s Past, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1973, p. 121; and Gao Mingtao and Wang Zhankui, ‘The Methods of Taking Off Frescoes from the Tang Tombs and Keeping the Site Intact’, Paper from the Sixth Seminar on Conservation of Asian Cultural Heritage, Nara, 16–18 October 1996, p. 207. There were few mural paintings in tombs after the Yuan period of the thirteenth and fourteenth century. Qi Yingtao, ‘Studies on Conservation of the Grotto Temples and the Mural Paintings of Ancient Graves in China’, Paper from the International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, Tokyo, 17–21 November 1983, p. 19. A mixture of lime, millet soup, and a gum made from paulownia tree seeds was used for the raised surfaces. Interview with Ms Li Shuqun, Shaanxi Archaeology Institute, 4 August 1998. Ibid. Examination of the tomb suggests that the first three light wells date from 705–706, while the fourth, which is in the front corridor, dates from the tomb’s renovation in 711, according with Li Xian’s upgrade at that time. The mirror was 17 mm thick and 24.5 cm in diameter. About ten fragments of jade strips, approx. 3cm wide and less than 1 mm thick, inscribed with characters, provide further evidence that precious objects were placed in the tomb. The toad is a symbol of immortality, and the rabbit is a symbol of longevity. See Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise, The Chinese Quest for Immortality, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1979, pp. 54 and 106. Those of Grade 1, the titled nobility and those of royal status, were the highest in rank. Stone doors could be used in tombs belonging to occupants of Grade 3 and above. See Su Bai, ‘Xian diqu de Tang mu xingzhi’ (‘The Typology of Tombs in the Xi’an Area’), Wenwu, 1995, 12, pp. 43–44. Excavations to 1987 had found fourteen Tang tombs in which stone doorways, epitaph tablets and outer coffins were evident. See Fong, op. cit. (note 23), p. 41. The right hand side door and its frame were badly damaged by looters. The sun is located to the east of the highest point of the ceiling, and the moon, decorated with images of the toad and rabbit, is to the north-west. The 1972 excavation report states that the outer coffin is comprised of thirty-three slabs, including five for the roof and its plan of Li Xian’s tomb, shows eight slabs in the coffin platform. [Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 27), pp. 13–14.] This indicates that the walls consist of twenty slabs. Stone outer coffins consist of a base with mortice holes. Stone pillars sit in the holes, and slabs are fitted vertically in between, with a series of slabs forming the roof. For diagrams showing the construction of the early eighth century stone outer coffins of Wei Jiong and Yongtai, see Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, ‘Chang’an xian Nanli wang cun Tang Wei Jiong mu fajue ji’ (‘Report on the Excavation of the Tang Tomb of Wei Jiong in the Southern District of Chang’an’), Wenwu, 1959, 8, figure 13, p. 12; and Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, ‘Tang Yongtai gong zhu mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of Tang Princess Yongtai’), Wenwu, 1964, 1, figure 8, p. 13.

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49 Archaeologists speculated in the 1972 excavation report that all the tablets had been moved since originally being placed in the tomb. Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 27), p.18. 50 Wang Renbo, ‘General Comments on Chinese Funerary Sculpture’ in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Quest for Eternity, Chinese Ceramic Sculptures from the People’s Republic of China, San Francisco, CA, Chronicle Books, 1987, pp. 52–54. 51 Examples are held in the collections of the Qianling Museum and Shaanxi History Museum. 52 George Kuwayama, ‘The Sculptural Development of Ceramic Funerary Figures in China’ in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, op. cit. (note 50), 1987, p. 85. 53 Margaret Medley, The Chinese Potter, A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, Phaidon, 1982, p. 77. 54 Among the crudely mass produced figures were a number of 33 cm high sancai standing male figurines now exhibited in the Qianling Museum. The figures have long faces and wear curtain hats and long reddish-brown robes with the lapels turned back, their right hands are clenched in front of their chests with the left hanging by the side. They have been bisque fired only, to a low temperature, with simple painted decoration. 55 Li Feng (d.674) was Emperor Gaozu’s fifteenth son, and was buried in an atttendant tomb at Xianling, Gaozu’s mausoleum complex. His tomb contained 225 pottery figurines and twelve other pottery artefacts. The sancai pottery consists of a pair of double lobed trays and a pair of couches. The trays are 3 cm high and 36 cm long, with a winding design, and four legs in the shape of horse’s hooves. The couches are rectangular 6 cm high 25 cm long 19 cm wide. They have winding designs and six decorative cut outs on the sides. Both were broken and one has been restored. See Fuping xian wen hua guan, Wenwu guanli weiguanhui and Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, ‘Tang Li Feng mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Report on the Excavation of the Tang Tomb of Li Feng’), Kaogu, 1977, 5, figures IX.4 and IX.5, p. 321. The quality of firing suggests that the technology had evolved earlier than 675. Vainker expresses the view that the technique evident in the mortuary wares in Li Feng’s tomb was not well developed. See S.J. Vainker, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain from Pre-history to the Present, London, British Museum Press, 1991, p. 75. 56 Medley, op. cit. (note 53), p. 80. Green lead glaze wares have been found in the fifth century tomb of Sima Jinlong in Shaanxi and brown lead glazed pilgrim flasks were produced in the sixth century. Medley asserts that these provided the technical foundation for the development of sancai lead glaze wares. 57 Ibid., p. 80. 58 Earlier examples of heavenly kings were included in Li Shuang’s tomb (668), which had a heavenly king of the south (Sanskrit: Virudhaka) standing on a buffalo, and Li Mengjiang’s tomb (682), which had one standing on a dwarf. See further: Mary H. Fong, ‘Antecedents of Sui – Tang Burial Practices in Shaanxi’, Artibus Asiae, 51, Part 3/4, Zurich, 1991, p. 191. A second heavenly king from Li Shuang’s tomb appears to be standing on a camel. 59 Chinese pilgrim monks included Yijing who stayed at Nalander for ten years between 675 and 685, and Xuanzang (c.596–664) who made his pilgrimage to India from 629 to 645. The Tang envoy, Wang Zuance made three trips to India between 643 and 661. See Tonia Eckfeld, Buddhism and Heterodoxy in the Kuan-yin Image, MA dissertation, Melbourne, Monash University, 1995, pp. 46–51. 60 Janet Baker, ‘Sui and Early Tang Period Images of the Heavenly King in Tombs and Temples’, Orientations, April, 1999, p. 56. While routinely found in imperial tombs, it is not uncommon to find heavenly kings, either in pairs or singly, inside tombs not in the imperial cemeteries. 61 See Fong, op. cit. (note 58), pp. 159–187. 62 The plain pot is 32 cm high, with a diameter of 34 cm at the top and 16 cm at the base, while the other is 32 cm high, with a diameter of 34 cm at the top and 20 cm at the bottom.

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3 Relative status 1 From Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 2 Su Bai, ‘Xi’an diqu de Tang mu xingzhi’ (‘The Typology of Tombs in the Xi’an Area’), Wenwu, 1995, 12, pp. 41–50. 3 Four standard variations of Type 4 tombs are identified in Su Bai’s article. Type 5 is a tentative category not termed as such by Su Bai, but foreshadowed in his postscript. 4 Ibid., p. 47. Taizong’s Zhaoling was robbed at the beginning of the Song era and some details of it, including that it had three chambers, were recorded in the histories of that period. See Chapter 1. 5 See further Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Liquan xian wenjiao ju, Tang mu fajue zu, ‘Tang Zheng Rentai mu fajue jianbao’ (‘A Brief Report on the Excavation of the Tang Tomb of Zheng Rentai’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, pp. 33–44. 6 Wei Jiong’s tomb is near present-day Nanliwang Village, Chang’an County. Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, ‘Chang’an xian Nanliwang cun Tang Wei Jiong mu fajue ji’ (‘Report on the Tomb of Tang Prince Wei Jiong in the Southern District of Chang’an’), Wenwu, 1959, 8, pp. 8–18. 7 Su Bai, Wenwu, 1995, 12, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 41–50. 8 Ibid., ‘Xi’an diqu de Tang mu xingzhi’ (‘The Typology of Tombs in the Xi’an Area’), Wenwu, 1995, 12, pp. 42–43. 9 This data is from ibid., p. 42. 10 Ibid., p. 42. 11 Jiu Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 36, pp. 2834 –2835. 12 Ibid., 36, p. 2835; and Xin Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 81, p. 3593, and 83, p. 3654. 13 Ibid., 81, p. 3593, and 83, p. 3654. 14 Dimensions were traditionally significant as a mark of status. The Li ji (Book of Rites), Li qi (Rites in the Formation of Character), section 1, part 9, says: greatness of size formed the mark. The dimensions of palaces and apartments; the measurements of dishes and (other) articles; the thickness of the inner and outer coffins; the greatness of eminences and mounds: these were the cases in which the greatness of size was the mark. James Legge (trans.), Li Chi Book of Rites, An Encyclopedia of Ancient Ceremonial Usages, Religious Creeds, and Social Institutions, volume 1, Hyde Park, New York, University Books, 1967, p. 399. 15 This data is taken from Su Bai, Wenwu, 1995, 12, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 41–50; Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Qian xian wenjiao ju, Tang mu fajue zu, ‘Tang Zhanghuai taizi mu fajue jianbao’ (‘A Brief Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of the Tang Crown Prince Zhanghuai’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, pp. 13–25; Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Qian xian wenjiao ju, Tang mu fajue zu, ‘Tang Yide taizi mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Brief Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of Tang Prince Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, pp. 26–32; and Shaanxi sheng wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, ‘Tang Yongtai gong zhu mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of Tang Princess Yongtai’), Wenwu, 1964, 1, pp. 7–33. 16 Since the Qin and the Han dynasties, the tombs of emperors were usually adorned with sculptures of mythical beasts, elephants, horses and other animals. Officials and king’s subordinates used sheep, tigers, men and pillars. See further: Ann Paludan, The Chinese Spirit Road, The Classical Tradition of Stone Tomb Statuary, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1991. 4 Builders and painters 1 From Li Xian’s 706 epitaph tablet. 2 See Xin Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 81, pp. 3588–3590; Chen Zhang’an, ‘Tang Gongling ji qi shike’ (‘The Stone Carvings at the Tang Tomb,

Notes

3

4 5 6

7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

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Gongling’), Kaogu yu wenwu, 1986, 3, pp. 32–36; Denis Twitchett (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, volume 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part I, Cambridge, London, New York and Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. 270; and Guo Hongtao, ‘Tang Gongling Ai huanghou mu bu fen chutu wenwu’ (‘Some Artefacts Unearthed from Gongling, the Tomb of the Tang Empress Ai’), Wenwu, 2002, 4, pp. 9–18. Fitzgerald lists well over 100 leading figures and members of their families who were murdered under Wu Zetian’s instructions between 655 and 701: 23 members of the imperial household and many of their sons, 50 Tang princes and almost all their family members, and 36 high ministers and generals. See C.P. Fitzgerald, The Empress Wu, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, Australian National University and F.W. Cheshire, 1968, pp. 171–175. See Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu suo, ‘Tang Shunling kanchaji’ (‘Notes on a Survey of Shunling’), Wenwu, 1964, 1, pp. 34 –39, 48; Quan Dongji, ‘Tang Shunling yizhi xian zhuang yu xing zhi tantao’ (‘Preliminary Research on the Form System and the Present Situation of Tang Shunling Mausoleum’), Kaogu yu wenwu, 2002, 4, pp. 68–71; Ann Paludan, The Chinese Spirit Road, The Classical Tradition of Stone Tomb Statuary, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1991, pp. 216–217, 245; and Twitchett, op. cit. (note 2), p. 292. Art academies were not developed until the Song period. Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1985, p. 407, entry no. 4993 and p. 353, entry no. 4279. Qinghua Guo, The Structure of Chinese Timber Architecture, Twelfth Century Design Standards and Construction Principles, London, Minerva Press, 1999, p. 66. Bingham gives examples of conscription in the development of Luoyang during the early seventh century. See Chapter II ‘Construction of Public Works, 605–608’ in Woodbridge Bingham, The Founding of the T’ang Dynasty, The Fall of the Sui and the Rise of the T’ang, A Preliminary Survey, Baltimore, MD, Waverley Press, 1941, pp. 11–14. Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China, A Historical Survey, New Jersey, Princeton University, 1973, pp. 267–272. Chen Zhang’an, Kaogu yu wenwu, 1986, 3, op. cit. (note 2), p. 32. Standard lengths for a working day in the Tang dynasty were short, medium or long prescribed according to the seasons. Guo, op. cit. (note 5), p. 73. Chen Zhang’an, Kaogu yu wenwu, 1986, 3, op. cit. (note 2), p. 32. Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 2), 81, p. 3590. This translation is by the author. Attention was drawn to this quotation by Li Qiushi, ‘Tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti’ (‘A Discussion of Some Problems Concerning the Forms of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, p. 58, and Chen Zhang’an, Kaogu yu wenwu, 1986, 3, op. cit. (note 2), p. 32. Author not cited, Han Tang bihua (Murals from the Han to Tang Dynasties), Beijing, Waiwen chubanshe, 1974, p. 14. See William R.B. Acker (trans.), Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting, Vol. 2, Chang Yen-yüan Li Tai Ming Hua Chi, Chapters IV–X, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1974, pp. 229–230. Ibid., p. 230. Mr Wang Jianqi, Head Curator of Mural Section, Shaanxi History Museum, interview, Xi’an, 10 August, 1998. Ibid. Alexander C. Soper, ‘Yen Li-pen, Yen Li-te, Yen P’i, Yen Ching: Three Generations in Three Dynasties’, Artibus Asiae, 51, Zurich, 1991, pp. 202–203. The reading of the third component of the name [lu] is unclear and it is not certain that it is part of the name. The inscription is reproduced in Wang Renbo, ‘Tang Yide taizi mu bihua ticai de fenxi’ (‘A Study of the Themes Depicted in the Wall Paintings of the Tang Tomb of Crown Prince Yide’), Kaogu, 1973, 6, p. 381. The translation is from Fontein Jan and Wu Tung, Han and T’ang Murals Discovered in Tombs in the People’s Republic of China and Copied by Contemporary Chinese Painters, Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1976, p. 104.

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19 See Acker, op. cit. (note 12), p. 248. 20 Translation from ibid., p. 248. The following line in Acker (1974) states: ‘Pien’s son (Ch’ang) Ming-chin surpassed his father in subtlety’. According to Fontein, that sentence in the Lidai minghua ji also contains an error, that is, the character ‘Bian’ is misprinted as ‘Gong’. Fontein and Wu, 1976, pp. 104–106. Zhang’s association of Chang Bian’s work with that of Li Sixun is significant. Li Sixun (651–716) was a member of the Li family (Gaozu’s younger cousin), an aristocrat and a general. He was disqualified from working under Wu Zetian’s regime and went into hiding, but was appointed Lord of the Court of Imperial Affairs and ennobled as Duke of Pengguo under Zhongzong in 705. His work included murals for the Datong Hall, which took several months to complete. The use of an artist whose work was considered to resemble the newly rehabilitated Li Sixun may have been a conscious flaunting of his style and a reminder of the Li family’s restored prominence. For descriptions of Li Sixun’s style of work, see Max Loehr, The Great Painters of China, London, Phaidon, 1980, p. 62; and Acker op. cit. (note 12), p. 235. 21 Jan Fontein and Wu Tung, Han and T’ang Murals Discovered in Tombs in the People’s Republic of China and Copied by Contemporary Chinese Painters, Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, 1976, pp. 104 –106. 22 Jan Fontein and Wu Tung, Han and T’ang Murals Discovered in Tombs in the People’s Republic of China and Copied by Contemporary Chinese Painters, Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, 1976, p. 17. See Acker, op. cit. (note 12), p. 248. 23 Fontein and Wu, op.cit. (note 22), p. 106. 24 See Chapter 3, section 4, of the Lidai minghua ji, in William Reynolds Beal Acker (translator and annotator), Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1954. 25 This was the Cimen Temple, built in 686. Wang Renbo, ‘Tang Yide taizi mu bihua ticai de fenxi’ (‘A Study of the Themes Depicted in the Wall Paintings of the Tang Tomb of Crown Prince Yide’), Kaogu, 1973, 6, pp. 371, 381–393. 26 Acker, op. cit. (note 24), pp. 291–292. 27 Ibid., pp. 301–302. 28 Wang Renbo, ‘Tang Yide taizi mu bihua ticai de fenxi’ (‘A Study of the Themes Depicted in the Wall Paintings of the Tang Tomb of Crown Prince Yide’), Kaogu, 1973, 6, p. 381. 29 Mary Fong also ascertained that there were at least very similar themes used in both tomb murals and the work of the highest calibre Tang artists. She compared the subject matter of the early eighth century Tang tombs murals (in particular, the categories of female beauties, tribute bearers, animals, birds, landscapes and architecture) with the documentary evidence in the Tang chao minghua lu and the Lidai minghua ji, and found strong correlations. See Mary H. Fong, ‘Tang Tomb Murals Reviewed in the Light of Tang Texts on Painting’, Artibus Asiae, 45, Part 1, Ascona, 1984, pp. 35–72. 30 For example, Wang Tuozi, Zhang Ai’er, Chen Jingxin, Chen Jingyan, Mao Poluo, Yang Shu’er, Dong Haozi, Li Manzi. Huang Miaozi, ‘Tang bihua suotan’ (‘A Discussion of Tang Dynasty Mural Painting’), Wenwu, 1978, 6, pp. 72–76. 31 Acker, op. cit. (note 12), p. 217. The father and grandfather of Yan Lide and Yan Liben were also both officials and artists. See Alexander C. Soper, ‘Yen Li-Pen, Yen Li-Te, Yen P’i, Yen Ch’ing: Three Generations in Three Dynasties’, Artibus Asiae, 51, Zurich and Washington DC, 1991, pp. 199–206. 32 Ibid., p. 201. 33 Acker, op. cit. (note 12), p. 217. 34 Ibid., pp. 211–222. 35 Ibid., p. 212. 36 Ibid., p. 217. 37 It is recorded, for example, that Wang Zhishen, painter and supervisor of the Imperial Workshops, took Yan Liben as his model, and succeeded in acquiring his style. Ibid., p. 217.

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38 On problems of the attribution and authenticity of the scroll as a Tang original, see Chen Pao-chen, ‘Painting as History: A Study of The Thirteen Emperors Attributed to Yan Liben,’ Taiwan 2002 Conference on the History of Painting in East Asia, 4–7 October 2002, Taiwan National University, Taipei. 39 Acker, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 227–228.

5 Passages of rites 1 From Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 2 See James L. Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski (eds), Death and Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China, Berkeley, CA and London, University of California Press, 1988, pp. 3–19. 3 Ibid., pp. 29–30. 4 On early China, see further: Jessica Rawson, ‘Ancient Chinese Ritual as Seen in the Material Record’, in Joseph P. McDermott (ed.) State and Court Ritual in China, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 20–49. 5 Translation by Wechsler, from the Jiu Tang shu, volume 63. Howard J. Wechsler, Offerings of Jade and Silk, Ritual and Symbol in the Legitimation of the T’ang Dynasty, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1985, p. 149. 6 This description is indebted to Wechsler; ibid., p. 151. 7 For a discussion of the Chinese ancestral cult up to the Han period, see Jessica Rawson (ed.), Mysteries of Ancient China, New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties, London, British Museum Press, 1996, pp. 11–30, 219–224, 269–272; and Li Liu, ‘Who were the Ancestors? The Origins of Chinese Ancestral Cult and Racial Myths’, Antiquity, 73, 281, September 1999, pp. 602–605. 8 Ying-shih Yü, ‘ “O Soul, Come Back!” A Study in the Changing Conceptions of the Soul and Afterlife in Pre-Buddhist China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 47, 2, December 1987, pp. 363–395. 9 Ibid., p. 374. 10 Ibid., pp. 374–375. 11 Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise, The Chinese Quest for Immortality, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1979, pp. 6–11. 12 Ibid., pp. 6–11. 13 See Wu Hung, ‘Beyond the “Great Boundary”: Funerary Narrative in the Cangshan Tomb’, Cambridge, Harvard University, 1991; and Wu Hung, ‘Beyond the “Great Boundary”: Funerary Narrative in the Cangshan Tomb’, in John Hay (ed.), Boundaries in China, London, Reaktion Books, 1994, pp. 81–104. 14 Ibid., p.84. 15 K.E. Brashier, ‘Han Thanatology and the Division of “Souls” ’, Early China, 21, 1996, pp. 125–157, p. 138. 16 See T.H. Barrett, Buddhism in China, A Historical Survey, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1973, pp. 4 –11. 17 David McMullen, ‘The Death rites of Tang Daizong’, in McDermott, op. cit. (note 4), pp. 155–157; and Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China, A Historical Survey, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1973, p. 47 and pp. 215–226. 18 Ibid., pp. 4–11. 19 Janet Baker, ‘Sui and Early Tang Period Images of the Heavenly Kings in Tombs and Temples’, Orientations, April 1999, p. 56. 20 McMullen in McDermott, op. cit. (note 4), p. 156. 21 These epitaphs are translated from Chinese for the first time here. All quotes from the epitaph tablets are translated by the author. 22 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), p. 27. 23 Loewe, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 7–8. 24 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), p. 24.

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25 For English translations of the Li ji, see James Legge (trans.), The Sacred Books of China, The Texts of Confucianism, Part III, The Li Ki, I–X, and Part IV, The Li Ki, XI–XLVI, Delhi, Varanasi and Patna, Motilal Banarsidass, 1966; and James Legge (trans.), Li Chi Book of Rites, An Encyclopedia of Ancient Ceremonial Usages, Religious Creeds, and Social Institutions, Volume 1, Hyde Park, New York, University Books, 1967. For an English translation of the Yi li, see John Steele (trans.), The I-Li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, Volumes I and II, London, Probsthain and Company, 1917. For discussions of these see Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China, A Social History of Writing About Rites, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1991, pp. 34–44, Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 24–30, 49–54, and McMullen in McDermott, op. cit. (note 4), p. 151. 26 The commentary of Kong Yingda (574 –648) on the Li ji (Book of Rites) is the only one to survive from the Tang. Official documents concerning ritual matters survive in a number of Tang sources. These comprise recorded discussions at court and scattered jottings. See Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 29, 48, 51. 27 Ibid., p. 29. 28 For a discussion of the development of these, see Wechsler, ibid., pp. 48–49. 29 The 732 code is the earliest Chinese code to survive in full. McMullen in David Cannadine and Simon Price (eds), Rituals of Royalty, Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 184. See Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 42–44. 30 Ibid., pp. 189–190. 31 Ibid., p. 196. 32 Ibid., p. 211. 33 David McMullen, ‘The Death Rites of Tang Daizong’, in Joseph P. McDermott, op. cit. (note 4), p. 150–196 and figure 6.1. Details of Daizong’s funerary rites are taken from this source, p. 166–192. 34 Ibid., p. 187. 35 On the banners, see Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1985, p. 529. 36 Ebrey, op. cit. (note 25), pp. 36–37. 37 James L. Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski, op. cit. (note 2), p. 9. 38 Ibid., p. 8. 39 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 126–132. 40 The Li qi is a section of the Li ji. 41 Book VIII, the Li ki (Rites in the Formation of Character) chapter, section 1, part 7, in Legge 1967, op. cit. (note 25), p. 397. 42 Wechsler, op. cit. (note 5), p. 264. 43 Ibid., pp. 137–138. 44 Nghiem Toan and Louis Ricaud, Étude de texte annales Chinoises, Une tradition juxta-linéaire commentée de la Biographie officielle de l’Imperatrice Wou Tsö-t’ien, Extrait du Bulletin de la Société des Étude Indochinoises, Nouvelle Série-Tome XXXIV, No. 2, Saigon, 1959, pp. 112–113. The title tai huang is not included in Hucker. 45 Ebrey, op. cit. (note 25), p. 42. 46 Lü Cai, ‘The Errors of Geomancy’ translated by Patricia Ebrey in Patricia Buckley Ebrey (ed.), Chinese Civilization, A Sourcebook, 2nd edn, New York, Free Press Macmillan, 1993, p. 120. 47 Ibid., p. 120. 48 Ibid., p. 121. 49 Ibid., p. 120. 50 Ibid., pp. 120–122. 51 Ibid., p. 121. 52 Ibid., p. 121. 53 Ibid., p. 121. 54 Ibid., pp. 121–122.

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55 Glen Dudbridge, Religious Experience and Lay Society in T’ang China, A Reading of Tai Fu’s Kuang-i chi, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 56–57. 56 Ibid., p. 117. 57 Translation by Glen Dudbridge in ibid., p. 120. 58 Ibid., p. 124. 6 Palatial quarters 1 From Li Xian’s 706 epitaph tablet. 2 For examples see Author not cited, Han Tang bihua (Murals from the Han to Tang Dynasties), Waiwen chubanshe, Beijing, 1974, figures 7, 12–14, 18–20, 28–31, 36, 53 and 54. 3 See Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Wenguan hui, ‘Tang Li Shou mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Brief Report on the Excavation of the Tang Tomb of Li Shou’), Wenwu, 1974, 9, pp. 71–88, 61; Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu suo, Shaanxi lishi bowuguan, Zhaoling bowuguan, ‘Tang Zhaoling Xincheng zhang gongzhu mu fajue jianbao’ (‘A Brief Report on the Excavation of Elder Princess Xincheng’s Tomb at Zhaoling’), Kaoguyu wenwu, 1997, 3, pp. 3–38; and Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua (Newly Excavated Mural Paintings from Tang Tombs in Shaanxi Province), Chongqing, Chongqing chubanshe, 1998. 4 Zhang Hongxiu, Zhongguo Tang mu bihua ji (A Collection of China’s Tang Dynasty Frescoes), Xi’an, Lingnan meishu chubanshe, 1995, p. 21. See also Shaanxi sheng bowuguan, Wenguan hui, ‘Tang Li Shou mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Report on the Excavation of the Tang Tomb of Li Shou’), Wenwu, 1974, 9, pp. 71–88, 61. 5 The original height of Li Shou’s coffin chamber ceiling was not clear at the time of excavation. See ibid., p. 71. 6 Xin Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 83, p. 3649. 7 This idea was suggested in Shaanxi sheng Qian xian Qianling wenwu baoguan suo, ‘Dui tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti yi wen ji dian yi jian’ (‘Comments on “A Discussion on the Structures of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide” ’), Wenwu, 1973, 12, p. 68. 8 The shaft of the Tang arrow was made of bamboo. Wooden arrows were restricted to target shooting and hunting. Long steel-headed arrows were used to pierce armour in battle. Crossbow bolts were short and ‘feathered’ with skin. Quivers woven of the white kudzu vine, but usually lacquered in black or red, can be seen in the Shosoin. Edward H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, A Study Of T’ang Exotics, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, University of California Press, 1963, p. 264. 9 Karl Heinz Ranitzsch, The Army of Tang China, Stockport, Montvert, 1995, p. 14. 10 Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, California, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1985, entry no. 847, p. 149. 11 Li Qiushi, ‘Tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti’ (‘A Discussion of Some Problems Concerning the Forms of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, pp. 45–50. 12 Wallace Johnson (trans.), The T’ang Code, Volume II, Specific Articles, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1997, p. 17. Article 59 Unauthorized Entry of the Gates of the Imperial Palace, Section 1a–i. 13 Ibid., p. 16. 14 Hucker, op. cit. (note 10), entry no. 4150, p. 343. 15 Johnson, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 17–22. 16 Ibid., p. 421. The commentary to article 364.1 states: ‘Tallies for the dispatch of troops refer to the bronze fish tallies that are used to dispatch troops.’ According to the Statute on Public Standards: ‘[When a higher authority] gives out a tally, the left-hand parts are kept in the palace and the right-hand part is forwarded to the prefecture. When there are to be selective impositions [for taxes or labour services] or special requisitions of troops, in all of these cases an imperial edict and [the left-hand part of ] a tally in the shape of a bronze fish are sealed together and sent [to the prefecture]. After having

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19 20 21

22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

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compared the [two halves of the] tallies, the imperial edict is accepted and carried out.’ This is why there is reference to bronze fish tallies that are used to dispatch troops. See Johnson, op. cit. (note 12), p. 422. Guo Qinghua, The Structure of Chinese Timber Architecture, Twelfth Century Design Standards and Construction Principles, London, Minerva Press, 1999, p. 65. Fu Xinian, ‘Tang Chang’an Daming gong Hanyuan dian yuanzhuang de tantao’ (‘An Investigation of the Original Appearance of the Hanyuan Hall of the Daming Palace in Tang Chang’an’), Wenwu, 1973, 7, pp. 30–48; and Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 3), p. 5. Saehyang P. Chung, ‘A Study of the Daming Palace: Documentary Sources and Recent Excavations’, Artibus Asiae, 50, 1/2, 1990, p. 35. For details of the Longwei Path, see Saehyang P. Chung, ‘Symmetry and Balance in the Layout of the Sui-Tang Palace-City of Chang’an’, Artibus Asiae, 56, 1/2, 1996, p. 36. Examples of hip roof gate towers can be seen in the Tang murals of Caves 172, 199, 9 at Mogao, Dunhuang. See Guo, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 223–225, for a discussion of roof types in relation to types of building. During the Song period, hip roofs were used for palaces and mansions, hip and gable roofs for palaces, mansions or pavilions, pyramidal roofs for pavilions and projecting gable roofs for mansions and ordinary houses. Ibid., 1999, p. 148. Ibid., pp. 150–152. For a detailed discussion of bracketing systems in Song China, see ibid., chapter 2, ‘Units of Measurement and Puzuo’, pp. 75–106. Madam Xue (687–710, also known as the Mistress of Wanquan County) was the second daughter of Princess Taiping; her father’s name was Xue Shao. A copy of the painting from her tomb of a rack of five halberds is illustrated in Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 4), pp. 135–142, 171. Empress Wu Zetian conferred a title upon her and Emperor Ruizong granted her a fief of 300 households. Shaanxi History Museum and Li Xixing, Tang mu bi hua zhen pin xuan cui (The Cream of Original Frescoes from Tang Tombs), Xi’an, Shaanxi renmin meishu chubanshe, 1991, preface. On the tombs of Li Hui and Huizhuang, see Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 3), and Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu suo, ‘Tang Hui Zhuang taizi mu fajue jianbao’ (Excavation report on the Tang Tomb of Crown Prince Hui Zhuang’), Kaogu yu wenwu, 1999, 2, pp. 3–22. Author not cited, op. cit, (note 2), appendix p. 14. See Li Qiushi, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 45–50. Xin Tang shu, op. cit. (note 6), 83, p. 3645. Li Qiushi, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 47. Tong dian: Zhi gong 16 ( juan 34) is quoted in ibid., pp. 47. The Tong dian (Comprehensive Institutes), compiled by Du Yu (735–812), was an early ninth century encyclopaedia describing the evolution of key rites. Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 3), p. 4; and Author not cited, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 45–50.

7 Pleasures and protocols 1 From Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 2 See Wu Hung, ‘Art in a Ritual Context: Rethinking Mawandui’, Early China, 17, 1992, pp. 111–144; Wu Hung, ‘Beyond the “Great Boundary”: Funerary Narrative in the Cangshan Tomb’, in John Hay (ed.), Boundaries in China, Oxford, Reaktion Books, 1994; and Wu Hung, ‘Where Are They Going? Where Did They Come From? – Hearse and “Soul-carriage” in Han Dynasty Tomb Art’, Orientations, June 1998, pp. 22–31. 3 Ibid., p. 23. 4 Ibid., p. 22.

Notes 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13

14

15 16

17

18

19 20

21 22

153

Ibid., p. 25. Ibid., p. 25. Ibid., pp. 25 and 29. Wu Hung, 1994, op. cit. (note 2), p. 90. James L. Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski (eds), Death and Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China, Berkeley, CA and London, University of California Press, 1988, p. 4. Lou Rui’s tomb is located in Taiyuan, Shaanxi Province. See Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu suo, Taiyuan shi wenwu guanli weiyuanhui, ‘Taiyuan shi Beiqi Lou Rui mu fajue jianbao’ (‘Report on the Excavation of the Northern Qi Tomb of Lou Rui’), Wenwu, 1983, 10, pp. 1–23. The riderless horse was also a convention in early Buddhist art representing Siddhartha Gautama’s renunciation of worldly life when he left his father’s palace in Kapilavastu to begin his quest for enlightenment in India. Shao Menglong, Select Relics from Zhaoling Mausoleum, Xi’an, Shaanxi renmin meishu chubanshe, 1991, preface and p. 25. For the tomb of Princess Xincheng see: Kaogu yu wenwu, 1997, 3; Zheng Rentai: Wenwu, 1972, 7; Li Zhen: Zhang Hongxiu, Zhongguo Tang mu bihua ji (A Collection of China’s Tang Dynasty Frescoes), Xi’an, Lingnan meishu chubanshe, 1995; Ashina Zhong: Kaogu, 1977, 2; and Li Feng: Kaogu, 1977, 5. While the murals in both tombs are partially damaged, it should be noted that a small group of figures precedes the dragon at the southern end of the east wall of Yongtai’s tomb passage. Only their feet and ankles are now visible. Ashinar Zhong’s tomb also has the directional animals at the southern beginning of the tomb. Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, Shaanxi xinchutu Tang mu bihua (Newly Excavated Mural Paintings from Tang Tombs), Chongqing, Chongqing chubanshe, 1998, p. 5. The officials on the east wall have been identified as being of the fourth or fifth grade and those on the west wall as of lower rank. See Jan Fontein and Wu Tung, Han and T’ang Murals Discovered in Tombs in the People’s Republic of China and Copied by Contemporary Chinese Painters, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1976, p. 94. The Roman Empire conducted trade with China. The Romans purchased luxuries such as silk and spices. In the sixth century this was done through Persian intermediaries. See Roger Collins, Early Medieval Europe, 300–1000, New York, St Martin’s Press, 1994, p. 130. It is evident that Roman glass was imported into China in the late seventh and early eighth centuries since examples were discovered in the relic chamber of Famen Si. See Zhang Tinghao (ed.), Famen si (Famen Temple), Xi’an, Zhongguo Shaanxi lüyou chubanshe, 1990. Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 13), p. 97, describes this figure as Japanese, while Shaanxi History Museum and Li Xixing, op. cit. (note 18), p. 40, describes him as Korean. Fontein and Wu identified these figures as ‘an ethnic type of as yet undetermined origin’, a Korean and a delegate from Bo-hai in China’s north-eastern provinces. Fontein and Wu, op. cit. (note 16), p. 94. There were many Japanese envoys sent to China who were officially received in the early eighth century. The identification of the nationalities used here are Zhang Hongxiu’s. See Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 13), 1995, p. 97. Religious tolerance was at its fore during the reigns of Taizong, Gaozong and Wu Zetian. For example: a Zoroastrian temple was built in Chang’an in 631, a Nestorian church was built in 628, and a Manichaean proposed his doctrines at court in 694. See Edward H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, A Study Of T’ang Exotics, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, University of California Press, 1963, pp. 10–28. Fong, Mary H., ‘The Technique of “Chiaroscuro” in Chinese Painting from Han through T’ang’, Artibus Asiae, 35, 4, Ascona, 1973, p. 322. See Li Qiushi, ‘Tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti’ (‘A Discussion of Some Problems Concerning the Forms of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, pp. 45–50.

154

Notes

23 Ashina Zhong was Turkish chieftain who won promotion to an official post in the imperial palace under Taizong. Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 76–77. 24 A Song copy, held in the Palace Museum, Beijing. 25 A Ming copy, held in the Palace Museum, Taipei. 26 A Song copy, held in the Palace Museum, Taipei. This Song copy is comprised of 24 figures, though a later copy has 33 figures. James Cahill, An Index of Early Chinese Painters and Paintings, T’ang, Sung, and Yüan, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA and London, University of California Press, 1980, pp. 23–24. 27 Jane Gaston Mahler discusses representations of foreigners and outlines some early art historical debate in Jane Gaston Mahler, The Westerners Among the Figurines of the T’ang Dynasty of China, Rome, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1959. Large numbers of Turks, Uighurs, Tocharians, Sogdians, Persians, Arabs and Indians lived in the capital, while Chams, Khmers, Javanese and Singhalese were common in Guangzhou. Schafer, op. cit. (note 18), p. 20. 28 The implications of including these particular nationalities are worthy of speculation. Political communications existed between the Persians and Chinese from the sixth century, Chinese records noting that the king of Persia sent an ambassador to China in around 518. There were political and civil communications between the Chinese and Roman empires. The third Roman ambassador arrived at Taizong’s court in 643, bringing precious tributes with him probably with the objective of fostering Chinese support against the Muslims, who had gained control of Syria and Sassania. See Peter Chung-hang Chiu, An Historical Study of Nestorian Christianity in the T’ang Dynasty Between A.D.635–845, PhD Thesis (1987, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1995, pp. 58–62. Japan sent eighteen embassies to China during the Tang, with both cultural and strategic objectives given Sino-Korean conflicts. At the time Li Xian’s tomb was built, Awata-no-Mahito was the Japanese ambassador to China. He arrived in 701, seeking knowledge about Chinese culture, and the Chinese are recorded to have been impressed with his high level of ‘civilization’. See Penelope Ann Herbert, Japanese Embassies and Students in T’ang China, Occasional Paper no. 4, Perth, University of Western Australia Centre for East Asian Studies, 1997, pp. 3–9. Dong Zhangjun ang Kong Zhengyi (eds.), Tang dai Zhong Ri you hao shi hua, Xi’an, Shaanxi renmin chubanshe, pp. 239–252, summarizes diplomatic and cultural exchanges between China and Japan during the Tang period. The relationship between China and Mongolia was based on strategic defence and trade, and Mongolian missions were sent to the Tang court to pay tribute or receive honours and rewards. Since traditional Chinese garrisons could not be maintained in Mongolia due to the lack of arable land in the harsh steppes, the Chinese government used trade as a means to buy Mongolian loyalty, reward service or encourage attack against common enemies. See Moses in John Curtis Perry and Bardwell L. Smith (eds), Essays on T’ang Society, The Interplay of Social, Political and Economic Forces, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1976, pp. 85–86. 29 Interview with Mr Wang Jianqi, Co-head curator of murals, Shaanxi Museum, Xi’an, 10 August 1998. 30 See Huang Miaozi, ‘Tang bihua suo tan’ (‘A Discussion of Tang Dynasty Wall Painting’), Wenwu, 1978, 6, pp. 72–76. 31 Schafer, op. cit. (note 18), p. 88. Each of the four tamers with cheetahs in Yide’s murals holds a taming rod in one hand and the cheetah’s lead in the other and have been portrayed walking in the woods as if searching for prey. 32 Hunting dogs were sent as tribute by the nations of Turkestan, Samarkand in 713 and 724 and Kucha in 721. Whilst Schafer could find no indication of their type, murals in Yide’s tomb provide visual evidence of such hunting dogs. See ibid., pp. 77 and 93. 33 Ibid., p. 93. A fine mural of falcons with their trainers appears in Yide’s tomb. 34 Early in the Tang dynasty, there were 48 stud farms, and this subsequently increased. In the mid-seventh century there was a stock of 706,000 horses. By 754 there were only

Notes

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

45 46

47 48 49 50 51

52

53

54 55 56

155

305,700. See Karl Heinz Ranitzsch, The Army of Tang China, Stockport, Montvert, 1995, p. 16. Sun Ji, ‘Tang dai de maju yu mashi’ (‘The Equestrian Gear and Ornament of the Tang Dynasty’), Wenwu, 1981, 10, pp. 82–88, 96. See Schafer, op. cit. (note 18), pp. 70–73. See ibid., pp. 13–14. Translated in ibid., p. 14. One (white) horse in the polo scene has a long mane, but its tail, like all the others is bound. See Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 13), p. 148 and figure192. Stephen Owen, The Poetry of the Early T’ang, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1981, p. 297. In Crown Prince Jiemin’s tomb, the polo scene was to the north of the tiger on the west wall of the passage. For illustrations of the polo scene in Crown Prince Jiemin’s tomb see Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 15), figures 88 and 89. James T.C. Liu, ‘Polo and Cultural Exchange: From T’ang to Sung China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 45, 1, 1985, pp. 203–224; and Huang Miaozi, ‘Tang bihua suo tan’ (‘A Discussion of Tang Dynasty Wall Painting’), Wenwu, 1978, 6, pp. 72–76. From Feng-shih wen-chih chi [Fengshi wenzhi ji ], translated in ibid., p. 207. Polo was subsequently transmitted from China to Korea and Japan. Polo was simply called ‘hitball’, played with curved sticks. Emperors, courtiers, ladies and scholars played polo, and the palace had its own polo field. Schafer, op. cit. (note 18), pp. 66–67. The murals in Li Xian’s tomb provide visual evidence of the horses used for polo playing. In 1963 Schafer said, ‘We do not know what horses were accounted best for polo playing by the men of the Tang …’ [ p. 66]. Liu, HJAS, op. cit. (note 43), pp. 206–207. Liu gives 0.36 m as the width between the goal posts. From Herbert A. Giles, ‘Football and Polo in China’, in The Nineteenth Century and After, no. 59, London, 1906, pp. 508–513; and Ssu-ma Kuang, Tzu-chih t’ung-chien, (punctuated edition), Hong Kong, Chung-hua shu-chü, 1971 reprint – quoted in Liu, HJAS, op. cit. (note 43), p. 208. Ibid., p. 205. Ibid., p. 203. There are indications that skill at polo was used in the later Tang as a means to distinguish between candidates in the rewarding of military rank. See ibid., pp. 203 and 209. Owen, 1981, op. cit. (note 41), p. 187. Ibid., pp. 204 –5. For an illustration of the mural see Terakazu Akiyama et al., Arts of China, Neolithic Cultures to the T’ang Dynasty, Recent Discoveries, Tokyo, Kodansha International, 1972, figure 229. See further: Shaanxi History Museum and Li Xixing, op. cit. (note 18), preface and pp. 10–19. See Jiu Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 86, pp. 2837–2839; and Xin Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 81, pp. 3595–3596. For a description in Chinese of Jiemin’s tomb and its mural paintings see Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 15), appendix pp. 11–19, figures 80–130. For a detailed discussion of trends in the painting of rocks from the late Tang period to the Northern Song period, see James Cahill, ‘Some Rocks in Early Chinese Painting’, Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, Volume 16, 1962, pp. 77–87. See Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 15), figures 84 –87. The form and character of the gnarled trees anticipate the type later painted by the Kano School in Japan, suggesting a Chinese source of the type. See Stephen Owen, ‘The Formation of the Tang Estate Poem’, in The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 55, 1, June 1995, pp. 39–59.

156

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57 Ibid., p. 40. Lothar Ledderose gives another interpretation of landscape and the ownership of it. He points to the ancient Chinese idea that keeping parks was a religious need, since animals had to be continuously available for ritual sacrifices and that such sacrifices took place in parks. See Lothar Ledderose, ‘Religious Elements in Chinese Landscape Art’, in Susan Bush, and Christian Murck (eds), Theories of the Arts in China, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1983, pp. 165–183. 58 Princess Taiping was the daughter of Gaozong and Wu Zetian and an important political figure during Zhongzong’s second reign. The poem dates from the late eighth or early ninth century. See Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese ‘Middle Ages’, Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1996, p. 25. Han Yu (768–824). 59 Ibid., p. 45. 60 See Han Wei and Zhang Jianlin, op. cit. (note 15), figure 132. See further Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu suo, ‘Tang Hui Zhuang taizi mu fajue jianbao’ (Excavation report on the Tang Tomb of Crown Prince Hui Zhuang’), Kaogu yu wenwu, 1999, 2, pp. 3–22. 8 Courtly women 1 From Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. 2 Li Qiushi, ‘Tan Zhanghuai, Yide liang mu de xingzhi deng wenti’ (‘A Discussion of Some Problems Concerning the Forms of the Tombs of Zhanghuai and Yide’), Wenwu, 1972, 7, p. 48; and Mary H. Fong, ‘The Technique of “Chiaroscuro” in Chinese Painting from Han through T’ang’, Artibus Asiae, 35, 4, Ascona, 1973, p. 320. 3 Li Qiushi, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 47–48; and Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1985, p. 316 entry no. 3784, pp. 319–320 entry no. 3810. I have used Hucker’s English translation of the department names rather than those in Fong (1973). The Six Palace Services were the chief agencies in which palace women were organized during the Tang period. Ibid., p. 316, entry no. 3784. 4 Li Qiushi, Wenwu, 1972, 7, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 47–48. 5 Fong, op. cit. (note 2), p. 320. Fong describes the women as from the ‘Department of the Sleeping Quarters’. For consistency I have used Hucker’s term ‘Housekeeping Service’. 6 Li Xian’s entitlements were clearly less than those of Xincheng, Yide and Yongtai, but greater than those in tombs of Tang high officials. Li Xian’s tomb murals have more attendants than the tombs of Li Shou (631) or Li Shuang (668), for example. 7 Hucker, op. cit. (note 3), p. 351 entry no. 4249. 8 Ibid., p. 270 entry no. 3012; p. 484 entry no. 6243. Consort Fang is the only recorded wife of Li Xian. It is likely that Li Xian would have had additional consorts, although this can not be established for certain. 9 J.K. Rideout, ‘The Rise of the Eunuchs During the T’ang Dynasty, Part One (618–705)’, Asia Major, I, I, 1949, pp. 53–65. 10 For a study of makeup and jewellery fashions of the Tang and other periods see Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming, Zhongguo li ai funü zhuangshi (The History of Chinese Women’s Adornment), Joint Publishing Company, Hong Kong, 1988. Face powder of rice or white lead was used with rouge, made from powder mixed with water. The practice of applying rouge originated in the Xiongnu tribes of north-west China. Red and yellow pigments were obtained from plant extracts in the Yanzhi mountains. Long dark eyebrows were painted with cosmetics of a type originally brought from Persia during the reign of Emperor Yangdi of the Sui. Li Wei and Yan Xinzhi, Women of the Tang Dynasty, Pacific Century Publishers and Shaanxi History Museum, Kowloon, 1995, pp. 17–21. 11 Ibid., p. 8. 12 He Jianguo et al., Tang dai fu nü fa ji (Hair Fashions of Tang Dynasty Women), Hair and Beauty Company, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 5.

Notes

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13 Ibid., p. 24 –27. 14 Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 44 –45. 15 Cotton fabric was produced in Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong during the Han dynasty. Cotton spread to the interior of China in the Song dynasty and became the chief textile material for the masses by the Yuan period. See Huang Nengfu, The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts, Arts and Crafts 6, Printing Dyeing Weaving and Embroidery (I), Cultural Relics Publishing House, Beijing, 1991, pp. 11–31. 16 3 liang 42 g. Ibid., p. 13. 17 See Zhang Hongxiu, Zhongguo Tang mu bihua ji (A Collection of China’s Tang Dynasty Frescoes), Xi’an, Lingnan meishu chubanshe, 1995, p. 32 and figure 15. 18 Huang Nengfu, op. cit. (note 15), p. 18. 19 See Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 30–31, figure 14; and pp. 38–42, figures 22 and 24. 20 Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy (eds), Women Writers of Traditional China. An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1999, pp. 76–78. 21 For example: The Story of Liang the Excellent, Northern Wei period, early sixth century, stone carving, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. This work is analysed by Wu Hung in The Double Screen, Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting, London, Reaktion Books, 1996, pp. 91–95, figure 59. 22 During the later seventh and early eighth centuries, princesses established personal staffs, and controlled taxable estates of up to 10,000 households, the same as princes. Some princesses married freely, such as Anle (the daughter of Zhongzong and his Empress Wei). After the assassination of her first husband she married Wu Yenxui who was the son of Wu Zetian’s nephew Wu Sansi. This defied the opinion of many, who were shocked by her flagrant attraction to his adopted foreign manners and style of dress. In 706, Zhongzong’s Empress Wei, in league with her lover Wu Sansi, endeavoured to have Princess Anle installed as Heir Apparent. Upon the death of Zhongzong in 710, his 15 year old son, Li Chongmao, ascended the throne but was removed by Wu Zetian’s daughter, Princess Taiping, who ordered that her brother Ruizong be Emperor. During Ruizong’s second reign, Princess Taiping held the power. After Ruizong’s abdication in 712, his son and successor, Emperor Xuanzong, ordered her to commit suicide. See Denis Twitchett (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3, Sui and T’ang China, 589–906, Part I, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 321–328. 23 The Nymph of the Luo River is attributed to Gu Kaizhi (c.344–406). The original is no longer extant. A thirteenth century copy in ink and colour on silk is in the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC has fragments of a Song copy. 24 These are excerpts from a translation of a poem about the nymph by Gu Kaizhi quoted in Wu Hung, op. cit. (note 21), p. 96. 25 See ibid., pp. 95–99. 26 Beverley J. Bossler, Powerful Relations, Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (960–1279), Cambridge, MA, and London, Harvard University Press, 1998, pp. 18–19. 27 Luo Binwang one of the four major poets of the late seventh century. He held a number of official posts under Wu Zetian but suffered demotion and exile due to his remonstrances. He was finally imprisoned and executed for his complicity in a rebellion instigated in Li Xian’s name against the Empress. ‘On the Cicada’ was written in prison. Stephen Owen discusses Luo Binwang in chapter 11 ‘Lo Pin-wang: Poetry and Rhetoric’, in Stephen Owen, The Poetry of the Early T’ang, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1977, pp.138–150. 28 The poem ‘On the Cicada: In Prison’ is translated in Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, New Haven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1977, pp. 148–149. 29 King Mu of the Zhou dynasty visited Xi Wangmu at the Tiered Walls of Mount Kunlun. The white clouds are of Xi Wangmu’s Jade Terrace – a general term for

158

30 31

32

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

Notes

immortal palaces. The translation of the poem is by Stephen Owen. The exact date of the poem is not known. See Owen, op. cit. (note 27), pp. 211–213. See Jiu Tang shu, Shanghai, Zhong hua shu ju chuban, 1975, 86:36, pp. 2833–2834. For a Han example of erotic tomb art, see Brick Decorated in Relief with Erotic Scene in Jessica Rawson (ed.), Mysteries of Ancient China, New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties, London, British Museum Press, 1996, catalogue entry 105, pp. 201–203, figures 105 and 105.1. She, like the matrons in Li Xian’s tomb murals, is plump. Representation of such fuller figures is not evident in earlier works or in the murals of Yide and Yongtai. It marks a trend which to date has been most often associated with Emperor Xuanzong’s reign and accounted for by his love for the plump and beautiful Yang Guifei. These examples indicate that the preference for a fuller feminine physique occurred earlier than previously credited. Zhang Hongxiu, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 160–165. Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. Li Xian’s 711 epitaph tablet. The ‘four virtues’ are good nature, beauty, eloquence and skilful embroidery. In 699, Shouli was given the title Prince of Xiang and allowed out of imprisonment. Jiu Tang shu, op. cit. (note 30), 86:36, p. 2833. Xinghua li [‘Become prosperous’ block] was located in the very heart of Tang Chang’an. Concubine died at the age of 54 sui, that is 53 years of age by Western reckoning. The ‘separation of male and female’ is recommended in the Li ji (Book of Rites). Patricia Ebrey, The Inner Quarters, Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1993, pp. 23–24. Quoted in ibid., p. 24. Ibid., p. 195. Attention is drawn to this quote in ibid., p. 195. The translation is by James Legge. Bossler, op. cit. (note 26), p. 21.

Index

afterlife 5, 68, 71, 72–4, 102, 105–6, 107, 109 Agency of Palace Buildings 60 Ai, Empress 59 Aizong, Emperor 4, 138 n.2 altar 1 ambassadors 5, 24, 25, 39, 113 Analects for Girls 134 ancestor temples 75, 77, 78–9, 96 ancestors 12, 16, 71, 75, 76, 78–9 Anle, Princess 102 apotropaic beasts 44, 48–9 artisans 60–1, 64 Ashina Helu 25 Ashina Zhong 109, 113, 127 Baker, Janet 48 Bazhou in Sichuan Province 32 Bei shi (History of the Northern Dynasties) 116 Book of Changes 81 Bossler, Beverley 134 bracket sets 101, 132 Brashier, K.E. 70 Buddhism 71, 87, 90; Amitabha 15, 98; Bodhisattva 15; Buddha 15, 65; Maitreya 15; rebirth 71–2; stele 65; temples 72, 87, 89, 90, 98, 102 calendrical animals 44 camels 44, 45, 46, 47, 106, 109, 115–16 Cangshan tomb (in Shandong Province) 106 carriages see chariots carts see chariots Chang Bian 64 –5 Chang’an: Han Chang’an 9, 10, 12; Tang Chang’an 1, 9, 10, 12–14, 16, 19, 23, 36, 45, 58, 76, 78, 79, 102, 127, 128 Changle, Princess 26, 109

Changning, Princess 102 Changsun, Empress 16–17, 26 Changsun Chong, Commandant Consort 26 chariots 92, 105–7, 109, 111, 113 cheetahs 92, 114, 115 Ch’en, Kenneth 71 Chen Jingyen 65 Chen Yi 67 Chen Zi’ang 120, 130–1 Chengyang, Princess 26 Chief Architect 14, 16 city planning 12–14, 19, 26 city walls 1, 17, 19 Classic of Filial Piety 80 coffins 16, 26, 36, 41–3, 68, 76, 77, 99, 105, 106, 144 n.48 Confucianism 78, 83 corvee labour 60–1 Court of Diplomatic Reception 24 Da Tang liu dian (Record of the Tang Six Palace Services) 96, 102, 123–4 Da Yan Pagoda 98 Dai, Lady 9 Dai Fu 81 Daizong, Emperor 4, 71, 72, 75–7, 80 Daming Palace (Daming gong) 21, 100 dancers see performers Daoism 69, 71; stele 65; temples 72, 89–90, 102 Daxing 12, 14 Dezong, Emperor 4, 23, 75, 76 Ding’an, Princess 102 directional animals 21, 23, 39, 92, 105, 106, 109, 111 Directorate of Imperial Manufactories (Shang fang jian) 60 Directorate for Palace Buildings 14

160

Index

divination 12, 76, 79–81 Domestic Service of the Heir Apparent 126 dragons 15, 90, 92, 100, 106, 109, 111 ‘ Drawing Song’ 76 Duan Jianbi 127 Duke of Yen 62–3 Dunhuang (Mogao temples) 87, 98, 101 Eastern Han tombs 87, 106 Eastern Palace (Dong gong) 54, 102 Eastern Zhou Dynasty 9, 75 Ebrey, Patricia 134 emissaries see ambassadors envoys see ambassadors epitaph tablets 33–6, 43–4, 68, 70, 72–4, 76, 83, 117, 133–4, 135, 142–3 n.23 eunuchs 5, 40, 63, 123, 124, 126, 131, 132; gate monitor 40, 97–8; procurement of 126 falcons 92, 114 –15 Family Instructions for the Yen Clan 64 Faming 63 Fang, Imperial Consort 35, 41, 42, 73, 74, 98, 132–5 Fangling, Princess 52, 127 Feng Lun 68 flying celestial ( fei tian) 72, 89, 90 Fo Guang Temple 99 Fong, Mary 6 Fontein, Jan and Wu Tung 65 foreigners 17, 23, 24 –5, 67, 111, 113–14, 136, 154 n.28 Fu Hao, Consort 9 Gao Yuangui 117 Gaozong, Emperor (Li Zhi) 1, 4, 6, 16, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33–5, 52, 58, 59, 60, 71, 77, 114, 115, 130–1, 143 n.24 Gaozu, Emperor (Li Yuan) 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 16, 26, 30, 61, 66, 69, 79, 88 Gaozu, Han Emperor (Liu Bang) 12 gate towers 99, 100, 106, 111; Gate of Heaven 106; triple 65, 92, 100–1; trompe l’oeil 90 gates 15, 21, 23, 24, 65, 90, 96, 98, 99, 109, 114 geomancy 14, 79–81 ghosts 81–3 Gu Kaizhi 129 Guangyi ji (Great Book of Marvels) 81–3

guardian beasts see apotropaic beasts guards 74, 81, 82, 95, 101, 104, 107, 109, 136; body-guards 5, 23, 95; gate monitor 97–8; gate surveillance guards 40, 95–7, 101; guardhouse 74, 101; honour guards 39, 72, 90, 92, 102, 111; Left and Right Guard of the Emperor 24; military 24; palace guards 95; protection guards 95, 114; road security guards 95 Guisso, R.W.L. 32 Guo Pu 80 halberds 40, 90, 92, 101–4, 109, 111 Han Dynasty see Western Han Dynasty Han Wei 6 Han Yu 122 Hanguo, Lady 31 Hanyuan Throne Hall (Hanyuan dian) 100 heavenly kings (tian wang) 44, 47–8, 71 Heir Apparent 32, 59, 75, 126, 131, 138 n.3, 143 n.24; Heir Apparent Crown Prince 31, 32, 33; Imperial Grandson Heir 27, 32, 54 Hezheng, Princess 72 horses 12, 17, 18, 23, 24, 41, 44, 45, 46, 66, 76, 89, 90, 92, 105–11, 114–20 Hou Han shu (Later Han History) 31 Houtu (Earth God) 76 Hucker, Charles O. 6 Huizhuang, Crown Prince (Li Wei) 66, 102, 111, 122 hunting 39, 67, 88–90, 92, 107–9, 114–18, 119, 131 international relations 25 Jiemin, Crown Prince 39, 67, 121 Jin Dynasty 39, 87 Jincheng, Princess 102 Jingdi, Han Emperor 10 Jingzong, Emperor 4 Jiu Tang shu (Old Tang History) 5, 11, 14, 19, 54, 69, 82, 131, 132, 133 Jiuzong Mountain 16, 17 Kaiyuan li (Kaiyuan Ritual Code) 75 karma 71 Khotan 67 Korea 25, 58 Kucha, King of 25 landscape 67, 74, 87, 101, 121–2 Laozi 71

Index Li Bing, Yuanhuangdi, ancestor emperor 11–12 Li Chao 117 Li Chongrun see Yide Li Feng 45, 109, 127, 144 –5 Li Hong, Crown Prince (Xiaojing Huangdi) 30, 31, 32, 59, 61 Li Hu, Jinghuangdi, ancestor emperor 11 Li Hui, General 102 Li ji (Book of Rites) 75, 79, 81, 134 Li Ji, Minister of Works (Grand Preceptor to the Heir Apparent, Duke of Xiong) 26 Li Jinxing, General of the Left Guard 27 Li Qiushi 103 Li Ren, Duke 52–3 Li Shimin see Taizong Li Shou 41, 72, 88–92, 102, 103, 107–9, 114, 117, 127, 131 Li Shouli 35, 59, 77, 131–3 Li Shuang 127 Li Sixun, General 65, 67, 121 Li Xian (Crown Prince Zhanghuai, Prince of Yong, Prince of Pei, Prince of Lu) 2, 29–49, 50–7, 113, 114 –19, 123–9, 131 Li Xian’s tomb 26–8, 29–49, 61, 63, 66, 79, 82–3, 92, 102, 104, 111, 128–9, 131–5; construction of 67; contents 40, 41; doorways 40, 95–8, 101; epitaph tablets 33–6, 43–4, 59, 72– 4, 77–8, 79–80, 117, 133–4; layout 36–8, 94–8; pottery figurines 44 –9; rear chamber 36, 40, 43; renovations to 59; sculptures 36 Li Xianhui see Yongtai Li yi zhi (Monograph on Rituals) 75 Li Yuan see Gaozu Li Zhaodao 67, 121 Li Zhen 109, 113, 127, 128 Li Zhi see Gaozong Li Zhong (Governor of Puzhou) 60 Liang Dynasty 64 Lidai minghua ji (Record of Famous Paintings of All the Dynasties) 5, 62, 65, 66–7 ling (emperors’ mausolea) 12, 50, 54 –5, 59, 61, 96, 113, 143 n.29 Lintong 9 lions 12, 23, 41, 56 Liu Sheng, Prince 9 Loewe, Michael 70 Longmen 15; Fengxian Temple 48, 71 Longshou Mountain 14

161

Lou Rui 107, 108 Lü Cai 80–1 Luo Binwang 130 Luoyang 12, 45, 60, 78, 79 McMullen, David 6, 33, 75–6 Mawangdui 9 Ming, Wei Emperor 123 Ming Chongyen 31 mortuary wares 17, 18, 44 –9, 61, 68, 69, 76, 81; Sui-Tang subject matter 44–7 Moule, A.C. 6 mural painting: painters 61–7; style and composition of 88, 97, 128, 129, 132; techniques 39, 62–4, 132 musicians see performers Muzong, Emperor 4, 23 Naitou Hills 21, 23 netherworld 50, 74, 87, 105, 109 Northern Qi Dynasty 12, 64, 107 Northern and Southern Dynasties 39 Northern Wei Dynasty 12, 129 Northern Zhou Dynasty 64, 79 Nymph of the Luo River 130 offerings 17, 23–4, 69, 79, 81–2, 136 Office of Female Services 125–6 officials 66, 68, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109, 131, 132; civil 5, 39, 44, 60–1, 95, 111, 125; military 5, 44, 90 ostriches 23 Owen, Stephen 117, 121 pagodas 19, 44, 71, 72 Palace Domestic Service 98, 126; Domestic Service of the Heir Apparent 126; Office of Female Services 125–6 Palace Services 90, 92, 123–6; Six Palace Services 124 palaces 1, 2, 39, 61, 68, 75, 92, 101, 102, 103, 109, 113, 123–6, 132, 136 performers 41, 68, 77, 91, 92, 107, 124, 127, 129, 131 phoenixes 23, 24, 41, 100 pigments 39 pilgrims and missionaries 48 pillars 12, 15, 23, 36, 56 poetry 40, 130; court poems 5 polo 67, 115, 118–20 posthumous status 5, 50–7

162

Index

Qarashar 17 Qin Dynasty 9, 10, 115 Qin Shihuangdi, Qin Emperor 9, 14 Qing Dynasty 6 Qinling (mausoleum of Qin Shihuangdi) 14 Qiu Shenji, General 32 Rawson, Jessica 6 rhinoceroses 15 rites (rituals) 5, 68, 69, 74 –8, 81–3, 90, 95, 105–7, 109, 111, 113, 114, 136 Ruizong, Emperor 4, 23, 26, 28, 30, 35, 52, 57, 59, 71, 79, 111, 119, 143 n.24 and n.32; sons of 2, 35, 133, 138 n.3 sacrifices 25, 76 sages 72, 120–1 sancai 44–9 Schafer, Edward 114 Scholars of the Hall of Magnificent Rectitude 63 Schottenhammer, Angela 33 Shaanxi Province Archaeology Institute 6 Shang Dynasty 9, 80 Shang fang jian see Directorate of Imperial Manufactories Shaoyang zheng fan (Model of Government for an Heir Apparent) 31 sheep 44, 56, 106 Shi ji (Historical Records) 75 Shizu, Emperor (Li Bing) 4 Shunzong, Emperor (Li Song) 4 signatures 64 slave labour 60 Song Dynasty 50, 87, 99–100, 101 soul (spirit) 1, 5, 68–70, 72–4, 75–6, 77, 81–3, 109, 136; transmigration of 71–2, 105–7 Su Bai 50, 56 Su Sixun 120–1 Sui Dynasty 12, 64, 79, 102, 123 Sui shu (Sui History) 75 Suzong, Emperor (Li Heng) 4, 6, 23 Tai Zhen 60 Taiping, Princess 102, 122 Taizong, Emperor (Li Shimin) 4, 6, 14, 15, 16, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30, 58, 66, 69, 70, 79, 80, 88, 90, 102, 109, 115, 119, 126, 128 Taizu, Emperor (Li Hu) 4

Tan Mountain 76 Tang chao minghua lu (Record of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty) 5, 66 Tang emperors’ mausolea: Chongling 4, 23; Dingling 4; Duanling 4, 23; Fengling 4; Gongling 58–9, 60–1; Guangling 4, 23; Heling 4; Huiling 2, 4; Jianling 4, 23; Jingling 4, 23; Qianling 1, 2, 4, 19–25, 26–8, 36, 50, 52, 57, 58, 60, 61, 65, 76, 77, 111, 113–14, 139 n.59; Qiaoling 2, 4, 23, 24; Shunling 41, 58–9; Tailing 4, 23; Wenling 4; Xianling 4, 12–15, 16, 17, 26, 58, 61, 69; Xingningling 4, 12; Yongkangling 4, 12; Yuanling 4, 76; Zhangling 4, 23; Zhaoling 4, 14, 16–19, 23, 25, 26, 28, 58, 109, 113–14, 115, 128; Zhenling 4, 23; Zhuanling 4 Tang lü (The Tang Code) 5, 96, 98 Tang tombs: attendant tombs 2, 15, 19, 26–8, 36, 50, 65; chambers 18, 36, 90, 92, 113, 123, 124, 132, 136; characteristics of 5, 55; commoners tombs 51; construction of 5, 58; corridors 36, 40, 92, 123, 132; demolition of 5, 26; development of 28; doors 18, 36, 41, 42, 90, 92, 95–8; form 2, 5, 9, 11, 14, 17, 19, 36, 55, 88; gardens 37, 41; gateways 15, 21, 23, 36, 39, 92, 95, 96, 100–2; light wells (ventilation shafts) 36, 39, 40, 92, 102, 123; lintels 36, 41, 100; locations of 5, 12, 58; passages 36, 90, 92, 95, 109, 113, 114; processional paths 12, 23, 24, 36, 39, 59; side niches 36, 72, 90, 92; status of 12, 19, 26, 36, 46, 50–7, 58, 59, 62, 90, 98–100, 102, 104, 123, 136; stone fittings 41, 51–4, 90, 92; tunnels 36, 39, 40, 62, 90, 92, 101, 109; Type 1 tombs 50–7, 93–5; Type 2 tombs 50, 88; walls 17, 19, 21, 23, 36, 111, 136; watchtowers 36 temples 1, 19, 48, 60, 61, 64, 71, 82, 102 Tibet 17, 58, 118 tigers 15, 90, 92, 100, 106, 109, 111, 115 Tong dian 102 tributes 23 Tukhara 23 Turkestan 58 Turkish Khan 17 Twitchett, Denis 6

Index unicorns 12 vandalism 63–4 Wang, Empress 26 Wang Jianqi 63–4 Wang Renbo 44, 65 Watson, James L. 78, 106 Wechsler, Howard 6, 17, 74 –5 Wei, Empress 102, 120, 143–4 n.33 Wei Dynasty 39, 87, 123 Wei family tomb 132 Wei Hao, Commander-in-chief 72, 82, 114, 120 Wei Jiong (Prince of Zhunyang) 52, 82 Wei River 1, 10, 12, 76 Wei Zheng, Privy Counselor (Marquis of Zheng) 16–17, 26 Wendi, Sui Emperor 12, 123 Wenzong, Emperor 4, 23 Western Han Dynasty 9, 10, 39, 50, 69–70, 75, 79, 109 Western Han mausolea: Changling 9, 10, 12, 14; Maoling 10, 11, 14; Pingling 106; Yangling 10 Western Han tombs: decoration 105–7; form 10–11; locations 10 Western Turks 25 women 123–35; concubines (courtesans) 5, 131; fashions 5, 127–9; Matrons 40, 131, 132; status of 5, 131, 134 –5, 157 n.22; waiting maids 74, 92 Wu Chongxun 26 Wu family 26, 35, 59, 79 Wu Hung 70, 106, 129 Wu Sansi 26, 52 Wu Yanji, Prince 77, 82 Wu Zetian, Empress (Wu Zhao) 23, 26, 28, 29–33, 35, 51–4, 58, 59, 61, 71, 77, 78, 79, 102, 115, 120, 126, 131–4; abdication 35, 50–2, 143 n.24; burial 1, 4, 19, 21, 61; concubine 29; Empress Dowager 35 Wudi, Han Emperor 11, 14 Wuzong, Emperor 4, 23, 71 Xi’an 1–2, 3, 4, 61, 87 Xiancheng, Princess 102 Xianqing li (Xianqing Ritual Code) 75 Xianyang 9 Xianzong, Emperor 4, 23 Xiao Rui 102 Xiao zi zhuan (Biographies of Filial Sons) 31

163

Xin Tang shu (New Tang History) 5, 15, 16, 61, 102, 113 Xincheng, Princess 26, 39, 88–92, 101, 102, 109–11, 114, 117, 123–4, 127 Xindu, Princess 102 Xizong Emperor 1, 4, 50 Xuanzong, Emperor (Li Longji) 4, 23, 51, 60, 62–3, 67, 138 n.3, 143 n.24 Xue Guan, Commandant Consort 26 Xue Yaoying, Concubine 127 Xue Yuanchao, Prime Minister 27 Yan Boyu 82 Yan Liben 66, 113 Yan Lide 12, 14, 16, 66 Yan Zhenqing 82 Yang, Lady (Wu Zetian’s mother) 59 Yang Bian 64–5 Yang Gongren 127, 128 Yen Zhidui 64 Yi, Marquis of 9 Yi li (Ceremonial and Ritual ) 75, 105–6, 109 Yicheng, Princess 102 Yide, Crown Prince (Li Chongrun): tomb of 2, 26–8, 41, 50–7, 61, 63, 64, 82, 92, 93, 100–1, 102–3, 111, 114, 117, 123–6, 131; temple 65–6 yin and yang 70 Yin yang shu (The Book of Yin and Yang) 80–1 Yingshan ling (The Tang National Building Law) 99–100 Yingzao fashi (The State Building Standards) 99–100, 101 Yizong, Emperor (Li Cui) 4 Yongtai, Princess (Li Xianhui): tomb of 2, 26–8, 41, 50–7, 61, 71–4, 76–7, 82, 92, 100, 101, 111, 112, 114, 117, 123–4; temple 65–6 Yü Ying-shih 69–70 Yuan Dynasty 87 Yuan Zai, Prime Minister 127 Yuchi Jiong, Regional Commander 82–3 Yuchi Yiseng 67 Yun Shi 26 Yuwen Kai 12 Zhang Jianlin 6 Zhang Jiayou 82 Zhang Yanyuan 5, 65, 67 Zhang Yue 1, 122 Zhanghuai see Li Xian

164

Index

Zhao Luanluan 128 Zhaodi, Han Emperor (Liu Foling) 105 Zhaozong, Emperor 4, 138 n.2 Zheng Rentai, General 52, 109 Zhenguan li (Zhenguan Ritual Code) 75 Zhongzong, Emperor 4, 30, 32, 35, 50, 52, 57, 59, 61, 65, 72, 74, 79, 102, 115, 120, 121, 126, 130, 143 n.24 and n.33

Zhou Dynasty (interregnum to the Tang) 19, 31 Zhou Dynasty (Northern Zhou and Eastern Zhou) 69, 79 Zhou li (Book of Rites of the Zhou Dynasty) 75 Zhu Qingxuan 5, 66 Zuo Chronicle 80–1

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