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Researches On The Tombs Of Jin Dynasty

Posted on:2011-09-29Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y J ZhaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360305453866Subject:Archaeology and Museology
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The Jin Dynasty is a regime which was founded by the Jurchens, and consisted mainly by the Hans, also with other nationalities. After the Northern Dynasty and Liao Dynasty, it opened up the situations again, which the different governments hold sway over northern and southern China. As an important period in Chinese history, like the other dynasties, the Jin Dynasty also created a splendid and particular national culture, and left plentiful cultural relics. As the carrier of lives and cultures of that time, the tombs, because of its large number and wide scattering, become the major project of archaeological researches. This paper can be divided into eight chapters.The first chapter is introduction. In this chapter, the author introduces the spatial boundary, the time range, what is the purpose of this research and which methods the author uses while doing the research. And the discovering and research histories are also summarized in this part. When we tracing the history of the tombs, we may divide it into two large historical periods, one is before the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the other is after. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, it is the period of recording and surveying the tombs of Jin Dynasty. Researches in this time are limited in the describing and textual criticism. After the foundation of P.R.C., the official field works and researches are getting started. According to the founding, excavations and researching situation, this period can be divided into three stages. The first one is accumulating materials and starting research (from the 50's to 70's of 20th century.).The second stage is preliminary research (from the 80's to 90's of 20th century). And the last stage is about insightful research and thorough understanding (from the beginning of the 21st century till now). Making a general survey, since the foundation of P.R.C, we have yielded abundant accomplishments, while on the other hand, the basic researches on tombs of Jin Dynasty should be strengthened and the multi-leveled and multi-perspective researches, in somehow, need to be promoted and expanded.The second chapter is about the burial forms and structures. From the scientific angle, the author identifies and redefines the structures and types. With the redefined principles, some of unscientific-named tombs are renamed. According to the uniformity of classifying standard and principle, the author classifies 800 tombs in three levels. On the basis of overall structure, external form and size, the tombs are divided into two categories. The first one is called"pit burial". The basic structure is pit, or the wall is built by woods, stones or bricks, without any doors or path leading. The other category is named"chamber burial". It imitates the complicated house structure in real life, containing rooms, doors, alleys, and path and so on. The main difference between these two types of burials is that the former is opened and the latter is closed. The pit burial includes nine types, such as, pit burials, urn burials, wooden-coffin burials, wooden-outer-coffin burials, stone-outer-coffin burials, brick-outer-coffin burials, brick-stone-outer-coffin burials, stone-outer-coffin burials, and stone-box burials. The"chamber burial"includes five types, such as, pit-cave burials, stone-cave burials, brick-chamber burials, brick-stone-chamber burials, and the cliff cave burials. Under these two categories and fourteen types, there are also sorted forms dependently.The third chapter is about researches on the burial artifacts. Comparatively, the artifacts unearthed from burials of Jin Dynasty are not very abundant. In addition with the robbed and other reasons, most burials have few artifacts left, which makes chronological judging very difficult. Considering the cultural exchanges are very common in that time, the author puts this research under a more macroscopic and comparison-based background. The typological sequences about ceramics, bronze mirrors and some iron wares are the reference standards of phase dividing. Such division does not completely reflect the time stepping, although it is just the clue of artifacts'time features, which shows the logical order of their appearing.The forth chapter is about the classifying research on the burial decorations. The image decorations inside the tombs include carved bricks, mural paintings and linear stone inscriptions. The carved bricks and mural paintings are almost the same on the decorating themes, and only have few differences. The linear stone inscription is also the same with the two formers. The images depict the portrait of the occupant, the women opening the door, the attendants and the warriors, the home life, the occupant going out, the filial loyalty, the eight immortals, the musical performance, the acrobatic performance, the opera, the auspicious signs, the astronomical maps and the building decorations and so on. All the above images are usually seen in the brick-chamber burials and some stone-chamber burials. Inside most of the brick-chamber burials, the carved bricks and the mural paintings are used together, which becomes an important feature on the burials. In addition, there are some images on the stone coffin wall, which is expressed by linear inscription and bas-relief. Among all the decorations, each theme has its fixed place and implications. In this paper, the author focuses on some typical and particular themes and initially analyzes their connotation. Searching from the techniques and connotations of the images, each image has its region correspondingly. Therefore,the image decoration is the point when circling the region.The fifth chapter is about the areas and the phases. Analyzed from the geography, administrative division and the archaeological cultures, this paper divides the burials into six area, that is, Area I (the northeast China), Area II (the north China along with the Great Wall), Area III (the central Shanxi Province and the central south Hebei Province), Area IV (the east Henan Province, Shandong Province), Area V (the south Shanxi Province, the west Henan Province), Area VI (the east Gansu Province, Shanxi Province). At the same time, in the help with some burial with specific year, and the events on Jin's history, the evolution of tombs can be divided into three periods. The first period is the early of Jin Dynasty (1115-1152), which has early and late stages bordering with the year of 1127. This period is the forming and developing process of Jin tombs. The second period is the middle of Jin Dynasty (1153-1189), It is the prosperous period of Jin tombs and sorted of burials were found, especially those belong to Dading Years of Shizong Emperor. The third period is the late of Jin Dynasty (1190-1234), which can be divided into early and late stages bordering with the year of 1215. It is a turning point that the tombs step from prosperity to decline. Most burials are in the time of Zhangzong Emperor, and few are of Weishao Emperor. The author explores the features of each phase in each area, builds up the chronological sequences and then sums up the regional features. Also, He analyzes the reasons why there are differences between each area, and searching for how the social situation and historic backgrounds lead to such situation.The sixth chapter is about the national property and the burial customs. Jin Dynasty is another important period when a lot of nations merging. National cultures conflicting and developing make the base of multiple cultures. According to the epitaphs and inscriptions, combined with other archaeological information, this paper initially distinguishes national properties from Jurchens, Khitans and Han, and then concludes burial features of each nation. The Hans'burials (Chinese-style burials), with their cultural feature and customs, are in the predominance. The burial characteristics of Jurchens and Khitans present more Chinese-localized tendency. Although there are still some national factors remained, as time goes by and the economic and cultural exchanging, the national factors are getting fewer and fewer. Because of the political domination, the Jurchens'burial conserves more national features. While on the other hand, the Khitans are going to extinction. Without doubt, there are some differences on the extent of national features expressing, because of the different historic traditions and regions.The seventh chapter is about the social stratification and the hierarchical structure reflected by the burials. In historical documents, there is no describing of burial ranks. This paper uses archaeological materials and makes preliminary studies on the burial size, the hierarchy and the composition of social strata. In general, the idea of hierarchy code has been weakened There are sorts of burial types, however, the levels between each rank are not so clear. The burials appear with more uniformity and secularization. The brick-chamber burial is the type with large number of qualities and wide distribution, at the same time, it was most complicated. Which level the occupants belong to depends on the number of the rooms. In the early time of Jin Dynasty, such indication is very obvious only in those occupants who once worked for the Liao Dynasty and later for the Jin Dynasty in the area ruled by Liao in the first place. And this is inherited from the burial customs of Liao Dynasty. Until the middle and late of Liao Dynasty, the social hierarchy showed by the burials disappears. The stone-chamber burials, especially the Type A, the particular form of Jin Dynasty, are used among the Jurchen nobles. The number of slab stones and the size of the chamber, in somehow, indicate the social rank of the occupants, but the border lines are not very clear. In the late time of Jin Dynasty, succeeding with the North Song Dynasty, in front of the graves belong to the higher officials, such as the top officials above the Fifth Grades, there are tombstone and stone statuaries. Such reception can be received by the ancestors of the officials above the Third Grades. The inscription indicating social stratification acts the same as the Bei and Jie (both are stone tablets). Traditional stone inscription are used in those with grades. And the size of the stone has some connections with the levels. Inscription caved on the stone tables and the bricks are used by the lower officers and common people. In the middle and late time of Jin Dynasty, elucidating texts are very popular, and mainly used by the common people and few lower officers.The eighth chapter is conclusions. In this part, the author summarizes the research results and points out that some tentative conclusions drawn in this paper need to be enriched because of the regional imbalance on burial discoveries, the robbery, and the imbalanced and incomplete report. Some problems limited by the materials are without deeper probing. With increasing archaeological work and more insightful researches carrying out, these problems will be gradually solved.
Keywords/Search Tags:Jin Dynasty, Burials, Region division, Chronological sequences, Nationalities, Social stratification, Burial customs
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