A Study On The Cemetery Burial System In The State Of Guo

The State of Guo was an important vassal state which was ruled by Ji family clan near the then capital area in the late Spring-Autumn Period and the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It ever had a significant influence on the politics, economy and culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty. However, due to the few pre-Qin recorded literatures on the state, the history of the state became complicated and confusing, and today's academic field had different opinion on its history. But the discovery of the Guo State cemetery has filled the archaeological vacancy of the history between the Western and Eastern Dynasties. The study on the cemetery funeral system in the State of Guo will provide the valuable materials for the study of the funeral system of the Western Zhou Dynasty. And the cemetery excavation of the Guo State in Sanmenxia city will provide priceless objects for the study of the history of the State of Guo.Based on the archaeological excavation of the burial materials, combining with the literatures, the paper focuses on the exploration of the burial system of the emetery. Therefore, this paper starts with the cemetery of the Guo State and compares with the burial systems of the cemeteries of Jin Marquise, Ying State and Yu State so as to conclude the features of the burial system of the Guo State, also to lay a foundation for further exploring the funeral system of the Western Zhou Dynasty.The paper draws the following conclusions by conducting a systematical analysis of the cemetery burial of the Guo State.First, the highest standard of the coffins in the Guo State cemetery is two inner coffins with one outer coffin, which is incompatible to the document of"Princes having five layers of coffins". There are also some findings in the coffin ornaments. As for the tomb passage, there is no passage to the tomb ever found in the Guo State cemetery, which is perhaps attribute to the then regulation of"Being dukes without high ranks".Second, as for the tripod system, the column tripod system had been formed, and extended to other vessels. The bronze ritual objects buried with the senior nobles in the late Western Zhou Dynasty had appeared the overstepping phenomenon. The musical instruments could only be buried with the monarchs and the princes and only in the male tombs, and the instruments unearthed are mainly percussion ones with a higher level. One of the features of Guo State cemetery is that he Li is even, which cannot see in the tombs of other fiefdoms. Third, as for the system of chariots and horses, the level of the chariot pits in the Guo State cemetery is not only determined by the number of the chariots and horses buried in the pits, but by the scale of the pits. The main parts of the chariots and orses are the bearing-end covers, harnesses and yokes, and the carriage bells as a kind of chariot-horse rite began to board the stage of history of the State of Guo.Four, as for the jade system, it has its own characteristics. The jade tablets in most jade groups are odd, but those in the cemetery of Jin Marquise are even, and the number of jade tablets and the number of tripods are not completely equal.