The Research Of The Funeral Furniture In The Shang Dynasty

Funeral furniture is in full bloom the utensils of the deceased, is an important component of the ancient chinese funeral customs. Funeral furniture has experienced a long process from scratch, from simple to complex, to the formation of a strict system.The Shang Dynasty is in the prosperous period of the slave society of China,it has its own characteristics of the times in buried with the application. The article do an in depth analysis of the Shang Dynasty funeral furniture with the application, types, shapes, structures and other aspects basing on the archaeological excavation data and the relevant literature, it is in order to fully understand the evolution of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furniture with regional characteristics, and the relationship of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furniture with the social hierarchy. The full text is divided into five parts:The first part is the introduction.In the introduction to define the concept related to the topic; Explain the stage of the Shang culture and the providers tomb grading standards; Summarize the previous research results and the status quo in the funeral furnitures; At last, explain the purpose of this article,significance and research methods.The second part is research the classification of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furniture. Combined with the archaeological discovery of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furniture, and summarized its type. The Shang Dynasty’s funeral furnitures can be divided into four categories including woody, stony, ceramic and mat.The wooden funeral furniture is the most widely used, its types is various, some tombs used wooden coffin(guan) and outer coffin (guo), some only used wooden coffin, only wooden outer coffin, plank or log. The combination shapes of the wooden coffin and outer coffin are various,they can be divided into a coffin and an outer coffin, two coffins and an outer coffin, three coffins and an outer coffin, an outer coffin and a coffin. Stony funeral furnitures are found seldom, the kinds have stone coffin, stone outer coffin and gobbet. Ceramic funeral furnitures are all practical potterys,the pottery wares are li, guan, pen, weng etc., the most of this kind funeral furnitures are used for children’s tombs, few adult tombs also used. Mats are braid of three materials of reed, bamboo and grass, mat is used alone in a tomb or together with the wooden funeral furnitures.The third part discusses the application of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furnitures. Shang tombs are divided into four grades for investigating the funeral furniture used. The first grade tombs are used for the Shang kings or local chiefs,their specification is the highest,they all use wooden coffins and outer coffins, wooden coffins and outer coffins have complex decorated. The second grade tombs are used for the high-grade nobles, most of them are used funeral furnitures, and most are using the wooden coffins and outer coffins, some use the wooden coffins and outer coffins together with mats, there are decorative on the wooden funeral furnitures. The third grade tombs are the primary and secondary nobles, vast majority of them use funeral furnitures, the most is a single wooden coffin, the less is wooden coffin together with outer coffin,a part of the wooden funeral furnitures have decorative things. The fourth grade tombs are used for the majority of civilians, part of them use funeral furnitures, a single wooden coffin in a tomb is common, the wooden coffin together with outer coffin is few, the decorations on wooden coffin and outer coffin are rare. Part of tombs use mats, most of mats are used alone, mats together with the wood funeral furnitures are less used.The fourth section analyzes the characteristics of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furnitures. First of all, analyzing the characteristics of the Shang Dynasty’s funeral furnitures with the area by comparison the distribution of intra-regional comparison and other cultures distribution of Shang culture at the same period. That the funeral furnitures’ features of Shang culture area are reflected in shape, structure and decoration, and the types of funeral furnitures are no difference; between the Shang cultural region and other cultural distribution district, there are same and a big difference on the type, application and shape structure of funeral furnitures. Secondly, by comparison of the different stages of the Shang culture,there are changes in the application of funeral furnitures in various stages of the business culture.Funeral furnitures are used lowly on the early Shang Dynasty, simple structure and few varieties. With development of the social of the Shang Dynasty, the use of funeral furnitures’ is increasing popular, most of the late Shang Dynasty tombs use funeral furnitures, and the wooden coffin and outer coffin are only used in higher grade tombs on the early Shang Dynasty,but on the late Shang Dynasty, the kind funeral furnitures are used in the medium-sized and plebeian tombs. Finally, compared to other historical periods’ funeral furnitures before and after the Shang Dynasty, that the using of funeral furnitures is a increasing popularity of stage,it is unique characteristic and continuity.Funeral furnitures’ widespread used on the late Shang Dynasty provides the basis and conditions for the formation of multiple funeral furnitures system on after the Zhou Dynasty.The fifth part is the conclusion, the main content and the views of this article were summarized.