Northern Song Dynasty Tomb Polygon Type Partition And Tomb Decoration

This paper is based on the data of more than60Multi-angular tombs in Northern Song dynasty. With the academic development in structural and typological areas, we will make some further research. In order to get a basic feature of the Multi-angular tombs in Northern Song dynasty, we study the published reports and articles in detail. And then, with the help of archaeological typological methods, we sort all the tombs into two main types, which are hexagonal and octagonal ones respectively. We can still divide them into three types, single room, double rooms and multi-rooms. Then we discuss the relationship between the heights of those tombs and their bracket systems (斗拱) and the locations of the furling.After the above detailed study, we put all those tombs into four types according to their excavated areas. Then we will discuss the characteristics of each type and the distinctions between each other in four basic sides, which are the outline, the structure, the decoration and the burial artifacts. We will take the decoration as an example to sort them into seven types; and we will discuss those types in detail. In the end, we will mention the origin of the Multi-angular tombs in Northern Song dynasty in four sides, which are psychology, decoration, structure and spirit.We can see the burial customs of Northern Song dynasty through the study of those Multi-angular tombs. And also we can find the connection between the burial customs of Northern Song dynasty and Tang dynasty. However, we don’t get any conclusion that could support the so called "Tang Song Cultural Transition" theory, which means any culture has its own specialty.