A Study On The Three-legged Stool In Nanjing And Its Surroundings

The three-legged stool were popular in the late Han Dynasty, which had three animal-foot-shaped or horseshoe-shaped legs and were a kind of half-meter tall furniture. Buried three-legged stool have been found in the tombs in the Three Kingdoms period and this phenomenon was much more widespread in the Eastern Jin and the Southern Dynasties. Most three-legged stool were unearthed in the southern region, in addition, in the North of Wei and Jin Dynasty tomb murals, Buddhist, Taoist statues and other materials, those were been influenced by three-legged stool factors. Predecessors on the studies of the three-legged stool are few, most of studies were confined to one aspect, for example, people named them, in view of the funerary objects or studied on three-legged stool in the angle of furniture. But many of the key issues have not been resolved, such as how to interpret the evolution spectrum of the three-legged stool as a whole, which people used three-legged stool in the Eastern Jin and the Southern Dynasties, the significance of placing three-legged stool in the grave.Through collecting the datum of the three-legged stool which unearthed in the Eastern Jin and the Southern Dynasties’ tombs and combined with Buddha cave murals and tomb murals and historical documents, in this paper, a brief introduction on the evolution spectrum of the three-legged stools, and its different characters were studied by means of numerical taxonomic methods. The paper discussed the importance of three-legged stools in the tombs and the reason why It has the function of representing the soul of the tomb’s master.The paper is divided into five parts:The first part is introduction. It mainly defines the contents and scope of the study, expounds the reasons for choosing the topic, and it also includes a summary of the achievements.The second part is the typological analysis of three-legged stools. According to the difference of the shape of three-legged stool’s foot, it is divided into two types, A is horseshoe shape and B is animal foot shape. According to the difference of the curve of leg, type A is divided into three subtypes. The summarize the development of each type of the three-legged stools:The Eastern Jin Dynasty early, The three-legged stools were greatly influenced by the Three Kingdoms period, which one was much bigger than three-legged stools in later periods. In the Late Jin Dynasty, it began to become small and its leg become long slender, in a word, it lacked stability.The third part talks about the use of three-legged stools in everyday life. This part is divided into two sections. The first section is to find evidences from tomb murals, Buddhist, Taoist statues in the North of Wei and Jin Dynasty for illustrating the correct placement of three-legged stools. The second section is collect the datum of tombs’masters, including master’s identity and sex. The conclusion is that in ordinary way the three-legged stools were buried in the tomb of the high rank and Women may also use it in daily life.The forth part focuses on the position of three-legged stools in tombs and the origin of three-legged stools, which used as a tool for sacrifice. The position of three-legged stools in tombs can be divided into four kinds of situations:1 above the dais or around the dais,2 in front of the coffin platform,3 the area of burial things,4 others. The function of three-legged stool is represent master’s soul. In the Eastern Jin and the Southern Dynasties, three-legged stools in tombs, as the carrier of soul and represents soul. This custom originates from the Central Plains.The fifth part is the conclusion. The conclusion of this paper is given and the main contents are summarized in this part, as well as the inadequacy of the researches in the paper.