Research On The Use Of Tents In The Tombs Of Han Dynasty To Tang Dynasty

In the tombs of the Three Kingdoms,the Jin Dynasty and the southern and Northern Dynasties,the brick or stone tent pedestals and metal tent elements are often found.The tombs of Han Dynasty represented by tomb 1 of Mancheng Han tomb and the tombs of the Tang Dynasty represented by the prince of Yi Tae tomb has those objects as well.Setting tent in the tomb was a unique custom through Han to Tang Dynasties.Most of the previous studies focused on the use of literature and image data,and studied tent as a kind of furniture.Some researcher looked the dragon and tiger shaped pedestals as tent pedestals,which may lead to wrong result.Therefore,it is necessary to sort and study the materials.In this paper,the functions of all kinds of remains are defined firstly.They are divided into tent components,decorative accessories,nails,textile curtain and tent pedestals.Intact tent components can be defined by restoration.Scattered components can be defined by comparing with the rubbings and descriptions in the inscription of ancient bronzes and stone.The trace of nails on the top and walls can also be judged as a form of setting curtain.The tent pedestals are judged according to their location,space and accompaniments.The Dragon and Tiger shaped pedestals,used to be regarded as tent pedestals,is analyzed in another section.According to the situation that the ceramic pole of dragon and tiger shaped pedestals is plugged with small cup,and the ceramic pole is too short to match the scale of the tomb,we can speculate that the dragon and tiger shaped pedestals should be ceramic lamp.Dragon and tiger shaped lamps placed at four corners of the tomb may come from the custom of lighting at corners in Wu Dynasty and Jin Dynasty.The second part of the paper classifies the pedestals.Ceramic ones can be divided into four types.Type A:drilled brick,which can be divided into three subtypes.The type Aa is directly drilled bricks without grinding.The type Ab is drilled and grinded,and the grinding degree is different.Type Ac is carved into four petals and imprinted with the pattern of coin.Type B:covered bucket shape,divided into three subtypes.Type Ba is simple covered bucket shape.Type Bb is covered bucket shape with side slope rounded.Type Bc is covered bucket shape with four angles cut down.Type C:covered bowl shaped and directly fired.Type D:ceramic plinth,and can be divided into two subtypes.Type Da has square base and upper part is round table.Type Db has square base and upper part is covered bowl.Stone pedestals can be divided into two types.Type E:the pedestal is approximately round,but one side is flat.Type F:stone plinth,which can be divided into three subtypes.Type Fa is covered basin plinth.Type Fb is lotus stone plinth,there are also ceramic ones.Type Fc is covered basin plinth decorated with elegant sculpture.Type A,B and C are the main types of tent pedestals used in the tombs of Luoyang and surrounding areas in the Western Jin Dynasty.Type A is the most used,followed by B.The use of bricks should be related to simple burial.The Southern Dynasty preferred to use stone buried items,so they turned to use stone pedestals.Type Fa and Fb has been used since the Northern Wei Dynasty,and still was used in the Tang Dynasty.The location of a tent can reflect its use and shape.The position can be divided into five categories:in the foreroom,beside the coffin,at the credence table,above the coffin and curtain for the entire chamber.Tents in the foreroom,beside the coffin,at the credence table are related to the funeral ritual.Because of the popularity of single room tombs and reduction of foreroom,the tent was moved from the foreroom to the side of coffin,while the tent was set above the credence table in the Southern area.The curtain above the coffin should be related to "Yi" used during laying coffin.The situation of setting curtain for the entire chamber is the least,which should not be related to funeral ritual.The third part of this article mainly studies the relationship between funeral tent and funeral ritual in the tomb,and probes into the reasons of the popularity and disappearance of the funeral tent.Tents in the foreroom,beside the coffin,at the credence table should be set up for the seat of spirit tablet.The seat of spirit tablet is for the soul and represent the soul to accept funeral ritual.The documents of the Tang Dynasty also have the records of "Xia Zhang"."Xia Zhang" is located at the east of the coffin,surrounded with catering items and accept funeral ritual.Therefore,"Xia Zhang" should also be set up for the seat of spirit tablet.There are few tent remains left in the tombs excavated in the Tang Dynasty,maybe because that "Xia Zhang" used bamboo and wood for it structure,which is putrescible.In some tombs,there is a blank space between coffin and burial objects,which maybe related to "Xia Zhang".During the Wei and Jin Dynasties,the rulers carried out simple burial.Ancestral temple on the tomb was prohibited.However,death and funeral ideas had a profound influence,people quite payed attention to funeral ritual in the tomb.Icon of the dead,which was popular in In the Eastern Han Dynasty,disappeared in Central Plains because of simple burial.A new ritual object was needed,and the seat of spirit tablet became popular at the time.Tent,couch and Pingji increased,which were used to set up the seat.The rulers of the Tang Dynasty suppressed the funerary extravagance,once banned Xia Zhang and ordered to limit the use specifications of it for several times.With the decline of the Tang Dynasty after the outbreak of An Shi rebellion,Xia Zhang disappeared.Final part of the paper briefly discussed the identity rank of the tomb owners using tent.In general,tents was set in large and medium-sized tombs,the owners should have senior political status and wealth.