A Research On The Western Zhou To Mbs Of Yan At Liulihe

The main subject of this paper is the Western Zhou tombs of Yan at Liulihe.According to the analysis about typical example of pottery,the tombs could be divided to three periods: early,mid and later period of the Western Zhou dynasty.According to tomb passageway,the opening area and cubage of a tomb,bronze vessels’ kind and amount,the tombs could be divided to four ranks.Because of Beijing-Guangzhou Railway,the cemetery could be divided to two areas: AreaⅠand AreaⅡ.Tomb direction faces north,mainly between 340°~360.60% tombs have mellow soil second level ledges.As a whole,the social class of the owner of tombs which have second level ledges is more higher.Nearly half graves have waist-pit whose shape is mainly rectangle.The waist-pit is well correlated with pottery gui.From mid and later period of the Western Zhou dynasty,less and less tombs have waist-pit.The head direction of sacrificing dogs is south mostly,contrary to the head direction of tomb-owner.The body position mainly is straight limb burial with face upwards.The layers of coffins indicate the social position of tomb-owner to some extent,yet with regard to Liulihe cemetery,Yan Kingdom in Western Zhou had not formed strictly system on the use of coffins.Some huge and middle-sized graves of Liulihe cemetery have chariot pit.The most seen combinations of pottery is li,gui and guan,in the next place pottery li and guan.The main elements of Bronze vessels’ combination are bronze sacrificial vessels and weapons,a comb must had both of them or one kind.Yin people thought highly of wine,so the main bronze sacrificial vessels is drinking vessel;Zhou people took food seriously,so the main bronze sacrificial vessels is bronze cookingvessels.The combination of bronze ding and gui had not been stable in AreaⅠ,but the combination had been stable in AreaⅡ,only the number and ratio had not been established.The fact illustrated that Yan kingdom had not formed strict institution of ding-gui in Western Zhou.Funerary objects are often placed on three locations: between the inner coffin and outer coffin,second level ledges and near the human bones.Daily necessities,sacrificial vessel,weapons and chariot horses and implements are often placed outside of the coffin,and adornment and cowrie are often placed in the coffin.Daily necessities,sacrificial vessel,weapons are often placed between the inner coffin and outer coffin in AreaⅠ,while they are often placed on the second level ledges in AreaⅡ.The locations of adornment and cowrie are the same in two areas.The location of funerary objects indicates the the ancient faith that “the hereafter life is the continue of this life”.There are many differences of burial custom between the two areas,and the most obvious difference is that waist-pit,sacrificing dogs and human sacrifices mostly appeared in AreaⅠ,while few appeared in AreaⅡ.Besides,there are some differences in rank of tombs,pottery combination,location and so on.All ultra-large type and large type of tombs situated in AreaⅡ,while there are only middle-sized and small tombs in AreaⅠ.In AreaⅠ,pottery combination of li,gui,guan is the most in early and mid period of the Western Zhou,yet pottery combination li,gui,guan and gui,guan had the same number in later period.In AreaⅡ,the number of the tombs which only have pottery li is maximum in early period of the Western Zhou,while pottery combination li,guan is the most commonly seen in later period.In AreaⅠ,funerary objects are often placed between the inner coffin and outer coffin.In AreaⅡ,funerary objects are often placed on the second level ledges.These differences are caused by the fact that the users of the two areas came from two ethnic groups: adherents of Shang dynasty in AreaⅠand Zhou people in AreaⅡ.The characteristics which were summarized from Liulihe cemetery could be used as one kind of criterion to judge whether a cemetery belongs to Yan Culture or not.On these grounds,Western Zhou burials in Changping Baifu,Yabazhuang site at Renqiu county and Yaozhuang site at Mancheng county all belong to Yan Culture of Western Zhou.Nanfangshui site at Tangxian county located at the edge of the Yan Culture of Western Zhou.If drawing a circle with Liulihe cemetery as the centre,then Yan Culture had expanded to Changping at the north,Yaozhuang and Yabazhuang at the south in early period of Western Zhou.At the time of mid and later period of Western Zhou,Yan Culture had only expanded to the Tang river basin where Nanfangshui site situated.Damagezhuang cemetery at Xushui county belongs to Yan Culture of Eastern Zhou dynasty.