Thousands of cultural relics unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb are dazzling because of their well-preserved and complicated artifacts. Through these cultural relics, we can interpret that distant era and explore its profound historical connotation.
There are many kinds of funerary objects in Mawangdui Han Tomb, and the number is amazing and dazzling.
Bamboo slips were found in the east "side box" and stacked on the overlapping lacquerware, because the braided rope had rotted away.
Bamboo slips are 27.6 cm long and 0.7 cm wide. They are made of thin bamboo split and yellow-brown. Most of the bamboo skin on the back is green. Judging from the traces of the rope, the bamboo slips are divided into upper and lower sections with fine hemp rope to form a book.
The characters on the bamboo slips are ink books with clear ink and beautiful fonts. The number of words in each letter ranges from two to 25 words, and some words are marked in the middle, totaling more than 2,000 words.
Most of the characters on bamboo slips can be recognized, and it is a list of funerary objects, the so-called "sending strategy", with a total of 722 pieces, including 3 12 in Tomb No.1 and 4 10 in Tomb No.3, all of which record the names, quantities and subtotals of funerary objects one by one. Mawangdui is the most complete batch of bamboo slips of its kind.
The objects listed in the map of Tomb No.1 include Jiuding, Ding Qi, Sanding, Earrings, all kinds of soup made of lacquer wood, meaty food made of bamboo barn, sauce made of pottery, grain made of cloth bags, lacquer wood dishes, toiletries, silk clothes, musical instruments, fans, mats and civil objects.
Bamboo slips made no mention of the clothes of the corpse and a considerable number of wooden figures. Although there are some differences between the contents of the tomb and the artifacts, there are still many similarities between them, so the names of some artifacts can be determined according to bamboo slips.
Besides most of the contents of the bamboo slips in Tomb No.3 are the same as those in Tomb No.1, there are also attendants such as horseback riding, dancing and boy servants, including ritual vessels, weapons and musical instruments, which can be compared with the unearthed wooden figurines and the silk paintings on the two walls of the tomb.
Exquisite painted silk paintings were also found in Mawangdui Han Tomb. Silk painting is a kind of painting in ancient China, named after it was painted on silk. Silk is a kind of white silk fabric. The ancients often used ink and color to depict people, animals, birds, gods and animals on it.
Five silk paintings were found in Mawangdui Han Tomb, including one in Tomb No.1 and four in Tomb No.3. These silk paintings were painted and well preserved. Most of them are colorful and lifelike, and they are rare art treasures.
The silk painting of Tomb No.1 is 92 cm wide on the top, 47 cm wide on the bottom and 205 cm long, showing a T-shape. Its picture is complete, the image is clear, and it depicts the scenes in the sky, on the ground and underground from top to bottom.
The celestial body part is drawn at the widest place at the top. There is a red sun in the upper right corner. There are eight suns in the hibiscus tree under the sun. In the upper left corner is a crescent moon. There are toads and jade rabbits on the moon, and Chang 'e is painted under the moon.
Between the sun and the moon, sat an emperor with a snake-like head and a long red tail around him. There are heavenly gates and gatekeepers in the sky. In addition, dragons, birds and exotic animals set each other off in interest, showing the majesty and sacredness of heaven.
The human body is divided into upper and lower layers by jade. The upper layer is the ascension of the tomb owner, and the lower layer is a sacrifice to the tomb owner. The owner of the tomb was leaning on crutches, facing west, greeted by a small official in front and escorted by attendants behind, which was very charming.
There is a naked giant under the earth, probably the god of the earth, holding a white platform with both hands, symbolizing the earth. Under the platform of the ancient people, commonly known as the yellow land, the giant stepped on the whale and there were snakes under his legs, which made people feel gloomy and dark.
The whole picture, from bottom to top, shows all kinds of scenery underground and in the sky, some from legends, some from all kinds of social life, and some from all kinds of imagination in people's hearts.
A silk painting unearthed from Tomb No.3 is similar to Tomb No.1 in size, shape and content ... These two silk paintings systematically show the cosmic picture in people's ideas in the early Han Dynasty. A large number of images taken from ancient myths and people and things described according to reality constitute the realm of communication between heaven and earth.
Before it was unearthed, silk paintings were placed on the coffin boards of two tombs. They were flags used in funeral ceremonies to express evocation and burial after guidance. They were also called "non-service", so their theme was that the soul ascended to heaven. The characters in the painting are marching on the road to "heaven". The sun and the moon are in the sky, and cheerful music is playing. Dragons, leopards, birds and jade are all symbols of good luck and protection.
A silk painting on the west wall of Tomb No.3, 212cm long and 94cm wide, depicts a grand ceremony of horses and chariots.
There are two rows of figures on the upper left, surrounded by civil and military officials wearing crowns, robes and swords. There are five high platforms in front of the queue. On the lower left is a square with more than 100 people, and in the square is a band beating gongs and drums.
There are four rows of horses and chariots on the upper right, and 14 rows of horses and chariots on the lower right. All the figures, chariots and horses in the painting face the direction of the tomb owner.
Some people think that this painting depicts the scene of the oath society and the holy land of farming, while others think that it depicts the ritual ceremony of the tomb owner's inspection according to the fact that most of the paintings are soldiers and chariots.
Another silk painting of Tomb No.3 is a guide map, which is 100 cm long and 5 cm wide. Red, blue, brown, black and other colors depict men and women doing fitness exercises, with 44 people in four rows.
These people are men and women, old and young. Some of them are wearing robes, some are wearing short skirts and shorts, and some are naked.
The types of sports include stretching, kneeling, turning and jumping, as well as equipment sports using sticks, sandbags and ball games, as well as sports imitating the postures of various animals such as bears, cranes and birds.
According to the movements of the characters and the inscription beside them, we can know that this is a picture about sports, and it is named "Guide Map".
There are more than 200 kinds of textiles and clothing in the funerary objects of Mawangdui Han Tomb. It includes most of the silk varieties in the Han Dynasty, such as plain silk, crepe silk and yarn, plain suro and flower weave, twill weave, brocade and loop brocade, pocket woven tapestry and color-printed yarn, and coarse and fine hemp made of hemp and ramie.
A large number of silk books were found in the rectangular lacquer box in the east compartment of Tomb No.3, which are the only ones that can be compared with the female corpse of the Millennium. Silk book, also known as silk book, uses white silk as writing material, and its origin can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period.
There are 28 kinds of silk scripts in Mawangdui Han Tomb,1.2000 words, which are seriously damaged. There are roughly two kinds of heights of silk: full width of 48 cm and half width of 24 cm. The size of the silk used to draw watches and paintings depends on the needs.
Generally, silk books are spread horizontally from the right end. Some first draw upper and lower horizontal stripes with ink or cinnabar, and then draw straight horizontal stripes with a width of 0.7 cm to 0.8 cm with cinnabar, which is called "Zhu Si Tiao" in later generations.
Silk books are long and short. Short, just write a book or draw a picture on a piece of silk; Dragon, after writing a book or painting a picture, don't cut it, but start a new line and write or draw another picture.
There are different styles of silk books, some of which are marked with a small black square above the first line, indicating that the book starts here; The others are not marked with the beginning of the line. Some books are plagiarized throughout, regardless of chapters; Some use ink dots to mark chapters; Someone mentioned a new chapter. Most silk books have no titles. The title is usually written at the end of the article, and the number of words is recorded.
Since the Qin dynasty unified the characters, it has been stipulated that the seal script is the national standard font, and the official script is also stipulated as the daily common character, which is popular all over the country. By the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, with the development of society, Chinese characters had further developed.
According to preliminary inference, this batch of silk books in Mawangdui No.3 tomb may have been copied in different times, not written by one person. People who copy may have different attitudes towards the development of Chinese characters, so the fonts include both seal script, official script and various changing transitional forms.
The characters in the whole silk book represent the whole picture of the font in this period. In addition to fonts, there are many foreign words and simplified characters, which further shows that the characters in the early Western Han Dynasty are in a new development process after Qin unified the characters.
Judging from the contents of this batch of silk books in Mawangdui Tomb No.3, few have been handed down from generation to generation, and most of them have been lost for a long time. The contents of the book are mainly ancient philosophical thoughts and history, a considerable part of which are works on natural science at that time, as well as various miscellaneous books.
According to the classification of the Records of Literature and Art, there are six kinds of arts in the silk books of Mawangdui Han Tomb: Zhouyi, funeral paintings, spring and autumn stories and letters of the Warring States period.
There is a book of Laozi, a book of Laozi, nine main pictures and a book of Huangdi. Among them, A and B Laozi are the oldest books seen at present.
Criminal Morality has three kinds of art books: A, B and C.
Mathematical arts include seal script, official script, five elements, five-star account, astronomical and meteorological miscellaneous account, tourist account, wooden man account, Zuo Fu, divine map, fortification map, garden sleeping map and fragrant horse sutra. Among them, Wuxing Zhan is the earliest astronomical document in China.
There are prescriptions for 52 diseases, viviparous charts, health charts, miscellaneous prescriptions and guidance charts, among which prescriptions for 52 diseases are the oldest medical books found in China.
There are also three maps: the topographic map of southern Changsha, the garrison map and the city map.
The discovery of silk books not only enriches the content of ancient history, but also revises the records of historical books, and can also be used as a powerful basis for collating some ancient books handed down from ancient times. At the same time, in philology, training and visiting, phonology and other aspects, it also provided rich research materials for later researchers.
At the same time, five musical instruments, such as Qin, cymbals, flutes, harps and cymbals, were also found in Mawangdui Han Tomb. In addition, there are three model musical instruments attached to the wooden figurines: bell, Qing and Zhu.
In addition, many names of songs, dances and musical instruments are recorded in the plan of Tomb No.3, such as Chu singer, Hejian dancer, Zheng dancer, sword drum, big drum, Zhong Qing, Zheng Yise and Hejian instrument. From this, on the one hand, we can understand the luxurious life of Chiyou family, on the other hand, we can also enhance our understanding of the development level of music culture in Han Dynasty.
One of the black lacquered instruments has 25 strings, with a length of 1. 16m, a width of 0.39m and a middle height of 0.1m. This is a wooden stringed instrument. Its face is arched, the middle is empty, and a bottom plate with a thickness of 1 cm is embedded below it. The head and tail are black paint, and the rest are light elements.
The other black lacquer piano is 0.82 meters long, and the bottom plate is 0.5 1 meter long. This is a wooden stringed instrument. Covered with black paint, the head is wide and the tail is narrow, and the round face is flat and can be divided. The wood on the front panel is soft, like paulownia, and the wood on the bottom panel is hard. There is a T-shaped groove at the bottom of the face, which together form a * * * sound box. There are seven string marks on the surface of the piano.
Mawangdui Tomb No.1 has 184 lacquerware, and Tomb No.3 has 3 16 lacquerware, which adds up to exactly 500 pieces. This is the first time that a large number of lacquerware has been unearthed in China.
There are many kinds of lacquerware, including ding, pan and pan for food. There are bells, pots and pans for holding wine or broth; There are ear cups and cups for drinking water or soup; There are spoons and knives for scooping food; There are basins, cards and mugs for washing; There are flat plates and tables for placing tableware; There are many boxes for putting all kinds of combing and cosmetic appliances; Have entertainment tools; There are screens, counters and other daily necessities and furnishings; There is also a weapon rack for hanging weapons.
There are more than 20 kinds of lacquerware shapes, among which lacquer ear cups account for more than half of the total lacquerware, which is a masterpiece of lacquerware in Han Dynasty.
These lacquerware mainly have two characteristics: first, it is "new" and dazzling, as if it had just been processed; The second is "group". Most of these lacquerware appear in groups, some are dedicated to entertaining guests, and some are dedicated to offering sacrifices to gods, such as ding, boxes, altars, plates and cards. This was rare in the past.
Most lacquerware is made of wooden tires, and only a few are sandwiched tires. Decorative patterns are mostly painted in red, black and grayish green. The pattern is mainly geometric, supplemented by dragon and phoenix patterns and grass patterns.
Some lacquer books have the words "after home", "Xing Jun wine" and "Xing Junshi", while others indicate the container capacity. It shows that these musical instruments were made by Chengdu government workshop. They are beautifully made, beautifully decorated and as bright as new.
The most exquisite shapes are ear cup boxes and round boxes. An ear cup box is oval with semicircular handles on both sides. There are six small ear cups in the box, and there is an ear cup next to it.
Two round urns, one double-layer and one single-layer, with red or gold and silver patterns painted on their surfaces, were all wrapped in embroidered bags when unearthed. The double-layer urn is 35 cm in diameter, and there are 9 small lacquer boxes with different shapes embedded in the lower layer.
Among many lacquerware, there is a moire lacquer tripod that is particularly dazzling. This lacquer tripod is oval, with a spherical cover and three orange ring buttons. The lid and the tripod body are sleeved with a snap button, the abdomen is raised, and the bottom is slightly annular. The mouth of the device is attached with two straight ears and three hoofed feet.
The tripod is painted with black paint on the surface and red paint on the inside. There is a diamond pattern on the edge of the mouth. The cover and body are painted with geometric moire composed of red and gray-green vortex patterns and square continuous lines. Draw vermicelli on the feet and moire on the ears. The word "two doors" written in calligraphy at the bottom of the tripod shows the content of this instrument.
There are 48 earthen barns buried with Mawangdui Han Tomb, most of which are in the west, east and south compartments.
The bamboo barn is a rectangular bamboo box, which consists of an upper cover and a bottom box. Woven with herringbone, reinforced with bamboo pieces around, and wrapped with rattan.
Bamboo barnyard grass is generally 0.5 m long, 0.28 cm wide and 0. 15 m high. Among them, the bamboo barnyard grass with silk clothing is larger. All the bamboo barnyard grass is wrapped with dyed rope, with mud seal and wooden sign on it.
According to the relics in the granary and the records on the wooden signs, the funerary objects in the granary can be roughly divided into silk, food, medicinal materials, funerary objects and so on.
There are six silk barns, two of which are clothes, two are buttons, and two are full of sachets, shoes and silk fragments; The funerary objects in barnyard grass are mainly food, reaching 37 barnyard grass; There is a kind of herbs, such as equisetum, pepper, cinnamon and so on. There are 4 funerary objects, including a bag of clay beads, 8 pieces of wooden ivory, 13 pieces of wooden rhinoceros horn and 23 pieces of wooden bi.
Some beautifully made and lifelike wooden figurines were also found in Mawangdui Han Tomb. Among them, there are more than 0/00 pieces of Tomb No.1 and more than 30 pieces of Tomb No.3, which are divided into two types: large wooden figurines in the east, south and north compartments and small wooden figurines in the gap between the middle coffin and the inner coffin.
Xiao Mu figurines, except for three pieces of silk and linen clothes, are made of twigs and ink paintings, and woven into two groups with hemp rope. Big wooden figurines are divided into figurines and sitting figurines.
Some of the big wooden figurines are dressed up, some are painted, and their costumes and buns are slightly different. The clothes of the big wooden figurines are robes, embroidered robes and clay silver painted robes, and the sleeves are supported by thin bamboo strips.
The painting system first carves the outline of the clothing on the wood, and then draws the decorative patterns of embroidered robes and rhombic robes in red and black.
Most of the wooden figurines unearthed in Mawangdui are bamboo sheds for meat, grain, fruits and spices, which are beautifully made and lifelike.
Among all kinds of wooden figurines, female wooden figurines are the most striking. There is a female dancing figurine in the No.1 Han Tomb, which is 47 cm high. The legs of the figurine are slightly bent, as if dancing. The dancing figure is elegant and curvy; Dance is light and dynamic; Dance bravely with sleeves, it has a beautiful shape. The artist who made the wooden figurine seems to give life to the dancing figurine and let her sing and dance in front of people.
There is also a famous Song figurine in the No.1 Han Tomb, which is 32 cm high and kneeling. Full face, high nose and phoenix eyes. She was dressed up with white powder on her face, slender eyebrows and lipstick on her lips. There is a faint smile on the delicate face.
Among the many wooden figurines, one group is particularly eye-catching. They are composed of five musicians. Two of the musicians stood on the ground, playing their instruments, and the other three musicians knelt on the ground, and the instruments they used to play were placed on the ground and in front of them.
On the other side of the band, there are figurines, lacquerware, screens, walking sticks, embroidered pillows, sachets, coffins and lacquer boxes full of food. This collocation and setting should simulate the scene of the tomb owner singing, dancing and feasting before his death.