The Western Han, Essay Example

Two recent archaeological finds, the terracotta warriors of the first Emperor of Qin (reigned 221-10B.C.) and jade suits of the imperial family of the Han dynasty(206 B.C-A.D. 220), have been seen worldwide as center pieces of several major exhibitions. However, these extraordinary finds are not consistent with our usual picture of ancient China. The article discusses how the two finds show that a fundamental transformation of ancient Chinese burial practices must have happened during the latter part of the third century B.C.

The Qin and Han period tombs have four particular features where the first two, terracotta warriors and jade suits have already been mentioned. The other development was the way funerary officials of minor Han kingdoms sought out tomb site on small mountains in which they cut several linked rooms on a horizontal rather than a vertical axis. The forth change is clearly illustrated by the repertory of bronze vessels of Western Han tombs. The four innovations indicate a radical departure from previous ritual and burial practices which has likelihood that the salient attitudes to the ancestors and spirits had also been transformed.

Here, this development shall be addressed through an account of the Western Han tombs of the Liu family’s kings and through finds of the immediate preceding period of the late Zhou, at which time some new developments had began earlier. Although antecedents are to be found earlier than the third century B.C., the main focus is unification under the Qin and Han was responsible for a rupture than simply a continuing development from, past practice.

During the periods China was known by the names of the ancient dynasties, the Shang and the Zhou, it was far from unified. The two dynasties had held territories along the Yellow River and its tributaries, especially River Wei. The cultural characteristics of the Yellow River area is treated as the basis on which all earlier accounts of ancient China have been founded. During the Warring States period there had, of course, been extensive contact between the states and practices of one area had been borrowed by another. Such interchange was evidence of diversity of practice and of material culture as between the different regions.                          Rock-cut tombs were a high priority for members on the Liu family. Examples of these are Han kings of Chu, Liang and Lu at Xuzhou, Yongcheng and Qufu, all in north Jiangsu, east of Henan and south of Shandong province. All of the tombs have long, nearly squared off access passages, with small chambers either side. The coffin chambers were hollowed out at the rear, with a reception room, dance hall and other rooms including kitchens, granaries and storerooms, to make up complete palaces.

The Imperial princes took into the afterlife objects for a daily use, especially drinking and eating vessels and small tables. In their shapes many of these were derived from lacquers. Elite tombs held sumptuous versions of these vessel categories, often made of precious materials like gold, silver and gilded bronze. Fittings in the shapes of animals that supported screens were intriguing additions to the tomb furnishings, as were tents or canopies, also seen in the tombs of Liu Sheng.

Terracotta warriors are the most magnificent array of figure known to date, all major Han tombs seem to have been supplied with figurines in ceramic or sometimes wood. It is often argued that figures were buried as substitutes for people, but such suggestions may be misleading, as people were, in fact, interred with or alongside high ranking members of the elite. For instance, the First Emperor was accompanied by his concubines and perhaps also some relatives.

To some extent the hierarchies were also maintained by the sizes of the figures and other objects, but in some respects relative size seems to have been unimportant. Liu Sheng had full-sized chariots and some parts of miniature ones; he had small attendant figures in stone and ceramic and miniature ones in bronze and in Jade. Liu Mai in the Kingdom of Liang was buried at Yongcheng with miniature chariots. Dancers and story tellers were very common among figure groups in all tombs. Feasting, entertainment and ceremonial processions were their equivalent. Proper provisions of the appropriate functions or needs seem to have been important and the means by which they were supplied, thus either as ceramic figure or as carved scenes on stone.

The tomb builders were intent on creating more than simply daily life, they also provided cosmic setting. Most significant among the beings of the cosmos were the animals of the four directions, directions, the images of the sun and the moon and the creatures linked with them, the crow, the toad and the hare, and the constellatins. Fragments surviving from one of the tombs at Yongcheng and from the tomb of the king of Nan Yue suggest that scenes were painted on the walls of the kings’ tombs. It is possible that the contents of the paintings resembled the subjects and styles of the cosmological figures on the banner painting from Mawangdui.

Rawson (1999) states that this change has been noted because the ancient systems of classifications of ritual vessels and ritual jades constructed by scholars since the Han period were not sensitive to the changes described. Despite a return of what was thought to be ancient practices, the attitudes to the spirit world and the afterlife described here were to remain essential elements of Chinese rites and beliefs at all levels of society. The tombs of the elite from the Han to the Qing show a continuous allegiance to this system of beliefs and people at all levels society seem to have espoused two, somewhat divergent, religious systems as discussed. The developments described above made a fundamental contribution to the systems of practices and beliefs that became an enduring feature of Chinese culture.

Works cited

Rawson J. (1999). The external palaces of the Western Han: a new view of the universe. Retrieved on October 8, 2009 from http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I0G080XV