from temple to tomb: ancient chinese art and religion in transition
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Society for the Study of Early China
FROM TEMPLE TO TOMB: Ancient Chinese Art and Religion in TransitionAuthor(s): WU HUNGSource: Early China, Vol. 13 (1988), pp. 78-115Published by: Society for the Study of Early ChinaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23351322 .
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FROM TEMPLE TO TOMB Ancient Chinese Art and Religion in Transition
WU HUNG
Perhaps the most striking feature of early Chinese art history is that ritual bronzes, the privileged art genre of the Shang and
Zhou, gradually died out after the Three Dynasties, and subse
quently, pictorial funerary art flourished in Han China. This
development, often described as an evolution from decoration to
representation, has been interpreted either as a logical progression of visual forms or as a consequence of foreign influence from a more
vivid "barbarian world." Without ruling out these two factors, this
paper proposes a third factor as an essential internal reason for
this change. This is the profound religious transformation that took
place in China from the Eastern Zhou to Han. The key to under
standing this transformation is the shift of the religious center from temple to tomb that resulted from a "revolution" inside ancestral worship itself. Following this shift, artistic creation, which was based in these religious centers, assumed a different
function and form.
This historic movement also testifies to three fundamental
aspects of early Chinese art history. First, prior to the appearance of the individual artist during the post-Han era, artistic creation
was generally mobilized by a desire to make religious concepts concrete; these tangible forms, not abstract principles, were
directly related to religious experience. Second, unlike later
scroll paintings and other portable art objects, various forms of
early Chinese art were created as integral parts of larger ritual
complexes; the religious symbolism of an individual form was
realized both by its self-contained physical attributes—shape and
decoration—and by its spatial conjunction with other related forms.
Third, rather than a straightforward, teleologic process, the course
of early Chinese art history was affected by chance accidents. An
art historic study not only should describe a general evolution but
should also explore such accidents and determine their impact on the
general development.
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Wu Hung 79
Three Dynasties: The Temple-Tomb Dualism
The ancient Chinese worshiped many deities, but their religion was "primarily a cult of the ancestors concerned with the relation
ships between dead and living kin."1 The ancient Chinese made
artworks for many uses, but the major art forms were always closely associated with ancestral worship. All the pictorial bricks, stone
carvings, and pottery figurines in Han art were from tombs and
funerary shrines, the centers of ancestral worship during the time. All ritual bronzes of the Three Dynasties were likewise the
paraphernalia of ancestral worship; however, they were probably first made for the ancestral temple. I say "probably" because we know nothing about the Xia and very little about Shang ritual
practices; but abundant Western Zhou bronze inscriptions and related
texts seem to lead to this assumption.2
In fact, even during the Shang and the Western Zhou, tomb and
temple coexisted as twin centers of ancestral worship, but their function and architectural principle were entirely different. An
ancestral temple was always a lineage temple, neither a family nor
an individual temple.3 A tomb, on the other hand, only housed a
single deceased, as demonstrated by the discovery of Yinxu tomb
no. 5, which belonged to Fu Hao^-£|-, a consort of King Wu Ding
t .» a lineage temple always formed the nucleus of a walled
town; tombs, however, were built outside the town in an open field.
Although a tomb was dedicated to a newly deceased, the prominent subject worshiped in a temple was not one's father or close ancestors but the remote ancestor of the lineage, actually the
founder of the clan to which the lineage belonged.5
Many passages in ancient texts document the overwhelming importance of constructing a temple during the Three Dynasties. These passages even reveal that a temple was more crucial than the
town itself. As we read in Li ji "When a noble man is about
to engage in building, the ancestral temple should have his first
attention, the stables and arsenal the next, and the residences the
last."6 So the function of a town was understood in a hierarchical
scheme: ancestral worship first, military defense second, and living
arrangements last. Furthermore, the temple, the center of a town,
only provided a spatial framework for ancestral worship; its
importance lay partly in housing the ancestral tablet and ritual
vessels. As the same ritual canon continues; "When the head of a
lineage is about to prepare things, the vessels of sacrifice should
have the first place, the offerings, the next; and the vessels for
use at meals, the last."7
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80 From Temple to Tomb
Scholars have explained this temple system in relation to the
Zhou social and political structure. The basic elements of Zhou
society were patrilineages fragmented from a number of clans, and
each town was established by a lineage sent out by the Zhou king.8 The temple at the center of the town, therefore, was symbolic on
two levels: it symbolized both the homogeneity of the lineage and
its clan origin that linked it in a larger social network.9 In
fact, it is fair to say that a Western Zhou temple was a temple of
the Origin (Shi ) and that the rituals performed in the temple followed a uniform pattern to seek, to "return," and to communicate
with the Origin. It is stressed more than ten times in Li ji that
temple rituals guide people "to go back to their Origin, maintain
the ancient, . . . not forgetting those to whom they owed their
being."10 The temple hymns of Shang and Zhou have survived in the
"Daya" lli section of Shi- Without exception, they trace the origin of specific clans to some mythological heroes who emerged from the twilight zone between heaven and the human world11 We also
find that the visual form of the ancestral temple served the same
purpose.
The best examples of Three Dynasties cities are the Shang towns at Zhengzhou (Fig. 1) and Panlongcheng.12 One in the North and
another in the South, these two towns share a basic architectural
plan: both were roughly square and oriented north-south; both were
surrounded by tall thick walls, in which large gates opened to the
four directions. Inside both towns, a cluster of large buildings,
possibly the palatial and ritual complex, was constructed in a
special area. Two other examples, the architectural remains
discovered in the early Shang site of Erlitou and in the Western
Zhou capital area, Fengchu, allow us to look more closely at the
structure of a Three Dynasties palace-temple complex.
Like all timber structures built in ancient China, the above
ground parts of the Erlitou and Fengchu buildings have long since
disappeared. What remains on their foundations, however, suggests a
consistent plan. Each of the two Erlitou structures appears to have
been a closed compound surrounded by roofed corridors (Fig. 2).13 An
isolated hall was built inside the compound and an exit opened close
to the northeast corner; both show an amazing resemblance to the
structure of a Three Dynasties ancestral temple recorded in Shang
shu and Yi li ^ (Fig. 3).1* From an art historical view, this
structure initiated a major architectural principle for constructing an ancient Chinese temple. The corridors create discontinuity in
space by separating the "inner" from the "outer"; and the enclosed
open courtyard then becomes a relatively independent space with its
focus in the central hall. Rudolf Arnheim has called such an
artificial space "extrinsic space," which "controls the relation
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Wu Hung 81
Fig. 1. Plan of the mid-Shang city in Zhengzhou. Zou Heng, Shang Zhou Kaogu, fig. 37.
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82 From Temple to Tomb
Fig.
2.
Two
early
Shang
architectural
foundations
at
Erlitou.
Kaogu
1974.4:235;
1983.3:207.
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Wu Hung 83
Fig. 3. Dai Zhen's reconstruction of a Three Dynasties temple. Dai Zhen, Kaogongji tu, p. 113.
between independent object systems and provides them with standards
of reference for their perceptual features."15
The effort to create "extrinsic space" is further demonstrated
by the Zhouyuan building, where divinatory documents of the Western
Zhou royal house have been found (Fig. 4).16 Here, however, the
structure becomes more complex; the inner hall and courtyard are
doubled, so that the whole compound consists of a series of
alternating "open" and "closed" sections. A central axis, along which doorways and a corridor were built, now became a prominent architectural feature orienting ritual processions. Most interest
ingly, an earthen screen was erected to shield the front gate. The
psychology behind the whole architectural form was apparently to
make the enclosure coherent and "deeper"—to make one cross layers of barriers before reaching the center.
What ideology underlay this architectural design? Before
answering this question, let us take an imaginary journey to a
Three Dynasties temple. First, we enter the town whose tall walls
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84 From Temple to Tomb
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Fig.
4.
Plan
and
reconstruction
of
the
Western
Zhou
architectural
structure
in
Fengchu,
Zhouyuan.
Hennu
1979.10:29;
1981.3:25.
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Wu Hung 85
block off the outside. We then walk toward the center where a
palace-temple compound stands, again blocked by walls or corridors
(Fig. 5). Our feeling of secrecy is gradually heightened as we enter the temple yard and penetrate layers of halls leading to the shrine
of the founder of the clan, located at the end of the compound
(Fig. 6). At last, we enter the shrine; in the dim light, numerous
shining bronze vessels, decorated with strange images and containing ritual offerings, suddenly loom before us. We find ourselves in a
mythical world, the end of our journey where we would encounter the
Origin—the Shi. The ritual vessels, hidden deep inside the temple compound, would provide us with the means to communicate with the
invisible spirits of ancestors—to present offerings and to
ascertain their will. This final stage is described in Li ji:
Thus, the dark liquor is offered in the inner chamber; the
vessels of fermenting juice are near its entrance; the
reddish liquor is in the main hall; and the clear, in a
place below. Animal victims are displayed, and the
tripods and stands are prepared. The lutes and citherns
are arranged in rows, with the flutes, sonorous stones,
bells, and drums. The prayers and the benedictions are
framed. [All of these] aim to bring down the Supreme God, as well as ancestral deities from above.17
Fig. 5. An idealized plan of the Zhou capital of Luoyang. Yongle dadian, 9561:4b.
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86 From Temple to Tomb
FV
jSl J^L
-^=m a $ ilL - & k
*6 ¥ >e
r
-4^ 2r/i*^i P ^ » jj.
Fig. 6. An idealized plan of the Zhou royal ancestral temple. Ren
Qiyun, Jiaomiao gongshi kao, in Huang-Qing jingjie xubian 136:18a.
We may assume that such a journey was actually undertaken
during the Three Dynasties because the spatial-temporal structure
of the ritual sequence is so clearly disclosed by the visual forms
of the architecture and objects that we can still observe. Although such a spatial-temporal sequence is not unique to ancient Chinese
religion, perhaps distinctive to China is that in temple worship visual forms "conceal" the secret. These forms led people closer
and closer to the center of the secret but at the same time created
layers of barriers to resist such an effort. Even at the end of the
ritual process, people found not a concrete image of the ancestral
deity but the means to communicate with this invisible being.18 The
whole visual complex, therefore, becomes a metaphor of the ritual
itself: to go back to their Origin, maintain the ancient, and not
forget those to whom they owe their being.
As an alternative center of ancestral worship, an individual's
tomb appeared in a very different form. Taking Fu Hao's tomb as an
example, the only visible part of the tomb was a small shrine above
the vertical grave pit, about five meters on each side (Fig. 7).
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Wu Hung 87
Fig. 7. Plan and reconstruction of the architectural structure
above Fu Hao's tomb. Institute of Archaeology, Yinxu Fu
Hao mu, fig. 2; Yang Hongxun, "Zhanguo Zhongshanwang Xi
mu chutu zhaoyutu," fig. 12.
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88 From Temple to Tomb
Neither walls nor other architectural remains have been observed
around this structure; the building seems to have stood in isolation
in an open field.19 Such a funerary shrine was a landmark, a
monument to the deceased individual. Archaeological excavations
have also revealed that around some Shang royal burials, sacrifices,
mostly human sacrifices, were made year after year (Fig. 8).20 Unlike the temple, the tomb district was the realm of death, not a
source from which people derived the knowledge of history and life.
The distinction between temple and tomb is also attested by records in Zhou ritual canons. It is recorded that temple sacrifices
are "auspicious" in nature ijiJi « ) because these are
dedicated to deities of the country and kingdoms; funerary sacri
fices, on the other hand, are "inauspicious rituals" (xiongli
%%.), always associated with death and sorrow.21 This classification
of ancestral sacrifices as well as types of offerings seems to have
been related to a unique understanding of the soul. A very signi ficant passage in Li ji records a conversation between Confucius and
Zai Wo ^ ^ .In answering Zai Wo's question about the nature of
the shen spirit, divinity) and gui ( ghost), the master
explains that the gui means the po soul that remains under
ground after one's death, but the shen, or the hurt soul, flies
on high and becomes a divine being:
Once this opposition is established, two kinds of rituals
are framed in accordance and [different] sacrifices are
regulated. The fat of the innards is burned to bring out
its fragrance, which is again mixed with the blaze of
dried wood—these serve as a tribute to the spirit [in
Heaven], and teach people to go back to their Origin. Millet and rice are presented; the delicacies of the
liver, lungs, head, and heart, along with two bowls of
liquor and odiferous wine, are offered—these serve as a
tribute to the po [in earth], and teach the people to love
one another, and high and low to cultivate good feeling between them.22
The humble scale of Fu Hao's tomb cannot be compared with that
of the large temple compound inside the capital. Moreover, while
descriptions and regulations of temple rituals fill Shang-Zhou texts, virtually no written record of sacrifices held routinely in
graveyards can be found.23 This lacuna has sparked an extensive
debate whose central topic is whether grave sacrifices were
officially practiced and codified during the Three Dynasties.2'* My discussion suggests that the temple system was the religious form
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Wu Hung 89
Fig.
8.
Distribution
of
Shang
royal
tombs
and
sacrificial
pits
at
Xibeigang,
Anyang.
Institute
of
Archaeology,
Xin
Zhongguo
de
kaogu
faxian
he
yanjiu,
fig.
61.
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90 From Temple to Tomb
that matched the lineage-oriented Shang-Zhou society; the tomb
sacrifice for individuals could only be secondary.
EASTERN ZHOU TO QIN: FROM TEMPLE TO TOMB
This situation, however, changed dramatically during the
Eastern Zhou. People began to pay increasing attention to tombs. Li
ji records that "the ancients made graves only and raised no mounds
over them."25 But now tumuli covered with elaborate terrace
pavilions appeared in graveyards. It was said that Confucius saw some large tomb mounds in his travels that were "covered by Summer
Houses";26 and a number of such elaborate funerary structures have
been found. Among these finds the mausoleum of the Zhongshan kingdom is representative and has been reconstructed on paper
(Fig. 9).27 These reconstruction plans show that each Zhongshan king
was to have his own lingyuan (fc| or funerary park containing his
and his consorts' tombs; each tomb was to be covered by an earthen
pyramid on which an elaborate ceremonial hall would be built.
The appearance of this new type of ritual structure in
ancestral worship must be related to the social and religious transformation taking place during the later Zhou. During this
period, the Zhou royal house gradually declined, and the society was no longer united in a hierarchical genealogical structure. Political struggles were waged by families and individuals who
gained power from their control of economic resources and military forces, not from noble ancestry. The old religious institutions and
symbols could no longer convey political messages and were conse
quently replaced or complemented by new ones. The 1ineage-temple system declined, and tombs belonging to families and individuals
gradually became symbols of the new social elite.
Eastern Zhou texts tell us that during this period an estate
system was established to regulate funerary design. Zhou li )§] records that the height of a tomb mound symbolized the rank of the
deceased.28 This system was not an idealized scheme; it was actually
practiced in the state of Qin and regulated in the Qin laws of Shang
Yang |s^ . According to this law, the "rank" of a deceased was
determined not by inherited status but by achievement in public service.29 From here we can understand the essential difference
between a temple and a tomb at that time: a temple represented a
person's clan-heritage, and the tomb demonstrated his personal
accomplishments. As individual ambition increased, the size of
funerary structures skyrocketed. The following passage from Lushi
chunqiu & , a miscellany compiled close to the end of
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Wu Hung 91
Fig. 9. A reconstruction plan of the Zhongshan Mausoleum. Fu
Xinian, "Zhanguo Zhongshan wangling," p. 110.
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92 From Temple to Tomb
the Eastern Zhou period, describes vividly the consequence of this
development:
Nowadays when people make burials, they erect tumuli tall
and huge as mountains and plant trees dense and luxuriant
as forests. They arrange tower-gates and courtyards and
build halls and chambers with flights of steps for
visitors. Their cemeteries are like towns and cities! This
may be a way of making a display of their wealth to the
world, but how could they serve the deceased [with such
extravagance]!30
The culmination of this inflation was the great Lishan Mausoleum of
the First Qin Emperor (Fig. 10).31
The Qin had ancestral temples in both the old capital Yong and
the new capital Xianyang, but these temples attracted little of the
emperor's attention. Instead, he began building his necropolis the
very day he mounted the throne. The center of the mausoleum was a
huge pyramid. It seems that only after a long and complex develop ment did the ancient Chinese finally begin to share this monumental
architectural design with the ancient Egyptians who had built their
own pyramids thousands of years earlier. In contrast with a flat, two-dimensional temple-compound, an enormous pyramid appears in a vast landscape against an empty sky. No "extrinsic space" is
pursued; the only force with which the structure interacts is
nature. This monumental form in China appears late because only during this stage in Chinese history did such a form become
meaningful. As his royal title "Shi Huang Di" %. signifies, the First Qin Emperor viewed himself as the Shi or Origin. He cast a
position for himself in the social and religious hierarchy unequaled
by any other being, even his ancestors. This notion, which broke
radically with the Western Zhou concept of religious and political
authority, is manifested in the design of his tomb.
If the pyramid in the Lishan mausoleum was built as a personal
symbol of the First Qin Emperor, the underground tomb chamber was
transformed into a physical representation of the universe for him. Sima Qian recorded the following passage in his Shi ji:
When the First Emperor had first ascended the throne, he
ordered workers to excavate and construct Lishan, and
having just unified the world, over 700,000 convicts were sent to work there. They dug through three springs,
stopped their flow, and assembled the chamber there. They carried in [models of?] palaces, pavilions, and the
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Wu Hung 93
Fig. 10. Plan of the Lishan Mausoleum. Excavation Team of the Qin Terra-cotta Army and the Museum of the Qin Terra-cotta
Army, Qinshihuang ling bingmayong (Beijing: Wenwu, 1983),
map.
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94 From Temple to Tomb
hundred officials, and strange objects and valuables to
fill up the tomb. . . . With mercury they made the myriad rivers and ocean with a mechanism that made them flow
about. Above were all of the Heavens and below all of the
Earth.32
To students of Chinese art history, the importance of this passage
goes beyond the factual record. It reveals an artistic goal that
would have been entirely alien to the Three Dynasties. Shang-Zhou ritual art did not portray any worldly phenomena but aimed to
visualize an intermediate stage between the human world and the
world beyond it, thus linking these two separate realms.33 In the
Lishan tomb, however, art imitated actual things: there was an
artificial ocean and flowing rivers, and all images were arranged to
create an artificial microcosm of the universe.
Historically speaking, the plan of the Lishan Mausoleum
combined two major designs of Warring States mortuary structures:
one was used in the Qin, and the other enjoyed popularity in some
eastern kingdoms. Two groups of royal burials of predynastic Qin have been found in Fengxian and Lintong.3" According to Chinese
archaeologists, the thirty-two large tombs discovered in Fengxian
may have belonged to the Spring and Autumn and the early Warring States periods, while the three Qin kings buried in Lintong were
Zhaoxiang , Xiaowen ^ , and Zhuangxiang jji: , the direct predecessors of the First Qin Emperor.35 The Lintong tombs
shared two basic features that were absent in the mausoleums of the
eastern states. First, instead of erecting terrace-pavilions over
grave pits, wooden framed architectural complexes were built beside earthen tomb mounds. Second, the Lintong mausoleums, as well as
those in Fengxiang, were encircled by two or three layers of
ditches, sometimes seven meters in depth, while the royal tombs of
the Zhongshan and Wei were both surrounded by walls. The Lishan
Mausoleum appeared to integrate these two designs-, it continued the
Qin tradition of having a tumulus and a ceremonial structure built
separately, while adopting the eastern device of replacing ditches
with double walls. This combination allowed the First Qin Emperor to
develop the well-defined hierarchical structure that distinguishes the Lishan Mausoleum from its Eastern Zhou predecessors. Its three
sections—the district encircled by the inner wall, the area
between the inner and the outer walls, and the open space
surrounding the funerary park—assumed different functions and
symbolism (see Fig. 10). The heart of the mausoleum was the burial
and sacrificial area, while the area between the inner and the outer
walls was occupied by ceremonial officials and their departments.36 A very important feature of the Lishan Mausoleum is an architectural
complex of considerable size, built beside the tumulus in the exact
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Wu Hung 95
center of the funerary park.37 The Eastern Han scholar Cai Yong
&■ has provided an identification for this building:
An ancient ancestral temple consisted of a ceremonial hall
[miao ] in front and a retiring hall [qin ] in the rear, after the manner in which a ruler had a court in
front and a retiring chamber in the rear. The ancestral
tablet was set in the ceremonial hall and was worshiped
during the seasonal sacrifices. The retiring hall
contained royal gowns, caps, armrests, and staffs, like
the paraphernalia of the living king, which were used when
presenting offerings. The Qin first removed the retiring hall [from the temple] to occupy a position flanking the
tomb.3 8
The excavations of the predynastic Qin mausoleums at Lintong, however, have demonstrated that this tradition extended back several
generations in the Qin. Architectural foundations have been discov
ered beside the tomb mounds in the Lintong mausoleums, and the
excavators have suggested structural similarities between these
buildings and the one in the Lishan Mausoleum.39 A related record
comes from Han shu: "In ancient times no sacrifices were held in
graveyards; the Qin initiated the [custom] to build the qin inside
mausoleums. ... It began with the Qin that the qin was removed
from [the temple] and was constructed beside the tomb.""0 Because
the name Qin in this passage can be understood as the predynastic Qin kingdom, we may contend that the ritual buildings excavated in both Lintong mausoleums and the Lishan Mausoleum were the qin halls
originally part of the traditional ancestral temple.
Also unlike mausoleums of Eastern Zhou lords, the territory of
the Lishan necropolis extended to include a large area outside the
graveyard."1 To the east, the underground terra-cotta army dupli cated the Qin military forces under the First Emperor's command. In
the area between the terra-cotta army and the park, nineteen tombs
of high officials and royal retainers, as well as an enormous
underground stable, have been found. West of the funerary park lie
the burials of convicts, some perhaps buried alive. Thus, while the
funerary park itself was constructed as the emperor's "forbidden
city," the surrounding area mirrored his empire, supported by his
courtiers, soldiers, servants, and perhaps slaves.
Moreover, since the First Emperor had assumed the position as
the Origin of a great tradition, associating himself with an
existing lineage temple became impossible."2 He thus had a temple dedicated to himself even before his death. This temple, called the
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96 From Temple to Tomb
Jimiao or the Temple of the Absolute, was built somewhere
south of the Wei River; a road was further constructed to connect it with the Lishan Mausoleum."3 An important passage from Shi ji records that a court meeting was held after the emperor's death and
that a new policy concerning ancestral worship was agreed upon by all ministers:
In the past, the [lineage] temple complex of the Son of
Heaven consisted of seven individual temples [for individual ancestors]; that of a lord, five individual
temples, and that of a grand official, three individual
temples. These [lineage] temple complexes persisted
generation after generation. Now the First Emperor has
built the Temple of the Absolute, and people within the four seas have sent their tribute and offerings. The
ritual has been completed and cannot be further
elaborated. The [old] temples of our ancestral kings are
located either in Yong or in Xianyang. The Son of Heaven should now hold ancestral ceremonies exclusively in the
Temple of the First Emperor.""
Han: The Elimination of the Temple-Tomb Dualism
The Qin burial system exemplified by the Lishan Mausoleum laid
a basic framework for Han funerary art. All pre-Qin burials were vertical earthen pits containing wooden encasements, coffins, and tomb furnishings (Fig. 11). This structure was explained by a
certain Guozi Gao §1 5-1S3 of the Eastern Zhou: "Burying means
hiding away; and this hiding is from a wish that people should not
see it. Hence there are the clothes sufficient for an elegant
covering; the coffin all round about the clothes; the encasement
all round about the coffin; and the earth all round about the
encasement."1'5 From the mid-Western Han, however, an underground tomb, built of hollow bricks or carved inside a rocky hill, appeared to imitate the deceased's household, with a main hall, a bedroom, and side chambers (Figs. 12 and 13).1,6 Wooden framed or stone
offering shrines were further erected in front of tomb mounds
(Fig. 14). In a study of Han funerary art, I argue that pictures on the ceiling, gables, and walls of a shrine transformed the plain stone structure into a concrete universe, with different sections
depicting heaven, immortal paradise, and the human world."7 An
Eastern Han inscription sheds light on the significance of the
dualism of the above ground shrine and the underground tomb in Han
religion. This inscription, engraved on the shrine dedicated by two
Xiang brothers to their deceased parents, describes the shrine's
construction in detail:
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Wu Hung 97
Fig. 11. Plan and section of Tomb no. 2 in Guweicun, Huixian. Guo
Baojun, Huixan fajue baogao (Beijing: Kexue, 1956),
fig. 107.
He [i.e., Xiang Wuhuan^ ~$L i% ] and his younger brother
worked in the open air in their parents' graveyard, even
early in the morning and even in the heat of summer. They
transported soil on their backs to build the tumulus and
planted pine and juniper trees in rows. They erected a
stone shrine, hoping that the hun-souls of their parents would have a place to abide.ha
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98 From Temple to Tomb
Fig.
12.
Plan
of
Mancheng
Tomb
no.
1.
Institute
of
Archaeology
and
the
Hebei
Provincial
Administrative
Committee
of
Cultural
Relics,
Mancheng
Han
mu
fajue
baogao
(Beijing:
Wenwu,1980),
fig.
4.
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Wu Hung 99
Fig. 13. Cross-sections of Tomb no. 61 at Luoyang. Kaogu xuebao
1964.2:110.
The idea implied in the last sentence was explained by the Ming
writer Qiu Qiong £^3^: "When a son's parents die, their bodies
and po-souls return to the ground below, and thus the son builds
tombs to conceal them. Their hurt-souls soar into the sky, and thus
the son erects a shrine to house them.'"'9 Thus, deviating from the
Zhou idea, it was now believed that the hurt-soul actually dwelled in
the funerary shrine. To invoke ancestral deities through displaying
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100 From Temple to Tomb
ELEVATION
PLAN
1 i < 0
Fig. 14. Plan and section of Zhu Wei's tomb and offering shrine
(reconstruction). Wilma Fairbank, "A Structural Key to Han
Mural Art," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 1942
fig. 15.
ritual paraphernalia and offerings became less important; the
primary ritual practice was to provide the hurt with housing.
The establishment of the Han dynasty, moreover, greatly reinforced the political and ritual significance of imperial
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Wu Hung 101
mausoleums. The founder of the Han and his generals arose from commoners who had never had the privilege of holding "temple sacrifices."50 When the Western Han emperors began to construct
their burials, they had very few scruples about deviating from Zhou
ritual codes. Various components of the palace, including the
ceremonial hall, rulers' retiring rooms, concubines' quarters,
administration offices, and the huge que gates, were all
faithfully copied in funerary parks.51 Three-dimensional statues, which had been buried underground in the Lishan Mausoleum, were
erected above ground to flank the Spirit Path, and the "satellite
burials" of royal retainers and statesmen surrounded an emperor's tomb, as if the ministers and generals were still paying respect to
their sovereign.52
Also following the Qin system, from Emperor Hui's ^ reign on, an ancestral temple, called a miao, was dedicated to each
deceased emperor and was built near his mausoleum.53 Chinese
archaeologists have identified the locations of the temples of the
Emperors Jing -Jf; and Yuan 7L • Jing's temple was located about 400 meters to the south and Vuan's temple about 300 meters to the
north of their respective tombs.5" Thus, the traditional lineage
temple disappeared and "dissolved" into a number of temples
belonging to individual emperors. A special road connected a temple with an emperor's qin hall inside the park. Every month, a ceremony was held in the ancestral temple of each deceased ruler, and a
ritual procession conveyed the royal crown and clothes to lead the
soul of the deceased emperor from the tombs to the temples to
receive offerings. This road, therefore, was assigned the name, the
"Costume-and-Crown Road" (yiguandao ).55 Interestingly, the miao and the qin were originally two integral sections of an
ancestral temple. The predynastic Qin rulers extracted the qin from
the temple and reset it in their mausoleums. The first Qin emperor and the emperors of the Western Han went even further: they attached
the miao to their tombs. Although qin were built inside funerary
parks and miao outside, linked by the Costume-and-Crown Road they were once more united.
A Western Han imperial temple, therefore, differed funda
mentally from the Western Zhou royal temple. As the property of an
individual ruler, the Western Han temple no longer signified the
genealogical and political tradition of the royal house. It would be
correct to say that the traditional ancestral temple had perished
during the Qin and the Western Han dynasties and that the temple had
become firmly married to the tomb. Until the Eastern Han, however, a
temple was still built outside a funerary park, still the legitimate
place to hold major ancestral sacrifices.56 The next step was the
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102 From Temple to Tomb
total independence of the tomb as the center of ancestral worship. This change, which took place during the mid-first century A.O.,
greatly stimulated the development of funerary art and gave it new
significance. The change may have been caused by a number of
factors, including the establishment of the family system in the
society and the heightening of the Confucian virtue of filial piety, but a direct reason is found in an almost accidental event.
This event took place at the beginning of the Eastern Han. In
A.D. 58, Emperor Ming fl]t) abolished the temple sacrifice and
transferred it to the royal mausoleum.57 Following this incident, the temple's role was reduced to a minimum, and graveyards became
the sole center of ancestral worship. This event has been inter
preted in terms of the emperor's devout filial piety;58 an exami
nation of the historical evidence, however, reveals that the
motivation behind this ritual reform was political, aimed at
resolving a difficulty in the legitimacy of the Eastern Han regime.
Emperor Ming's father, the Guangwu emperor, was one of
many rebel leaders. During his long military struggles against his
enemies, he had derived great advantage from two sources; first, his surname, Liu, evidenced his blood relationship with the Former
Han royal house; and second, he declared he was restoring orthodox Confucian ideology on the model of Western Zhou ritualized society. These concerns had led him to establish a lineage-temple for the
Former Han royal house in A.O. 26, in which tablets of eleven Western Han emperors were worshiped.59 But as Guangwu himself
perhaps understood more clearly than anyone else, he was not the
legitimate successor of the Western Han royal line. He was from a
distant branch of the Liu clan, and in the clan genealogy he was
actually two generations senior to the last Western Han emperor.
Inevitably, Guangwu faced a dilemma; on the one hand, he had to
maintain the newly established Liu royal temple; on the other hand, this temple irked him like a "fish bone in his throat" because it
disclosed the irregularity in the royal succession. To resolve this
dilemma, he first tried to build a new Eastern Han royal temple but
soon failed because of the resistance of some Confucian ministers.60
He then made a great effort to transfer temple sacrifices to
mausoleums. According to Han shu, no Western Han emperor ever
attended a mausoleum sacrifice, for all important ancestral rituals
were held in temples. The biography of the Guangwu emperor indicates
that the founder of the Eastern Han held ancestral sacrifices fifty seven times, but only six of these were held in the temple; the
other fifty-one were conducted in graveyards.61 Therefore, even
though Guangwu failed to establish a new temple system, he did
succeed in shifting the emphasis to tombs and thus prepared a way to
resolve the problem his successor would eventually face.
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Wu Hung 103
This test appeared immediately after Guangwu's death. The
question was where the sacrifice to the founder of the Eastern Han
should be held. As we have seen, the solution of his son, Emperor
Ming, was to transfer temple ceremonies to the mausoleum.. It is
said that in A.D. 58, on the night before the annual ancestral
sacrifice, Emperor Ming dreamed of his deceased parents. The emperor was deeply sorrowful and could not fall asleep; the next morning, he
led his ministers and courtiers to Guangwu's graveyard and held the
sacrifice there. During the ceremony sweet dew fell from heaven, which the emperor asked his ministers to collect and offer to his
deceased father. He became so sad that he crawled forward to the
"spirit bed" and began to weep as he examined his mother's dressing articles. "At the time, none of the ministers and attendants
present could remain dry-eyed."62
We do not know if this story of filial piety is genuine. But
the preceding discussion about early Eastern Han politics suggests that Emperor Ming's motives for initiating the "mausoleum sacrifice"
(shariglingli ) were not purely emotional and ethical.
Going even further, this emperor demanded in his will that no
temple except his funerary shrine be built for him.63 All later
Eastern Han rulers followed this arrangement. Thus, during the next
160 years, the royal temple became nominal. Instead, the graveyard became the focus of ancestral worship. The royal example was in
turn imitated by people throughout the country. As the Qing scholar
Zhao Vi J| pointed out: "Taking the imperial 'grave sacrifice' as their model, all officials and literati erected funerary shrines.
Commoners, who could not afford to establish shrines, also
customarily held ancestral sacrifices in the family graveyard."6"
The graveyard was no longer the silent world of the deceased; it became a center of social activities. There yearly, monthly, and
daily sacrifices were offered, and large social gatherings were
conducted. The royal mausoleums became the political and religious
headquarters of the court, and family graveyards provided the
common people with a proper place for banquets, musical perfor mances, and art displays.65 Pictorial images were painted and carved
in not only underground tomb chambers for the deceased but also on
open funerary shrines for the public.66 More and more motifs for
educational, memorial, and entertainment purposes entered this
art.67 The Eastern Han period thus appears to have been the golden
age of funerary art in Chinese history.
Just as it had begun abruptly, this golden age ended abruptly. In A.D. 222, two years after the fall of the Eastern Han, Emperor
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104 From Temple to Tomb
Wen iQ. of the new dynasty, the Wei , announced that the funerary ritual was unorthodox and abolished it. He issued an edict to
destroy funerary structures and went so far as to order that the
shrine of his father, the famous warlord Cao Cao % ^ , be
destroyed.68 Shrine destruction must not have been limited to royal mausoleums: Chinese archaeologists have found a number of Wei-Jin
tombs in which elaborately engraved stone slabs from destroyed Eastern Han shrines were reused as building materials.69 These
stones, sometimes randomly paved on the floor and sometimes covered
with mortar, attest to an iconoclastic movement and a sweeping shift in the form of ancestral worship. From this time until the
fall of imperial China, temple and tomb reassumed their positions as the twin centers in ancestral religion, but they never again attained the political significance they had held during the Three
Dynasties and the Eastern Han.
Department of Fine Arts
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
NOTES
This article is a short version of the second part of a book that
the author is preparing for publication. The book discusses the
relationship between early Chinese art and ancestral worship, the
most important religious form of early China. The first part of the
book examines the nature and development of liqi ~fj$. ft' —the art
of ritual vessels—from prehistoric times to the Eastern Zhou, and
the third part focuses on Han funerary art. The present article was
first written for the 1987 Symposium on Han Art at the University of
Michigan and the 1987 meeting of the American Oriental Society
(Western Branch) at Berkeley. I want to thank Professors Jeffrey
Riegel, Ken DeWoskin, David Keightley, and William Boltz for their support. This article was submitted in final form on 20 February 1988.
1. David N. Keightley, "The Religious Commitment: Shang Theology and the Genesis of Chinese Political Culture," History of Religions 17.3-4 (1978):217.
2. Cf. Li ji, in Ruan Yuan pL^L > Shisanjing zhushu -f- =, ^
(Beij ing; Zhonghua, 1980), pp. 1605-1607. Different dates have been attributed to Li ji. Most likely, this book was compiled during the early Han. See J. Legge, Li Chi: Book of Rites (New York:
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Wu Hung 105
University Books, 1967), vol. 1, p. xlvi. Because my discussion in
this article concerns some general principles of early Chinese
religion and art, Li ji and other later documents are used as
secondary sources complementing archaeological evidence.
3. Li ji, pp. 1495, 1508, 1589; see too, K. C. Chang, Art, Myth and Ritual (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983), pp. 37
41.
4. Institute of Archaeology, Yinxu Fu Hao mu
(Beijing: Wenwu, 1980), pp. 221-228.
5. Zhou li )W] records a general and perhaps idealized plan of
the capital city. Zhou li, in Ruan Yuan, Shisanjing zhushu, pp. 927
28. The archaeological excavations at Anyang, Zhengzhou, and
Panlongcheng have all demonstrated that large ritual structures
were built inside a town, but burial districts were located outside.
See, K. C. Chang, Shang Civilization (New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1980), pp. 90-95, 110-124, 272-283, 297-306.
6. Li ji, p. 1589.
7. Li ji, p. 1258: translation based on Legge, Li Chi, pp. 103-104.
Legge translated the character jia fc as "clan," but the corres
ponding term for "clan" in Li ji (p. 1508) is zu . Here the
character jia means "lineage" or "extended family."
8. Li ji, p. 1508; see too, Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual, pp. 15
16.
9. "[A noble man] maintains his ancestral temple and represents sacrifices reverently at proper seasons. This brings order to his
lineage and clan." Li ji, p. 1611.
10. Li ji, pp. 1439, 1441, 1595.
11. A. Waley, trans.. The Book of Songs (New York: Grove Press,
1978), pp. 239-280; see too, Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual, pp. 10
15.
12. Chang, Shang Civilization, pp. 272-283, 297-306.
13. R. Thorp, "Origins of Chinese Architectural Style: The Earliest
Plans and Building Types," Archives of Asian Art 36 (1983):22-26.
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106 From Temple to Tomb
14. Dai Zhen • Kaogongji tu (Shanghai:
Shangwu, 1955), pp. 104-107, 113. Zou Heng first noted
similarities in architectural plan between the Erlitou building and
the Three Dynasties ancestral temple reconstructed by Dai Zhen. He
also contended that the Erlitou building was a temple. Zou Heng,
Shang-Zhou kaogu 0] )(Beijing: Wenwu, 1979), p. 27.
15. R. Arnheim, A/ew Essays on the Psychology of Art (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1986), p. 83.
16. Thorp, "Origins of Chinese Architectural Style," pp. 26-31.
17. Li ji, p. 1416; translation based on Legge, Li Chi, vol. 1,
pp. 370-371; emphasis mine.
18. This idea is discussed in a book the author is preparing for
publication. Zoomorphic images on Shang and Western Zhou ritual
paraphernalia were not the ultimate objects of worship. They are not
self-contained; rather, they appear as the surface elements of
ritual objects. In fact, Chinese art before the Eastern Zhou was
essentially noniconic; spirits and deities remained shapeless, and
thus ancestral deities, the most important subjects of religious worship in ancient China, were represented merely by plain wooden
tablets. More likely, these zoomorphic images functioned to
"animate" inanimate materials—a piece of metal or stone; similar
beliefs existed in many traditions in the ancient world, along with
a universal belief in the magic power of eyes or masks. See, E. H.
Gombrich, The Sense of Order (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1979), pp. 257-262. This suggestion agrees with K. C.
Chang's assumption that ritual bronzes, as well as bronze decora
tion, were a means of religious communication between man and
divinities (Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual, pp. 56-80). This suggestion may also explain an essential characteristic of Shang and
Western Zhou zoomorphs: their protean shapes and incessant
permutations. These zoomorphs are not formulated icons but assume
endless variations; they combine features from different animal
species but are never turned into naturalistic representations. These varying images seem to attest to a painstaking effort to
create metaphors for an intermediate state between the supernatural and reality—something that one could depict but could not portray.
19. Institute of Archaeology, Yinxu Fu Hao mu, pp. 4-6. Remains of
above-ground mortuary houses from the Later Shang dynasty have been
also found in Dasigong village. Ma Dezhi and others,
"1953 nianqiu Anyang Dasikongcun fajue baogao" 1953 ^ ^
% -tf $ Jg. £ , Kaogu xuebao % $ ^ , 1953.9:25-40.
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Wu Hung 107
20. Chang, Shang Civilization, pp. 119-124.
21. Zhou li, pp. 757-759.
22. Li ji, pp. 1595-1596.
23. It is important to distinguish "funerary rituals" (sangli
from "grave sacrifices" (muji J|. ^ ) in ancient Chinese ritual practices. The former was carried out immediately following a
death, but the latter refers to rituals practiced routinely in
graveyards. The three ritual canons describe the "funerary ritual"
at great length but omit all mention of the "grave sacrifice."
24. The origin of "grave sacrifice" has been the focus of a debate
among Chinese scholars for some two thousand years. Scholars of the
Eastern Han held similar opinions on this issue. A typical
statement was provided by Wang Chong j£. iL : "Ancient people held
ancestral sacrifices in temples; nowadays people have the custom of
sacrificing in graveyards" (Liu Pansui ^§}\ Lunheng jijie
[Beijing: Guji, 1957], p. 469.) Similar statements also appear in the writings of two distinguished Eastern Han
historians, Ving Shao M- and Cai Yong ^ ^ . Ying Shao reported: "In ancient times the ritual of 'grave sacrifice' did not
exist. . . . Emperors [of the present] hold ceremonies in the first
month of the year at the Yuanling Mausoleum" (quoted in Fan Ye
vE. ^ , Hou Han shu % [Beijing: Zhonghua, 1965], vol. 2,
p. 99). The same idea was expressed even more categorically in a
statement by Cai Yong quoted in note 58 below.
Confusion about the origin of grave sacrifices first appeared
during the Jin dynasty. Sima Biao's 3]statement that "the
mausoleum sacrifice had been practiced during the Western Han" (Hou Han shu, p. 3103) contradicted the belief of Eastern Han historians
that the ceremony had not existed until it was created by Emperor
Ming. Going even further, Sima Biao argued that the "grave sacri
fice" had actually been initiated during the Qin dynasty: "In ancient times there did not exist the ritual of 'grave sacrifice.'
The Han mausoleums all contained a qin ^ hall because the Han
followed the regulation of the Qin" (Hou Han shu, pp. 3199-3200).
This issue became a favorite topic in the Qing dynasty. Some
scholars, such as Xu Qianxue and Gu Yanwu ^
,
disagreed with Sima Biao and returned to the view of Han historians
(Xiu Qianxue, Duli tongkao 94[ 1696]:1b; Huang Rucheng
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108 From Temple to Tomb
, Rizhi lu jishi 3 $5$. ^[Hubei: Chongwen, 1872],
15:1-3). Other scholars, represented by Yan Ruoju fekj £ and Sun
Yirang derived their evidence from historical writings and the Confucian classics to prove that the ritual of "grave sacrifice" had not only existed during the Qin and Western Han but
had actually been practiced by disciples of Confucius and even by
King Wu of the Zhou dynasty (Yan Ruoju, Duli congchao 1.^.^7* ,
in Huang-Qing jingjie %_ >"]f ^ , 20:14a-b; Sun Yirang, Zhou li
zhengyi )§][Shanghai: Zhonghua, 1934]).
This debate has been renewed during recent years. In 1982,
Yang Hongxun fi/j declared that the ritual practice of grave sacrifice can be traced back as far as the Shang dynasty. He
provided archaeological evidence including the sacrificial ground discovered at the Shang royal cemetery, the remains of Shang-Zhou
above-ground mortuary houses, and the "design of the royal cemetery of the Zhongshan kingdom" ("Guanyu Qindai yiqian mushang jianzhu de
wenti" iUSt ^ ^ ^ A ^ . Kaogu iz 1982.4:403). Opposed to him was the noted historian, Yang Kuan
, who followed Gu Yanwu and Xu Qianxue and concluded that
the pre-Han funerary structures found in archaeological excavations
"could only be qrin-halls—the 'retiring room' for the soul of the
deceased, rather than 'offering halls' in which people held ritual
sacrifices to their ancestors" ("Xian-Qin mushang jianzhu he lingqin
zhidu" 'fa. & fr, Menm X. ifo 1982.1:31; "Xian-Qin mushang jianzhu wenti de zaitantao" ^ ^
■ Ka°9u 1983.7:636-640). A third scholar,
Wang Shimin returned to Sima Biao's opinion, saying that the official "grave sacrifice" was initiated by the First Qin Emperor (Wang Shimin, "Zhongguo Chunqiu Zhanguo shidai de zhongmu"
' Kaogu 1981.5:465).
In my opinion, this debate has been caused by different
understandings and uses of the term muji, or "grave sacrifice." Yan
Ruoju, Sun Yirang, and Yang Hongxun all understood the word in its
general, broad sense as any kind of ritual held in a graveyard; Sima Biao and Wang Shimin understood it in a narrower sense as the
imperial sacrifices held in mausoleums; the Han dynasty scholars,
together with Gu Yanwu, Xiu Qianxue, and Yang Kuan, used the term in
a specific sense to mean the most important official ancestral
sacrifice held in the royal mausoleums in the first month of the
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Wu Hung 109
yeai—that is, the shangling ceremony initiated by Emperor
Ming of the Eastern Han in A.D. 58.
These scholars, in short, have focused on two different
historical problems: one is the origin of the ritual practice of
grave sacrifice; the other is the formulation of the official
"mausoleum sacrifice." Both kinds of ritual are important for
understanding the development of ancestral worship in ancient
Ch i na.
25. Li ji, p. 1275.
26. Li ji, p. 1292.
27. Two reconstruction plans of the Zhongshan mausoleum have been
provided. Yang Hongxun, "Zhanguo Zhongshan wangling ji Zhaoyutu
yanjiu" J|j§] 2- tS]-^T 'PL < Kaogu xuebao
1980.1:119-137; Fu Xinian jj^- ^ , "Zhanguo Zhongshanwang Cuo mu
chutu Zhaoyutu jiqi lingyuan guizhi de yanjiu" ^ ^ ^ %.
tk*. ® ft Igj *8. m % , Kaogu xuebao 1980.1:97-119. In addition to the plan of the Zhongshan Mausoleum,
an important Warring States mausoleum was excavated in Guweicun
if] d] jf-f, Hebei; it has been identified as a royal burial of the
state of Wei The plan of the mausoleum was similar to that of
the Zhongshan Mausoleum; the square funerary park, encircled by double walls, was centered on three individual sacrificial
structures built in a row on a terrace. See Yang Hongxun, "Zhanguo
Zhongshan wangling," pp. 131-12.
28. Zhou li, p. 786. This passage records that the "zhongren" A.
or officer in charge of tombs, was "to regulate the measurement of
the tumuli and the number of trees [planted in the graveyards]
according to the rank of the deceased."
29. Zhu Shizhe % , Shangjun shu jiegu dingben
(Beijing: Guji, 1956) 5:74.
30. Xu Weiyu , LUshi chunqiu jishi ^ fk If", (Beijing: Zhongguo Shudian, 1985) 10:8b.
31. General excavation reports and studies on the Lishan Mausoleum
include: Shaanxi Provincial Administrative Committee of Cultural
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110 From Temple to Tomb
Relics, "Qinshihuang ling diaocha baogao" 3. £ ^.of,
Kaogu 1962.8:407-411; R. Thorp, "An Archaeological Reconstruction of
the Lishan Necropolis," in G. Kuwayama, ed., The Great Bronze Age of
China: A Symposium (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
1983), pp.72-83; Yang Kuan, Zhongguo gudai lingqin zhidushi yanjiu
Ml #'J& (Shanghai: Guji, 1985), pp. 183— 201.
32. Sima Qian, Shi ji (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1959), 6:265.
33. See above note 18.
34. Han Wei /j-^ , "Fengxiang Qingong lingyuan zuantan yu shijue
jianbao" MM 4"'* ft.^• Wenwu 1983.7:30 37; Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Institute, "Qin dongling
diyihao lingyuan tanchaji" ^ ^ 1§L S)4? 4
Kaogu yu nenwu ^
1987.4:19-28.
35. Lishan Xuehui <A^'jl" , "Qin dongling tancha chuyi" zf? , Kaogu yu wennu 1987.4:86-88. My discussion
does not follow the Lishan Xuehui's suggestion that the Lishan
Mausoleum was one of the Lintong Qin royal tombs.
36. Remains of buildings have been found between the two walls of the funerary park. Pottery vessels unearthed there are stamped with
inscriptions such as Lishanyuan |jj (Lishan Mausoleum) and
Lishan siguan „^|L d-\ ft. (the sacrificial officer of the Lishan Mausoleum), and thus identify these buildings as departments of
ritual affairs. See Zhao Kangmin ^ , "Qinshihuang ling
yuanming Lishan" % fit ^ - Kaogu yu
nennu 1980.3:34-38.
37. This architectural complex consisted of four individual
buildings arranged in an east-west row. The largest was about 20
meters long and 3.4 meters wide, with an elaborate limestone
doorway. Its walls were constructed of plastered stone, and the
walkways were paved with stones. Other remains, including post holes, large bricks, and decorated tiles, suggest that these
buildings were wooden-framed structures with tiled roofs. Zhao
Kangming, "Qinshihuang lingbei 2, 3, 4 hao jianzhu yizhi"
f. , Henm 1979.12:13-16.
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Wu Hung 111
38. Cai YongJgL^ , Du duan ?0}l0r , in Cheng Rong •
Han-Hei congshu vH 14:20; see, too, Yang Kuan, Zhongguo gudai lingqin, p. 638.
39. Lishan Xuehui, "Qin dongling tancha," p. 89.
40. Quoted in Lishan Xuehui, "Qin dongling tancha," p. 89.
41. Important archaeological reports regarding excavations in the outer district of the Lishan Mausoleum include: Archaeological Team of the Qin Terra-cotta Army, "Lintongxian Qinyongkeng shijue diyihao
jianbao" uermu 1975.11:1-18; "Qinshihuang ling dongce dierhao bingma yongkeng zuantan shijue
jianbao" % &*«■) f 1 jj *K ifWenwu 1978.5:1-19; "Qinshihuang ling dongce disanhao bingma yongkeng
pingli jianbao" ^
Uenmj 1979.12:1-12; "Lintong Shangjiaocun Qinmu qingli jianbao"
-t jA^ 1§.>||Kaogu yu nennu 1980.2:42-50;
"Qinshihuang ling dongce majiukeng zuantan qingli jianbao"
, Kaogu yu nenm 1980.4:31—41; "Qinshihuang ling xice Zhaojiabeihucun Qin xingtu mu"
%-Qa ji. ;% ft'liP Ji . Uenwu 1982.3:1-11; "Qinshihuang lingyuan peizangkeng zuantan qingli jianbao" J|
■ Kaogu yu wenwu 1982.1:25-29.
42. The predynastic Qin temple system is not clear. According to Shi ji vol. 6, p. 266, the most important royal temples were located in the two capitals, Yong and Xianyang. Other records, however,
suggest that from King Zhao's 03 reign a temple was built near a deceased ruler's mausoleum; see Yang Kuan, Zhongguo gudai lingqin, p. 24.
43. Sima Qian, Shi ji, 6:241.
44. Sima Qian, Shi ji, 6:266.
45. Li ji, p. 1292; translation based on Legge, Li Chi 1:155-156.
46. Wang Zhongshu, Han Civilization, trans. K. C. Chang (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), pp. 175-179.
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112 From Temple to Tomb
47. Wu Hung, The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese
Pictorial Art (Stanford University Press, forthcoming).
48. Luo Fuyi fifj, "Xiang Tajun shicitang tizi jieshi"^^^S:Ml ■j?*! 5 ilf , Gugong bonuyuan yuankan % +4 ^ I 1960.2:178-180; emphasis mine.
49. Quoted in Zhu Kongyang , /.7da7 lingqin beikao /^f
^ ^ ^ ^ (Shanghai: Shenbao, 1937), 13:5a.
50. Li ji (p. 1589): "The mass of ordinary officers and the common
people had no ancestral temple. Their dead were left in their
ghostly state"; trans. Legge, Li Chi, 2:206.
51. According to Sanfu huangtu £_ $$& |j) and the biography
of Wei Xuancheng l|r"fc in Han shu, a Western Han mausoleum contained four major architectural units: the qin or "retiring
hall," the biandian or "side hall," the yeting ^4k_ or
place for concubines, and the imperial offices. Ban Gu, Han shu,
(Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962), 73:3115-3116.
52. According to textual evidence, free-standing sculptures of the
Qin, such as the famous Twelve Golden Men, were erected above ground
only in the imperial palace. See Sima Qian, Shi ji 6:239. From the
epoch of Emperor Wu of the Western Han, large stone figures for
funerary purposes began to be placed on the ground in front of
mausoleums. It has been reported that remains of such statues were found in front of Emperor Wu's tomb, flanking the Spirit Path; see
X^e Mincong , Zhongguo lidai diling kaolue ^ £) /tt"
'rp ^ (Taibei: Zhongzheng, 1979), p. 58. The authenticity of this report may be supported by the existence of stone statues in
front of Huo Qubing's tomb. Huo was a famous general under Emperor Wu, and his tomb was one of the "satellite burials"
of the emperor's mausoleum.
From the beginning of the Han dynasty, a "satellite burial"
system was established. In this system, an emperor's tomb was the
focal point of the mausoleum complex, surrounded by the tombs of
his empress, concubines, relatives, and meritorious ministers and
generals. The scale of such a burial is astonishing. According to
archaeological surveys, at least 175 satellite burials surrounded
Emperor Gaozu's tomb, 34 surrounded Emperor Jing's, and 59
surrounded Emperor Xuan's. See Liu Qingzhu |ri| and Li
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Wu Hung 113
Yufang ^ ■ "xi_Han zhuling diaocha yu yanjiu" ?%.
ZM |[ '?L , Henmj cankao ziliao ^ 1982.6:1-15; Vang Kuan, Zhongguo gudai lingqin, Appendix I.
53. Sima Qian, Shi ji, 99:2725-2726.
54. Wang Pizhong jE, & et at., "Han Jingdi Yangling diaocha
jianbao" ^ ^ i Pa] Kaogu yu
nenMu 1980.1:36-37; Li Hongtao and Wang Pizhong, "Han
Yuandi Wei ling diaochaji" ^J| 5c.® $(L . Kao/cu yu tvemvu 1980.1:40-41. It is also reported that a large architectural
foundation, 51 meters long and 29.6 meters wide, was found southeast
of Emperor Xuan's mausoleum. The reporter has identified this
building as a g7>-hall, but, because the foundation was located
outside the funerary park, it was more probably the remains of a
miao. See the Archaeological Team of the Du Mausoleum, "1982-1983
nian Xi-Han Ouling de kaogu gongzuo shouhuo" 1982-1983 ^ ^ ^
£ X- , Kaogu 1984.10:887-894.
55. Ban Gu, Han shu, 43:2130.
56. For example, we read in texts that King Wuling of the Zhao
5- passed on the throne to his younger son in the Zhao
ancestral temple; that Ying Zheng the future emperor of
Qin, stayed overnight in the Qin ancestral temple at Yong before
becoming the heir; and that all the emperors of the Western Han
designated their crown princes in the Great Ancestral temple dedicated to the founder of the dynasty (Sima Qian, Shi ji, 43:1812;
Zhang Zongxiang £|- rp> ̂ . Jiaozheng sanfu huangtu z- 0$
[Shanghai: Gudian Wenxue, 1958], p. 43). Again, according to Han shu 73:3115-3116, only daily meals were offered to a deceased
emperor in his qin, while more important monthly sacrifices were
held in his miao.
57. Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, 2:99.
58. For example, Cai Yong stated in A.D. 172 after attending the
"mausoleum sacrifice" that year: "I heard that the ancients did not
sacrifice to their ancestors in graveyards, and I had doubted the
need for the ritual of 'mausoleum sacrifice' practiced by the
present court. Only after I witnessed the dignified manner of the
ceremony today, did I begin to realize its original motivation. Now I understand the complete filial piety and sincerity of Emperor
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114 From Temple to Tomb
Filial Mi rig [who initiated the ritual]. It would be improper to
replace this ritual with the old custom." Fan Ye, Hou Han shu,
p. 3101.
59. Ibid., pp. 27-28:3194-3195.
60. Ibid., p. 32.
61. Ibid., pp. 1-87.
62. Huang Rucheng, Rizhi lu jishi 15:2-3.
63. Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, pp. 123-124.
64. Zhao Yi, Haiyu congkao . in Dushu taji congkan
(Taibei, 1960), 1, no.3:32ab.
65. Martin Powers, "Pictorial Art and Its Public in Early Imperial China," Art History 7.2 (1984):135-163.
66. During the Eastern Han, the funerary shrine of a family was
open to the public. This is most clearly indicated by the
inscription engraved on the An Guo shrine dated to A.D. 158: "You,
observers, please offer your pity and sympathy. Then may your
longevity be as gold and stone and may your descendants extend your line for ten thousand years. You, boys who herd horses and tend
sheep and cows, are all from good families. If you enter this hall,
please do not destroy the hall or make any trouble: this will cause
disaster to your descendants. We are stating clearly to people of virtue and kind-heartedness within the four seas: please scrutinize
these words and do not ignore them." See Li Falin ^ ,
Shandong Han huaxiangshi yanjiu ^ i?;(Jinan; Qilu Shushe, 1982), p. 101.
67. See the articles by M. Powers, K. J. DeWoskin, and Wu Hung in
Stories from China's Past (San Francisco: Chinese Cultural Center,
1987):54-82.
68. Chen Shou , Sanguo zhi il |^] (Beijing: Zhonghua,
1959), p. 81; Fang Xuanling & , Jin shu % ^ (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1974)20:634.
69. To my knowledge, at least eight such tombs have been discovered—four in Shandong, three in Henan, and one in Sichuan.
See Institute of the Wu Family Shrines, Jiaxiang County, "Shandong
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Wu Hung 115
Jiaxiang Songshan faxian Han huaxiangshi" if? iU
\% , Uenmi 1979.9:1-6; Committee of Cultural Relics, Jining District, "Shandong Jiaxiang Songshan 1980 nian chutu de Han
huaxiangshi" ^ ^ ® 0 ^ }1f lit ^
Wenwu 1982.5:60-70; Institute of Cultural Relics, Jiaxiang County,
"Jiaxiang Wulaowa faxian yipi huaxiangshi" -jjk. ̂ jz. —
fat , Uenm 1982.5:71-78; Archaeological Team of the Henan
Provincial Cultural Bureau, "Henan Nanyang Dongguan Jin-mu"
toogu 1963.1:25-27; Wang Rulin _£ y)'^#. , "Henan
Nanyang Xiguan yizuo gumu zhongde Han huaxiangshi" V5]" r^) fl? iS?
80 ~/S t & il tli S • Kaogu 1964.8:424-426; Nanyang Museum, "Nanyang faxian Dong-Han Xu Aqu muzhi huaxiangshi"
Uenm 1974.8:73-75; Xie Yanxiang
"Sichuan Pixian Xipu chutu de Dong-Han canbei" ktp )'l fj5 ^ $3 *>% ' 1974.4:67-71.
Some Chinese archaeologists have tried to explain why Han
pictorial carvings were reused in constructing these Wei-Jin tombs. For example, Li Falin suggested that the custom of making funerary pictorial carvings ceased around the end of the Eastern Han, and he considered that this change was caused by the Yellow Turban rebellion in the Shangdong region, which "smashed local feudal
despots and landlords so that they could not continue this sort of
extravagant funerary service which wasted a great amount of time, man power, and material" (Li Falin, Shandong Han huaxiangshi, p. 50). In my opinion, this interpretation is too vague to explain the movement of destroying funerary shrines nationwide.
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