![Mawangdui LaoTsu Ms2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Mawangdui_LaoTsu_Ms2.JPG)
Mawangdui () is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
located in
Changsha
Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...
,
China. The site consists of two saddle-shaped hills and contained the tombs of three people from the
Changsha Kingdom
The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the sa ...
during the western
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
(206 BC – 9 AD): the Chancellor Li Cang, his wife
Xin Zhui
Xin Zhui (; –168 or 169 BC), also known as Lady Dai, or Marquise of Dai, was a Chinese noblewoman, and wife to Li Cang (), the Marquis of Dai, and Chancellor of the Changsha Kingdom, during the Western Han dynasty of ancient China. Her tomb, ...
, and a male believed to have been their son. The site was excavated from 1972 to 1974. Most of the artifacts from Mawangdui are displayed at the
Hunan Provincial Museum
The Hunan Museum () is the provincial museum of Hunan, China. It was built in 1951 and opened to the public in July 1956. It is located in the provincial capital Changsha at No. 50, Dongfeng Lu next to the Revolutionary Martyr's Park.
It spans a ...
. It was called "King Ma's Mound" possibly because it was (erroneously) thought to be the tomb of
Ma Yin
Ma Yin (; c. 853 – December 2, 930), courtesy name Batu (霸圖), formally King Wumu of Chu (楚武穆王), was Chinese military general and politician who became the first ruler of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Chu and the o ...
(853–930), a ruler of the
Chu kingdom during the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...
. The original name might have been the similarly-sounding "saddle-shaped mound" (馬鞍堆 - mǎ ān duī).
Tombs and their occupants
The tombs were made of large
cypress planks. The outside of the tombs were layered with white clay and
charcoal. White clay layering originated with Chu burials, while charcoal layering was practiced during the early western Han dynasty in the Changsha area. The tombs contained nested
lacquered coffins, a Chu burial custom. The tombs also followed the burial practices dictated by
Emperor Wen of Han
Emperor Wen of Han (; 203/202 – 6 July 157 BCE), born Liu Heng (), was the fifth emperor of the Western Han dynasty in China from 180 to his death in 157 BCE. The son of Emperor Gao and Consort Bo, his reign provided a much needed stability ...
, containing no jade or precious metals.
The eastern tomb, Tomb no. 1, contained the remains of a woman in her fifties (Lady Dai, personal name
Xin Zhui
Xin Zhui (; –168 or 169 BC), also known as Lady Dai, or Marquise of Dai, was a Chinese noblewoman, and wife to Li Cang (), the Marquis of Dai, and Chancellor of the Changsha Kingdom, during the Western Han dynasty of ancient China. Her tomb, ...
). Her
mummified
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...
body was so well-preserved that researchers were able to perform an autopsy on her body, which showed that she probably died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
. Specifically, her diet was too rich in sugars and meats, and she suffered from arterial-coronary problems. Buried with her were skeletons of various food-animals, jujubes, lotus soup, grains and a complete meal including soup, rice and meat skewers on a lacquer set. Researchers found honeydew melon seeds in her stomach, implying consumption right before death. She outlived the occupants of the other two tombs.
![Mawangdui lacquerwares and tray](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Mawangdui_lacquerwares_and_tray.jpg)
Xin Zhui's tomb was by far the best preserved of the three. A complete cosmetic set, lacquered pieces and finely woven silk garments with paintings are almost perfectly preserved. Her coffins were painted according to Chu customs and beliefs, with whirling clouds interwoven with mystical animals and dragons. The corpse was bound tightly in layers of silk cloth and covered with a wonderfully painted T-shaped tapestry depicting the netherworld, earth and heavens with Chinese mythological characters as well as Xin Zhui. There was also a silk painting showing a variety of exercises that researchers have called the forerunner of
Tai ji.
The western tomb, Tomb no. 2, was the burial site of the first Marquis of Dai, Li Cang (). He died in 186 BC. The Han dynasty had appointed Li Cang as the chancellor of the
Kingdom of Changsha
The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the sa ...
, an imperial fiefdom of Han. This tomb had been plundered several times by grave robbers.
Tomb 3 was directly south of Tomb 1, and contained the tomb of a man in his thirties who died in 168 BC. The occupant is believed to have been a relative of Li Cang and his wife. This tomb contained a rich trove of military, medical, and astronomical manuscripts written on silk.
Artifacts
![Mawangdui Lacquer Crossbow (10112803995)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Mawangdui_Lacquer_Crossbow_%2810112803995%29.jpg)
Tombs 1 and 2
![Mawangdui silk banner from tomb no1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Mawangdui_silk_banner_from_tomb_no1.jpg)
Highly regarded artifacts in particular were the lacquered wine-bowls and cosmetic boxes, which showcased the craftsmanship of the regional lacquerware industry.
Of the more famous artifacts from Mawangdui were its
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...
funeral banners; these
T-shaped
Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...
banners were draped on the coffin of Tomb 1. The banners depicted the Chinese abstraction of the cosmos and the afterlife at the time of the western Han dynasty. A silk banner of similar style and function were found in Tomb 3.
The T-shaped silk funeral banner in the tomb of the Marquise (Tomb 1) is called the "name banner" with the written name of the deceased replaced with a portrait. We know the name because the tomb's original inventory is still intact, and this is what it is called on the inventory. The Marquise was buried in four coffins; the silk banner drapes the innermost of the coffins.
On the T-shaped painted silk garment, the uppermost horizontal section of the T represents heaven. The bottom of the vertical section of the T represents the underworld. The middle (the top of the vertical) represents earth. In heaven we can see Chinese deities such as
Nuwa and
Chang'e, as well as
Daoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...
symbols such as cranes (representing immortality). Between heaven and earth we can see heavenly messengers sent to bring Lady Dai to heaven. Underneath this are Lady Dai's family offering sacrifices to help her journey to heaven. Beneath them is the underworld, with two giant sea serpents intertwined.
The contents of Tomb 2 had been destroyed or removed by robbers. An excavation report has been published in Chinese; there has not been an English printing yet.
Tomb 3
Tomb 3 contained a silk name banner (similar to that of tomb 1) and three maps drawn on silk: a topographic map, a military map and a prefecture map. The maps display the
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...
,
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
and
Guangxi region and depict the political boundary between the Han dynasty and
Nanyue
Nanyue (), was an ancient kingdom ruled by Chinese monarchs of the Zhao family that covered the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, southern Fujian and central to northern Vietnam. Nanyue was establis ...
. At the time of discovery, these were the oldest maps yet discovered in China, until 1986 when
Qin State
Qin () was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Traditionally dated to 897 BC, it took its origin in a reconquest of western lands previously lost to the Rong; its position at the western edge of Chinese civilization permitted ex ...
maps dating to the 4th century BC were found.
Tomb 3 contained
a wealth of classical texts. The tomb contained texts on astronomy, which accurately depicted the planetary orbits for Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn and described various comets. The Mawangdui texts of the
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
are hundreds of years earlier than those known before, and have been translated by
Edward Shaughnessy
Edward Louis Shaughnessy (born July 29, 1952) is an American Sinologist, scholar, and educator, known for his studies of early Chinese history, particularly the Zhou dynasty, and his studies of the ''Classic of Changes'' (''I Ching'' 易經).
...
.
The tomb also contained a rich collection of
Huang-Lao Taoist texts, as well a copy of the
Zhan Guo Ce
The ''Zhan Guo Ce'', ( W-G: Chan-kuo T'se) also known in English as the ''Strategies of the Warring States'' or ''Annals of the Warring States'', is an ancient Chinese text that contains anecdotes of political manipulation and warfare during the ...
. The tomb also contained various medical texts, including depictions of
tao yin
Daoyin is a series of cognitive body and mind unity exercises practiced as a form of Taoist neigong, meditation and mindfulness to cultivate '' jing'' (essence) and direct and refine '' qi'', the internal energy of the body according to Traditi ...
(qigong) exercises, as well as a historical text, the
Chunqiu shiyu.
See also
*
Book of Silk
The ''Divination by Astrological and Meteorological Phenomena'' (), also known as ''Book of Silk'' is an ancient astronomy silk manuscript compiled by Chinese astronomers of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD) and found in the Mawangd ...
*
Mawangdui Silk Texts The Mawangdui Silk Texts () are Chinese philosophical and medical works written on silk which were discovered at the Mawangdui site in Changsha, Hunan, in 1973. They include some of the earliest attested manuscripts of existing texts (such as the ' ...
*
Changsha Kingdom
The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the sa ...
*
Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng
The Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng () is an archaeological site in Leigudun Community (), Nanjiao Subdistrict (), Zengdu District, Suizhou (during the Spring and Autumn period called Sui County), Hubei, China, dated sometime after 433 BC. The tomb co ...
*
*
Han dynasty tomb architecture
References
Citations
Sources
; Books
* Lee, Sherman E., 1994, ''A History of Far Eastern Art'', Fifth edition, Prentice Hall
*
; Journal articles
* Buck, David D., 1975, Three Han Dynasty Tombs at Ma-Wang-Tui. ''World Archaeology'', 7(1): 30-45.
* Hsu, Mei-Ling, 1978, The Han Maps and Early Chinese Cartography. ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'', 68(1): 45-60.
External links
* Gary Tod, "Mawangdui Han tombs
* "A Selection of Artifacts," ''Archeology'
马王堆汉墓陈列全景数字展厅—湖湖南省博物馆(Virtual tour of the Mawangdui Han Tombs exhibit at the Hunan Provincial Museum).
{{Authority control
Archaeological sites in China
History of Changsha
Buildings and structures in Hunan
Han dynasty architecture
1972 archaeological discoveries