Study On The Middle-and Small-sized Tombs Of The Western Han And Xin Dynasties In The Lower Reach Of Yangtze River

There was a grave goods assemblage very popular in the middle-andsmall-sized tombs of the Western Han and Xin Dynasties (206 BCE-23 CE)in the lower reach of Yangtze River. This assemblage consisted ofproto-porcelain Ding-tripod, case, pot and Bu-jar decorated with bow-stringand wave patterns. The objects of the research in this paper are the tombsyielding this assemblage. This selection broke the limits of modernadministrative areas, built the more detailed chronological sequence throughthe analyses of the typical grave goods and investigated the cultural elementsfrom the middle-and small-sized tombs of the Western Han and XinDynasties in the lower reach of Yangtze River based on the dating andperiodization of them. From the results of all of these, this paper tried todetermine the cultural property, analyze the succession of the former culturaltradition, search the temporal alterations of the distribution of this typicalassemblage, and to interpret the observed phenomena.This paper consists of eight parts.Part â… PrefaceThis part defined the concept of "the lower reach of the Yangtze River",reviewed the historic evolution and the archaeological cultural features of thisregion and drew the criterion for selecting material --the middle-andsmall-sized tombs yielding proto-porcelain Ding-tripod, case, pot and Bu-jardecorated with bow-string and wave patterns. The former results and theshortcomings of the discoveries about this field are summarized, and thesignificance and notion of this paper are handed out in this part.Part â…¡The Analysis of the Shapes of the Tombs Generally, the middle-and small-sized tombs of the Western Han andXin Dynasties were shaft earth pit grave tombs. From the sizes and the tracesleft on the bottoms of the graves, we inferred that most of them had coffins oreven wooden chambers when they were buried. Among these tombs, therewere single burials, joint burials in different graves and joint burials in thesame grave; these types emerged and popularized in different periods and canbe identified by the sizes and alignments of the tombs. Part â…¢The Periodization of the Grave Goods In this part, I studied the components of the typical assemblage --proto-porcelain Ding-tripod, case, pot and Bu-jar and some other populargrave goods --pottery jar and hard pottery Lei-pot with impressed designswith typological methods and assorted them into seven groups according tothe coexistence relationship; the seven groups represented seven consecutivephases in the development of the shapes of the grave goods. Referring to thedevelopments of other coexisting relics, especially the coins and bronzemirrors, I arranged the seven groups into four stages and conjectured theabsolute dates of these four stages. Part â…£Analyses on Cultural Elements Based on the grave shapes, burial styles, grave good assemblages, shapeof the typical grave goods, decorative patterns and the manufacturingtechniques of the pottery and proto-porcelain wares, the cultural elementscould be attributed to three origins: the Han Culture, the cultures of the SouthChina during the Han Dynasty and the local cultures in the lower reach of theYangtze River. The last one consisted of two cultures: the inherited culturalfactors from the earlier ages and the ones appeared in the Western HanDynasty and the first one consisted of four cultural types: local aboriginaltype; the remnants of the Yue Culture; the remnants of the Chu Culture andthe local cultural type emerged in the later stage of the Warring-States Period. Part â…¤The Estimation and Interpretation of the CulturalProperties Through the investigation on the proportions and covering areas of theelements from the three origins included in the middle-and small-sizedtombs of the Western Han and Xin Dynasties in the lower reach of YangtzeRiver, we know that the elements from the Han Culture, which covered thewidest area, occupied not only the ritual and "spiritual"aspects but also thedaily lives; the elements from the South China cultures and local culturesonly took the "material"aspect and were related only to the daily lives.Therefore, the cultural property of these tombs should be a local type of HanCulture, or the Lower Reach of Yangtze River Type of Han Culture. Based on the comprehensive examination of the proportions andcovering areas taken by the three origins, I elucidated the social and historicchanges reflected by them and the common thought at that time. Part â…¥The Analyses and Explanations on the succession of theElements of the Traditional Cultures During the Western Han Dynasty, this cultural type inherited thetraditional cultures as the following: only rare remnants of Yue and ChuCultures were seen; the local cultural elements emerged in the later stage ofthe Warring-States Period were inherited more, but they still took relativelysmall proportions. The cultural appearance changed largely in the WesternHan Dynasty and the contrast of these features reflected in the proportions...