Research On Issues Related To The Qin Dynasty Unearthed Leather

Leather product, just is a kind of product which is made of leather materials and furs. As one of the first materials used by human beings, leather has a long history of use in our country. Since the primitive society, slave society, feudal society, even today, the leather products are widely used in human social production and life. The ancient leather products are very important in the study on the ancestors’social production and life. As a result of many years’archaeological excavation and the efforts of many researchers, the study on ancient leather products makes great progress. First, it mainly has made certain achievements on the origin and development of the leather industry and the tanning technology of leather. Second, it also finds out the origin, development and evolution of the ancient leather armor, leather shoes and so on. However, limited by the archaeological resources and research method, the study is not enough. The previous researches mainly focuses on the historical aspect of use of the ancient leather and leather products. It does not do enough completely research on the leather products in the pre-Qin period.This thesis deals with the following topics, namely the kinds of leather products, the decoration, the status and rank of the master be reflected of the leather products the tombs buried with, the source of the leather raw materials and selections in the pre-Qin period.This paper selects some leather product samples which are unearthed and well-preserved in the pre-Qin period. Based on their functions, they are divided into five categories. The first category are defensive weapons. The second category are carriages and harness. The third category are musical instruments. The fourth category is clothing. The fifth one are daily utensils. Meanwhile, according to the research and analysis of Leather Department in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, it is rather similar with the excavated material objects. It is believed that leather products were mainly used in military and daily life in the pre-Qin period, especially the former one. It conforms to the history background of ’Affairs of state, in the the worship and war’, which also reflects that leather products played a very important role in the social productions and life at that time.For the decorations of the leather product in pre Qin period, the defense weapons mainly by the dragon, Phoenix, tiger and other animal ornamentation, the geometric patterns of. While the music drum decorative ornamentation in diamond, such as volume geometric patterns, deformation and animal ornamentation of the phoenix.Through the comparison of the pre-Qin period leather products design analysis, we found that, at the time between specific patterns and specific classes have relationship.For the status and rank of the master be reflected of the leather products the tombs buried with in the pre-qin period, from princes level to doctor level, to the scholar levels, the number of grave goods in the tombs appear the phenomenon of decreasing step by step, while the amount or type of leather products also appear the phenomenon of decreasing step by step. This shows that between the amount of funerary leather products and the degree of the tomb master exists a certain relationship.However, in the pre-qin period, the amount of funerary leather with the master status not become direct ratio, at that time the society has not yet formed the amount of structures in the leather products as the tomb master status of universal consciousness, is still more is measured in copper bronze ritual vessels as the tomb master status symbol, leather was just a branch of the big ritual system, only play a supplementary role.For the sources of the leather raw material in pre-qin period, the sources and ways of the leather raw materials in pre-qin period mainly have two kinds:one kind is fed the domesticated animal, such as horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs et al, another kind is by hunting wild animals like tigers, leopards, rhinoceros, and crocodilians. With the passage of time, the number of leather raw materials obtained by hunting wild animals, at the time proportion of the total number of people get their leather raw materials showed a trend of decline, and the number of the leather raw materials by raising livestock increasing trend. Especially in the class society, people mainly fed domesticated animals to get the leather row materials, hunting is just a supplementary way and it has a little proportion In the class society. And then the royal family has The royal family has specialized agencies and officials for the clection and distribution of leather raw materials.For the selection process of the leather raw material in pre-Qin period, the leather armor, leather shield, are mainly made of some hard leather, like rhinoceros hide, Javan rhino skin, and sharkskin and so on. While clothing like leather coat and shoes are mainly made of soft leather, such as furs of cattle, sheep, tigers, bears and so on. It shows that people had realized the relationship of the use of leather products and the texture of leather materials.Because of the limited condition of the archology, so at present this article fails to study the grain, Staging and partition of leather products in the pre-Qin period and so on. If conditions are ripe in the future, this problem must be solved.