A Study On The Phenomenon Of A Couple Buried In Different Caves In Middle And Lower Reaches Of The Yellow River In Shang Zhou Dynasty

This paper focuses its research on the phenomenon of a couple buried together in two adjacent graves in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which may help us better understand the changes of burial system in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River during that period and have a deeper understanding of the social system and ideology then. This paper firstly defines the basic features of the couple buried together in two adjacent graves and establishes four criteria. Secondly, according to these four criteria, the author checks burials in different times and regions to find out the identified couples buried together in two adjacent graves and the suspected ones. Finally, based on the above efforts, the author summarizes, analyzes and compares the collected data according to the three elements-time, area and identity of the tomb owner to find out the rules.This research shows that the phenomenon of couple buried together in two adjacent graves didn’t exist in the Shang Dynasty. It started from the early period of the Western Zhou Dynasty and mainly happened in middle and high classes of the aristocracy. This phenomenon spread toward the Eastern Zhou Dynasty with the tendency of increasing slowly and the class of tomb owners gradually extended to lower classes. However, according to the ratio of the identified and suspected couples buried together in two adjacent graves in tombs that we can study in the Zhou Dynasty, we can not say that this phenomenon was popular at that time. Besides, the author finds out that from the early Spring and Autumn Period, mainly in Shanxi province, there were people of the same sex buried together of the same time and grown-ups and children buried together in two adjacent graves. People of the same sex buried together of the same time brings us new insight on the relationship of the two people buried together in two adjacent graves. If the brothers and sisters may be buried together, then we can not simply say that two people of different sex buried together of the same time were a couple because they might also be sister and brother.