| The brick burial chamber built to imitate the wooden structure that became popular since the late Tang period was usually understood as a mimicry of the aboveground residence. Its more and more elaborate construction toward the Jin period was also often described as representing the maturity of the "wooden architecture in brick." In this paper, however, I argue that the increasing elaboration of the form, in fact, indicates a changing meaning of the tombs. To this end, this paper investigates the "wooden architecture in brick" built in the 12th-century tombs of the Duan family in Jishan, Shanxi province from two interrelated viewpoints---that of the fabricated world of the tomb owner and that of the realistic world of the burial chamber. I suggest that the complicated style of "wooden architecture in brick" does not mean a more magnificent imitation of the aboveground residence. Rather, when considered with other decorations in the chamber, the burial space was constructed for the deceased with reference to a temple, or a shrine. This suggested reference thus turns the chamber into a space of the deity, where the tomb master was revered, indeed, as a deity. |
