| As the most ordinary subject in the archaeological area,the discoveries of tombs reflect the ancestors’ material life and their concept of life and death shown in the tombs’design and the use of burial objects.As a typical artifact commonly found in Chu tombs during the Warring States period,the Chu-style tomb-guard beast reflects the Chu people’s attitude towards the dead and dying.Using the newly excavated material of Chu-style tomb-guard beasts in Chu tombs and the comprehensive collection of excavation data,this paper bases on the previous research and reclassifies the Chu-style tomb-guard beast into four categories and eight types.According to the number of excavations and changes in forms,this paper divides the popular period into four stages.According to the materials excavated in different places,combined with the changes in Chu’s territory,this paper divides the region into four zones.Based on the foundational work,this paper rethinks the ancestral reconstruction theory of Chu-style tomb-guard beasts.Also,this paper uses the developmental sequence of Chu-style tomb-guard beasts to resolve the date identification of some Chu tombs and the problem that some artifacts are mistaken for Chu-style tomb-guard beasts.The author observes the form and use of Chu-style tomb-guard beasts from the perspective of hierarchical differences and observes the tendency of the flow of Chu-style tomb-guard beasts between classes according to the different popularity trends at each level in each period,which is considered to be top-down dissemination of customs.Meanwhile,based on the unearthing of several tomb-guard beast,a phenomenon seldom mentioned by previous authors,this paper conducts a targeted analysis and points out that the tomb-beasts are related to the prevalence of couples’ joint burial in Chu tombs during the Warring States period.As for the use of antlers,the high correlation between elk antlers and doubleheaded tomb-beasts points out that the use of elk antlers is of a higher grade than that of plum antlers.Finally,based on the Chu tombs’ burial materials,this paper discusses the change in the morphology of Chu-style tomb-holding beasts between the Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States period and the factors. |
