Primary Research On Funerary Animals In Jingzhou Of Han Dynasty

In terms of burial customs,the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system but also developed it.Animal burial,as an important component of it,can not only reproduce the relationship between Han Dynasty ancestors and animals,but also reflect the funeral customs and agricultural and sideline economic characteristics at that time.Animal burial can be divided into two parts: solid animals and animal figurines.However,as of now,research on animal body burial in the late Han Dynasty has been relatively limited,and animal figurines are often in a subordinate position compared to human figurines.So,there has been no previous discussion on whether the choice between the two during burial is consistent or has its own characteristics.In view of this,this article selects the Jingzhou region,which has relatively rich data,as the entry point.By combining information related to 9 tombs with unearthed physical animals and 93 tombs with animal figurines,it attempts to analyze the species selection and utilization of accompanying animals,and explore the funeral customs and agricultural and sideline economic characteristics of the Jingzhou region in the Han Dynasty based on its spatiotemporal development rules.In this paper,we found that the development sequence about the burial objects of animals in Jingzhou during the Han Dynasty is from the tombs of the early Western Han Dynasty which was mainly buried with physical animals to the tombs of the intermediate period which was mainly buried with animal figures.In terms of species of animals,the early Western Han Dynasty tended to select large-scale draft animals such as cattle and horses,after the late Western Han Dynasty,pigs,dogs,chickens,ducks and other small and medium-sized meat-based livestock.In terms of quantity,the physical animals and figures are plentiful during the early and western Han Dynasty,the middle stage begins to decrease,in the Eastern Han Dynasty tends to be immobilized and stereotyped,there are one to three animal figures in each category.In terms of materials,the funerals in Jingzhou during the early Western Han Dynasty continued the Chu style and were still mainly made of wood.Pottery animal figurines became popular after the late Western Han Dynasty.From the funeral customs reflected in funerary animals in Jingzhou of Han Dynasty,the trend of great burial was prevailing,the funeral custom continued the style of Qin and Chu in the early period and gradually dissipated in the later period.Based on the burial objects about animals,it was found that the farming industry in Jingzhou was developed during the Han Dynasty.The ancestors had various sources of meat and the livestock,poultry and fish stocks were used extensively.The aristocracy were good at using the meat resources of wild animals.The characteristics of agricultural and secondary economic reflected the fact that Jingzhou was dominated by small-scale peasant economy during the early Western Han Dynasty,gradually changed in the mid-term stage,and the manor economy prospered unprecedentedly in the Eastern Han Dynasty.This paper is divided into six chapters.The first chapter is prolegomenon,which maily describes the reason of selecting this topic and the meaning of this research,this chapter defines the scope of the study,clarifies the content and method of the study and lays the foundation of this paper according to the research status.The second chapter introduces and sorts out the discovery of the burial objects of animals in Jingzhou during the Han Dynasty.The third chapter is a preliminary study of the physical animals in the tombs of Han Dynasty in Jingzhou,this chapter counts and analyses the discovery about these physical animals,specifically including the quantity,species and making a comparative study by region.The fourth chapter is a preliminary study of the animal figures in the tombs of Han Dynasty in Jingzhou,this chapter counts and analyses the discovery about these animal figures,specifically including the material,species and making a comparative study by region.Then this chapter explores the evolvement rule of the animal figures by analyzing the variation tendency.The fifth chapter discusses the burial objects about animals in Jingzhou in the Han Dynasty,based on the analysis of the physical animals and animal figurines in chapters 3 and 4,exploring the internal relationship between the physical animals and animal figurines and the agricultural and sideline economic characteristics in Jingzhou during the Han Dynasty.Chapter 6 is a full summary of this paper.