CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

THE TOMB OF
KING CUO OF
ZHONGSHAN
AT SANJI,
PINGSHAN,
HEBEI PROVINCE
Zhongshan was a minor kingdom situated on the sides of the Taihang Mountains. Its rulers
were descended from the Di tribes, regarded as "barbarians" by their Zhou neighbors. Seldom
mentioned in the historical texts, Zhongshan was apparently founded sometime before 530 BCE
and flourished for approximately two centuries. By 323 BCE at the latest, its rulers had adopted
the title of king, like virtually all territorial rulers in China during the Warring States period.
The course of Zhongshan's history was largely determined by its relations with its more powerful
neighbors; the state was temporarily annexed by Wei from 406 to 378 BCE, participated
successfully in a coalition war against Yan in 312 BCE, and was finally annihilated by Zhao in
296 BCE. 1
Archaeological investigations during the 19705 revealed extensive remains of the Zhongshan
capital of Lingshou and the royal cemeteries on the north bank of the Hutuo River at
Sanji, Pingshan (Hebei province). The capital consisted of several adjacent enclosures with
pounded-earth walls and moats and resembled the capitals of neighboring kingdoms. The city's
total area has not thus far been determined, and the settlement itself remains unexcavated;
excavations have focused instead on the numerous cemeteries in the area.
Archaeologists located two regularly aligned complexes of royal tombs, one inside the
walls of Lingshou, the other some two kilometers to the west. Following a custom introduced
during the Warring States period, each ruler's tomb featured a large pounded-earth mound
atop a subterraneous pit. In antiquity, these mounds were covered by wooden buildings, concentrically
arranged on different levels around the mound's earthen core to give an impression
of multistoried architecture. 2 In an undoubtedly intentional analogy to the palace compounds
in the center of a walled capital, each necropolis was enclosed by several layers of walls.
Remains of similar tomb complexes are still today a prominent feature of the landscape near
several Warring States capitals; they are China's earliest remains of truly monumental architecture
(figs, i, 2).
The tomb buildings — the so-called xiangtang — were places of sacrifice, reflecting a
new custom distinct from the rituals that had long been conducted in ancestral temples. Such
sacrifices were directed to the soul of the deceased, which, according to some modern scholars'
reconstruction, was thought to reside in or near these buildings. 3 The notion that each person
had a soul — or, according to later formulations, several souls — was new to China during the
Warring States period and may have derived from areas to the west. It was linked to the evolving
conception of an afterworld directed by a host of lesser gods and demons, whose hierarchy
mimicked the increasingly complex bureaucracy of the Warring States period. 4 These ideas
constituted a major departure from the ritual regime of traditional Zhou culture, in which the
main emphasis had been on kin relationships and lines of succession. From this point forward,
tombs were fashioned in the image of the world of the living in order to provide an attractive
dwelling for the deceased person's soul. The ritual paraphernalia and symbols of status that had
dominated earlier funerary assemblages, though still present in tombs of the elite, were no
352 CHU AND OTHER CULTURES