Page 354 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

FIG. i. Conjectural recon-
struction of the Zhongshan
royal necropolis. After Fu
1980, in, fig. 11.

longer paramount. Instead, these tombs contain an unprecedented array of luxury items for
use in daily life, as well as objects that testify to an increased preoccupation with ensuring the
soul's well-being by means of magic and the occult.
A unique inlaid-bronze diagram found in Tomb i in the western necropolis outside Ling-
shou shows the plan of a necropolis in which the tomb of a king was to be symmetrically
flanked by those of two queens and two first-degree consorts; only two of the five tombs were
5
ever built. The central tomb (Tomb i) is that of King Cuo, the second-to-last king of Zhong-
shan, who died around 308 BCE. Its mound, which originally rose to some 20 meters (including
the height of the foundation platform) and measured some 60 meters on each side at the base,
had eroded over time, and archaeologists salvaged only scanty remains of the colonnades sur-
rounding a central offering hall constructed on three levels. The tomb itself stretches a length
of 97 meters underground — far beyond the perimeter of the mound and its foundation plat-
form. Two sloping passages lead into a tomb chamber measuring 25 meters square at the bot-

tom. Looters had virtually emptied the stone-lined central burial chamber prior to the tomb's
excavation; three wooden boxlike storage compartments, however, were found on the second-
level ledge surrounding the burial chamber, and two of them contained an abundance of
bronze and pottery vessels, jades, and musical instruments, as well as traces of objects made of
organic materials such as lacquered wood.
Aside from the main tomb pit, the underground portions of King Cuo's tomb also in-
cluded six subsidiary tombs, probably of persons closely associated with the king in life; two
horse-and-chariot pits, each containing twelve horses and several chariots with their associated
paraphernalia; a pit containing ten sheep and six horses; and a pit containing three boats, ap-

353 TOMB OF K I N G CUO OF Z H O N C S H A N