Page 355 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

FIG. 2. Excavation photo-
graph of the tomb of King
Cuo.

parently linked to the Hutuo River by a narrow underground canal. Of these, the second horse-
and-chariot pit, located to the southwest of the entrance to King Cuo's tomb chamber, was the
least disturbed.
Inscriptions on several vessels found in the western storage compartment defend the
king's participation in the 312 BCE war against the Yan. Couched in the sententious ritual
language of the Zhou, complete with stock phrases from classical texts, these texts extol the
political values that were being propounded by Confucian philosophers during the period.
They show that, in spite of its relative obscurity and its "barbarian" origins, Zhongshan oper-
ated fully within the contemporaneous cultural mainstream. In layout and size, as well, King
Cuo's tomb is typical of that of a Warring States period ruler, and its assemblage of funerary
goods is the most comprehensive preserved from the highest level of society during the late
fourth century BCE. LVF

1 Hebei 1995,1:3 - 5; Li Xueqin 1985, 93 -107. 4 Poo 1998.
2 Fu 1980. 5 The name Cuo is sometimes transcribed as Xi.
3 Wu 1988.

354 CH U AN D OTHE R C U L T U R E S