Page 391 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

129

Jade shroud sewn with gold wire, and
set of plugs

Length 188 (74), width at shoulder 44.1 (17'A)
Western Han Dynasty, late second century BCE
(c. 113)
From the tomb of Liu Sheng at Lingshan,
Mancheng, Hebei Province

Hebei Provincial Museum, Shijiazhuang

1
The jade shroud of Liu Sheng is the most famous
example of this extraordinary category of object.
Since its discovery in 1968, approximately forty
complete or fragmentary shrouds have been found;
few are in such good condition as this example and
that of Liu Sheng's consort, Dou Wan, both of
whom were buried in tombs carefully hollowed out
of a mountainside at Lingshan, Mancheng, Hebei
province. 2
Prior to their discovery, such jade shrouds were
known from a number of texts. One of the fullest
descriptions is found in the Han jiuyi buyi (Ancient
rites of the Han dynasty) by Wei Hong, first century
CE: "When the Emperor died, a pearl was placed
in his mouth; his body was wrapped around with
twelve layers of reddish yellow silk. Jade was used
to make the garment. It had the shape of armor
and the jade pieces were stitched together with
gold threads." 3
These jade shrouds have been treated as a Han of the Han period, different metals — gold, silver,
development arising out of jade face coverings and or copper — were used to indicate the rank of the
pectorals in use as early as the Western Zhou period shroud's owner, but most of the examples dating
(see cats. 84, 85). Found primarily in eastern China, from the early period were sewn with gold. The
the shrouds in fact have little direct connection shroud made for the King of Nanyue (cat. 139) ex-
with the earlier tradition. The pectorals are most emplifies a lesser level of refinement: only certain
often found in the western provinces, and the most sections contain drilled plaques; in these instances,
elaborate are at least three or four hundred years silk rather than metal was used to attach the pieces
older than the shrouds. Shrouds differ markedly to one another. Despite such variations, it seems
from one another in the details of their construc- that the design of such shrouds followed a widely
tion, but they are more or less uniformly composed disseminated model.
of twelve sections: the face, the head, the front and Liu Sheng's shroud incorporates a Neolithic
back parts of the tunic, the arms, the gloves, the jade cong tube (see cats. 29, 30) to hold his genitals.
leggings and the feet (fig. i), each consisting of From this and other such examples, we may infer
closely fitting plaques drilled at the corners and that the Han had discovered Neolithic tombs,
sewn together with wire. In the later centuries which they mined for jade; the large quantities of

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