Page 408 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

of Zhongshan, a state ruled by the Di, who had
entered Hebei province from the north. Such ob-
jects are thought to have functioned as large oil
3
lamps. The bird would thus literally have perched
in a ring of fire.
The association of birds with disks or rings
of light is an allusion to the bird (normally a raven)
that carried the sun on its course. Best known
among such stories is that of the archer Yi, who
shot down nine often suns (or birds) to save the
4
world from burning. The myth found its way into
images, such as a banner painting from Mawangdui
that shows a black bird at the center of a red sun. 5
The image was refined over time, and during the Han
FIG. i. Cat. 136 from above. dynasty, a bird was conventionally thought to carry
After Zhongguo 1980!}, 236, the sun in its beak, as this lamp clearly illustrates.
fig. 176.
Light, particularly the light from the sun, was
much sought after in the world after death, imag-
ined as a dark and mysterious place. Lamps held by
birds would presumably have brought the sun into
the tomb; mirrors (frequently metaphors for the
6
sun, moon, and stars ) were preserved and buried
because they too brought light. JR

1 Excavated in 1968 (M 2:3102); reported: Zhongguo i98ob:
1:261-263, fig. 176.
2 An early form of a large bird's foot mounted with a ring
was found in a third-century tomb at Shangwang in Linzi,
Shandong province. This tomb also produced a lamp in
the form of a circular tray on a stand with the lip of the
tray held in the bird's beak. See Linzi 1997, pi. 24 and color
P i.i.
3 Sun Ji 1996, i -14. It is possible, however, that the basin
held water.
4 Birrell 1993,138 -140. For the link between suns and birds
see Allan 1991,19-56.
5 Allan 1991, 36; Major 1993,159 -161.
6 Brashier 1995, 201 - 229.

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