Page 509 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Southeast corner of the
anteroom, showing paint-
ings of one of the Twelve
Earthly Branches and of
cranes in flight.

included porcelain, gold and silver, jewelry, and bronze vessels, only bits and pieces of which
remained. Three hundred coins were recovered.
A tomb epitaph carved on the same granite used throughout the tomb construction con-
tains nearly two thousand characters recounting the official life of Wang Chuzhi. Wang's titles

included Governor of Yi, Ding, and Qi Prefectures and Prince of Beiping. His biography figures
prominently in the official histories of both the Tang and Later Liang dynasties. He died in the
final year of the Later Liang, 923, and was buried one year later. RB

1 Excavation report in Hebei 19963, 4 -13. A complete landscape depictions found on objects in the Shosoin
report has been published as Hebei 1998. and at Dunhuang, as well as the garden elements de-
2 The landscape paintings are discussed in a brief article picted in the Tang imperial tombs. For comparative
by Luo Shiping in Luo 1996, 74-75 and are reproduced in materials, see Sullivan 1980. A Tang imperial tomb con-
Hebei 1998, color pis. 14 and 18-20. All paintings are taining a sixfold landscape screen painted over one entire
reproduced or shown in copies in Hebei 1998. wall was recently discovered in Fuping county, Shanxi
3 This is the observation of Shi Jianwen in Hao 1996, 57. province (Jing and Wang 1997, 8-11 and inside back
4 Examples of Tang imperial tomb painting are reproduced cover), providing another Tang imperial precedent for
in Yang 1997, 67-74. elements of the Wang Chuzhi tomb design. The Fuping
5 Luo Shiping (Luo 1996) mentions Guan Tong (active county tomb may be the earliest known example of an
c. 925) and Dong Yuan (d. 962) for comparison but independent landscape painting done for a burial;
generally sees their work as very early stages in the it appears to date from the first half of the eighth
evolution of landscape painting and as products of the century CE.
Tang period. Their work closely resemble many of the

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