Page 111 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts
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Fig. u. Cross sections of tomb No. 1, Shaogou, Luoyang, Fig. 12. Drawing of heavenly realm, ceiling mural and
detail from tomb of Bo Qianqiu, Luoyang, Henan
Henan Province. Late Western Han dynasty.
Province. Late Western Han dynasty.
attendants, as well as dancers and musicians. Quite innermost of the three outer coffins, lacquered a
different figurines were found in the guo's eastern shining red, is painted with a divine mountain
and southern chambers. Images in this second centered on the front panel and on one side,
group, exemplified by a male figure in the flanked by auspicious animals and a heavenly being
exhibition (cat. 95), represent the household's (fig. 9). Inside this third coffin is the "inner unit"
servants. These rigidly shaped standing figures were of the burial, which preserved the woman's body
not arranged to form a large tableau; they were both physically and symbolically: while the corpse
packed tightly in multiple layers along with cases of was carefully wrapped in layers of cloth and tightly-
sealed in the innermost coffin, the likeness of the
household articles and food in the chambers. The dead was preserved on the painted silk banner
servant figurines thus symbolized a particular kind (fig. 10).
of household property, whereas the dancers and
musicians placed in the qin helped compose a self- What we find in the Mawangdui tomb, therefore, is
contained representation of social life and space
inside the tomb. a profound impulse to synthesize divergent beliefs
and desires into a single mortuary setting and hence
In the Mawangdui tomb the guo forms the into a single reality after death. Instead of
outermost of three encasements. Within the guo, the establishing logical connections between these
central compartment is made up of a nest of three beliefs, however, this synthesis was accomplished by
multiplying the layers of nested boxes inside the
outer coffins (fig. 7); these enclose the innermost
compartment, which is the coffin containing the tomb. The result is an essentially "polycentric"
tomb, in which are represented four different realms
Awoman's body. painted silk banner overlies this of the dead: the Universe (as shown in the silk
banner), the underworld (as shown on the
innermost coffin. All three outer coffins are
lacquered differently, signifying their different ritual patterned black coffin), the immortal paradise (as
symbolism and forming a coherent pictorial shown on the patterned red coffin), and the
underground household (as symbolized by the four
program. The outermost coffin, solid black,
peripheral chambers and their contents). The
separates the dead from the living (as well as from relationship between these realms is by no means
the four outer compartments of the guo, which
clear. It seems (hat in their eagerness to express
imitate the world of the living). The second, also their filial piety and to please the dead, the tomb
black, is decorated on all four sides with human, builders provided all the answers they knew to
semihuman, and animal figures amid swirling cloud questions about tiie afterlife,
patterns symbolizing qi ("universal energy"); the But this polycentrism is exactly what makes ancient
deceased woman appears on the lower edge of the
front panel, half entered into this mysterious world
inhabited by strange beasts and spirits (fig. 8). The
REALITIES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 109
