Hunan Provincial Museum: Changsha Mawangdui Han Tomb Exhibition

From 1972 to 1974, archaeologists excavated Mawangdui Tomb No.1, No.2 and No.3 in Changsha, which proved that it was the tomb of the Prime Minister's family of three in Changsha in the Western Han Dynasty. Lacquerware with complicated craftsmanship, beautiful silk clothes, precious bamboo slips and silk documents, colorful coffins and immortal remains of tomb owners are regarded as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the world in the 20th century.

At that time, more than 3,000 precious cultural relics were unearthed in the three Han tombs of Mawangdui, which became a window for people to understand the social life more than 2,200 years ago. On the afternoon of June 6th, 2020, 10, I came to the Hunan Provincial Museum. After visiting the basic exhibition on the second floor, I walked into the exhibition of Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha on the third floor with excitement.

1、 ? Shocking excavation

Mawangdui is located in the eastern suburb of Changsha. There are two mounds left on the ground, which are shaped like saddles and called "saddle mounds". Later, it was misrepresented as "Mawangdui". 197 1 At the end of the year, during the construction of Mawangdui, 366 Hospital of Hunan Military Region often encountered landslides and combustible gas appeared. After learning the news, the archaeologists of Hunan Provincial Museum rushed to the scene and found that it was an ancient tomb numbered "Mawangdui No.1 Tomb".

1972 65438+1October 16 From April 28th, Mawangdui Tomb No.1 was excavated. Subsequently, on the west and south sides of Tomb No.1, Tomb No.2 and Tomb No.3 were discovered. 1October 1973 1 1 to 1974, mawangdui tombs 3 and 2 were excavated.

Distribution of tombs

News report

Among the three Han tombs, Mawangdui No.1 Han tomb is well preserved. It is a rectangular pit tomb with vertical holes and consists of earth seals, tomb passages, tomb pits and burial chambers. The tomb faces north and the depth is about 20 meters. From top to bottom, it is sealed soil, rammed soil, white paste mud and charcoal.

At that time, archaeologists found a black hole on each side when cleaning the grave. Then, pour the quick-setting gypsum into the slurry, and when the gypsum is dry, peel it out and see: it turned out to be two people kneeling! They used to be the gatekeepers of woodcarving. Although the wood is rotten, the shape still exists. Nowadays, the "plaster statue" with open arms is placed in the exhibition hall, as if welcoming everyone into the exhibition of Mawangdui Han Tomb.

Grave filling

Kneeling woodcarving

2. The art of living

In the next exhibition hall, bright as new cultural relics are dazzling, restoring the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the Chiyou family and intuitively showing the aristocratic life in the Western Han Dynasty. At the same time, it reflects the brilliant achievements of handicraft industry and the prosperity of art and culture at that time. ?

These funerary objects are concentrated in the four side boxes of the tomb, including pottery, lacquerware, wooden figurines, musical instruments, textiles, bamboo slips and bamboo utensils. Among them, there are 266 civil figurines, which can be divided into six types: Dai Guan male figurines, dressed waitresses, dressed song and dance figurines, painted standing figurines, painted music figurines and wooden figurines to ward off evil spirits.

Female statue

Male statue

About 500 pieces of lacquerware were unearthed, including ding, bi, box, pot, ring, cup, plate, casket, case, number, screen, etc., which were well preserved for people's reference. Among them, ear cups and ear plates account for more than half of the total number of lacquerware.

Ear cups are divided into three types: large, medium and small. Write the words "Xing Junjiu" on the inner bottom of the ear cup, and paint black lacquered cirrus clouds on the Hong Zhou lacquered floor. On the inner bottom of some small lacquer plates, you can see the words "Xing Junshi". The word "lucky" here means "hope", which expresses the hope that users can eat and drink happily.

earphone

plate

Most of the lacquerware unearthed here are wooden tires, and only a few are sandwiched tires. The decorative patterns of these lacquerware are mostly red, black and gray-green, which are divided into lacquer painting, oil painting and needle carving, with geometric patterns as the main pattern, followed by dragon and phoenix patterns and grass patterns.

In Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb, seven lacquer tripod pieces were unearthed in the east box and the south box. When it was first unearthed, 1 qiding contained lotus root slices! In the other six lacquer ding, the food in the ding has long been gone. However, after a while, these lotus root slices disappeared and became a pot of ordinary water, which made people feel very sorry.

Ding heshao

Spray hehe

In the middle of the exhibition hall, the combination of fans, chairs, screens and bamboo mats unearthed from Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb perfectly shows the furniture in the tomb owner's house before his death. Among them, in the center of the front of the screen, there is a Gu Yuyu, surrounded by geometric squares.

In the showcase, a bamboo fume hood and a ceramic ventilator with a cover are displayed. At that time, when it was unearthed, the inner bottom of the ceramic fumigator was filled with the residual hairy charcoal roots after burning. The appearance of bamboo fume hood is "truncated cone", which is made of bamboo strips with a width of 1 cm. The top is sealed with brocade and the periphery is wrapped with fine silk. After the smoke stove is lit, cover it with a bamboo cover, which is very particular.

Fans, tables, cushions and screens

Ceramic range and bamboo hood

The way of displaying musical instruments here is very novel and unique. The animal images painted on the coffin are combined with the musical instruments unearthed in the tomb, and the virtual and the real are born together. At the same time, on the background wall, the structural drawings of these instruments are also depicted, so that every visitor can see them at a glance.

In Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb, a bronze ware, a bronze ware and a bronze ware were unearthed, which are quite well preserved and have important scientific value. In Mawangdui No.3 Han Tomb, two flutes with different lengths were unearthed in the center of Qifang bamboo slips. The appearance is tubular, with bamboo joints at the upper end, hollow at the lower end and six holes at different intervals on the surface.

Yuhe color

Bamboo Flute

In the side boxes of Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb and No.3 Han Tomb, a total of 98 bamboo sheds were unearthed, stacked on top of each other and arranged neatly. Most bamboo sheds are relatively complete in appearance, tied with scarlet or blue hemp ropes, and some bamboo sheds also have sealed mud boxes and wooden signs indicating the names of items. ?

The items in the bamboo shed are mainly clothes, silk, food, Chinese herbal medicine and various plants. Among them, bamboo barnyard grass is the most common food, and most of them are meat food, including the bones of cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, rabbits, cranes, chickens, ducks, fish and other animals. In addition, there are grain, vegetables, eggs and fruits.

Bamboo barnyard grass

Animal debris

In Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb, a large number of textiles and clothes were found, which were unearthed in six bamboo warehouses in the west box, the north box and the inner coffin. The fiber raw materials of these textiles are mainly domestic silk, but there are also a small amount of ramie and hemp fabrics.

The plain yarn clothes on display here are very thin, about 2.6 square meters of material, weighing 49 grams, less than one or two. It is said that it can be folded and put in a matchbox, as thin as cicada wings and as light as smoke. Therefore, in the Western Han Dynasty, China's sericulture, silk reeling and weaving technology had reached a very high level.

Double-pointed upturned square shoes

Straight plain yarn clothing

3, bamboo silk collection

Here is a concentrated display of silk paintings, silk scripts and bamboo slips unearthed from Mawangdui No.3 Han Tomb, which are divided into astronomical geography, medical health preservation, historical philosophy, yin and yang and five elements. They not only recorded the most important scientific and technological achievements and ideological documents at that time, but also reflected the knowledge structure, reading habits, cultural accomplishment and spiritual life of the Chihou family.

According to preliminary statistics, these silk books include the Book of Changes, Laozi and the Warring States Policy, as well as books on astronomy, calendar, five elements and miscellaneous occupation, as well as two maps. * * * More than 20 kinds, with a total number of words of several hundred thousand. A total of 6 10 bamboo slips were unearthed, which were divided into two parts: "sending policy" and "medical book".

A book copied from silk

bamboo slip

4、 ? Dream of eternal life

After visiting the cultural relics unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb, I went down the stairs after leaving the exhibition hall on the third floor, as if I had entered the tomb with the change of light. The four-story coffin, wooden coffin room and immortal body found in Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb are presented in turn.

The tall tomb has a compact structure, consisting of 70 wooden boards, without using a metal nail. The largest board is about 4.8m long,1.5m wide, 26cm thick and weighs about 3000kg. In the coffin room in the center of the coffin room, there are four layers of wooden coffins tightly nested together: the first layer is a black lacquer coffin, the second layer is a black lacquer coffin, the third layer is a Judy painted coffin, and the fourth layer is a brocade inner coffin.

A tall room

Four-story coffin

At the end of the exhibition, at the bottom of the rectangular showcase, the owner of Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb lay there quietly. The body is intact, the hair is preserved, the skin lines are clear, the muscles are elastic, and some joints can move.

Her name is Xin Zhui. The owner of Mawangdui No.2 Han Tomb is her husband Li Cang, and the owner of Mawangdui No.3 Han Tomb is her son Li Yi. Today, the remains of her husband and son have already rotted, leaving her alone.

The cultural relics unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb have propped up more than half of the Hunan Provincial Museum and become a must-see exhibition for many people coming to Changsha. But in order to show respect for the dead, it is not allowed to photograph the found bodies. In the future, you can go to the Hunan Provincial Museum to see grandma Xin Zhui's body in person. ...