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- II Exterior Appearance of Tombs
Burial in early China was in the ground and there appears to have been no burial mound or tumulus to mark the site. During the Shang dynasty (sixteenth to eleventh centuries b.c.), deep underground tombs were made for the rulers and nobility, and magnificent treasures were placed in the tomb chambers, such as bronze vessels and jade artifacts, as well as sacrifices of animals and humans. There were no tumulii to mark these tombs, but it appears that there were temple structures above or nearby the royal burials of the Shang. When the Zhou defeated the Shang, they continued Shang funerary rituals and customs. By the latter part of the Zhou period (eleventh to third centuries B.c.), burial mounds of pounded earth began to appear on top of the tombs. However, the erection of these burial mounds made the tombs easy prey for later grave robbers, as they knew exactly where to dig. As a result, the vast majority of ancient tombs in China have been looted, sometimes several times, throughout the centuries.
The greatest man-made earthen tumulus of all is over the subterranean tomb of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang (d. 210 B.c.) near Xian in Shaanxi province. His weathered pyramid-shaped tumulus now measures about forty-three metres at the peak and has a base circumference of over 1,400 metres (fig. i). Recent investiga�tions have revealed that the massive tumulus was once surrounded by two walled enclosures of rectangular shape. In 1977, foundations of a temple for sacrifices were found north of the tomb. Qin Shi Huang created a vast tomb for his next life both above and below ground. According to ancient records, some 700,000 conscripts worked for thirty-six years, building his mausoleum and making funerary objects to furbish the tomb. The long time period of construction and the huge amounts of financial and human resources used in constructing this tomb would influence future sovereigns, who also attached great importance to organizing their final resting place.
Tombs thus became the palaces of the emperors after death and were laid out on an axis, like palaces, with halls in front and on the sides for various ceremonies, and the back area was reserved for the residence.
During the Han dynasty (206 b.c.-a.d. 220), large and small man-made earthen mounds continued to mark the tombs of the emperors and nobility. The Han emperors also adopted the practice of burying their empresses, concubines and favourites in nearby tomb mounds. Tile fragments and remnants of gates and surrounding walls, as well as brick foundations of various buildings, such as sacrificial halls, storage buildings and temples, have been discovered at various Western Han imperial tombs near Xian. It became customary that the year following an emperor�s ascent to the throne construction of his tomb was begun, which in most cases took several years to complete.
Following the Han period, China was in a state of chaos and disunity. For the next few centuries non-Chinese tribes controlled the north, while Chinese dynasties ruled the south. During this time of division, some dynasties had small earthen tumulii to mark their tombs, while others chose to have none. There is a major lack of archaeological evidence regarding exterior tomb architecture at imperial tombs from the Eastern Han through to the Sui period.
When the country was reunited by the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, the construction of huge earthen tumulii resumed, attesting to their prosperity and political power. Earthen ramparts have survived at many Tang imperial mausoleums, which give a vivid idea of the immense scale of the exterior architecture. While the Tang emperors preferred having theirtombs burrowed inside huge mountains, usually in the flat lands below the mountain tomb were countless
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