Research and Exploration Images of Dragons and …. 3-4_2015... · 228 Research and Exploration Images of Dragons and Bi-Discs in Mawangdui Tomb M1 of the Han Dynasty Wu Hung Professor,

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Images of Dragons and Bi-Discs in Mawangdui Tomb M1 of the Han DynastyWu Hung Professor, Department of Art History and Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

I n recent years, the interpretation of an-cient sites and artwork has increasingly been consciously carried out at different levels. Some studies have taken the typol-

ogy and style of different periods and regions as their subject; others are dedicated to uncovering the archi-tectural or pictorial program of an individual tomb or grotto; still others have focused on a single piece of artwork in the hope of revealing its specific visual qualities and design intent. These diverse levels of research need not exclude one another. On the con-trary, each type of research can observe things that the others do not, so that they can complement one another to bring together the macro and the micro aspects of a work. This allows for a more complex and comprehensive understanding of commonality and uniqueness in the process of historical development. In this vein, the present article aims to put forward the analytical method of “intensive close reading” to further expand the horizon of academic observa-

tion. The analytical method of close reading is well established in literary criticism, and good examples of this method are also plentiful in art history.[1] But, in general, the close reading of artworks using iconog-raphy and formal analysis still focus on larger units, whether that is an overall picture or a complete work of architecture or an object. Intensive close reading steers close reading in a more subtle and acute di-rection and focuses the scrutinizing analytical gaze on details that reflect the specific intentions of the artist. Such a goal also predetermines the premise of the research method at the same time; that is, the subject must demonstrate sufficient evidence of specific intention and meaning in its design and creation, rather than simply resulting from repeti-tion or routine. In the author’s opinion, the images of dragons and bi-discs in Mawangdui Tomb M1 of the Han Dynasty in Changsha City are well-suited to this method of analysis, and by means of an intensive close reading we can achieve a new understanding

Chinese Cultural Relics No. 3-4, 2015. Copyright East View Press. All rights reserved. www.eastviewpress.com/Journals/CulturalRelics.aspx

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of this group of images that enjoy such high renown in Chinese art history.

Since the excavation of this famous tomb in 1972, Chinese and international scholars have done much research on its construction, decoration and unearthed artifacts, resulting in numerous scholarly achievements. But, as with all important works cre-ated by human civilizations, research into and in-terpretation of the Mawangdui findings never ends. Research is itself a process of posing new questions and introducing new concepts, and the author has discussed this tomb quite often. Three of his previ-ous arguments, which will be briefly summarized below, relate directly to the present article.[2] First, the author has argued that the designer of this tomb not only placed the corpse within nested layers of the coffin to protect the deceased, but also set up a “spirit seat” in the western end of the northern compart-ment of the outer coffin chamber, so that the soul of the deceased might enjoy food and drinks, as well as music and dance per-formances, in the Yellow Springs [under-world] (Figure 1). Second, the author has proposed that the four nested layers of the coffin in this tomb and the T-shaped silk painting constitute a complex, symbolic pictorial design, within which the image on the “red coffin” [the coffin encasing the innermost coffin] represents an imaginary depiction of the immortal world. Third, the author believes that in this tomb, several bi-discs were placed or painted at key lo-cations. Proceeding from the center of the tomb to the outside, the first bi-disc, cut out from the black shell of a hawksbill turtle, was suspended by a ribbon from the top of the head side of the innermost cof-fin.[3] The next bi-disc – or rather, an im-age of it – appears in the silk painting that was used to cover the lid of the innermost coffin. The image of the bi-disc is located

between a scene of “sacrificial offering” and a portrait of the deceased Marquise of Dai in the T-shaped silk painting (Figure 2). The third bi-disc, also an image, appears on the red coffin (Figure 3:2). As mentioned above, the colors and decorative motifs of this cof-fin, including the red color of the whole coffin body, Mount Kunlun, the winged immortals, dragons, ti-gers, deer, phoenixes, and so forth, are all associated with ideas of immortality (Figure 3:1). The last image of a bi-disc appears in the head compartment of the outer coffin chamber, located on the screen behind the spirit seat of the Marquise of Dai (Figure 4:1). To understand how these bi-discs functioned within the religious thought and ritual environment of the time, the author has suggested that the round hole in the middle of a jade bi-disc made this ancient ritual ob-ject a “soul channel” in tombs of the Warring States Period and the Han Dynasty.

Figure 1: Plan view of outer coffin chamber of Mawangdui Tomb M1

Images of Dragons and Bi-Discs in Mawangdui Tomb M1 of the Han Dynasty


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The author does not intend to modify these basic arguments, but after the author finished his previous articles on this topic, he examined the bi-disc and the images of bi-discs in the Mawangdui tomb more closely, discovering that the soul-guiding function of the bi-disc is more complex than he origi-nally envisaged, and that some of the statements in his previous articles also need to be revised. For instance, in analyzing the bi-disc in the silk painting, he remarked: “At this point, one pair of dragons, interlocked with one another, are passing through the hole of the bi-disc while ascending. This shows the key role of the bi-disc in the transformation of the Marquise of Dai from a temporal existence (as a corpse) to an eternal existence (as a soul).”[4] The phrase “a pair of dragons passing through a bi-disc” [shuang long chuan bi] was not the author’s inven-tion. In fact, since this famous painting was discov-ered, excavators and researchers have consistently used this phrase when describing the relationship between the dragons and the bi-disc. For instance, the excavation report on this tomb says, “In the scene of the lower part of the silk painting, the most notable images are two dragons, blue and red respec-tively, which are arranged on the left and the right side and which are, interlocked, passing through the middle of a giant bi-disc with a grain pattern.”[5] If we observe the scene carefully in the manner of an intensive close reading, however, we find that these two dragons are not “passing through” the middle hole of the jade bi-disc, but are tangled together with the bi-disc in a particular way. In the picture, the blue dragon[6] is situated behind the bi-disc and the red dragon in front of it. At the hole of the bi-disc, the bodies of the two dragons overlap in a way that reverses their spatial relationship: The blue dragon behind the bi-disc passes in front of the body of the red dragon, and the red dragon passes behind the body of the blue dragon (Figures 2 and 5). There-fore, these two dragons are not passing through the hole of the bi-disc, but in fact form a “knot” with the

bi-disc in the middle. As a result, the two dragons are firmly arrested by the bi-disc, unable to move.

Why did the painter choose to represent the relationship between the dragons and the bi-disc in this way? Before considering this question, we need to further examine the two other images of bi-discs in the same tomb to determine whether the painter used a ready-made formula or different methods in representing these scenes. When we turn to the im-age of the dragon and the bi-disc on the red coffin, we can see clearly that it represents another state of affairs (Figure 3:2). Were we to give this image a title, we could indeed call it “a pair of dragons passing through a bi-disc.” These two dragons neither overlap nor are they entangled; they are separately and easily passing through the hole of a jade bi-disc with a grain pattern. Their winding bodies appear to be flying, and the clouds alongside their bodies enhance the sense of movement. The painter seems to have endeavored to capture an imaginary scene that takes place at a moment in time; that is, these two mythical creatures are about to pass through the bi-disc and fly into a mysterious realm beyond the frame.

The third composite image of a bi-disc and a dragon, painted on the screen in the head compart-ment of the outer coffin chamber, demonstrates yet another situation. The dragon and the bi-disc are separated here: The giant jade bi-disc with a grain pattern is painted on the front side of the screen (i.e., facing the spirit seat), while the dragon appears on the back side of the screen (Figure 4:2). Two straight bands cross at the hole of the bi-disc. Taking a close look at how they cross, we find that they repeat the relationship between the dragons and the bi-disc in the silk painting: One band is behind the bi-disc; the other one is in front. At the hole, the two bands overlap and their spatial relationship is reversed. Just as in the silk painting, the two bands do not move freely through the hole of the bi-disc, but instead seal the hole while simultaneously fixing the bi-disc at the center of the screen.


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The above analysis leads us to two preliminary conclusions. First, while planning and decorating this tomb, the designer(s) of the tomb (not neces-sarily a single person; it could have been a workshop that produced funeral and burial utensils, or a team constituted of ceremonial experts and designers) did not use a fixed formula to depict the bi-discs, but chose different images based on distinct location and ritual requirements. The subtle differences between the images reflect the designer’s meticulous consid-

eration of the particular symbolic significance of the bi-discs. Second, the different modes of depicting these bi-discs can be summed up in two basic types. The author calls the first one the “mode of move-ment” and the second one the “mode of arrest.” The mode of movement is exemplified by the scene of “a pair of dragons passing through a bi-disc” on the red coffin, and also includes the bi-disc made of turtle shell hung on the head side of the innermost coffin. In both cases, the holes in the middle of the bi-discs

Figure 2: Drawing of silk painting unearthed from Mawangdui Tomb M1

t 1. Full view t 2. Detail

1 2


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allow and encourage certain invisible substance to pass through them. (The ancient saying “an empty hollow invites a draft” [空穴来风] implies a similar meaning.) The cases of the mode of arrest include the images of the jade bi-discs in the silk painting and on the screen. The holes in the middle of these bi-discs are sealed, and the bi-discs themselves are firmly fixed in the center of the pictorial composition. To view these two modes on a more abstract level, what they express are two different types of time. The former mode reflects a fleeting occurrence in the flow of time, and the latter mode reflects an eternal state that is frozen and unchanging.

These two preliminary conclusions lay a new foundation for the next step of discussion and guide us to expand the scope of intensive close reading to include the relationship between the bi-discs and the surrounding images or objects, in order to ex-plore the possible meaning expressed by these two modes in their respective contexts. The first note-worthy phenomenon is that the two examples of the mode of movement are both directly associated with coffins, either tied to the head of the innermost coffin or painted on the end of the red coffin. This phenomenon is found not only in Mawangdui Tomb M1, but also in many other tombs of the Han and

pre-Han Dynasty periods.[7] If the bi-disc is painted at one end of the coffin, the painter always clearly depicts the suspending ribbon above the bi-disc to show that the bi-disc is supposedly “hanging” on the coffin. This relationship between the bi-disc and the coffin suggests a close relationship between the bi-disc and the corpse of the deceased. As the author has previously pointed out, the bi-discs that were suspended or inlaid on the head end of the coffin bear similar symbolic meanings to the jade bi-disc fixed at the top of the head of the jade burial suits of the Han Dynasty, because they all provide paths for the souls of the deceased to depart and to return to the corpse (Figure 6).[8] Whether placed on the crown of the head of a burial suit or on the innermost coffin, a three-dimensional bi-disc naturally suggests this symbolic meaning by virtue of its opening hole. When representing these soul-guiding bi-discs in paintings, artists could draw upon an extensive picto-rial vocabulary to invent imaginary scenarios, e.g., us-ing the images of dragons or birds that pass through the hole of a bi-disc to represent the movement of the soul.[9] This means that in these images, certain mythical creatures were seen as the carriers of the soul of the deceased, symbolizing the presence and movement of the invisible soul. This conceptualiza-

tion does not only occur in artwork. The legend of the ascent of the Yellow Thearch to Heaven riding on a dragon, recorded in the “Treatise of the Offerings for Heaven and Earth” chapter of the Grand Histori-cal Records [Shiji – Fengshan shu 史记•封

禅书], was probably composed out of the same belief.

However, this theory of “guiding the soul” cannot explain the images of bi-discs in a mode of arrest, because the holes in the middle of the jade bi-discs are sealed or blocked; thus, the images cannot possibly be meant to suggest a path for the soul. What, then, was the purpose of this second type of

Figure 3: Line drawings of red coffin unearthed from Mawangdui Tomb M1

t 1. Side panelt 2. Foot panel

1

2


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image? To answer this question, we need to pursue a closer reading of the silk painting and the screen of Mawangdui Tomb M1. Elsewhere, the author has pointed out that in the composition of the silk paint-ing, there are three horizontal demarcations that di-vide the picture into four sections from bottom to top, i.e., the underworld, the human world, the portrait of the Marquise of Dai, and Heaven.[10] The author thinks this argument is still tenable, though in terms of the overall shape and composition of the painting, we could also divide the whole picture into two parts, namely the horizontal upper section of the T-shaped picture and the vertical lower section. Each of these sections has its own internal rules of composition and formal logic (Figure 2:1). Since the topic of the present article is the images of dragons and bi-discs, we will focus on the vertical lower section of the silk painting.

It is certainly no coincidence that the huge bi-disc was drawn in the middle of this section, dem-onstrating its absolute importance. This image fur-ther divides the vertical rectangular section into an upper and a lower space. Above the bi-disc there is the portrait of the Marquise of Dai, which the au-thor has interpreted as the “eternal image” of the deceased;[11] below the bi-disc there are scenes of a sacrificial offering in the human world and a vista of the underworld. The two interlocked dragons place all three pictorial units within a unified framework. Their tails clamp the world of the Yellow Springs and the scene of sacrificial offering, while their necks and heads frame the portrait of the Marquise of Dai. Some scholars have noted the dy-namic of the two dragons rising upward and intuit that the dragons were probably meant as an aid for ascending to Heaven as an immortal; i.e., they would carry the Marquise of Dai to Heaven above.[12] This impression is not unfounded. The stretching heads and necks and the wind-ing bodies of the two dragons do create a sense of upward motion. However, tak-

ing into account that their bodies are locked around the bi-disc in the middle, what the picture presents is actually a paradoxical tension: On the one hand, the two dragons are in the process of rising from the underworld to Heaven; on the other hand, their movement has been truncated. Their giant, gaping mouths and long, protruding tongues indicate their effort to stretch upward; yet they must succumb to the fact that they are bound here. Thus, “tension” becomes the dominant theme of this central image. The winding bodies of the dragons overlap and in-tertwine with the bi-disc, resulting in a stationary state full of dynamic potential.

Why was the painter so intentional in designing such an intricate scene representing this complex stationary and arrested state? The author would ar-gue that this is because the primary function and the symbolic meaning of the silk painting both depend on the successful shaping of this very state. Despite the many current interpretations of this painting, all scholars agree that its core image is the portrait of the deceased Marquise. This silk painting remains indispensable in almost every book on the art his-tory of ancient China, but hardly anyone mentions the important fact that the portrait is not isolated in the painting, but is connected with the bi-disc below it through a parallelogram-shaped board to form a more complex set of images (Figure 2:2). The parallelogram-shaped board is painted with a fine grid, each square of which contains a fretwork

Figure 4: Line drawings of painted miniature screen unearthed from Mawangdui Tomb M1

t 1. Front t 2. Back

1 2


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labyrinth [rectangular spiral] pattern done in ink. While the function and the name of this item still cannot be determined,[13] the painting itself pro-vides some internal evidence for thinking about its symbolic meaning. Most notable is that at each side of the board there is a leopard. In the “Summons of the Soul” chapter of the Songs of the South, it is said that tigers and leopards are the guardians of a series of nine gates to Heaven.[14] This citation has often been used by scholars to interpret the image of another pair of leopards in the same painting, flank-ing the heavenly que-gate. Since the pair of leopards above the jade bi-disc are depicted in the same man-ner, they probably also possess the significance of guarding a gate or path. This in turn suggests the symbolism of the parallelogram-shaped board in the middle as a pathway. One notices that the two leopards are supporting the parallelogram-shaped

board with their forelegs, emphasizing the impor-tance of the board.

Currently, there are two main views on the function and naming of the silk painting. Some scholars believe that it was a tool used in the ritual of summoning the soul; others believe that it was the mingjing-name banner [bearing the names and titles of the deceased] in a funeral that symbolized the ex-istence of the deceased.[15] These two interpretations actually share a basic point, that is, they both assume that the main function of the silk painting is to em-body the presence of the dead. The ancient Chinese believed that the posthumous soul maintained the ability to move around to accept sacrificial offerings or ascend to Heaven. We may apply this belief to explain the two different ways of representing the dragons and the jade bi-discs in Mawangdui Tomb M1. In the image on the red coffin that exemplifies the mode of movement, the dragons, as carriers of the soul, pass through the bi-disc and fly to another place. The dragons in the silk painting, which exem-plifies the mode of arrest, remain in a static state. The soul of the deceased that they carry passes through the jade bi-disc and along the ladder or path of the parallelogram-shaped board flanked by the two leop-ards, transferred to the portrait of the Marquise of Dai, and joined as one.

Another example of the mode of arrest in Ma-wangdui Tomb M1 that further supports this inter-pretation is the image of the bi-disc and the dragon on the screen of the head compartment of the outer coffin chamber. As mentioned earlier, the bi-disc is painted on the front side of the screen. At the time of the excavation, various items were found in front of this image, including an embroidered pillow, a lacquer armrest, and an embroidered, double-layered gown. The author has suggested that these and other items constituted the spirit seat of the Marquise of Dai, and the subject in the seat was likely her invis-ible soul. Therefore, depicting an “arrested” bi-disc on the screen behind the seat would have been very

Figure 5: Illustration of relationship between dragons and bi-disc on the silk painting

Figure 6: Jade bi-disc fixed at the top of the head of jade burial suit unearthed from Mancheng Tomb M2


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reasonable, indicating that the soul of this noble-woman would be permanently located here, enjoy-ing the food, drinks, music and dance provided for her. If we look more closely at this screen painting, we will find that the painter did not at all conceal his intention to paint such a mode of arrest: The two bands used to fix the jade bi-disc are stretched and clamped taut in four directions by hook-shaped ornaments, so that the bi-disc could not move. But at this point a difficult question arises. Why did the painter use geometric patterns on this screen instead of the zoomorphic images of two dragons to lock the bi-disc? Furthermore, why did he only paint one dragon behind the screen, which seems to be turn-ing around and floating leisurely amidst the clouds? Do the geometric images on the front side of the screen indicate a certain “destination”? Recalling that geometric patterns also cover the innermost coffin containing the corpse of the Marquise of Dai, this may be contrasted with the images of animals and clouds on the two outer coffins.

Based on the above discussion, the bi-disc and the images of bi-discs in Mawangdui Tomb M1 represent four specific points of time and the cor-responding states of the posthumous soul: (1) The bi-disc made of turtle shell at the head of the in-nermost coffin guides the soul to leave the body. (2) The combination of the bi-disc and the dragons in the silk painting binds the wandering soul and guides it to the portrait of the deceased. (3) The two dragons on the red coffin carry the soul with them while passing freely through the hole of the bi-disc. The destination of their journey, as pointed out by Lilian Lan-ying Tseng, is very likely the immortal land of Kunlun painted on the side face of the same lacquer coffin.[16] (4) The bi-disc on the screen in the outer coffin chamber identifies the position from which the Marquise of Dai was to receive sacrificial offerings within her tomb. Together with her physi-cal body in the innermost coffin, this position forms a complete parallel construction.

But why was it necessary to apply both of these modes repeatedly within the tomb? Was it not pos-sible to achieve the purpose of guiding and calming the soul in a relatively satisfactory fashion simply by placing a bi-disc at the head of the coffin to symbol-ize the departure and wandering of the soul, and by arranging a venue in the tomb as the underground dwelling for the soul? In fact, regardless of whether bi-discs were used, most Han Dynasty tombs were indeed arranged according to this relatively simple, dualistic logic. Mawangdui Tomb M1, with such complex content, represents an exceptional case. It not only reflects the wealth and status of the family of the deceased and the great expense of the funeral, but also reveals the tomb designer’s careful consid-eration of an array of religious and ritual issues. The author has previously proposed that the motiva-tion behind the tomb’s design included “the desire to merge different beliefs within a single tomb.”[17] Therefore, though the approach of constructing an “ideal home” in the tomb for the soul seems to con-flict with the wish to guide the soul to the immortal land of Kunlun, the tomb designer chose to do both for the benefit of the deceased, reluctant to leave out any possibility. As a result, in this tomb we see for the first time the novel scene of two dragons pass-ing through the bi-disc and flying into the immortal land. In light of the preexisting custom of placing a soul-guiding jade bi-disc at the head of the innermost coffin, to paint this novel scene on one end of the in-ner coffin may be viewed as a very ingenious decision.

The situation of the silk painting is more complex, because it did not just belong to the tomb structure, but could be used independently as a self-contained object. In terms of material and format, it consists of three silk sheets with a bamboo stick wrapped in the top border of the painting and a ribbon attached at the middle of the stick for suspending the paint-ing. Based on these features, scholars assert that the painting was hung in a kind of ritual ceremony prior to the entombment, as a spirit banner or a mingjing-


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name banner. As an individual prop used in a funerary ritual prior to the entombment, this painting would constitute an independent reading in this context. The combination of the dragons, bi-disc and portrait of the deceased in the middle section indicates that it was not an ordinary painting, but a spirit item animated by the soul of the Marquise of Dai. However, after the painting was buried in the tomb, its ritual function underwent significant changes. It became an integral component of the tomb through its association with other components of the burial. Its unique location and placement creates a new context and an altered symbolic significance for the painting.[18]

Quite a few clues indicate that the designer of the painting took into account these two divergent func-tions and environments so that it was not produced as a singular work. For example, the length of the paint-ing is 2.05 meters, while the inner coffin, which the painting originally covered, is 2.02 m long. That their lengths approximate each other so closely can hardly be a coincidence. Comparing such motifs as the drag-ons and bi-disc in this painting with those on the red coffin, the similarities of the imagery and their paint-ing style indicates that they were likely from the same workshop (although not necessarily painted by the same person). Furthermore, a detail that has not been previously considered, but might abound with hidden meaning, could link the silk painting to the tomb as a whole. We have noticed that the two dragons being arrested by the jade bi-disc in the silk painting are colored blue and red, respectively. Interestingly, the two dragons in the section of Heaven in the same pic-ture are both colored pale blue, though their appear-ance is very similar to the pair of dragons interlocked with the bi-disc. Why was no red dragon painted in Heaven? Was this variation based purely on the color preference of the painter, or did it bear some kind of symbolic meaning? What is more enlightening is that when we turn to the red coffin encased by the silk painting, we find that the two dragons passing through the bi-disc are both colored pale blue; no red

dragon can be seen here either. These two pale blue dragons reemerge in the immortal land on a side of the same coffin, flanking the three peaks of Mount Kunlun together with a winged immortal and other legendary beasts. But the color of the dragon on the screen in the head compartment of the outer coffin chamber changes again: The single dragon painted on the backside of the screen has red scales.

Taking into account the deliberate design and meticulous arrangement of the tomb, we must rec-ognize that the different choices in the color of the dragons must hold a specific intent. But we must also recognize that the currently available materials do not yet allow us to offer an explanation that is precisely verifiable. This might be a noteworthy topic in future interpretations of this important ancient Chinese tomb. At the current level of observation and research, the author can only note a clue worth considering: In the cases discussed above, the blue dragons all appear in Heaven or in the immortal land, while the red dragons are all associated with the ex-istence of the deceased – in her portrait or at her spirit seat. It is stated in ritual texts compiled between the Warring States Period and the Han Dynasty that after a person’s death, his or her hun-soul ascends to heaven, while his or her po-soul remains in the tomb with the body. Since the hun-soul is a breath-like substance capable of flight, it is called the “breath-soul” (hun qi), and since the po-soul is attached to the body, it is called the “body-soul” (xing po).[19] Apply-ing this theory to explain the different colors of the dragons in Mawangdui Tomb M1, it is conceivable that the hun-soul and the po-soul of the Marquise of Dai might have been symbolized by the blue and the red dragons, respectively. They are locked by a bi-disc in the lower part of the silk painting, but after this stage the hun-soul and the po-soul are separated. The blue dragon that represents the hun-soul flies to Heaven and the immortal land; the red dragon that symbolizes the po-soul dwells in the tomb and remains alone above the spirit seat of the Marquise.


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References Cited

[1] Zheng, Yan. 2005. “Guanyu muzang bihua qiyuan wenti de sikao: Yi Henan Yongcheng Shiyuan Han mu wei zhongxin” 关于墓葬壁画起源问题的思考——以河南永城柿园汉墓为中心 (Reflections on the Origin of Tomb Murals: With Emphasis on the Shiyuan Tomb of the Han Dynasty Centered in the Persimmon Orchard in Yongcheng City, Henan Province). Gugong bowuyuan yuan kan 故宫博物院院刊 (Palace Museum Journal) No. 3.

For the edited final version see: Zheng, Yan. 2012. Shizhe de mianju: Han Tang muzang yishu yanjiu 逝者的面具: 汉唐墓葬艺术研究 (The Mask of the Deceased: Research on Art in Tombs from the Han to Tang Dynasties), pp. 55-75. Peking University Press.

[2] For more on these discussions see: Wu, Hung. 1992. “Art in a Ritual Context: Rethinking Mawangdui.” Early China, Vol. 17, pp. 111-144.

Wu, Hung. 2011. “Yin hun lingbi” 引魂灵璧 (Soul-Guiding Funerary Bi-Discs). In Gudai muzang meishu yanjiu 古代墓葬美术研究 (Studies on Ancient Tomb Art), edited by Wu Hung and Zheng Yan, Vol. 1, pp. 55-64. Cultural Relics Press, Beijing.

[3] In the author’s previous articles he called this item a “lacquer bi-disc,” in accord with the statement in the excavation report of Mawangdui Tomb M1. Recently the author received a laboratory test report, conducted by the Hunan Provincial Museum, revealing the material of this bi-disc to be hawksbill turtle shell. See: Hunan Provincial Museum. “Daimao bi de wusun jiance baogao” 玳瑁壁的无损检测报告 (NDT Report of the Bi-Disc Made of Hawksbill Turtle Shell), forthcoming.

[4] Wu, Hung. 2011. “Yin hun lingbi” 引魂灵璧 (Soul-Guiding Funerary Bi-Discs). In Gudai muzang meishu yanjiu 古代墓葬美术研究 (Research on Art in Ancient Tombs), edited by Wu Hung and Zheng Yan, Vol. 1, p. 58. Cultural Relics Press, Beijing.

[5] Hunan Provincial Museum, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 1973. Changsha Mawangdui yihao Han mu 长沙马王堆一号汉墓 (Mawangdui Tomb M1 of the Han Dynasty in Changsha City), p. 42. Cultural Relics Press, Beijing.

[6] Liu, Bingsen. 1973. “Linmo Mawangdui Xihan bohua de diandi tihui” 临摹马王堆西汉帛画的点滴体会 (A Few Insights Gained While Copying the Silk Paintings of the Western Han Dynasty from the Mawangdui Tombs). Wenwu 文物 (Cultural Relics) No. 9. According to a record written by Bingsen Liu, who copied the silk painting soon after it was unearthed, the original pigments used to paint the blue dragon’s body were “clamshell powder” pigments, and a gradation effect also appeared, “forming the transition between two colors.”

[7] See [4], pp. 56 and 61-63.

[8] See [4], pp. 55-56.

[9] For an example of birds passing through the hole of a bi-disc, see the painting on a lacquer coffin unearthed from Tomb M1 of the Shazitang Tombs in Changsha City, Hunan Province. See [4], p. 57, Fig 2. However, unlike the image of the dragons and bi-disc painted on the red coffin of Mawangdui, this image seems to combine both the mode of movement and the mode of arrest.

[10] Wu, Hung. 1992. “Art in a Ritual Context: Rethinking Mawangdui.” In Early China, Vol. 17, p. 122.

[11] See [10] above.

[12] Sun, Zuoyun. 1973. “Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu chutu huafan kaoshi” 长沙马王堆一号汉墓出土画幡考释 (Textual Research and Interpretation of the Painted Banner Unearthed from Han Dynasty Tomb M1 at the Mawangdui Site in Changsha City). Kaogu 考古 (Archaeology) No. 1. Zuoyun Sun’s interpretation of this silk painting may be taken as representative of this standpoint.

[13] The author mentioned in one of his lectures that this item might be associated with the wooden planks used for holding corpses in tombs of the Chu area, often carved with geometric lattice patterns (sometimes called a lingchuang-funerary bed). But this is only speculation, since there is no conclusive evidence for this hypothesis.

[14] Hong, Xingzu (Song Dynasty). 1957 (reprint). Chuci bu zhu 楚辞补注 (Songs of the South with Supplemented Comments). Zhonghua Book Company. The passage of interest from the “Zhaohun” 招魂 (Summons of the Soul) chapter reads as follows: “For tigers and leopards guard the nine gates, with jaws ever ready to rend up mortal men.” [English translation quoted from The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets, trans. David Hawkes, 1985, Penguin Books. – Trans.] Wang Yi commented on this passage as follows: “There are nine gates to Heaven in total. Divine tigers and leopards are charged to hold them open or closed.”



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[15] For more on these two interpretations, see [10], pp. 102-107.

[16] Tseng, Lillian Lan-ying. 2011. Picturing Heaven in Early China, pp. 189-192. Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

[17] See [10], pp. 119-120.

[18] See [10], pp. 104-107. In the discussion of the context and symbolism of the silk painting, the author stated that in the tomb, the silk painting, together with the innermost coffin and the corpse of the Marquise of Dai, form a core unit that is called jiu [“a coffin with corpse” or “a name inscription of the deceased”] in the ancient works on rituals.

[19] Sun, Xidan (Qing Dynasty). 1989 (reprint). Liji jijie 礼记集解 (A Variorum of the Book of Rites), p. 714. Zhonghua Book Company. See the chapter “Jiao tesheng” 郊特牲 (Single Victim at the Border Sacrifices).

Wenwu (Cultural Relics) Editor: Jie Liu

Translated by Hui Sun, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Chinese Studies, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

This article was originally published in Wenwu (Cultural Relics) No. 1, 2015, pp. 54-60.


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