Among the first imperial mausoleums archaeologically excavated
after?1949 are two Southern Tang mausoleums of the Five
Dynasties (907-960), Li Bian's Qinling Mausoleum and Li Jing's
Shunling Mausoleum. They were discovered in spring 1950; excavation
began in October and concluded in January 1951.
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According to historical records, Southern Tang had been ruled by
three emperors over a period of 39 years (937-975). Founding
emperor was Li Bian, second came Li Jing and third was Li Yu, or Li
Houzhu, the last monarch of Southern Tang. Li Houzhu, who went
north after surrendering to Northern Song, was buried in the
Beimang Mountain, Luoyang. Mausoleums of the other two emperors
eluded discovery until clues were found in the chamber of a
plundered ancient tomb. Miniature wooden structures and colored
paintings suggested the presence of royal tombs. Archaeological
excavations showed that the opened tomb was on the side of the two
mausoleums of Southern Tang.
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Qinling Mausoleum and Shunling Mausoleum are only about 50
meters apart. Situated on Mount Zutang of the Niushou
(Cattle-Heads) Mountains in Jiangling County, Nanjing, the two
mausoleums are 22 kilometers from Zhonghua Gate, Nanjing, and more
than 10 kilometers from liangning County Seat. Backed by high
mountains and sheltered on the left and right by ridges and small
hills, the two mausoleums are called "Grand Lounge Chair" by the
local people. Fronting the highest peak of the Yuntai
(Cloud-Wreathed Terrace) Mountain and with the two peaks of the
Cattle-Heads Mountains in the background, they have been described
as "backed as if by the twin watchtowers above a palace gate, they
face the lofty terrace wreathed in clouds."
Plane Figure of Qinling Mausoleum of the Southern
Tang
Surface structures for the two mausoleums have long since
disappeared, leaving behind only two mounds. The dilapidated mound
of Qinling Mausoleum is about five meters high and 30 meters in
diameter. The Shunling Mausoleum, built against a mountain slope,
has a mound even smaller than that of Qinling Mausoleum. Remnant
earth banks south and southwest of Shunling Mausoleum probably were
boundaries of the original mausoleum garden and a terrace inside
was probably the foundation of the mausoleum hall. In reclaiming
land on the terrace, tenants had unearthed a number of bricks,
three plinths, broken tile and white porcelain. Similar to those
excavated from the underground palace. It can be guessed,
therefore, that the original surface architectures was quite
magnificent.
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The underground palace of Li Bian's mausoleum is fairly large,
21.8 meters long and 10.5 meters wide. The palace is divided from
south to north into front, middle and back main chambers. On both
east and west flanks of the front and middle chambers are side
chambers and three chambers flank the rear chamber to the east and
to the west for a total of 13 chambers in the palace. Facing nearly
due south, with a deviation of 9o to the west, the tomb gate
has an arched door at the center with corbelled door eaves. The
architecture imitates wooden parts, with the arched door featuring
whitewashed pillars and brackets covered with color
paintings.
Color paintings from buildings of Qinling
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The rectangular front chamber is 3.8 meters from east to west,
4.5 meters from north to south and 4.3 meters high. In the center
of each of the four walls is an arched door. All the built-in
square octagonal pillars, brackets, beam ends and the north wall
are whitewashed and covered with color paintings, forming a
magnificent, colorful interior.
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The middle chamber is similar in design to the front chamber;
roughly square in form, it is 4.5 meters from east to west and 4.4
meters from north to south. In the center of each of the east,
south and west walls is a round door. Both the southeast corner and
the southwest corner have built-in octagonal pillars. The rest
replicates the front chamber.
The north walls are built of granite and each end bears a
sculpting of a warrior. Between the ends, separating the warriors
are piled and plastered square granite slabs, forming a wall which
was painted red. Atop the granite walls and the plastered walls are
horizontal tablets of granite on which are carved relieves of two
dragons playing with a pearl.
With a height of 5.3 meters, the middle chamber is more than a
meter higher than the front chamber. Between middle chamber and
rear chamber is a passage way 3 meters from east to west and 1.9
meters from north to south, to accommodate an opened stone door to
the rear chamber.
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The main part of the underground palace, the rear chamber, is
largest at 5.9 meters from east to west and 6 meters from north to
south. In the center of the south wall is a square double door made
of huge granite slabs. Each of the east and west walls has three
doors leading to the chambers off the main room. At the center of
the chamber is the stone coffin platform, the rear part of which
extends into a large niche in the north wall. In each corner of the
chamber and on both sides of the doors to side chambers are
built-in octagonal pillars. The large pillars extend far enough
into the chamber to create room-sized recesses at each end and
three nooks on each side, and 12 small niches are built into the
walls. Atop the east and west walls, layers of granite blocks
overlaid with great rectangular stone slabs form a peaked ceiling.
The four walls are deep red; the octagonal and square pillars and
brackets are covered with color paintings. The whitewashed ceiling
displays a painted map of the celestial bodies while the floor is
carved with outlines of rivers; these coincide with descriptions
found in the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang: "Above is a
representation of the celestial sphere and below is that of the
surface of the earth," symbolizing the emperor's possession of all
territory under heaven.
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Colors used in paintings on pillars, beam ends and brackets in
the various chambers of Li Bian's mausoleum are very colorful
pigments of azurite, malachite, ochre, cinnabar and others. The
designs are mostly peonies, stock roses, lotuses, a type of
pomegranate flower and wavy cloud patterns. Of a relatively early
date, these have provided important concrete data in research on
architectural paintings.
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Shunling Mausoleum is the common grave of Li Jing and Empress
Zhong. Because Southern Tang had declined by the time Li Jing died,
and he had declared himself a vassal of the Later Zhou Dynasty, his
mausoleum was much smaller than for Li Bian. The layout of its
underground palace is similar to Li Bian's, 21.9 meters long, 10.1
meters wide and divided from south to north into the front, middle
and rear chambers. Side rooms open off the east and west flanks of
the front and middle chambers, arid two rooms open at each side of
the rear chamber, for a total of eleven large and small tomb
chambers. Construction of the entire mausoleum is much inferior to
Qinling Mausoleum, mostly brick and very little stone. There are
fewer color paintings and sculptures than in Qinling Mausoleum and
no maps of the celestial bodies and the earth's surface. The rest
is similar to Qinling Mausoleum in form and construction.
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The two mausoleums of Southern Tang are valuable primarily for
the underground palace architecture. In addition, up to 600 large
and small cultural artifacts were found in them despite numerous
lootings over the centuries. Most valuable are several dozen flat
jade pieces of aice unearthed in Li Bian's mausoleum. The
inscribed eulogy gives an account of Li Bian's life and burial.
Though broken and incomplete, the aice pieces are still
informative. They were made by carving and gilding characters on
flat jade pieces, with a glittering effect. A jade piece on which
are carved the characters "The Tenth Lunar Month of the First Year
of the Reign of Bao Da, the New Emperor and Subject Yao," among
others, is important historical proof of the identity of this
mausoleum. Fewer aice pieces are discovered in Li Jing's
mausoleum and are of poorer quality, no longer jade but stone.
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Among the unearthed cultural relics are sets of various kinds of
pottery figurines, ranging from imperial concubines through
courtiers down to palace maids, actors, actresses and guards, a
complete roster of a royal court. These exquisitely sculpted
figurines, vivid and lifelike, are rare works of art.
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A native of Xuzhou, Li Bian was an orphan adopted by Yang
Xingmi, prince of the state of Wu, in the chaos of war. Later, he
became the adopted son of Xu Wen, Prime Minister of the state of
Wu, and was renamed Xu Zhigao. After Xu Wen had died, he took power
in Wu and was made prince of the state of Qi. In the 3rd year (937)
of the reign Tian Zuo he formally proclaimed himself emperor at
Jingling, titled his dynasty Great Qi and changed the reign title
to Sheng Yuan. Three years later he resumed his surname Li and
changed his dynasty title to Tang, which history knows as Southern
Tang. Its territory comprising a greater part of modern Jiangsu and
Anhui provinces, the whole of Jiangxi and a part of Fujian
provinces, the state of Southern Tang was relatively large and rich
among the Ten States of the Five Dynasties period. During the years
of his reign as emperor, he stressed agricultural production,
encouraging and rewarding farming and weaving and developed a
comparatively stable rule, with the capital, Jingling, enjoying a
fair degree of prosperity. Evidence of these can be seen from the
architecture of his mausoleum and its unearthed cultural relics.
But, once he was gone, the situation steadily deteriorated to the
time of the last monarch, who abandoned himself to dissipation
until he finally lamented. "Oh, lost country, the moon is bright, I
can't bear to look back."
