[Si]
A group of early Han Dynasty tombs near Chang-Sha (Changsha City) in Hunan Province. Excavated in 1972–4, the three tombs each take the form of a massive compartmented timber box at the bottom of a deep stepped shaft. The shaft was filled in with rammed earth, and a mound was raised over it. Tomb 2 is probably the earliest and belonged to the first marquis of Dai who died in 186 bc, a high official of the Han administration.
Tomb 3 is probably the burial place of the marquis's son who died in 168 bc. Its contents were better preserved than those in Tomb 2, comprising silk paintings, three rare musical instruments, and an extraordinary collection of manuscripts, some on silk and some on bamboo slips. The writings deal with such subjects as contemporary philosophical themes, early historical events, military information, astronomical and calendrical matters, geography, and medicine.
Tomb 1 is that of the marquis's wife who died shortly after 168 bc. The earthen mound was 16m in height. The contents of this tomb were very well preserved. The body and internal organs of its occupant showed it to have been a 50-year-old female of short stature. Details from the autopsy of the cadaver showed a variety of ills leading up to her death, including coronary arteriosclerosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, and gallstones. The body had been wrapped in silk and laid inside four richly decorated nested coffins. More than 180 dishes, toilet boxes, and other lacquered articles, silk clothing, offerings of food, musical instruments, small wooden figures of servants and musicians, and a complete inventory of the grave goods written on bamboo slips serve to depict extreme wealth.
In construction and contents these three tombs are rather different from other Han princely burials in northern China and reflect the lingering traditions and material culture of the Chu kingdom, which had fallen to the Qin less than a century earlier.
[Sum.: Q. Hao, 1981, The Han tombs at Mawangdui, Changsha: underground home of an aristocratic family. In Q. Hao (ed.), Out of China's earth. London: Muller. 87–125]
