The Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb is located northeast of Xiashe Village, Lancun Township, Xinfu District, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, China. It is one of the tombs in the Jiuyuangang Tomb Group, a Shanxi provincial cultural relics protection unit. The Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb is the first Northern Dynasties tomb discovered in Xinzhou. As the tomb had been robbed many times, few artifacts were unearthed, and the epitaph had also been stolen, so the identity of the tomb owner cannot be determined. Based on the scale of the tomb, experts inferred that the owner was a core member of the Gao clan of Northern Qi. The surviving murals in the tomb cover 200 square meters. The hunting scenes discovered on the east and west walls of the tomb passage cover 70 square meters, making them the largest Northern Dynasties tomb hunting murals discovered in China. The mural on the north wall of the tomb passage depicts a building using inclined bracket arms and double-column dougong, which is of great significance for the study of Chinese architectural history. The Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb was shortlisted for the final selection of the 2013 Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China,but was not selected.
Excavation In 2013, Jing Yaozhong, a master's student in archaeology at Shanxi University, discovered a robbed mural tomb in a cornfield northeast of Xiashe Village, Lancun Township, Xinfu District, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, during a field survey. Because the tomb contained murals, Jing believed that it was of great value. He informed Lang Baoli, a professor in the Department of Archaeology at Shanxi University, and reported the discovery to the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology. In March 2013, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology sent an expert team to Xinzhou to investigate the mural tomb. In late June 2013, the National Cultural Heritage Administration approved a rescue excavation. The Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Xinzhou Cultural Relics Management Office jointly formed an archaeological team. Qu Chuanfu, director of the academic committee of the Shanxi Museum and a research fellow, served as the executive leader of the excavation. Because the tomb had been severely robbed, only many fragments of pottery figurines, a small number of pottery and porcelain fragments, and dozens of iron coffin nails were unearthed. During the excavation, more than 200 square meters of murals were cleaned, the murals were preliminarily reinforced, and on-site protection was carried out. The murals in the passageway and tomb passage had already been damaged by tomb robbers. Based on the characteristics of the murals, experts determined that the tomb dated to the Northern Dynasties. The epitaph had already been stolen, making it impossible to determine the identity of the tomb owner. The human bones found in the tomb were poorly preserved, so the age and sex of the tomb owner could not yet be determined from the remains.
On December 24, 2013, twelve well-known Chinese archaeologists inspected the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb. Xin Lixiang, former director and research fellow of the Field Archaeology Department of the National Museum of China, stated that, in terms of scale and form, the tomb was close in rank to the Wanzhang Tomb in Ci County, Hebei Province. Scholars have speculated that the owner of the Wanzhang Tomb was Gao Yang, an emperor of Northern Qi, which suggests that the owner of the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb was likely a core member of the Gao clan of Northern Qi. Xin Lixiang commented that the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb is of extraordinary significance for the study of late Northern Dynasties social life, painting art, and the history of ancient Chinese architecture. He also stated that it shows Xinzhou was historically an important area of Hu-Han interaction and ethnic coexistence. On December 25, 2013, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology organized a public open day at the excavation site of the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb, with dozens of media outlets participating.
Tomb The Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb faces south and is a brick-chamber tomb with a sloping tomb passage and a single burial chamber. The tomb consists of four parts: the mound, the sloping tomb passage, the corridor, and the burial chamber. The surviving mound has an irregular plan. It is 16 meters wide from east to west, 26 meters long from north to south, and about 7 meters high. The mound was rammed with light yellow earth. The rammed layers in the lower half are 0.1 to 0.2 meters thick, relatively hard, and of good quality, while the upper layers are poorer in quality, with the thickest part reaching 0.6 meters. On the west side of the mound, there is a modern robbery hole that leads directly to the burial chamber and seriously damaged the tomb.
The tomb passage has a rectangular plan. It is 30.5 meters long, 3.4 meters wide at the top, and 2.45 meters wide at the bottom, with the top wider than the bottom. The opening of the tomb passage lies 0.5 to 0.7 meters below the ground surface, and the bottom is 6.55 meters deep. The two walls of the tomb passage have four stepped levels, each receding inward by about 0.25 meters from top to bottom. In the middle of the east wall of the tomb passage, there is a rectangular robbery hole. The hole was dug vertically down to the bottom of the tomb passage, then entered the burial chamber from the fourth level of the east wall, almost completely destroying the murals on the fourth level of the east wall. The section left by the robbery hole shows the construction process of the tomb passage: first, a rectangular earth pit was dug; then adobe bricks were built against the east and west walls to strengthen the walls; afterward, a layer of straw-mixed mud 1 to 2 centimeters thick was applied to the adobe; finally, white lime was applied over the straw-mixed mud, and murals were painted on it. In addition to the east and west walls, the north wall of the tomb passage also has murals.
The corridor between the tomb passage and the burial chamber is 3 meters long, 1.95 meters wide, and 3.3 meters high. It has an arched vaulted roof and a rectangular plan. A stone door was originally built at the south end of the corridor. At the time of excavation, only the stone lintel remained, measuring 0.24 meters thick. Experts estimated that the original bluestone tomb door was about two meters high. Local villagers said that tomb robbers had stolen the tomb door ten years earlier. At the north end of the corridor, where it connects with the burial chamber, part of a brick sealing wall remains. It is 0.7 meters high and 0.45 meters thick. The east and west walls and the ceiling of the corridor originally had murals, but at the time of excavation, only a small area of mural survived on the ceiling, while the rest had been destroyed.
The burial chamber has a square plan with curved sides and a domed ceiling, and was built inside a square earth pit. It is 5.9 meters wide from east to west, 5.75 meters long from north to south, and 8.8 meters high. The chamber had been very severely robbed. All four walls of the burial chamber originally had murals, but at the time of the archaeological excavation, only the celestial chart on the ceiling remained. Many mural fragments were unearthed from the fill inside the chamber. Archaeologists inferred from this that the murals on the four walls of the chamber had been stripped away by tomb robbers. Broken bricks, coffin wood, and debris left by tomb robbers, including blankets and mineral water bottles, were scattered on the floor of the chamber.
Unearthed artifacts Because it had been robbed many times, few artifacts were unearthed from the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb. During the cleaning of the tomb, archaeologists found some fragments of grave goods, all of which had been displaced from their original positions. The artifacts unearthed from the tomb included a large number of pottery figurine fragments, dozens of iron coffin nails, a small number of pottery fragments, and a small number of porcelain fragments. Few human bones were unearthed, and they were poorly preserved, so the age and sex of the tomb owner could not yet be determined from the remains. The epitaph had also been stolen. According to local villagers, the epitaph was stolen and sold more than ten years earlier, and it bore the three characters “Great General” another account says that it contained the characters “Xiurong Great General”.
Murals The surviving murals of the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb are mainly distributed on the east, west, and north walls of the tomb passage. Some murals also survive on the ceiling of the corridor and the ceiling of the burial chamber. The two walls of the corridor and the four walls of the burial chamber originally had murals, but due to severe damage, almost none remain.
The murals on the east and west walls of the tomb passage are divided into four levels. From top to bottom, the first level on both walls depicts immortals, fearsome beasts, divine birds, and other figures, with flowing clouds and honeysuckle patterns filling the blank spaces. Among the fearsome beasts are a horse that eats tigers and leopards, known as bo, and a monster that eats snakes, known as Jiangliang, both recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The northern sections of the second level on both walls depict hunting scenes. The hunting scenes are rich in content, and the figures and animals are highly vivid. The southern sections of the second level depict aides and attendants, including two Central Asian figures. In the hunting scene on the west wall, a man wearing a general's cap and riding a horse is about to draw his bow and shoot an arrow. In front of him is a herd of running deer, while behind him stands a person holding a command flag, seemingly the commander of the entire hunting party. The third level depicts traveling processions. The warriors are all shown standing and carrying bows and arrows. At the southern end of the west wall is a scene of a hunting dog and an eagle catching a rabbit. Behind the dog and eagle is a young man on horseback, with his right arm stretched forward, seemingly directing the hunt. The fourth-level mural on the east wall was completely destroyed by the robbery hole. The fourth level on the west wall still depicts a traveling procession, consisting of a group of standing warriors.
The mural on the north wall of the tomb passage depicts a grand wooden building with a hip roof. Directly above the roof is a brazier, with a monster having an animal head and bird body on each side. Six maidservants stand beneath the eaves. The wooden building is five bays wide and uses inclined bracket arms. The building in the painting also uses double-column dougong, the first such example discovered in a mural.Previously, scholars generally believed that dougong used in Northern Dynasties architecture basically did not project outward, and that although dougong in early Tang architecture projected outward, it was very simple. The building in the Jiuyuangang Northern Dynasties Mural Tomb uses complex dougong and projecting bracket arms, changing previous understanding of the history of ancient Chinese architecture. Xin Lixiang even said that the gate tower shown in the mural “could rewrite the history of Chinese architecture”.