Painted stingrays excavated from the Tomb of Gongyi Tang
Sun Jiaoyun Sun Liuming
The stingray, as a special pottery burial product, is rare in tombs. Since the 1980s, 11 pieces of stingrays have been excavated from the Gongyi Tang Tomb, including 1 piece each from the M8 of Xiaozhan Road on Zhanjie Street, M20 from Gaoshang Village, and M1 from the Municipal Machinery and Tile Factory, 3 pieces from the Kangdian Brick Factory M1, and 5 pieces from the M13 of Hengfeng Steel Cable Factory. Due to the many stolen tombs, most of the burial stingrays have been placed in a position, but we can still roughly judge the age of these stingrays from the artifacts excavated from the tombs. The key ones are introduced below.
1. Introduction of utensils
According to the shape of the stingray, it can be divided into A and B types.
Type A Round, 10 pieces. According to the ear, whisker characteristics and fixation method is divided into three types.
I. 3 pieces. Specimen, Gongyi Kangdian Brick Factory M1 excavated, close to the perfect circle. The perimeter is flattened, the two corners of the forehead are curved upwards and backwards, small horns grow in the middle, the horizontal eyebrows are short and thick, the eyes are convex, the nose is high, the teeth are grinning, revealing the fangs and 4 pairs of incisors, no ears. There is a hole in the top, bottom, left and right. Corner root residual red color. Height 32.5cm, width 22.3cm, thickness 7.5cm. (Figure 1) Specimen, Gongyi Kangdian Brick Factory M1 excavated, round. The corners are broken, and the shape is the same as before, but the painted situation can be seen. The upper edge is painted with thin ink lines to paint black hair, and the eye sockets and mouth are painted red. Three remaining holes. Height 23cm, width 23cm, thickness 7.5cm. (Figure 2)
Fig. 1 Type A I. ray head (specimen) (gongyi kangdian brick factory M1 excavation)
Fig. 2 Type A Type I stingray (specimen) (Gongyi Kangdian Brick Factory M1 excavation)
Fig. 3 Type A TYPE II stingray (specimen) (excavated from M8, Xiaozhan Road, Gongyi Station Street)
Ii. 2 pieces. Specimen, Gongyi Station Street Xiaozhan Road M8 excavated, flat round. The periphery is flattened, the forehead horns are missing, the ears are oversized, the face is extended, the eyes are as large as a lamp, and the upper jaw is raised high, revealing the fangs and 4 pairs of incisors. The ears, eye sockets, and around the mouth are painted red, and the black whiskers are traced with a slightly thicker ink line next to the mouth. There is a round hole at the root of the ear, but the position is asymmetrical, and the hole is inserted with long nails. Height 23.5cm, width 33cm, thickness 9.5cm. (Figure 3) Specimen, M20 excavated from Gongyi Noble Village, flat circle. The periphery is flattened, the two corners of the forehead are thicker, upward and outward, the middle has small horns, the two ends of the thick eyebrows are rolled up, the eyes are as large as chicken eggs, the ears are cocked and open, and the corners of the mouth are torn wider, revealing the fangs and 6 pairs of incisors. The periphery, horns, ears, orbits, and mouth are painted red, and the perimeter of the ears is traced with ink lines to depict black whiskers. There are two round holes in the corners of the eyes, one of which has a remnant of an iron nail. Pass height 30 cm, width 25 cm, thickness 8.5 cm. (Figure 4)
Fig. 4 Type A TYPE II. stingray (specimen) (excavated from M20, Gongyi Gaoshang Village)
Fig. 5 Type A III. stingray (specimen) (collected by Gongyi Machine And Tile Factory)
Fig. 6 Type A III. ray head (specimen) (Hengfeng Steel and Cable Factory M13 excavated)
Fig. 7 Type B ray head (specimen) (excavation of M13 of Hengfeng Steel and Cable Factory)
III. 5 pieces. Specimen, collected by Gongyi Machine And Tile Factory, round. Ears, horns, triangular mane, beard are mostly mutilated, bulging eyes, high nose, permeable nostrils, open mouth to expose fangs and 4 pairs of incisors, orbit, eyeballs, mouth area painted black. There are two round holes under the roots of the ears. Height 23.5cm, width 23cm, thickness 10cm. (Figure 5) Specimen, Hengfeng Steel And Cable Factory M13 excavated, nearly circular. The periphery is flattened, the top is narrow, the two corners of the forehead are drooping to the sides, the middle is born with small horns, the vertical triangular mane between the two corners, the cross eyebrows are rolled up at both ends, the bulging eyes, the small ears, the pig nose, the grinning teeth, revealing the fangs and 4 pairs of incisors, the whiskers at the corners of the mouth are upside down, and the three strands of beard under the jaw are exposed. The ears, orbits, nostrils, and periphery of the lips are painted red, and the forehead hair and beard are first coated with ink lines to show hair, and then red. There is a nail in the round hole at the root of both ears. Height 27.5cm, width 25.5cm, thickness 9.5cm. (Figure 6)
Type B Rectangular, 1 piece. The specimen, M13 of Hengfeng Steel And Cable Factory, was originally round, but it became roughly rectangular due to the addition of front legs on both sides. The two corners of the forehead are sagging and outward, there are triangular manes between the corners, the ears are large and the eyes are small, the teeth are grinning, revealing the fangs and 4 pairs of incisors, the three strands of whiskers under the lips, the legs are added next to the cheeks, and the front paws protrude to grasp. The mane, eyebrows, ears, eye sockets, circumference of the mouth, and beard are painted red. The root of the ear has two round holes. Height 30.9cm, width 40.2cm, thickness 10cm. (Figure 7)
2. Conclusion
1. Years
The 7 cases of stingray listed in this article are all from the tomb, according to the characteristics of the pottery figurines in the tomb, the age of the tomb can be roughly determined, so that the age of the stingray is also determined.
The Kangdian Brick Factory M1 unearthed a hoof-footed town tomb beast sitting on the bottom plate, which is older, between about 670-675 AD. Gongyi Station Street Xiaozhan Road M8 excavated a broken town tomb beast, according to the town tomb beast wing teeth, the tomb age is about 690-700 AD. Gongyi Gaoshang Village M20 unearthed a town tomb beast, a samurai figurine, a Wei king's head figurine and a figurine of a fallen bun, the latter two appeared after 722 AD, combined with the characteristics of the artifacts excavated from the Gongyi Tang tomb, the tomb is dated from about 722-730 AD. In addition to the head, the Gongyi Machine Tile Factory also collected a Sancai Town Tomb Beast, whose wings are partially toothed, but connected, like a duck webbing, according to the height and color of the pedestal, dating from about 720-730 AD. Hengfeng Steel Cable Factory M13 also unearthed town tomb beasts, samurai figurines, Wei Wang's head figurines and Wu Fallen Bun Figurines, dating from the same age as the M20 of Gaoshang Village.
Figure 8 Position of the stingray in the Tomb of Nanping Tang in Hunan Province
2. Artifact characteristics
We divide the stingray into A and B types, and the A type is divided into three types, which can be clearly seen that with the different times, the shape of the stingray has also changed. In the early Tang Dynasty, there was a disc around the face of the stingray with four round holes to fix the stingray to an object. The top of the head is two right angles, curved backwards, and the orbits and mouth are relatively simple and earless. In the early Tang Dynasty, the two corners of the head of the fish stretched outward, two ears protruded from the disc, the lower part of the disc was depicted with whiskers, and the fixed hole was reduced to two, located near the root of the ear. In the late Tang Dynasty, the style of the stingray became more ostentatious, the double horns changed from towering to drooping ears, the forehead was long triangular mane, the cheeks and chin had triangular whiskers, and the fixed holes were still two. The rectangular stingray is based on the A type III. style, with legs and claws, which looks more powerful, but the overall style has not changed substantially.
3. Function
The stingray, Han already has it. "Zhou Li Xia Official Xiang Clan": "Fang Xiang Clan palm bear skin, golden four eyes, Xuan Yi Zhu Pei, Zhi Ge Yang Dun..." Zheng Xuan's note: "Meng, Mao Ye." Bearskin bearskins to scare away the ghosts of plague, and now the beard is also. From Zheng Xuan's words, we know that Fang Xiangshi, who is exorcising ghosts, is covered in bear skin, and the mask he wears is shining with golden light, just like the head of the Han Dynasty, and the mask worn by Fang Xiangshi is very similar to the ghost exorcism mask of the Han Dynasty, the head of the dragon, but it is not the same thing. The Book of Sui and the Book of Etiquette RECORDS THAT "Later Qi (Northern Qi) decreed... The three products have been on the fifth class, the founding of the country, the general square phase. The four pins have been lowered, reaching the Shu people, to the head of the fish. In the Sui Dynasty, "four products have been used on the square phase, and seven products have been used on the stingray.". It can be seen that the square phase and the stingray are indeed different, and the difference may lie in the difference between the four eyes and the two eyes. In the Tang Dynasty, there is no clear record of the use of the other phase and the fish head, and it is generally carried out with reference to the previous dynasty.
The 11 disc-shaped utensils with double-horned tiger faces in the tomb of Gongyi Tang are obviously the fish heads contained in the Book of Sui, so what is its role? We can see the hint from the location of the stingray excavated from the M13 of Gongyi Hengfeng Steel Cable Factory. The imposing-looking rectangular stingray was on the front bezel of the coffin, while the remaining four smaller ones were located at either end of the coffin, two on each side. Apparently, the head of the fish is used to protect the owner inside the coffin, to drive away all kinds of plagues. We speculate that one of the three rays unearthed from the Kangdian Brick Factory M1 should also be located on the front baffle and the other two on both sides. Coincidentally, in 2019, the Hunan Changde Museum excavated the tomb of the ninth chamberlain of the Tang Dynasty In 868 AD in Nanping,[1] with a rectangular coffin bed in the middle of the tomb and a square brick carved head embedded in the middle of the four walls (Figure 8), which worked the same as that of nailing on the coffin board.
This article has been guided by Researcher Hao Hongxing, and I hereby thank you.
bibliography:
Changde Museum. Briefing on the Archaeological Excavation of Tang Dynasty Tombs in Nanping, Changde, Hunan Province[M]//Hunan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Hunan Archaeology Series: Episode 14. Beijing:Science Press,2019:180-196.]
(Author Affilications Gongyi City Museum)
Originally published in Yellow River. loess. Yellow People