Why did the 18-year-old Khitan princess, who had been sleeping for a thousand years, wear a mysterious mask on her head and be buried with her uncle?

In the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there is a collection

A heavy weapon that can be called the treasure of the town: the golden mask of the Liao Dynasty.

Liao Dynasty Golden Mask - Tomb of Princess Chen Guo Excavated Horqin Museum .jpg

The mask is 20.5 cm long and 17.2 cm wide, making it the size of an adult's face. The lines of the mask's ears are clearly visible, the face is rounded, the eyes are open, and the lips are slightly pursed, depicting the face of a Khitan woman.

This is a gold mask tailored for the owner of the tomb. So who is the owner of this mysterious mask? What kind of legend does it have?

The mysterious green brick lifts the veil of the thousand-year-old Liao Dynasty tomb

In the summer of 1985, in Naiman Banner, Inner Mongolia, there was a Qinglongshan town in this place, when this place was repairing the reservoir, when excavating, people dug and dug, "Dangdang", they hit a green brick, at that time, just someone recognized, said that this brick is called "tomb brick"! So the construction team rushed to the Naiman Flag Museum at that time to report, and after the archaeologists investigated, it was determined that this was an ancient tomb of the Liao Dynasty. The specifications of this tomb are also of the level of a prince. Who is the owner of the tomb?

Tomb door

The mysterious owner of the tomb, Princess Chen Guo, who is related to her uncle

According to the excavated "Epitaph of the Late Princess Chen Guo", the staff was surprised to find that

It turned out that this was the first Liao Dynasty imperial tomb found in China and never stolen.

The owner of the tomb was the granddaughter of Emperor Jingzong of Liao, Princess Yelü of the Chen Kingdom, and she was buried with her by her husband and his uncle, Xiao Shaojue, the Duke of Tuoma.

Two ancient corpses in a joint burial tomb

This tomb is different from our traditional co-burial tomb, and the tombs in our society are basically dominated by men and supplemented by women. But this tomb is not mainly male, but mainly female.

This Princess Chen Guo is also very strange, no name, she only has a title, history only knows her surname Yelü, if you have to remember what her name is, you can call her Yelü Taiping.

Why did the 16-year-old princess marry her uncle, who was more than ten years older?

Princess Chen Guo was the granddaughter of Empress Xiao (Empress Jingzong of Liao), who, when she was 16 years old, married a donkey named Xiao Shaojie, who was more than ten years older than herself. Princess Chen Guo and the horse are actually the relationship between nieces and cousins. You now sound like incest, but this was common in the Liao Dynasty. There is not much introduction to the horse in the epitaph, but a review of the History of Liao shows that Xiao Shaoju was only 35 years old at the time of his death. He was not very old, and his official position was not large, and he was a lieutenant.

(Portrait of Empress Xiao)

The rules of the Liao Dynasty royal family were very strict, and marriage could only be carried out between the Yelü clan and the Xiao clan, so we have a word called "imperial relatives and state relatives", just in this circle, you can't go out. In order to ensure the purity of blood, but the quality of people may continue to decline.

Mysterious golden mask The peculiar funerary culture of the Liao Dynasty nobles

After the excavations of the archaeologists,

There are 3227 pieces of burial items in the tomb, many of which are made of gold, silver, jade and precious materials such as agate, amber and pearls. thereinto

There are Liao white porcelain, Hebei dingyao white porcelain, Yue kiln celadon porcelain, green glazed porcelain. At that time, the Yue kiln plates were very beautiful, and the Yue kilns in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty still vaguely had a Tang style.

Unearthed golden crown

One of the most important cultural relics is this gold mask. The main function of metal masks and silver wire networks found in the tombs of the Nobles of the Liao Dynasty is to envelop the corpse and keep the body intact, without causing the body to be scattered because of the long period of residence, which damages the image of the owner. Then, the two golden masks and silver wire networks unearthed from the tomb of Princess Chen Guo are not only the most complete, but also the highest level.

The gold mask is 0.05 cm thick, that is, half a millimeter thick, and is formed by pounding a thin gold sheet according to the shape of the princess's face, and it is semi-embossed. The face is rounded, the eyes are round, the bridge of the nose is narrow and long, the wings of the nose are slightly wider, and the lips are pursed, showing a peaceful, calm and dignified state.

The mask has 33 small holes in its circumference, which is used for connecting networks. The princess died young, at the age of 18, and the mask was as youthful as possible. The eyebrows and eyes are pounded and finely made, showing the characteristics of her face and stretching her forehead. In the past, silver masks, copper masks, and gilded copper masks have been found in Liao tombs, all of which are not as precious as this pure gold mask.

There is a kind of metal craft, today called pounding yè, in the past the old antique line called it pounding dié, this pounding is no mold, the craftsman sees what you look like, directly according to the pounding out.

Hammering process diagram

You think, at that time, such a craftsman, no name, looked at the young face of Princess Chen Guo and constantly pounded, pounding out such a delicate golden mask, we really have to thank this unknown craftsman from the bottom of our hearts, it is precisely because of his craftsmanship that we witnessed the young and beautiful Princess Chen Guo.

Some of the excavated artifacts: