All along, China's traditional funeral culture has paid attention to "entering the soil for safety", no matter whether poor or rich, it is inevitable to be buried by a piece of loess after death.
This long-standing funeral ritual not only allows many cultural relics to be preserved in good condition, but also provides us with valuable information to understand the history of thousands of years ago.
One day in 1995, archaeologists found a "beautiful man" buried in the ground for a thousand years in an ancient tomb buried in Huangsha...
He is the remains of a Han Dynasty male unearthed from the archaeology of Yingpan in Xinjiang, so he is also known as "Yingpan Beautiful Man". According to his excavation location and specific appearance, some experts believe that he may be a wealthy merchant in the Western Regions, but his specific identity and status are still a mystery.
Mysterious archaeological finds
As early as 1989, experts from the Xinjiang archaeological team conducted an archaeological survey of Yuli County.
In the process of investigation, experts found that there were obvious traces of theft on the site, so they made a decision to carry out rescue excavations for the Yingpan site, saving a large number of cultural relics, and the "Han Dynasty Beautiful Man" was one of them. Due to the limited technology at that time, the burial chamber was not fully developed.
Historically, Yingpan was one of the "Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions" defined by the Central Plains Dynasty.
Yingpan itself does not have a large area, but with the development of the ancient "Silk Road", Yingpan, which is at the key point of the Loulan Road of the Silk Road, has gradually shown its important pivotal role in geographical location, and has been praised by historians as "the second Loulan".
Therefore, when the archaeological process reaches the Fifteenth Tomb of the Han Tomb Jindi at the Yingpan Site, when the shocking "Male Corpse of the Han Dynasty" appears, it has to be thought of: Is this person a Westerner? What role did this man play in the study of the ancient Silk Roads...
Based on the location of his excavation and the geographical characteristics of Yingpan, some experts infer that this "beautiful man of the Han Dynasty" may be a wealthy merchant from the Western Regions who came to trade in Yingpan.
Beautiful tomb man
"Han Dynasty Beauty" was excavated from Tomb No. 15, which is 2.16 meters long and 0.7 meters wide. The "beautiful man" lies quietly in the box-shaped painted wooden coffin, waiting for people to open the dust of history to him.
When the coffin is slowly pulled open, the true face of this "beautiful man" gradually appears in front of our eyes.
His height was his height, and his height of 1.8 meters was shocking in the era when average height was low. In terms of height alone, he can be selected into the ranks of "beautiful men".
At the time of excavation, the face of the "Beautiful Man of the Han Dynasty" wore a mask with a white background, and the mask was painted with the facial features of a person. Under the two thin eyebrows, a pair of eyes were tightly closed, looking like they were asleep.
The tall nose and the two small mustaches under the nose both highlight the thick "Western Regions" characteristics, which further confirms the identity of this "beautiful man of the Han Dynasty" in the Western Regions.
So how can experts judge the true facial features of the tomb owner through the mask?
Originally, when the People of the Western Regions at that time were buried, they often wore a custom-made mask, and the facial features painted by the mask and the five features of the tomb owner were often similar, so we can now judge the five features of the real tomb owner according to the five features on the mask.
The small mask provides an important help in our search for the identity of the tomb owner.
In addition to the mask, the "Beautiful Men of the Han Dynasty" wore a pale yellow silk robe on the upper body and a gorgeous robe.
Wearing silk pants embroidered with flowers and grass patterns on the lower body, and wearing gold felt socks on the feet, the clothes are gorgeous and extraordinary. Judging from these funeral clothes, it is not difficult to judge that this "beautiful man" has a rich family.
Gorgeous national treasure short robe
Archaeological excavations of cultural relics are all need to be restored by archaeologists, and the "Han Dynasty Beautiful Men" is no exception. After its excavation, experts meticulously restored the mask he wore and the clothes on his body, giving it its original brilliance.
From his height and appearance, we can all see the beauty of the "beautiful man of the Han Dynasty", but this gorgeous robe on his body is not inferior to his own beauty.
The Han Red Earth Human-Beast Tree Pattern Robe is the name of this robe, which is 110 cm long, the sleeves are spread out to be 185 cm long, and the hem is 100 cm wide.
The shape of the garment is crossed collar, right side, and the hem is split at both sides to the crotch. The pale yellow silk is lined, the red ground is made of human and animal tree patterns, and the overall pattern layout is symmetrical and regular, with a clear Hellenistic art style, which belongs to the refreshing unique existence in the cultural relics.
From the shape and ornamentation of clothes, we can judge that on the Silk Road at that time, cultural exchanges between the East and the West were already relatively frequent.
The greatest value of this woolen robe in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty is not that it is a woolen robe, but that it is a "double-layer two-sided patterned wool fabric".
The red and yellow colors are each other's surface, forming an overlapping upper and lower layer, and after the weaving is completed, it will form an effect of the same pattern on both sides but different colors. The colors are bright and the weavers are exquisite, not to mention at the time, but in the modern era, which is also breathtaking.
In order to effectively ensure the safety of this precious cultural relic and maintain the confidentiality of this technology, on August 19, 2013, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage listed the Han RedDi human and animal tree pattern robe in the "Third Batch of Cultural Relics Prohibited from Going Abroad (Border) for Exhibition", and the mainland has now banned the export of this cultural relic.
Stop at the visitors
Although this cultural relic is now forbidden to leave the country, we can still see it in China. The cultural relics are now in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and will be exhibited in local museums from time to time.
Curiously, when this artifact was put on display, most of the tourists were "discouraged".
Although the clothes worn by the "beautiful men" show strong exotic characteristics, the specific burial tools and funeral customs have strong Han Chinese characteristics, which further affects the concept of Han people when looking at this cultural relic.
In the han chinese thousands of years of funerary culture, people should "go into the ground for safety" when they die, even if there is admiration for the clothes attached to the corpse, it cannot offset people's fear of "corpse".
In addition, there are many taboos in China's unique funeral rites, and in ancient times, it was more important to pay attention to "death as life", believing that people would survive in another world after death. Over thousands of years, this idea has faded but has not died.
Therefore, those "deterrent" attitudes can also be understood.
In any case, we should have a reverence for the dead, and the destruction of the dead and tombs is an act of disrespect.
From ancient times to the present, the funerary culture of the mainland has never faded away, and the countless funerary products are sleeping in the underground, and once they wake up again, they will be like the "beautiful men of the Han Dynasty", guiding us to explore the cultural context of thousands of years ago and to experience the cultural heritage of our great country.