Off to Xian 2 (Han Yang Ling Mausoleum) (漢陽陵博物館)

I began my trip, appropriately enough for this ancient Chinese capital, every mile of which exudes history and culture, by a visit to a Han dynasty tomb. I went to the a museum called Han Yang Ling Museum (漢陽陵博物館) , built like the Dinosaur Museum in Yunnan, in situ over the site of the archaeological digging. The tomb is situated at the Yang Ling County which stretches eastward from the site of the tomb, with some 11 east-west and 31 north south streets with well over 200 compounds with a 970 meter long city wall surrounded by a moat. Most of them have now vanished but a huge number of pottery kilns and building materials like bricks, tiles and domestic pottery and coins have been discovered: valuable for understanding more than 2 centuries of Chinese life during the Western Han Dynasty (西漢) (206 BCE- 9 AD) enough to provide work for archaeological workers for another century.

The courtyard and garden outside of the Han Yang Ling

The corridor to the Han Yang Ling Museum

A model of the Han Yang Ling. The Main tomb is in the middle. Surrounding it are the satellite streets.

A closer view of the Han Yang County with its former city wall

A typical Han style tower. To the right is a typical Han Dynasty warrior with armor

In this photo, there are 9 Tings (九鼎), the origin of the Chinese saying, "one's is as good as 9 tings" (一言九鼎), 9 bronzel bell-coins (銅錢) and four jade ring-shape "bi"s (玉壁)

The terra cotta effigies (陶俑) are made in five parts, head; upper body; waist, bottom and legs; arms and hands and then feet, more or less the way we now make plastic dolls.

Some of the domestic wares used in the Han Dynasty.
All kinds of pottery ware are found including even pottery houses, pottery wall decoration depicting life during the period, ritual wares, chessboards, ornaments, warriors ( infantry and calvalry), weapons ( eg. bronze yue (銅鉞), battering rams (攻城破門銅鐓), spears (矛),swords (劍), daggers (匕首), bows (弓), arrow heads (銅鏃), halberds (戟), flag caps (旗杆頂飾,), domestic  servants (家僕), officials (standing, walking, sitting), seals (印), weights (磚碼), yokes (軛帽), harness (鞍), metal bells (鐘), mirrors (鏡),  incense burner (熏爐), lamps (陶燈), cooking vessels (鍪/甑/甗) containers (陶壺 ) kitchen ware like stoves (陶爐灶), basins (銅匜/盆/豆/缽), dou (銅斗), measuring cup (銅龠)  sheng (銅升), pot (銅鈁/鑒) urns (陶罐), ladles (灼/魁), spoons (匙, ),pulleys (滑輪), ploughshares (犁鏵), saws (鋸), spade (鏟), chisels (鑿), axes( 斧),  belt hooks (腰帶釣, building materials, even pottery kiln and jade ornaments etc. The tombs show signs of having been raided for their jewellery in previous generations. 

The royal chariot with a removable and foldable umbrella the lower tip of which handle has been sharpened so that it may be used as a weapon in case of emergency and is securely fastened to the base of the chariot by a clever lock and bolt device which allows the umbrella to turn in any direction at 15 degrees according to the condition of the sun rain etc. It is pulled by four horses (origin of the Chinese saying, "once one's words are out, they can't be pursued by four horses"). A truly amazing design.

The horses look so alive. The inside of the horse is empty and there are air holes at the top which allows the water vapor to evaporate during the firing in the kilns to prevent cracks appearing due to the built up steam pressure.



A reconstructed scene of the emperor going out. He never went out alone. There are usually from 9 to 81 dummy chariots going out at the same time so that it would be practically impossible for any assassins to tell which one carried the emperor.

Another view

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A closer view

A pottery replica of a Han soldier

A pottery replica of a Han official.

A typical pottery replica of a Han lady dancer (樂舞俑)

A table of 9 types of court official in the Han Dynasty with their titles and functions

A sample of the pottery recovered in the archeological digs at the Han tombs at Yang Ling.

A closer view

Some of the Han urns

Horses, cows, goats, sheep, dogs etc

Some of the cows and calves recovered

The Han people believed that human beings continued some form of life after their deaths and thus the human "soul/spirit" also needed food, servants, utensils etc. They rear horses, cattle, goats, sheep, dogs, and chicken.

An army of pigs and horses recovered at the site.

From top to bottom: pigs, dogs and horses

part of the terra cotta chariot and wheel

One of the tomb pits where can be found terra cotta human effigies, cows, and pottery

One of the pits. The servants are all lined up. The rear is probably the food preparation area with cooking vessels and animals. They are all in reduced sizes.

A view of the whole of one of the pits.

The view of another pit

A closer view of some of the effigies found at one of terra cotta kiln

A closer view of one of of the carved terra cotta wall plates depicting the production of the various terra cotta effigies?

Some of the figurines, each with a different facial expression

Why the disorder? Is that art imitating itself?

More figurines and some urns.

The figurines are arranged in a particular order, with more people at the top and spreading out with less and less figurines and some at the side. Why?

In this one, the figurines are arranged differently: on both sides. Why?

This one also exhibits a certain chaos? Is there any order in this disorder? If so, around what principle(s) are they arranged?

This is another one. The order is again quite different. Why?

This one appears to be about horse chariots.

So is this one.

What is the man doing in the square next to the chariot wheel? Why is he lying there?

More figurines recovered all lying against the wall of the pit

The dismembered legs and feet

a bird eye view of another of the archaeological trenches.

Exiting the museum

(To be cont'd)