Master Archaeologist

Chapter 41 A nobleman with a car and a house but no wife

"Fine, Junior Brother Chen also studies seal script."

Su Sa, who heard Chen Han whispering to himself, gave a thumbs up, and said affirmatively: "The inner clarity is clear, and the brilliance is like the sun and the moon."

"This is a mirror of the Western Han Dynasty!"

Chen Han nodded.

Zhaoming mirror is a kind of bronze mirror popular in the Western Han Dynasty from Emperor Xuan to Wang Mang.

The reason why this kind of mirror is called Zhaoming mirror is because the inscriptions of this kind of mirror are "clear from the inside to show the light, the brilliance is like the sun and the moon, and the heart suddenly rises and wishes to be loyal, but it is full but not leaking."

The general meaning is to use the mirror as a metaphor for people, using the clarity and brightness of the mirror to imply that the master also needs to be clean and upright in politics and upright.

However, the inscriptions on the bronze mirrors are generally not complete, and some characters are filled with a symbol of "and".

For example, the Zhaoming Mirror unearthed from tomb M-105 has only half a sentence, and one or two words have been slightly changed.

The Zhaoming mirror in Chen Han's hand is the same as the common one.

In the inscription on the mirror, each word is also separated by a pattern like the word "and".

"It's just a pity that the owner of this tomb is a single tomb. If it was a tomb where husband and wife were buried together, there might be a clean mirror." Chen Han shook his head regretfully.

In the Western Han Dynasty, there were two kinds of bronze mirrors with inscriptions, which were very popular among nobles.

One is the Zhaoming mirror specially used for male funerals.

The other is a clear mirror that is used to bury noble women, or women give to their deceased husbands for burial.

The reason why it is called Qingbai mirror is because there are generally similar things on this kind of mirror: "Jie (clean) is innocent and serves the king, Yanming of resentment and pollution, Liuze of Xuanxi, forgetting beauty in Beijing and Japan, accepting outside, wishing to think forever And not never" inscription.

Specific to each mirror, there may be a little difference in the inscription, a few more words or a few less words, or a few words changed.

But the overall meaning is the same, which is probably to ask women to serve the king with innocence, and to narrate their missing and never forget each other.

Most of these mirrors of innocence were unearthed in tombs where husbands and wives were buried together. They probably hope that they will not forget each other after death, and want to love each other again in the underworld.

Of course, in the Han Dynasty, there was no such saying in the Ming and Qing Dynasties that one wife was required to live from one wife to the other, and the husband must remain a widow after his death.

Even the government encourages women to remarry.

Therefore, there are also many innocent mirrors unearthed in male tombs, and the last sentence in the inscription "May I never think about it" was changed to "Yongsijue".

The meaning has changed from the original never to forget each other, to the separation of yin and yang, and the severance of kindness and righteousness.

This shows that this kind of mirror may be a "mourning mirror" given to her husband by a woman.

My husband is dead and I'm still young, so we'll cut off our kindness. If you find a good wife in your next life, I'll marry someone else first, don't read it!
Therefore, in the Western Han Dynasty, it was basically standard for nobles to be buried with two kinds of mirrors.

Of course, besides these two kinds of mirrors, there are sun mirrors, long-term mirrors, Weiyang mirrors, etc., but the number of unearthed mirrors is not as many as Zhaoming mirrors and Qingbai mirrors.

In the past hundred years, many Zhaoming mirrors and Qingbai mirrors have been unearthed, and each of them has about a dozen pieces that are kept in museums around the world. They can be regarded as typical funerary objects of the Western Han Dynasty.

This time, a Zhaoming mirror was found in tomb M-105, which can only be said to be a reasonable thing.

Moreover, this tomb is a single-person tomb, and there is only such a bright mirror, and there is no clear mirror. It is possible that the owner of the tomb was a nobleman who died young.

And there is a high possibility that his wife remarried after his death.

Otherwise, even if he dies young, according to the joint burial custom of the Han Dynasty, when his wife dies in the future, he should be buried with the owner of the tomb.

Unless the wife remarried later, and went to "die at the same hole" with others.

After figuring this out, Chen Han's eyes on the coffin in the center of the tomb became a little complicated.

"The owner of this tomb is a bit miserable."

"What's so miserable?" Lin Ya, who was cleaning up the carriages and horses, retorted without turning her head: "Look, this complete set of carriages and horses includes one piece for wèi (wèi), four pieces for balance, and two pieces for instrument. 4 piece, 2 piece of shaft decoration, 1 pieces of bow caps, a set of biāo, and 17 piece of Danglu."

"This is a complete set of carriage accessories. To have a carriage in the Western Han Dynasty, the family conditions are much better than those who have a car and a house now!"

The ancients also paid attention to having a car and a house, but the status of the carriage in the Western Han Dynasty is different from that of the modern car.

A car is a sign of nobility.

In the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties, non-big nobles could not be buried with chariots, horses and utensils. Both chariots and funeral chariots had strict class regulations.

Although with the collapse of rites and the progress of society, carriages began to gradually descend to the lower aristocratic level, but it was not easy to obtain.

Although it is said that the owner of the tomb lived between Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty and Wang Mang, it is not uncommon to be buried with chariots and horses during this period.

Chen Han stroked his chin, and smiled: "The owner of the tomb had a car and a house in his lifetime, and the conditions are indeed very good."

"But he doesn't have a wife. Take a look, how miserable is it when he dies in a single tomb?"

Lin Ya's face was full of black lines, she really couldn't keep up with Chen Han's jumping train of thought.

Is it important whether there is a wife, or whether a wife is buried with him?
Hmm, it does seem to matter.

It doesn't matter to modern people, but it seems a bit cruel to the people of the Han Dynasty where death is like life.

King Liang Xiao wanted to continue his love with his wife after death.

It took a lot of effort to dig a "lovesickness road" for soul rendezvous between Liang Xiaowang's tomb and the queen's tomb.

It's just that King Liang Xiao's death was a bit sudden. Before the road was completed, he hurried down to accompany his wife.

But this also shows how much the Western Han people attached importance to the afterlife.

As a result, the owner of tomb No. M-105 was buried alone without his wife or relatives.

From the point of view of the Western Han people, the soul of the owner of the tomb is so lonely in the underground after death, maybe he can only hug the coffin and cry every day.

Thinking about it this way, this little aristocrat who lived in a horse-drawn carriage and lived a luxurious and enjoyable life may indeed be a bit miserable after his death.

"Speaking of which, when this tomb was built, a joint burial space was reserved, right?"

Chen Han folded his hands on his chest, walked around the tomb, and said with some uncertainty: "This tomb is 3.9 meters long and 1.9 meters wide."

"It's normal to reserve a bit of length, it's reserved for funeral objects."

"But this width is a bit too wide. The coffin of the owner of the tomb is only 0.7 meters wide. The width of 1.9 meters is more than enough to fit two coffins."

"It seems that when this tomb was built, it was originally intended to be a joint burial, but the wife of the owner of the tomb, for some unknown reason, was not buried with him in the end."

Chen Han smacked his mouth, quite sighing.

"Tsk tsk, choose a good day to open the coffin."

"It would be best to find a burial object to prove his identity."

"Whether it's a seal or a bamboo slip that records your life."

"At least let us descendants know who he is and what he has done."

"Otherwise, no one will know and remember the short life he worked so hard to live."

(End of this chapter)