Yuan Dynasty wooden-structured dated mural tomb

Yuan Dynasty wooden-structured dated mural tombs

The Yuan Dynasty wooden-structured dated mural tombs are a cultural tourism attraction.

The Yuan Dynasty wooden-structured dated mural tombs are located about 15 kilometers southwest of the Pingxiang County seat and approximately 200 meters northeast of Xiguoqiao Village. Both tombs have been damaged and face south, with their entrance passages situated to the south.

Tomb M1 is a circular single-chamber brick tomb with wooden-style construction, consisting of four parts: entrance passage, gate tower, corridor, and burial chamber. The maximum internal diameter of the burial chamber is 3.2–3.5 meters, and the remaining depth is 2.54 meters. The tomb floor features a coffin bed in the shape of an “inverted U,” 0.38 meters high. The tomb walls are divided into three layers: the base layer has 17 niches along the perimeter; the lower part of the wall includes 14 brick pilasters, 5 false doors, 1 lamp stand, and 2 chairs, with 14 cluster brackets on the architrave and 10 filler brackets; the upper layer includes 6 large cluster brackets.

Tomb M2 is located 1.4 meters southeast of M1 and is an octagonal brick tomb with wooden-style construction, consisting of an entrance passage, corridor, tomb door, and burial chamber. The entrance passage is rectangular in plan, with a stepped bottom in the southern part and a flat bottom in the northern part. The corridor has a single vaulted ceiling. The front of the tomb door is set back on the upper part of the corridor’s side wall, where a false door was originally built, above which there used to be a gate tower (now destroyed). The outer opening is sealed with diamond-pattern bricks. The burial chamber is octagonal in plan. The inner dimensions of the brick walls are 3.9 meters east-west and 3.8 meters north-south, with a remaining maximum height of 2.58 meters.

The base of the tomb walls uses a corbelled construction method and is decorated with niches. Above the base, each corner has an inverted bell-shaped column base, supporting tall pilasters. These pilasters hold up the architrave, on which there are 8 corner cluster brackets and 7 filler brackets. Small cluster brackets are built between the spandrels of the architrave.

On each wall surface, except for the southern wall where the corridor is located, there are similar door-tower style wooden-style structures made of brick, approximately 1.8 meters high and 1.2 meters wide. Between the spandrels of the brackets on the upper level of each structure, there are inscriptions written vertically in regular script within double-lined vertical rectangular frames drawn in ink. The content depicted below each door tower varies: the southwest wall features a brick stele the same size as the tomb bricks, with nine vertical lines of 63 characters carved in intaglio regular script, recording the tomb owner Guo Da’s place of origin, age, name of the person who erected the stele, and the date it was erected. This inscription is called the “Stele Tower.” The west wall shows a granary, with a vertical rectangular frame drawn in ink in the center, inside which are the vertical characters “Sù mài yíng cāng” (Grain Fills the Granary) in regular script. This inscription is labeled “Granary of Plenty.” The northwest wall features a lattice window, but the inscription has worn off and is unreadable. The north wall depicts a woman opening a door, labeled “Guō Jìn zhī gōng” (Guo Jin’s Chamber). The northeast wall also features a lattice window, labeled “Shòu róng zhī tíng” (Pavilion of Longevity and Glory). The northern part of the east wall features a tall-legged cabinet, with a diagonal rectangular frame drawn in ink on the front, containing the characters “Líng luó mǎn guì” (Silks Fill the Cabinet) in regular script. Below the cabinet is a stool and a lamp stand, labeled “Guō kǒu zhī tíng” (Guo Kou’s Pavilion). The southeast wall features a hoof-footed high table, labeled “Xiāo yáo zhī tíng” (Pavilion of Carefree Ease).