Tomb of Prince Jing of Zhongshan

Tomb of Prince Jing of Zhongshan

The Tomb of Prince Jing of Zhongshan is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Tomb of Prince Jing of Zhongshan is located at the eastern foot of Ling Mountain, southwest of Mancheng County in Hebei Province.

These two tombs are the burial sites of Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan during the Western Han Dynasty, and his wife. According to Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) and Book of Han (Hanshu), Liu Sheng was enthroned as the King of Zhongshan in 154 BC and died in 113 BC. His wife, Dou Wan, outlived him…

In 1968, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Work Team jointly conducted an archaeological excavation of the tombs. The two tombs are arranged side by side from north to south, carved directly into the mountain. The tomb chambers were constructed to imitate the layout of imperial palaces. Liu Sheng’s tomb is 51.7 meters long, 37.5 meters wide, and 6.8 meters high, consisting of several sections including a passageway, a chariot and horse chamber, storage rooms, an antechamber, and a rear chamber. The antechamber features a tiled wooden structure built within a cave, containing bronze ritual vessels such as tripods, cauldrons, wine vessels, bells, and jars. The rear chamber houses a white marble coffin platform, and adjacent to it is a washing area. The tomb also has a complete drainage system. Dou Wan’s tomb is similarly large in scale.

A total of over 4,200 funerary objects were unearthed from the two tombs, among which the bronze artifacts are the most exquisite, including the Changxin Palace Lamp, the Gilded Boshan Incense Burner, the Gilded and Silver-Inlaid Bird Seal Script Wine Vessel, the Gilded Silver Dragon Patterned Wine Vessel, and the Gilded Silver Inlaid Nipple-Patterned Wine Vessel. Two complete sets of jade burial suits sewn with gold thread were also discovered—these were the first such finds in China and are the earliest known examples to date. The use of jade suits in the Western Han Dynasty was strictly regulated by rank, indicating the extremely high status of these tombs. The artifacts from both tombs are now housed separately at the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and the Hebei Provincial Museum. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units