The Zaoyuan Han Tombs Cluster

The Zaoyuan Han Tombs Cluster

The Zaoyuan Han Tombs Cluster is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Zaoyuan Han Tombs Cluster

In 1959, the Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee excavated a brick-chambered tomb in the Han Dynasty tomb area south of Zaoyuan Village, Zhangdian Town, Pinglu County. The murals inside the tomb caused a great sensation in the domestic historical academic community. This is detailed in the "Chinese Encyclopedia · Archaeology Volume."

The tomb is a Han Dynasty burial site, featuring a brick chamber with a vaulted ceiling. It has a square floor plan, measuring 4.56 meters from east to west, 2.25 meters from north to south, and 2.1 meters in height. It consists of one main chamber and one side chamber. The main chamber is entirely covered with murals, divided into two major sections: the heavens and the human world. The celestial scenes are painted on the vaulted ceiling, depicting animals such as the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise, with drifting clouds and over a hundred stars. The ceiling also features the sun, moon, and other patterns.

The sun is positioned on the east side, depicted with a black crow. The moon is on the west, shown with a toad. Among the sun, moon, stars, and colorful cloud patterns, white cranes with long necks and short tails are flying. The human world images are painted on the four walls of the main chamber, featuring landscapes, houses, carts, horses, and figures. On the western part of the southern wall, there is a four-wheeled cart, with one person in front of the cart and another to its left. The person on the left is naked and barefoot, turning to look at the cart while dancing with a long silk ribbon. The western wall depicts a house, with a farmer by the roadside in front of it. Dressed in short clothes and barefoot, he holds a plow with his right hand and waves a whip with his left, driving two black oxen to till the land, with the plowshare exposed. Behind the farmer stands another person in a long black robe, arms akimbo, observing as if supervising. The northern wall contains two groups of paintings: the eastern group shows towering mountains and ridges, at the foot of which there is a courtyard-style architectural complex, likely the fortified residence of a powerful landlord; the western group shows two carts near a river — the upward-bound cart has someone seated holding a whip; the downward-bound cart has a cover, with both shafts touching the ground, and the driver squatting by the riverbank holding the ox reins, seemingly taking a brief rest. Slightly further west, a farmer is seen driving yellow oxen and using a seed drill to sow seeds, with three legs visible under the drill.

The seed drill was invented by Zhao Guo during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, based on the production experience of laboring people, and played an important role in advancing agricultural production at the time. Judging from the "ox-plowing scene" in the murals, not only is it earlier than those found in Suining, Jiangsu; Mizhi, Shaanxi; and Helinge’er, Inner Mongolia, but it also demonstrates a certain level of technical advancement in farming methods. Moreover, the "ox-plowing scene" depicted in the Zaoyuan Tomb murals, showing only one person whipping the ox to pull the plow, has surpassed the "two-ox yoke" and "coupled plowing by two oxen and three people" stages shown in murals elsewhere. Although the tomb is not very large, the depictions of ox-plowing and seed drilling authentically portray agricultural production scenes in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, rich in life-like detail. These are among the earliest paintings in China to depict agricultural activities. They provide important material for studying agricultural development and the manorial economy of powerful landlords at that time. The Zaoyuan Han Tombs Cluster is a provincial-level key cultural relics protection unit.

Phone: 0359-3522900

Address: Pinglu County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province