Jiangkou Cliff Tombs

Jiangkou Cliff Tombs

The Jiangkou Cliff Tombs are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Jiangkou Cliff Tombs are located on the eastern bank of the Minjiang River in Jiangkou Town, Pengshan County, Meishan Region, Sichuan Province. The upper time limit of these tombs is the late Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–8 AD), and the lower limit is no later than the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD), with the majority dating to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 AD).

Centered around Meihua Village in Jiangkou Town, the cliff tombs are also distributed across sites such as Sai Zi Shan, Gao Jia Gou, Yan Jing Gou, Da Yu Gou, and You Fang Gou, covering an area of 30.4 square kilometers, with 4,580 surviving cliff tombs. There are six types of tomb structures at Jiangkou, including boat-shaped chamber tombs, vertical-shaft horizontal-chamber tombs, rock chambers combined with brick chambers, courtyard tombs, and irregularly shaped tombs. The carved murals and unearthed artifacts provide valuable physical materials for the study of Taoism and Buddhism during that period.

With their large quantity, good preservation, and clear dating, the Jiangkou Cliff Tombs serve as an indispensable and important basis for studying the social life, religious beliefs, and architectural art of the Han Dynasty. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Centered around Meihua Village in Jiangkou Town, the cliff tombs are also distributed across sites such as Sai Zi Shan, Chang Shan Geng, Gao Jia Gou, Yan Jing Gou, Dou Ya Fang Gou, Da Yu Gou, and You Fang Gou, covering an area of 30.4 square kilometers, with 4,580 surviving cliff tombs. The time range of the Jiangkou Cliff Tombs spans from the late Western Han Dynasty to no later than the Three Kingdoms period, with the majority dating to the Eastern Han Dynasty. In 2001, they were announced as part of the fifth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

The Jiangkou Cliff Tombs are situated on the eastern bank of the Minjiang River in Jiangkou Town, approximately 5 kilometers northeast of Pengshan County.

Leaving Pengshan and crossing the Minjiang River Bridge toward the direction of Mount Pengzu, you will soon arrive at Jiangkou Town. Walking down the five-li-long street of Jiangkou and reaching the confluence of the Fu River and the Nan River, you will be greeted by five towering ginkgo trees. This is the renowned Jiangkou Cliff Tomb Museum, also known as the Pengshan County Han Cliff Tomb Museum. Built upon over 5,000 Han Dynasty cliff tombs in Pengshan, the museum covers an area of more than 3,100 square meters and is divided into three exhibition areas: the site display area primarily featuring cliff tombs, the historical relics display area housed in the Ming Dynasty ancient building Zitong Palace, and the sculpture hall display area showcasing rare Han Dynasty portrait bricks and stones.

In early May 1941, the Sichuan-Kangding Ancient Sites Exploration Team, jointly formed by the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, the Preparatory Office of the National Central Museum, and the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture (with Liang Sicheng serving as the head of the architectural styles group at the time), traveled upstream along the Minjiang River by boat from Lizhuang, Yibin, Sichuan, to Pengshan. On June 14, the team began excavating the Jiangkou Cliff Tombs, completing all work on December 9, 1942. A total of 76 cliff tombs, 2 brick tombs, and 7 earthen pit tombs were cleared, yielding hundreds of artifacts such as pottery figurines. Later, the Nanjing Museum compiled and published the book "Han Dynasty Cliff Tombs in Pengshan, Sichuan," which caused a great sensation in the archaeological circles both in China and abroad.

The precious artifacts unearthed from the Jiangkou Cliff Tombs are treasured in major museums in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, and other cities. Among the 150 items featured in the "Treasures of Chinese Cultural Relics" published by the Nanjing Museum, six were excavated from Jiangkou in Pengshan. The Cliff Tomb Museum displays key items such as the Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West) portrait bricks, the rubbing of the "world’s first kiss" erotic mural bricks known as the “Secret Intercourse Picture,” portrait stones, bronze money trees, stone coffins, wooden coffins, and various types of Han Dynasty pottery, many of which are valuable relics. For example, the bronze money tree on a pottery base, unearthed in 1972, stands 1.44 meters tall and is the largest, most exquisitely cast, and richest in design among money trees excavated from Han cliff tombs in China. It has been designated as a national top-grade cultural relic. When this national treasure was exhibited in Japan in 1986, it attracted crowds of visitors who marveled at the exquisite casting artistry of ancient China. These relics, simple yet profound in style and diverse in form, fully showcase the splendid colors of Han Dynasty artifacts.

Cliff tombs were a form of burial popular in the Han Dynasty, imitating residential houses and carved into mountains. The "Book of the Later Han · Biography of Feng Yan" records: "Carving caves into cliffs to make chambers, entrusting them to Gaoyang to nurture immortality." This is the earliest documented mention of cliff tombs. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to their antiquity and lack of recognition, cliff tombs were mistakenly believed to be "immortal caves" where people refined elixirs. The great Southern Song poet Lu You referred to cliff tombs as "places where ancient enlightened individuals hid their elixirs," thus further shrouding cliff tombs in an aura of mystery and wonder.

The Jiangkou Cliff Tombs are densely distributed along the mountainside, featuring a variety of forms, exquisite stone carvings, and a wealth of unearthed relics of high quality and profound significance.

There are six types of tomb structures at Jiangkou, including boat-shaped chamber tombs, vertical-shaft horizontal-chamber tombs, rock chambers combined with brick chambers, courtyard tombs, and irregularly shaped tombs, further divided into single-chamber, double-chamber, and triple-chamber types. Structurally, these cliff tombs consist of a tomb passage, tomb gate, and tomb chamber.

The tomb passage is about 20 meters long, with interlocking drainage pipes laid along the sides. The tomb gates are modeled after residential main doors, featuring four layers of lintels with rich and elaborate carvings. Not only are the carvings on each layer of the lintel diverse, but the decorations on the three tomb gates also differ from one another. Some are adorned with jade eaves and bracket sets, some sculpted with auspicious crops and plants, some feature lucky animals, and others are engraved with dancing and musical performers. The tomb chambers are relatively bright and spacious, though somewhat cool and damp. It is said that the people of the Han Dynasty valued both health preservation and funeral rites, believing that through burial, the soul would be reborn and ascend to the ideal world of the divine or immortal realm.

1. Jiangkou Cliff Tombs

Protected Area:

You Fang Gou: East to the summit of Liang Dian Mountain, west to the Peng-Shuang Highway, south and north to the ridgeline divides of the two mountains.

Da Yu Gou: East to the mechanized farming road of Shilong Village, west to the entrance of Ji Shi Qiao, south to the ruins of Xia Liang Ting Zi, north to Chen Jia Gou.

Dou Ya Fang Gou: East to the ridge of Tong Zi Mountain, west to the streets of Jiangkou Town, south to Peng Jia Qiao, north to the lane entrance of the grain station.

Yan Jing Gou: East to the entrance of Shi Ban Qiao, west to the entrance of Qiao Lou Zi Stone Bridge, south to the summit of Jiang Tai Mountain, north to the ridge of Long Tou Mountain.

Gao Jia Gou: East to the ridge of Jiu Long Mountain, west to Juan Dong Qiao, south to the Tijie Station Mountain, north to the bedrock at the bottom of Gao Jia Gou.

Chang Shan Geng: East to Li Jia Gou, west to the Peng-Hui Highway, south to Juan Dong Qiao, north to Wang Jia Tuo Stone Bridge.

Zhai Zi Shan: East to the ridgeline divide, west to the Peng-Hui Highway, south to the stone bridge at the entrance of Diao Jia Wan Kou, north to the entrance of Meihua Village Primary School.

Construction Control Zone: An extension of 50 meters beyond the protected area.

2. Jiangdu Cliff Tombs (formerly Shunhe Cliff Tombs)

Protected Area: East to Long Gang Zi Long Yan, west to Zeng Zi Hao Gou, south to Shun Zhen Qiao, north to the Long Yan at the bottom of Yan Er Gou.

Construction Control Zone: An extension of 50 meters beyond the protected area.

Jiangkou Subdistrict: A town under the jurisdiction of Pengshan County. Established as Shuangjiang Township in 1951, reorganized as a commune in 1958, changed to Jiangkou Township in 1983, and upgraded to a town in 1984. Located in the southeastern part of the county, 4 kilometers from the county seat, it covers an area of 40.2 square kilometers with a population of 21,000. The highway leads to the county seat via the Minjiang River Bridge. It administers 18 village committees (Yuanjing, Wansheng, Shuangjiang, Shilong, Shouquan, Kaixuan, Baila, Qunli, Youyi, Chachang, Meihua, Quanyuan, Shunjiang, Jiangba, Lianghe, Wuyi, Guangji, Pingfu) and 2 neighborhood committees (Shangjie, Xiàjie). The main agricultural products are rice, corn, and wheat, with economic crops including rapeseed, ... More details about Jiangkou Subdistrict ++

Further reading:

· Fifth Batch of Major National Historical and Cultural Sites