Hanging Coffins at Yunluo Tuen, Songtao

Hanging Coffins at Yunluo Tuen, Songtao

The Hanging Coffins at Yunluo Tuen, Songtao, are a Guizhou Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

In addition to its beautiful natural scenery, at the southern end of Yunluo Tuen, the mountain is steep and the cliffs are sheer, with the Songjiang River winding along the base of the hill. On the cliff face hundreds of meters high, there are dozens of square niches and numerous small stone holes. According to experts, these niches are the remnants of hanging coffin burials left by the ancestors of ethnic minorities who lived here during the Western Jin Dynasty.

Immortal Ridge: The site of the Songtao hanging coffin burial. The Tang Dynasty’s Zhang Zhuang’s *Miscellaneous Records of Court and Country* states: “The Wuxi barbarians, when their parents die, place the body outside the village. After three years, they bury it. They beat drums, sing and dance, and the relatives hold feasts and perform plays for over a month. They exhaust their wealth to make a coffin, and bury it halfway up a high mountain near the river. They lower the coffin down from the mountain using ropes—the higher the better, as it signifies filial piety—and they never worship again for life. In the initial period of mourning, they do not consume salt for three years.” According to expert research, the Yunluo Tuen hanging coffin site reflects the burial customs of the Miao people during the Western Jin Dynasty. In August 1980, the Songtao Miao Autonomous County Cultural Center, together with the Guizhou Provincial Museum, conducted an archaeological cleanup of the two remaining niches, unearthing two wooden coffins: one a “boat coffin,” the other a “bellows coffin.” The boat coffin was larger at one end and smaller at the other. The larger end was 0.49 meters wide, the smaller end 0.26 meters wide, with a length of 1.99 meters, a height of 0.25 meters, and coffin walls 0.08 meters thick. It had no lid, the bottom was semi-circular, resembling a small boat. Inside were the remains of two human skulls, two leg bones, and half a pottery item. The skulls were identified as male, middle-aged or older, and female, middle-aged—possibly a couple buried together. The bellows coffin was an inverted frustum shape, larger at the top and smaller at the bottom, rectangular, 0.73 meters wide at the top, 0.64 meters at the bottom, and 0.54 meters high. Inside was one human skull, with no lid. Both coffins were carved from whole logs. Carbon-14 dating by the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, determined the bellows coffin to be from the Western Jin period. Both coffins are now housed in the Guizhou Provincial Museum. On February 25, 1982, the Yunluo Tuen hanging coffin site was listed as a Guizhou Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

A beautiful legend is passed down among the people of Songtao: One night, the immortal Tianling Xianggong was returning from a feast on Mount Fanjing on a divine steed. The horse, exhausted from the journey, reached the banks of the Songjiang River and lay down to pant. Tianling Xianggong rested briefly and was about to urge the horse onward when the rooster crowed and dawn broke. Bathed in the golden light of the rising sun, the horse closed its eyes, drew in its hooves, and turned into a massive rock. Helpless, Tianling Xianggong transformed his whip into a cloud of good fortune and departed dejectedly. This magical legend adds a touch of charm to Yunluo Tuen. At its southern end, the mountain is steep and the cliffs are sheer, while the emerald-green Songjiang River winds along the base. On the cliff face hundreds of meters high above the river, there are dozens of square niches and numerous small stone holes.

When the sun shines brightly on the cliffs, people on the opposite bank can not only clearly see the niches but also glimpse several wooden box-like objects inside the caves. These are the renowned ancient relics known as the “Immortals’ Loan.” Legend has it that in times of drought, flood, or poor harvests, the immortals would appear here to save the people. Poor families could borrow rice from the immortals by posting a IOU on the cliff face, burning incense, and praying. Then, a basket placed at the foot of the mountain would be filled with rice. The immortals would hide the IOUs deep in the wooden boxes within the niches, and once the borrowers repaid the grain after the autumn harvest, the IOUs would be scattered into the river. Nourished by the dew of heaven, the IOUs would turn into fish and swim away upon touching the water. The generations-old story of the “Immortals’ Loan” adds to the mystical aura of Yunluo Tuen in people’s hearts.

The Tang Dynasty’s Zhang Zhuo recorded in *Miscellaneous Records of Court and Country*: “The Wuxi barbarians, when their parents die, place the body outside the village and bury it after three years. They beat drums, sing and dance, and the relatives hold feasts and perform plays for over a month. They exhaust their wealth to make a coffin, and bury it halfway up a high mountain near the river. They lower the coffin down from the mountain using ropes—the higher the better, as it signifies filial piety—and they never worship again for life.” Historically, Songtao belonged to the Wuxi region. The hanging coffin burial at the “Immortal’s Trace” at the back of Yunluo Tuen shares the same burial customs described in *Miscellaneous Records of Court and Country*, constituting a form of “secondary burial,” an ancient practice of some ethnic minorities in southwestern China.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, cultural heritage departments conducted two surveys and cleanups of the “Immortal’s Trace,” excavating two wooden coffins carved from whole logs from two of the niches. The boat-shaped one was called the “boat coffin,” and the bellows-shaped one the “bellows coffin.” It was determined that the “bellows coffin” was made during the Western Jin Dynasty (around 300 AD). The “boat coffin” contained the remains of two human skulls, two leg bones, and funerary pottery, indicating it was a joint burial coffin for a couple.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Guizhou Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units