The Tang Dynasty Tombs at Yinziliang

The Tang Dynasty Tombs at Yinziliang

The Tang Dynasty Tombs at Yinziliang are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Tang Dynasty Tombs at Yinziliang are located on the southern slope of Yinziliang Mountain, 37 kilometers northwest of Yanchi County in Wuzhong City, Ningxia. A total of six tombs have been excavated. All six are flat-bottomed passageway stone chamber tombs carved directly into the mountain. The tomb entrances were hewn from the cross-sections of the hills, featuring small doors. The chambers are mostly square in plan, with flat ceilings, straight walls, and arched corners. The walls feature geometric carvings such as triangles and trapezoids created through vertical, horizontal, and angled chiseling. There are many niches, coffin platforms, and no mounds on top, while some tombs also have diamond-shaped columns supporting the roof. Currently, they are protected as a county-level cultural relic site.

Excavated artifacts include wooden buckets, glass balls, stone tripods, epitaphs, pottery, coins, and the Hu Xuan Dance Tomb Doors, which are housed separately in the autonomous region museum and the county museum. The glass ball has been designated as a National First-Class Cultural Relic by the expert panel of the National Cultural Heritage Administration. The most famous artifact is the Hu Xuan Dance Tomb Door from Tomb No. 6, which has been classified as a national treasure. The single door leaf is 89 centimeters high, 43 centimeters wide, and 5 centimeters thick, with cylindrical pivots at the top and bottom. The left door leaf depicts a woman, while the right one shows a man. Both wear round caps, fitted long robes with narrow round collars, and soft boots, and are dancing with flowing ribbons. Each performs on a circular mat about 1 meter in diameter, leaping and twirling rapidly without stepping off the mat. The carving demonstrates skilled craftsmanship, delicate workmanship, smooth lines, vivid expressions, graceful forms, and strong realism, holding significant historical and artistic value.

Based on the deciphered epitaph texts, the tomb owners were of the Yuezhi people from the Dayue region, surnamed He—one of the Nine Surnames of Zhaowu—and died in the year 700 AD. The epitaph indicates that the site was once part of Rulü County under the jurisdiction of Luzhou.

The unique structure and burial customs of the Tang Tombs at Yinziliang are extremely rare among both Northwestern and nationwide Tang Dynasty tombs. The stone door leaves carved with Hu Xuan Dance patterns, designated as national treasures, not only reflect the exceptional stone-carving skills of Tang artisans but also depict the realistic cultural and artistic life of the era. They serve as invaluable physical materials for studying the culture and art of China’s Tang Dynasty and even ancient times as a whole.

The significance of excavating this group of Tang tombs also lies in their contribution to understanding ancient ethnic migration and integration through the study of tomb structures, burial practices, tomb ages, the ethnic backgrounds of the deceased, and the verification of relevant place names from the Tang Dynasty. The excavation of the Yinziliang Tang Tombs confirms the migration of the Turkic peoples and their settlement around Yanchi in Ningxia, offering important reference material for the study of Tang historical geography and the local history of Ningxia. Additionally, changes in the ecological environment around the Yinziliang Tang Tombs have practical relevance in raising awareness for enhanced environmental protection.