Archaeological Excavation in China

Much too little is known in this country about archaeological work and excavations carried out in China since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949. In fact, the scale of work done in this field is unprecedented and perhaps surpasses excavations done in any other region of the world or by any other nation during this period. The flood of new material now available to students of Chinese archaeology and art is immense and has vastly increased and, to a cer­tain extent, changed our knowledge of the devel­opment of Chinese civilization.

The policy of the People’s Republic of China in regard to remains of the past was made clear from the beginning. Soon after its founding a Bureau of Cultural Relics (Wen-wu was set up and the government promulgated a series of directives on the preservation of the national heritage and the advancement of re­search. The result was that quite considerable funds were allocated by the State for the restora­tion and maintenance of such places as the famous caves of Tun-huang, Yunkang and Lung-men as well as historic buildings and places, and, last but not least, for archaeological excavations. Two lines were followed, the first being planned excavations on sites known or expected to con­tain important remains of the past. These were organized by the Institute of Archaeology of the Academia Sinica in Peking or its provincial branches or by provincial or local museums, departments of archaeology in universities or archaeological societies. To prevent damage to sites known to be rich in archaeological remains the State Council placed them under special pro­tection. Among these were the region around Anyang, the site of the ancient capital of the Shang dynasty, some areas in the neighborhood of Sian (ancient Ch’ang-an) in Shensi, old Loyang in Honan, parts of Ch’ang-sha in Hunan.

The other line concerned excavations result­ing from chance discoveries in the course of such construction work as large projects for the con­servation of water, the building of bridges, rail­ways, factories and new cities, or during agricul­tural activities. That so much was discovered in this way is due to the fact that in China, as in Rome, the massive presence of the past reveals itself wherever the ground is disturbed to any depth. China is fortunate in that work demanding earth-moving jobs is still done by hand with shovels, baskets and simple tools and not, as in the West, with large machines which destroy all evidence of the past.

During such chance discoveries the usual procedure is for workmen or farmers to immedi­ately inform the authorities when they discover some remains of the past, be they part of an ancient building, a tomb, or other relics; then members of the provincial museum, the Office of Culture or other institutions are sent out to in­vestigate the site. According to their recommen­dations, arrangements are then made for excava­tion by trained teams of local or provincial archaeologists attached to a government office, university or local or provincial museum, or, if the site is considered of national importance, mem­bers of the Archaeological Institute of the Academia Sinica are asked to take charge of the operation. At some of the major construction sites —for example, at the water conservation project at the San-men gorge—archaeologists were in permanent attendance and were empowered, if necessary, to order construction work to be altered so as to preserve important discoveries. Most of the excavated objects were placed in provincial or local museums or sent to Peking. However, some sites were left as found and some tombs even partially re-buried to prevent damage.

In order to house the wealth of newly exca­vated material a great number of new museums have been built or installed in existing buildings, not only in provincial capitals but sometimes in small places near the sites of excavations. As long ago as 1958 the Bureau of Cultural Relics claimed that China in regard to the numbers of her museums ranked third in the world.

To stimulate the interest of the people in their past, excavated objects were shown in some large-scale exhibitions and an essential part of the success is due to the fact that the government took pains to make the people understand the value of information and objects gained in exca­vations. This was done by a mass movement for the preservation of antiquities. Everywhere in the country, not only in large cities but even in small villages, Associations for the Preservation of Antiquities were established. This explains why clandestine diggings which were rampant before 1949 have stopped completely. I am sure this is due not—as cynics believe—solely to the absence of private dealers and the impossibility of selling excavated objects but, to a large degree, to the changed attitude of the people. They look upon excavated objects with pride and want them properly preserved. In some excavation reports we are told that it was a poor peasant or soldier who discovered the ancient tomb or found some valuable relics when working in the fields.

Fortunately, up to the spring of 1966 several journals reported regularly on excavations and archaeological work, in many cases soon after the excavations, so that, by and large, information about the work was available. Certainly not all excavations were reported in papers available to us and I am sure that a great many surprises will await us when we visit China. As far as we can judge from publications, the fifties and early sixties were periods of most intense archae­ological work. During that time, in addition to excavation reports in archaeological journals, a series of monographs of field work carried out by the Field Workers of the Archaeological Institute of the Academia Sinica was published, as well as a number of handsomely produced large mono­graphs and small illustrated booklets. There appears a growing tendency to consider exca­vations foremost as teamwork undertaken by an organization and to minimize the importance of the single individual in charge of the operation. This is the reason why in reports of excavations the name of the group is given first of all, e.g., “Workteam of the Archaeological Department of the provincial museum in such and such a place” though the names of the participants are men­tioned in the introduction and those who wrote the report are allowed to sign it with their names.

However, except for field work, individual scholars sign for the work they do.

The acute shortage in 1949 of archaeologists trained in Western methods was overcome by training a great number of students and members of museums and other institutions in modern techniques of field work, academic research, laboratory work and other relevant subjects. Scholars familiar with various branches of Chinese literature and history were called in to deal with epigraphical, historical and other aspects of documentation. The gradual improve­ment of archaeological work can be followed over the years in publications.

Excavation finds range in time from palae­olithic or even earlier periods through the last Imperial dynasty, the Ch’ing. In variety they include houses, temples, palaces, villages, city walls, cities and, most important in China, tombs which, all through the ages, were the repository of objects used in funerals and other rites as well as in daily life. For this reason this survey will be devoted mainly to tombs. It should be understood that the material is enormous. However, I hope that the few selected examples will suffice to make clear the impact of these discoveries on our knowledge of Chinese civilization and its achievements.

A great number of neolithic sites have been discovered in all parts of China and partly exca­vated. The most spectacular site is the one found east of Sian in Pan-p’o ts’un in the province of Shensi. It was discovered by chance and pre­liminary investigations were started by local archaeologists in 1953; in 1954 and 1955 the Institute of Archaeology of the Academia Sinica took charge of the excavation. It revealed that the site had been occupied for a considerable length of time. The upper level showed the remains of a complete village of the late Neolithic period, that is the later part of the third millennium B.C. It covered altogether an area of 2.5 acres. The foundations of houses were well preserved. Some of them were round in shape (Fig. 1), some rec­tangular. Some were built half subterranean (about one meter below ground level), others above ground with a low wall constructed of clay and apparently baked by fire. In the center of each but were the remains of a fireplace often pear-shaped. Postholes around the center show the position of wooden posts supporting the thatched roof. Round the houses are remnants of many storage pits. Interestingly, the village had been laid out according to a fixed plan, the huts were arranged in a circle around a larger rec­tangular building (measuring about 13.5 meters from south to north) which may or may not have served as a communal hall. The village had been surrounded by a moat, outside of which was dis­covered the cemetery. However, small children were interred inside the village in buried jars. Remnants of pottery kilns and bone implements indicated the location of workshops. This whole village has been roofed over and preserved as a museum.

Coarse gray and red painted pottery found at the site confirmed that it belonged to the so-called Yang-shao culture; however it included some decorations never seen before (Fig. 2).

Another surprise was the discovery of pre­Anyang bronze vessels around Cheng-chou in Honan. Already in the early thirties some royal tombs of the later part of the Shang dynasty had been excavated in the neighborhood of Anyang (province of Honan). Excavations at this place were resumed after 1949 and a number of tombs and living places dating from the 13th to the 11th century B.C. excavated. One of the most important discoveries was the tomb in Wu-kuan ts’un exca­vated by the Institute of Archaeology in 1950/51 (Fig. 3). It resembles in its lay-out and construction other royal tombs found in this region, although some of them had ramps on all four sides, not only on their northern and southern sides as does this one. The tomb had been entered a long time ago by tomb robbers and nothing much of its valuable content left. However, it raised some interesting questions in regard to the society of the Shang period. On the platform above the coffin chamber were found the remains of 41 human skeletons, 17 on the east and 24 on the west side. Who were they? Against the idea that they were sacrificed slaves are the facts that some had been buried in coffins and all had been given such valuable gifts as weapons for the men, headdresses with turquoise for the women, bronze vessels and objects of jade. Dr. Magdalene von Dewall ¹ thinks that they were members of the aristocracy put on the platform according to the rank they held in the feudal hierarchical society, those placed nearer the coffin pit ranking higher than those nearer the wall. However, this theory is open to doubt because in a civilization based on ancestor worship it seems unlikely that mem­bers not belonging to the same clan would be buried in the same tomb. (Common people or slaves, that is all those not belonging to the aristocracy, were not believed to have ancestors in the religious sense of the word.) Ritual customs survive longer than anything else and in later periods members of the same family were some­times buried together in one tomb. For this reason it seems more likely that all those buried on the platform were members of the royal family. It is well known from many examples in literature of later times that coffins were kept above ground for a considerable time till an appropriate date for burial arrived. We may thus argue that the reason why some were placed in coffins may have been that they died before the king and their burial delayed till their coffins could be interred in the royal tomb. Furthermore, the building and closing of such a tomb took a long time. The bodies of those members of the royal clan who died before the tomb was finally closed would then simply be placed on the platform.

As in many other tombs of this period there is ample evidence that human and animal sacri­fices were part of the burial rites. A number of pits near the tomb contained the skeletons of human sacrifices, mostly ten to a pit, some of them headless.

A great number of ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Chou periods have been exca­vated, in some cases as in Fig. 4 revealing dec­orations never seen before on Shang ritual vessels.

Many horse-and-chariot pits in the neighbor­hood of tombs of nobles of the Shang and Chou periods were excavated in various parts of the country. The Institute of Archaeology conducted a great number of excavations in the neighbor­hood of Sian (province of Shensi) between 1955 and 1960. Among them were horse-and-chariot pits like the one shown in Fig. 5. It was found close to the tomb of a noble of the Western Chou period (11th-early 8th century B.C.). Although not seen in this picture others show that small bronze bells were often suspended from the necks of horses (and of dogs).

Among the chance discoveries we may men­tion those made during the construction of the water reservoir in the San-men gorge. For ex­ample, a burial ground containing 234 tombs was found in Shang-ts’un-ling in the Shan District of the province of Honan. It proved to be that of the short-lived State of Kuo which was destroyed in 655 B.C., the tombs thus dating from the late Western Chou period to the middle of the seventh century B.C. Most of the tombs had not been robbed. Of the three horse-and-chariot pits found in this place, one contained as many as ten chariots and twenty horses. Again, the excavation was carried out by the Institute of Archaeology. Fig. 6 shows the quality of their work. The actual chariots had long disintegrated but their shapes were retained in the clay. Nothing had been damaged—not the spokes of the wheels, the pole between the horses, nor the box of the chariot with its low screen and opening at the back. The importance of chariots and horses is well docu­mented in the Shih-ching, the Book of Songs, compiled in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C? The burying of chariots and horses in tombs or in special pits on the occasion of the death of members of the aristocracy continues all through the Chou period and in a few cases even during the Han period, providing us with information of the changes in the construction of chariots and in the harness used.

For instance, Fig. 7 shows the reconstruction of a chariot found in a burial pit in Liu-li-ke (Hui­hsien, Honan). Typical of all chariots in the later part of the Chou period are the relatively thin spokes which give the wheels an elegant look. It is important that at this time, that is in the Warring States period (481-255 B.C.), the dishing of wheels was already known. According to Pro­fessor Joseph Needham this was introduced into Europe not before A.D. 1500. It is important because it gives the wheels an added strength against side-thrusts.

In one of the last copies of Wen-wu published just before the Cultural Revolution, the Workteam of the Office of Culture of the province of Hupeh reported the excavation of three tombs not far from the city of Chiang-ling. All resemble in construction those in Hunan and quite unmistakably were those of members of the high aristocracy of the State of Ch’u, dating from the Warring States period. They had not been robbed and provide a good example of the wealth and taste of this society and the importance attached to burials. In tomb No. 1 alone more than 400 objects were found, among them 160 made of bronze, including a great number of ritual vessels, chariot fittings, a bronze lamp held in the hand by a rider on a camel and a sword with an inscription “Kou Chien, King of (the state) Yueh (had this) precious sword made for his own use” (Fig. 8). The king is renowned for his swords which are described as being “as lovely as hibiscus, as bright as stars, as smooth as calm waters, as hard as granite and as glossy as ice.” When found, the sword was in perfect condition without a speck of rust, proving the skill of the metalworkers of that day. It is thought that to protect their finished articles they overlaid them with tin, silver or mercury. That this sword was found in the tomb of a noble of the State of Ch’u is important for its date, because the State of Yueh was conquered by the King of Ch’u in 332 B.C. and we may suspect that on this occasion Kou Chien’s famous sword was cap­tured and given to a noble of the victorious State of Ch’u, finally to be placed in his tomb. This would rule out a date before 332 B.C, for the tomb but according to circumstances we may expect it to be no later than the turn of the century. Among other items found in the tomb may be mentioned part of a book written on bamboo slips and more than a hundred objects covered with often beautifully painted lacquer. They include cups, tables, writing brushes, boxes, a musical instrument (resembling a zither) with pegs and bridges still in place, and an openwork lacquered wooden screen with an extraordinary type of decoration of great beauty (Fig. 9). In addi­tion, there were remains of food—plum pits, melon seeds, chicken and fish bones and so forth. The noble buried in this tomb—judging by its content—must have been a highly educated man with a sophisticated taste, a true contemporary of the philosopher Hsun-tzu who was educated in the State of Ch’u and in his chapter on “Cultiva­tion of oneself” includes as one of the qualities demanded of the chun-tzu, the gentleman, the “beauty of refinement.”

The wealth of beautifully lacquered and painted objects found in tombs of the Warring States period, especially in the State of Ch’u, is overwhelming; it reveals that in elegance and subtlety of design the art of lacquering reached its highest point during this period and perhaps in this region and not—as formerly believed—in the Han period.

Among the surprising discoveries found in Ch’u tombs were lacquered and brightly painted demon or monster figures (Fig. 10). They were most likely placed in tombs as guardians against evil spirits, catching them with their tongues.