Analysis of Marqui's Tomb

The Warring States period (475-221 BCE) was a time of turmoil and violence, with constant warfare between the regional states, but it was also a time of great intellectual and artistic activity, when the intellectual traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism originated. As military conflict became more frequent and more deadly, one by one the smaller states were conquered and absorbed by the half dozen largest ones. One of the more successful states was Chu, located in the middle reaches of the Yangzi River. The State of Chu defeated and absorbed fifty or more small states, eventually controlling a territory as extensive as the Shang (1600-1046 BCE) or Western Zhou dynasties (1050-771 BCE) at their heights.

Evidence of the distinctive style of Chu court workshops can be seen in the objects found in the tomb of Marquis Yi. Dated around 430 BCE, this tomb of Marquis Yi is located in present-day Hubei Province. Inscriptions on the bronzes found at the site identify the tomb as that of a marquis of the state of Zeng, a small state under the domination of Chu. The tomb is 21m long, 16.5m wide, and 13m deep. The tomb is composed of four chambers, each one rich in remarkable artifacts. The tomb was packed with charcoal, and the shaft filled with clay, stone slabs, and earth. The durability of these materials, and the fact that the tomb became waterlogged, left it in a remarkable state of preservation, enabling archaeologists to determine precisely how goods were distributed in the four chambers. It is not until the discovery of this tomb that we see a shift in the types of Chinese tombs. For example Shang royal tombs such as Fu Hao's had been single pits, often of great depth. The layout of the tomb of the Marquis Yi, however, attempts to approximate his living quarters as they had been during his lifetime. In the four chambers, objects are arranged in such a way that they would be in real life. Perhaps this shift suggests that a tomb is now thought of as an...