What is a tomb beast and what is its use?

Tomb beast is a common monster in ancient tombs in China. It has an animal face, a human face and antlers. It is a kind of funerary object designed to deter ghosts and protect the souls of the dead from being disturbed.

Ancient people thought that there were all kinds of wild ghosts and evil spirits in the underworld, which would harm the ghosts of the dead. Therefore, the purpose of setting up tomb animals is to ward off evil spirits and protect the safety of the deceased.

From the archaeological findings, the town tomb beast was first seen in the Chu tombs of the Warring States period, and it was popular from Wei, Jin to Sui and Tang Dynasties, and gradually disappeared after the Five Dynasties. The production of tomb animals in the town was mainly made of wood, bone and pottery at first, and then mainly made of pottery and Tang tricolor. Metal and stone products are extremely rare.

Because the tomb-raiding beast is an unearthed cultural relic, it is rare in reality, so many people think it is ferocious, fierce and mysterious, but after reading it, I found that the tomb-raiding beast that looked ferocious was quite cute!

Tomb beast in Tang Sancai town

Grave beast: Sorry, I've eaten too much recently, exercised too little, and my face has grown a lot of meat!

Tomb beast in Renshou town

Grave beast: My dearest wife, where have you been? I shouldn't have treated you badly just now. It's all my fault. Come back early! It's really hard to live alone!

Tomb beast in Tang Sancai town

Grave beast: I haven't eaten meat for more than half a year. I'll rinse hot pot tonight!

Town tomb beast (Western Wei Dynasty? Painted face town tomb beast)

37 cm high, unearthed from Cuijiaying, Hanzhong City 1977, collected in Shaanxi History Museum.

This sphinx, a beast with unique shape, is similar to the sphinx in front of the distant Egyptian pyramids. The tomb beast in this town is the product of the combination of man and beast, which gradually evolved from beast to human form, in line with the development law of human civilization. In this sense, the tomb beast and the Sphinx, although separated from Wan Li, have inherent inevitability.

Grave beast: At dinner, my girlfriend told me a joke, which killed me. I still have a stomachache!

The tomb beast of Lujiao Town in the eyes of Chu people

Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Warring States Period. It was unearthed in Changsha, Hunan about 400- 200 BC.

This lacquered wood carving tomb beast was made by Chu craftsmen, combining reality and imagination, and it is a powerful guardian. The painted antlers create a shocking atmosphere, and people stick out their long tongues in front of their faces and pull them down like ties.

Tomb beast in Hongyou town

Grave beast: Master, I am loyal. No one dares to go near the grave, but I'm a little hungry. Master, give me something to eat!

White glaze town tomb beast

In the 15th year of Emperor Kai of Sui Dynasty, the tomb beast of Baiyou Town was unearthed from Zhangsheng Tomb in Anyang 1959.

Grave beast: I can't bend my strength, I can't be slutty with money, and my loyalty to the country and my love for the people can't be changed by anyone.

Lacquered deer horn town tomb beast

The height of the tomb animal in this town is 1 10 cm, the head of the animal is 69 cm, and the base is 32- 19 cm. Now it's in the Palace Museum.

The tomb beast of this town was unearthed in Tengdian 1 Warring States Chu Tomb in Jiangling, Jingzhou, with a wooden tire, a single-sided animal head on its seat, a long tongue, red paint on its mouth, prominent eyes and double antlers on its head. The whole body is painted with black paint, and the square seat is painted with cinnabar white animal face patterns, and the animal body is painted with cinnabar S-shaped cirrus clouds and diamond-shaped patterns.

Tomb beast is a common funerary object in Chu tombs and one of the unique objects in Chu lacquerware.

This kind of artifacts are abstract in appearance, strange in conception, horrible and grotesque in image, with strong mystery and strong witchcraft myth color. The basic form of the tomb beast consists of antlers, animal-shaped heads and square bases. Antlers are inserted in the hole at the top of the animal head, and the animal body is inserted in the square hole of the base, mostly with long neck, bulging eyes and long tongue-shaped mouth. Its shapes are single-headed, double-headed, deformed dragon face, deformed human face, etc. Most of them are single-headed and a few are double-headed.

From the arrangement of unearthed tomb animals, we can see the development and evolution law from early to late, which is roughly that the animal face gradually becomes a human face, no tongue gradually becomes a long tongue, no neck gradually becomes a long neck, and the animal face develops from painting to sculpture.

This tomb-robbing beast is a rare and special thing in other tombs of the Warring States except Chu Tomb, which has distinct regional characteristics and characteristics of the times. Even if it existed in Chu tombs in the early Warring States period, the number of tomb-robbing animals was very small. In the middle of the Warring States period, the number of tomb raiders was the largest, but it was rare in the late Warring States period. This quantitative change should conform to the development trend of lacquerware at that time and the history of the rise and fall of Chu State. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, such artifacts gradually disappeared.

Tomb beasts in the ancient tomb town of Tang Dynasty

This is called ferocious and terrible? Not only can it scare away grave robbers, it is estimated that even ghosts can be scared away!

The tomb beast in the Tang Dynasty is the guardian of the soul world. Things that have never been seen can still be done so brilliantly, and the plastic arts of the Tang Dynasty have really reached a handy level.

Tomb beast (Northern Wei Dynasty)

Grave beast: The lady in front is so beautiful. Can I add WeChat?

Tomb beast in Tang dynasty

Tomb raider: Nothing to do at night. I caught a monster to play with!

Tomb beast (Northern Wei Dynasty)