Tomb of a Renegade King from CobblestoneOnline.net

In 1983, a construction crew was leveling a hill for a government building in the Chinese city of Guangzhou when, suddenly, its equipment struck a large stone slab. The crew heard an echo and knew a hollow chamber lay within. Archaeologists were quickly called to the site, and Huang Senzhang, the first to be lowered into the tomb through a crack in the roof, said he felt like Ali Baba when he said, "Open sesame."

The tomb measured 35 feet north to south and 40 feet east to west. It had seven rooms and was divided by stone doors into two sections. In the central, rear chamber lay the remains of a royal corpse in a jade shroud-2,291 small, whitish rectangles sewn together with red silk that had once formed a suit five-feet seven-inches long. Despite the belief that a jade suit would prevent decay, the body within had disintegrated.

Whose Tomb?

Shortly before the excavation work was completed, archaeologists found a jade signature seal with the name Zhaomo, the second king of Nanyue, who reigned from 137 b.c. until 122 b.c. They also uncovered the oldest imperial seal yet discovered in a Chinese tomb. It declared the royal corpse to be "Emperor Wen." The title indicates that Zhaomo considered himself equal in rank to the Han ruler.

Zhaomo's grandfather, General Zhaotuo, had served under China's first emperor, Shi-Huangdi. When Shi-Huangdi's dynasty fell, Zhaotuo refused to submit to the emperor of the newly established Han dynasty. Instead, he declared himself king of the Nanyue region in southern China. Outliving his sons, he passed the rule on to his grandson Zhaomo.

Human Sacrifice

Other tomb finds confirm that the renegade king refused to follow Han regulations banning the practice of sacrificing humans in royal graves. Archaeologists found in Zhaomo's tomb the remains of 15 people who had been buried alive to serve him in the afterlife. One chamber held his four wives. Another held cooks and servants along with bronze cooking pots and animal bones. Others held the remains of a musician, an official, a guard, and a cart driver. Zhaomo seems not to have followed the current Han practice of using wooden figurines and pottery models as substitutes for human sacrifices.

Bi-jade disks carved with dragons and spirals-had been strategically placed over, under, and around the royal body to dispel evil spirits. Bronze daggers, crossbows, iron spears, and arrowheads all offered Zhaomo protection. The 10 iron swords found around his waist and other objects found on his body may have been prized possessions. Finds of ivory tusks, a silver box from Persia, and beads of crystal and agate indicate that the people in Zhaomo's kingdom traded with distant nations.

History books included little about the Nanyue kingdom and its five rulers. The tomb's artifacts, however, prove that the Nanyue people were quite sophisticated and skilled. They fished, domesticated animals, and created bronze objects with their own designs that show great skill.

Dig Data:

Jade objects appeared in tombs as early as 2500 b.c. In a.d. 222, only two years after the Han dynasty fell, jade burial suits were banned because they were so extravagant and costly. During the Han dynasty, the Chinese used jade to cover the eyes and plug the ears and nose. A jade pig was placed in each hand, and a jade cicada rested in the deceased's mouth. Why? Ancient Chinese observed that a cicada larva buries itself in the earth, comes out as a pupa (insect enclosed in a cell or cocoon), splits its skin, and emerges as an adult. Because they saw this process as representing death and rebirth, they made the cicada a symbol of immortality.