#Chinese history

[niteshade925]

April 20, Beijing, China, National Museum of China/中国国家博物馆 (Part 4 – Chinese Historical Fashion Exhibition continued):

Alrighty, Ming and Qing dynasty fashion, here we go! Sit tight because this is an extra long post that took me a long time to research

First is this marvel, a replica of the phoenix crown/fengguan/凤冠 of Empress Xiaoduanxian of Ming (明孝端显皇后). The real artifact is in this museum, but it's probably not exhibited much for conservation reasons.

Phoenix crowns are the formal headwear for empresses, which according to etiquette rules set at the beginning of Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), must have 9 dragons and 4 phoenixes (btw the original Chinese term is fenghuang/凤凰, which is a different mythological creature from the phoenix, but "phoenix" is the commonly used translation now), but this crown has 9 dragons and 9 phoenixes, indicating that etiquette rules have loosened and shifted by late Ming.

The phoenixes on this crown are blue because they were actually made with the iridescent feathers of kingfishers in a process called diancui/点翠. All species of kingfishers are now legally protected animals in China, so when buying hanfu accessories, you may come across "imitation diancui"/仿点翠, these are usually either made with enamel or dyed chicken or goose feathers. Another thing to note is the appearance of the jewels on this crown. Ming-era people liked keeping the jewels in a "natural look", so these jewels had no facets.

Recreations of Ming-era hanfu. Left is the semi-formal outfit of aristocrat women in mid to late Ming dynasty. Right is the casual outfit of late Ming scholars and literati. The woman's cone-shaped hairstyle is called a diji/䯼髻, and the set of hairpins that goes on a diji is called toumian/头面. She's wearing a type of top called an ao/袄 and a skirt aka qun/裙, specifically a mamianqun/马面裙, or "horse face skirt". Note that the bottom hem of an ao is not tucked into the skirt. The man is wearing a square-ish hat called a fangjin/方巾 and should also be wearing a wangjin/网巾 underneath (can be understood as a hairnet). He's wearing a daopao/道袍 and a hechang/鹤氅 on the outside.

Also I did make a mistake while dividing up the pictures for these two posts, some of the following artifacts are from earlier dynasties. Ugh if only I had time to take pictures of all the placards.

A pair of mojie/摩竭 shaped gold earrings from Liao dynasty (916 - 1125). Note that the placard says it's "摩羯形" or "Capricorn-shaped", but this apparently is sort of a misnomer? Sort of, because this representation should be of the makara (मकर; translated as 摩竭 in Chinese), a sea creature from Hindu mythology, but at the same time it is the equivalent of Capricorn in Hindu astrology. However since the name "Capricorn" stuck, it's now commonly referred to as "摩羯". 摩竭 and 摩羯 have the exact same pronunciation though.

A pair of phoenix (fenghuang) shaped gold hairpins from Liao dynasty:

After a lot of pulling my hair out researching, I finally found what time period this gold belt buckle came from. It's from Eastern Han dynasty (25 - 220 AD). The gold filigree and beads form the pattern known as panchiwen/蟠螭纹, where pan/蟠 and chi/螭 are both types of loong dragon in Chinese mythology.

The gold decoration on a xiapei/霞帔 (the V-shaped wide band in the diagram on the right) from Liao dynasty. Xiapei originated in Song dynasty (960 - 1279) as part of the formal attire of consorts, but later developed into a part of the formal attire for women in general. Xiapei also looked different at different time periods in history, but from Song-era to Ming-era, its structure didn't change by much.

Finally back to Ming dynasty. This is a gold cap inlaid with gems and pearls. From the size of this cap and the included hairpins, we can deduce that this cap is meant to encase the bun on the top of the head (the hairpins that go through the cap would hold it in place).

Like the gold cap above, the next few are all from the same tomb of a Ming dynasty noble, and they are all themed similarly--they all depict scenes in a heavenly palace. Of these, the first three that has miniature architecture in gold are parts of the toumian worn on a diji hairstyle. This first one is a pair of yanbin/掩鬓 (lit. "covering temples"), so called because they are worn on the sides, close to the temples.

This next one has some confusion regarding the naming. According to an article by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Archaeology, the top artifact is a fenxin/分心 and the bottom artifact is a tiaoxin/挑心, but according to 撷芳主人 (if you are a hanfu enthusiast you have probably heard of this person or seen their works, they are the one who drew the cute illustrations of Ming-era fashion), the top one may be a manguan/满冠, and the bottom one should be called fenxin/分心. Note that 撷芳主人's conclusion is mostly based on Ming-era records and novels. Regardless of the naming, the top one here should be worn on the base of the diji, and the bottom one should be worn at the front center of the diji.

This one also has some confusion in the naming, the Institute of Archaeology calls it a dingzan/顶簪, while 撷芳主人 calls it a tiaoxin/挑心. Again, regardless of the naming, this one is worn on the very top of the diji, so the hairstick portion goes straight down through the diji. If you look closely, you can even see people and animals in the details.

Left: a pair of gold phoenix (fenghuang) hairpins made in the 22nd year of the Yongle Emperor of Ming. Right: gold filigree bracelets inlaid with gemstones.

Ming-era portrait of a scholar official. Before cameras were introduced in late-Qing dynasty, portrait paintings were the most realistic depictions of what people looked like back then. Such portrait paintings mostly began in Song dynasty and continued through to Qing dynasty.

Illustrations of the different buzi/补子 (also known as "mandarin square") used by different ranks of officials in Ming dynasty. All ranks are organized from highest on the left to lowest on the right, top row is for civil officials, bottom row is for military officials, and bottom right is for nobility. All illustrations here come from the Ming-era illustrated encyclopedia Sancai Tuhui (《三才图会》). For those who are interested, a scan of Sancai Tuhui is available on Internet Archive for free (link goes to first chapter, most chapters are available).

Also from Sancai Tuhui Chapter 62 (all pictures here come from Ch. 62-64), illustrations of the twelve ornaments (called shierzhang/十二章) on a mianfu/冕服, which is the highest level of formal attire for an emperor in Ming dynasty. These twelve ornaments depict things including celestial bodies (note that sun contains the three-footed sun crow, and moon contains the moon rabbit), elements of nature, mythical creatures, and representations of life, and are supposed to represent the values and traits that an emperor should possess:

And wrapping up the section on Ming-era hanfu, here are the headwear of different classes of people in Ming dynasty, from commoners to the literati to important government officials.

Note the net-like hair accessory on the left. This is a wangjin/网巾 during Ming dynasty (illustration from Sancai Tuhui), and is worn by all men regardless of social class. However, wangjin is worn almost like an "undergarment", so it's almost always covered by something else. Which means all those historical cdramas set in Ming dynasty that have their characters wear only a wangjin in public are, in fact, inaccurate.

Some hats of commoners and scholars in Ming dynasty. Note the left one on the second row, that is the same hat worn by the Fox Scholar in the episode Goose Mountain of the animated series Yao Chinese Folktales (《中国奇谭》).

Some of the formal headwear of government officials in Ming dynasty. These are called liangguan/梁冠, lit. "beam crown", where the liang/"beam" refers to the metal arches that go over the top. The more liang there are on the hat, the higher the rank of the official.

And last but not least, Qing dynasty (1616 - 1911) fashion. Left is Qing-era men's outfit for horseback archery and hunting, called xingfu/行服. His hat is composed of two parts, the actual hat called dingdai/顶戴 (here it's specifically the winter version) and the back decoration made of horsehair and feathers that signifies status is called hualing/花翎. Back is the casual outfit of late-Qing Manchu noblewomen, with the characteristic hairstyle called dalachi/大拉翅, a vest called kanjian/坎肩, and a robe beneath called chenyi/衬衣. These are all considered part of qizhuang/旗装, or traditional Manchu clothing. On the right is the late-Qing casual outfit of upper class Han women, with an ao/袄 top and a langanqun/阑干裙 skirt (a type of mamianqun/马面裙), and a headband decorated with pearls called mo'e/抹额. Note that although the exact origin of the modern qipao/旗袍 is disputed, it definitely has elements from at least one of the following: the Manchu chenyi, the Han ao, and the late Qing and early Republic era men's changshan/长衫.

A little historical background on why this particular display is arranged in this way. In early Qing dynasty, the Manchu ruling class enforced the policy of 剃发易服 (lit. "shaving hair and changing clothing") specifically on Han men in order to force conformity to Manchu traditions in terms of hairstyle and clothing, but Han women were not included in this policy. So in early Qing, Han women still wore the same clothing as they did prior in late Ming, but over the time the fashion of Han women absorbed many elements of Manchu fashion. However, this wasn't a one-way influence. By late Qing, many elements of Han fashion were adopted by Manchu fashion as well, so this influence really went both ways. Today, Manchu people is one of the 56 officially recognized ethnicities in China (4th largest ethnicity by population), and the traditional fashion of Manchu people is a part of the diverse culture of modern China.

Below is a real example of a chenyi, chenyi were popular among Qing dynasty imperial consorts as informal dress:

The hairstyle of Manchu women (called qitou/旗头) at different times during Qing dynasty. The one at the far right was what early qitou looked like, while the one on the far left appeared in late-Qing. The two hairstyles on the left frequently appear in period dramas set in Qing dynasty.

A belt called jifudai/吉服带 with pouches and decorations. Jifudai is so named because it's supposed to be worn with the semi-formal jifu/吉服 outfit. This particular jifudai is yellow, a color reserved for the emperor.

Real examples of Qing-era Han women's outfit, with an ao on the left, and a langanqun on the right. Langanqun is a type of mamianqun, but the construction is different from Ming-era mamianqun, in that langanqun is made from numerous rectangular and trapezoidal pieces of fabric sewn together into two larger pieces, whereas Ming-era mamianqun are simply two large pleated pieces of fabric. The way these skirts are decorated are also somewhat different. Visually speaking, Qing-era langanqun have woven and/or embroidered patterns that are arranged vertically, creating a "paneled" look, whereas Ming-era mamianqun have woven and/or embroidered patterns that repeat and extend horizontally as to wrap around the entire skirt.

Aaaaand that's it for this exhibition! Phew. I highly recommend everyone go visit the free virtual exhibition (link here), partly because when I visited the National Museum of China, I was in a huge hurry (I only had one day to see everything), and so the task of taking pictures of the exhibition was split between me and a family member, but I'm not sure they understood how many pictures I wanted....so what's in my posts here are only a very small portion of the actual exhibition. The actual exhibition doesn't just have artifacts and replicas of artifacts, but also have paintings and real articles of clothing from Qing dynasty, which were all amazing to look at.

[moononmyfloor]

Riverside Code at Qingming Festival ( 清明上河图密码 ) : Qīngmíng shànghé tú mìmǎ Cultural Meta Masterpost

All the images are taken from show's official Weibo

Riverside Code at Qingming Festival is our newest Big Chinese Period Drama, as in actual proper historical drama. The premise is a series of mysterious murder cases that happen alongside the Bian river that flows across the capital of Nothern Song Dynasty, Bianjing, during the time of Qingming Festival, at the same time as the painter Zhang Zeduan happened to be drawing the world-renowned painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival.

In other words, the show's based on a novel that was inspired by the said artwork and the possible intrigues that the hundreds of people captured in that painting must've undergone during that time, long long ago.

The show was officially announced on 2023. 10. 18, and had been relentlessly promoting its content, how much research and historical reproduction and replications and all that went into the project. The episodes themselves (which you can watch here for free with Eng subs) have an ending segment called Song Dynasty Encyclopedia, to educate the viewer on the significance of the painting and other Song Dynasty trivia.

And rightfully so, if you watch this short BTS video you'll realise what a MASSIVE project and labor of love this was and they should be proud of it and boast about and promote their work to heaven and back.

And as always, I dove headfirst into all the meta crumbs I could get my hands on and am gonna compile them here and share with whomever else is interested! 😁

Mind, the translations might not be super smooth, my Chinese is but elementary but I'll try to provide more external links to supplement the posts so you can read from people who know better!

I will update this masterpost as I go on making new posts alongside the Weibo's updates! (So don't hurry to reblog this one just yet because it's unfinished lol)

.

1. Nuo Opera

More posts by me

[its-not-a-pen]

--Written Chinese vs English--

[ID: A comic titled "Evolution of Written Chinese vs English". On the left, emperor Qin Shi Huang holds up a scroll and angrily points an ink brush at the viewer and shouts, "There should not be seven different ways to write 'horse'. Starting today everyone will use the same characters-- or else!" On the right, William Shakespeare laughs gleefully while holding a skull and quill and exclaims, "The first rule of English is to have fun and to thine own self be true!" Every word uses a non-standard spelling. Below the cut are full versions of the the panels and a blank version of the Chinese one. End ID]

I'm fascinated by the evolution of chinese and english "spelling." I grew up on hard-to-read Ye Olde English, and assumed all languages were like that. Imagine my shock when I discovered the chinese language had been standardised since 221BC, and I can read words written in the Han Dynasty.

full versions:

notes under the cut

For much of it's history, the English language played it fast and loose with spelling. (No one can spell things wrong if no one can spell things right!) Standardisation only began in the late 15th century as the use of the printing press spread across Europe.

I thought the best person to show this carefree attitude was the Bard himself; Willy Shakes. We have six surviving examples of Shakespeare's signature, and none of them are spelled the same way twice.

In comparison, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, standardised the writing system as early as 221 BC. He had conquered the six warring states and decided to do away with their writing systems. This made the administration of a centralised government easier, and it served as a demonstration of his absolute authority. The writing on the book* is "horse", and "torn apart by carriage".

**That scroll he's holding is actually called a book in Chinese, it is made up of bamboo slips, like a big sushi mat!

All designs are available on redbubble: I thought it would be fun to include a blank version of qin shi huang, so you can write stuff on him.

[blueiscoool]

Chinese Bronze Sword With An Inlaid Rock Crystal, Turquoise and Gold Hilt Warring States Period, Circa 4th - 2nd Century B.C.

[rongzhi]

Men's beauty practices in imperial China

English added by me :)

[graphiceyes]

So. My Chinese History prof just stopped in the middle of his lecture, stared at all of us, and just asks "Does anyone here listen to The Magnus Archives?" and proceeded to use TMA and Smirke's 14 *TO EXPLAIN NEO-CONFUCIANIST THOUGHT DURING THE SOUTHERN SONG.* When I tell you I jumped I'm?????????????????

[memories-of-ancients]

Porcelein turtle vessel, China, early 16th century

from The Ayala Museum, Manila

[evilsment]

🌞 Sun and Moon Pagodas | 日月双塔 🌚

Originally built in Guilin, Guangxi during the Tang dynasty (618-917) the pagodas were reconstructed in 2001.

[queerasfact]

Ace awareness week: Golden Orchid Societies

Golden Orchid Societies were communities of women around the 19th and early 20th centuries in southern China who chose not to marry, or not to live with their husbands. Some Golden Orchid sisters had a solo wedding, showing their desire to remain independent from a husband. These women were known as "self-combed women", because they would dress their own hair before the ceremony, rather than having it combed by a married female relative, as was normal in a male-female marriage.

Some Golden Orchid sisters may have been asexual or aromantic. Others may have been women-loving-women, or had other reasons to avoid traditional marriage. Nonetheless, their history provides us with an insight into ace history, and what historical possibilities there have been for asexual people.

Check out our podcast to learn more

[Image: Liang Jieyun, 85, and Huang Li-e, 90, two of the last surviving Golden Orchid sisters. Tania Branigan for the Guardian]

[yebreed]

Old Chinese houses are an inexhaustible creative space in terms of wooden interiors. To me, something alike is associated with childhood memories of a countryside house in Zhejiang.

Photo: ©遗产君

[chinesehanfu]

[Hanfu · 漢服]The past and present of "eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival"

As the Mid-Autumn Festival/Zhong Qiu Jie 中秋节 is coming, let us learn how “mooncakes/月饼” became an iconic traditional food of the Mid-Autumn Festival

🌕🥮Mooncake/月饼🥮🏮

A mooncake (simplified Chinese: 月饼; traditional Chinese: 月餅) is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節).The festival is primarily about the harvest while a legend connects it to moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is widely regarded as one of the four most important Chinese festivals.

Mooncakes were originally used as offerings to worship the moon god.

Worshiping the moon is a very old custom in China. It is actually a worship activity for the "moon god" by the ancients. Eating mooncakes and appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival are indispensable customs for celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in all parts of China. Mooncakes symbolize reunion. People regard them as festive food, use them to worship the moon, and give them to relatives and friends.

Cultural relics believed to be the predecessor of mooncakes were unearthed:

<China Tang Dynasty Baoxiang flower-patterned mooncakes/宝相花月饼>⬇️

Mooncakes, traditionally offered as a tribute to the Moon Goddess, have a long and rich history. The term "mooncake" was first recorded in the Southern Song Dynasty in Wu Zimu’s <梦梁录/Meng Liang Lu>.

Over time, mooncakes merged with various regional culinary traditions, giving rise to different styles such as Cantonese, Shanxi, Beijing, Suzhou, Chaozhou, and Yunnan mooncakes, all of which are beloved by people across China：

Mooncakes truly became associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival during the Ming Dynasty. In the writings of Liu Ruoyu 刘若愚, a eunuch during the reigns of the Wanli and Chongzhen emperors, he mentioned in his prison work Zhuozhong Zhi 《酌中志》(Vol. 20, "Brief Record of Culinary Preferences"): “八月宫中赏秋海棠、玉簪花。自初一日起，即有卖月饼者。加以西瓜、藕，互相馈送。西苑鹿藕。至十五日，家家供月饼瓜果，候月上焚香后，即大肆饮啖，多竟夜始散席者。如有剩月饼，仍整收于干燥风凉之处，至岁暮合家分用之，曰‘团圆饼’也”

Translation：

"In August, the palace having event appreciates autumn crabapple blossoms. From the first day of the month, mooncakes are sold,it accompanied by watermelons and lotus roots, and are exchanged as gifts.By the fifteenth day, every household offers mooncakes and fruits in worship, waiting for the moon to rise before burning incense and feasting lavishly, with some gatherings lasting all night. If there are leftover mooncakes, they are stored in a dry and cool place until the end of the year, when the whole family shares them, calling them 'reunion cakes.'

In the Qing Dynasty, there were books that detailed the methods of making mooncakes. For example, Zeng Yi, a female writer and female doctor in the late Qing Dynasty, recorded the "Method of Making Crisp Mooncakes" in her book "Zhongkuilu": "Use white ash flour, half of which is steamed in a steamer, and no water vapor is seen; the other half is raw, and kneaded with lard and cold water. Then, mix the steamed flour with lard. Use a ball of raw oil flour, and wrap a small ball of cooked oil flour inside; use a rolling pin to roll it into a cup-sized shape, fold it into a square; roll it into a ball again, and fold it into a square again; then wrap the filling. Use a cake stamp to stamp it, and put it on the stove to cook. For the oil-flavored filling, use cooked flour, sugar, walnuts, etc., and add a little sesame oil, so that it will not fall apart." The method is very similar to today's Suzhou-style mooncakes.

————————

🧚🏻‍Production & Model/Makeup：@曾嚼子

🔗Xiaohongshu:https://www.xiaohongshu.com/discovery/item/66e66ef70000000026033df2

————————

[victusinveritas]

Chinese imperial dynasties as Simpsons quotes

[makingqueerhistory]

Two of the most famous gay couples in Chinese history are also the sources of some of the most recognizable queer symbols in China: the bitten peach and the torn sleeve. Stories that are partially legend, partially based in some reality, have expanded beyond what anyone could have imagined and shifted from a romanticized look at a homosexual romance to a term to be clung to as a historical hook from past to present; a reminder that there is a precedent for the kind of queer love that continues in contemporary China, despite attempts to stamp it out.

Support Making Queer History on Patreon

Send in a One-Time Donation

[its-not-a-pen]

i love the hilarious eunuch ranking system by @welcometothejianghu so i decided to make one based on (mostly) REAL historical chinese enunchs!

in chronological order:

Warring States Period long story short, the PM is sleeping with the Empress Dowager, and he wants to extracate himself before her son (future Emperor Qin Shi Huang) gets old enough to find out. the PM finds her a suitable replacement, and the replacement is attached to a guy named Lao Ai. They pluck his beard and pass him off as a eunuch so he can sneak into the palace. Bing bang boom everyone's happy. This goes terribly wrong later, since Lao Ai tries to replace the emperor with his own kids and stages a failed coup. rest in pieces buddy...

it's very likely that Lao Ai was a ficticious character invented by Sima Qian, who will be appearing on this list later.

Qin Dynasty

Zhao Gao helped the first emperor of China conquer an empire, and administer it efficiently with his legal knowledge, but he also made the second emperor into a puppet, and weakened the empire for his own political gain. Max points of complexity, but you'd get more loyalty out of a coffee club punch card.

Before launching his soft coup, he decided to test the waters by bring in a deer and gaslighted the emperor by calling it a horse. the officials who were loyal to him called it a horse, and he executed the rest.

Han Dynasty Jiru, male favourite of Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang), the peasant scoundrel who became the founder of the Han Dynasty. look, if the emperor has a harem of hundreds of women and you manage to catch his attention, you max out in style points. simple as. for most of chinese history it was fairly common for high-ranking men, especially eunuchs, to wear make up like powder and rouge, but i decided to give Jiru some women's huadia as well, cause he's a baddie.

Jiru gets a bad rap for alledgely distracting the emperor from his duties, but lets be real, history is written by civil officials who have no shortage of professional jealousy and gender/sexuality related prejudice towards eunuchs, since they were the personal attendants of royalty and could exert a lot of influence. plus Liu Bang was already pissing in the hats of confucian scholars, most of the poor work ethic is on HIM. Jiru should get credit for making him marginally less of a troglodite.

all in all he didn't try any court intrigue so extra points for loyalty and complexity. free my man >:( he's just a Han dynasty Monica Lewinsky who got slutshamed by jealous coworkers >:(

Han Dynasty

meet the father of east asian history, sima qian. half the people on this list can owe their placement here thanks to his extremely though history books "records of the grand historian"

history at this time was mostly "creative writing" and sima qian attempted to give the practise more academic intergrety, he went out and personally interviewed people, tried to get primary sources, and got rid of most of the more fanstastical aspects. however, he was not without his biases and some texts can be seen as allegorical/veiled insults towards the Han Dynasty, especially towards Emperor Wu. unlike most of the people on this list, sima qian was from the gentry and castated later in life as a punishment for treason. he was implicated after trying to defend a friend, and could not pay the fine to commute his sentence. the gentlemen at the time were expected to die by suicide rather than live with such ignimony, but sima qian chose to live so he could finish writing the history book his father started. the "giant conspiracy" joke explained: the chinese word for penis is a homophone for "conspiracy".

[blueiscoool]

Stunning Tang Dynasty Murals in a Tomb Unearthed in China

A Tang dynasty tomb unearthed in China dates from the 700s, and the murals on its walls give an unprecedented view of daily life at the time.

Archaeologists in northern China have unearthed a centuries-old tomb decorated with stunning murals portraying daily life during the Tang dynasty, which ruled much of central and eastern China from A.D. 618 to 907.

The tomb includes never-before-seen depictions of daily life, including men threshing grain and making noodles.

One of the murals also depicts what appears to be a "Westerner" with blond hair and a beard who probably hailed from Central Asia, Victor Xiong, a professor of history at Western Michigan University who wasn't involved in the discovery, said in an email.

The tomb was discovered in 2018 during roadwork on a hillside on the outskirts of Taiyuan, the capital of China's northern Shanxi province, but archaeologists only reported on the completed excavations last month.

According to an article from China’s government-owned news agency Xinhua, an epitaph in the tomb states it was the burial place of a 63-year-old man who died in 736, as well as his wife.

The tomb consists of a single brick chamber, a door and a corridor. Scenes from life during the Tang dynasty adorn the walls of the tomb, the door, the corridor, and the platform on which the coffin was placed. The domed ceiling of the chamber is painted with what may be a dragon and phoenix.

Tomb guardians

Several figures painted near the door represent the "doorkeepers" or guardians of the tomb; they are wearing yellow robes and some have swords at their waists, according to Xinhua. Other murals portray natural landscapes, as well as men threshing grain, women grinding flour, men making noodles and women fetching water from a well.

They are rendered in the traditional "figure under a tree" style that was popular in the Shanxi region at the time, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. As its name suggests, the style features people carrying out activities underneath beautifully depicted trees.

Many of the figures in the murals look like the same Chinese man and woman, and archaeologists think they may have been the two people buried in the tomb. The woman, in one scene, is dressed in a colorful gown and is leading four horses, alongside a bearded man holding a whip.

Other murals show mountains, trees and camels, and the series of paintings around the coffin may represent the Chinese tomb owner at different stages of his life, Xinhua reported.

Traditional style

The murals in the tomb appear to be well preserved. "The most familiar theme depicted in these murals is that of human figures under trees — a tradition that harks back to the Han dynasty [206 B.C. to A.D. 220]," Xiong said. Similar murals had been found in China's Xinjiang, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu regions.

He noted that the blond "non-Han" man leading camels has distinctive clothing. "Based on his facial features and outfit style, we can identify him as a 'Westerner,' likely a Sogdian from Central Asia," Xiong said. (The Sogdians were a trading people along the Silk Road routes between Asia and Europe at the time, living mainly in what are now Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

He added that many of the murals gave "never-before-seen" representations of daily chores and labor during the Tang dynasty.

By Tom Metcalfe.