User:DinoTron02/Jade burial suit

History

Cultural History

Jade shroud for King of Zhongshan, Liu Xiu (d. 57 BCE), in the National Museum of China, Beijing, China.

For many years, many archaeologists suspected that records of jade burial suits were only legends.The discovery in 1968 of two complete jade suits in the tombs of Liu Sheng and Dou Wan in Mancheng, Hebei, finally proved their existence.

It is now believed that jade burial suits were actually relatively common among the wealthiest aristocrats of the Han Dynasty, but that over the years most have been lost due to the activities of grave robbers.

Site History

Tombs from the Spring and Autumn period belonging to the dukes of the Jin state in Quwo were discovered in which the body was covered with small jade pieces once interwoven with silk. The jade suits of Liu Sheng and Dou Wan consisted of 2,498 plates of solid jade connected with two and a half pounds of gold wires.

Excavation of the Jade Burial Suits taken from the Hebei Museum in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China.

Since the first jade burial suits discovery, there have been multiple additional findings. In 1973, a jade burial suit belonging to Prince Huai of the Western Han Dynasty was discovered in Dingxian, Hebei. It consisted of 1,203 pieces of jade and 2,580 grams of gold thread. In 1983, a jade suit was found in the tomb of Zhao Mo, the second king of Southern Yue, in Guangzhou. The red silk thread used to bind the 2,291 jade plates represented Zhao Mo's immersion into local culture. It is exhibited in the local Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. In 1991, a jade burial suit was excavated from a group of monumental tombs of the King of Chu, Liu Wu, in Xuzhou. This magnificent, life-sized jade and gold burial suit survived very much intact, thereby possessing a high value for artistic appreciation.