Ways of Facing the Dead in Ancient China

Abstract

Coverings made of precious materials and placed over the face or head of the deceased in Western Han/ early Eastern Han dynasty tombs are the focus of this article. Earlier masks constructed from pieces of jade and dating to the Western Zhou period excavated in Shanxi and Shaanxi and to the Eastern Zhou in Henan, Hubei, and Jiangsu, are considered as predecessors of the Western Han versions that appear in tombs in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. The Han dynasty face coverings of jade tend to cover the entire face of the deceased and are related to the suits of jade that encased corpses in burials of Han royalty. Another type of covering, a mianzhao— a wooden box with one open face and often decorated with lacquer and other materials, is related to the jade masks because it is also positioned over the face of the corpse. Mianzhao only have been excavated in Jiangsu and Anhui, but the form and decor of the box link it to an object noted in the Hanshu called wenming that was granted by Xuandi to Huo Guang (d. 68 BCE). Both the face covering of jade and the mianzhao wooden box call attention to the face of the deceased, but most likely they were fashioned to protect the face, and at the same time to create a boundary between the living and the dead.