Layers of Being: Bodies, Objects, and Spaces in Warring States Burials

The art of ancient China is largely constituted by artifacts retrieved from the grave, but this does not meant that these objects should be construed as merely 'grave furnishings'---artifacts that were made specifically and exclusively for burial. The burial merely marked the end of the object's social life. Regardless, whether the object was a personal item with a lengthy and varied past life, or a piece of funeral paraphernalia with a brief and rigidly prescribed life, or even a surrogate burial artifact, one of its most significant moment came during the funeral. Focusing on a group of fourth century burials from the Changjiang River valley, lying in the lands near the ancient capital of Chu (ca. 450--278 BCE), the present study identifies this moment for burial furnishings, whose meanings appear to be generated out of the funeral by the participants and not exclusively within the grave. The graves from Chu are preserved in near pristine condition, containing tangible traces of their packaging retained in the cloth shrouding, bamboo-plait boxes, hemp and silk bindings, and wooden coffins. Equally important, these tombs are organized through the layers of shrouding and multiple nesting coffins as strata of objects and spaces, encircling the body of the deceased, where each stratus marks another stage in the funeral, allowing us to literally unpack the ritual sequence of these burials. The spectacle of the funeral subjected these objects to a process of revealing and concealing, through the rites of shrouding, coffining, funeral procession, and the final rites at the side of the grave. In this sense, the objects should not be viewed not as bearers of transcendent meanings, permanently encoded into styles and forms, but rather as objects encrusted with meanings, which attached themselves through the funeral and burial rites. By studying the funeral and gifting practices associated with the funeral, this thesis describes layers of signification found in these objects that bind the living with the dead.