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The poem-story below is based on archaeological finds of 206BC to AD24. Tombs were discovered on the eastern outskirts of CHANGSA, Hunan Province. CHANGSA is a city about 3000years old. 4km from the city, in low, rolling hills, at MAWANGTUI, are two burial mounds, in one of which, The Lady of The Lord of Household Tai, was discovered in a previously undisturbed tomb. Called HAN TOMB NO 1, it consists of a vertical rectangular pit, with a passageway from the north, to a big, well-preserved chamber, about 16 metres underground. |
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The Lady of The Lord of Household Tai by Charlotte Peters Rock
I was The Lady of the Silken Province I
My burial mound still twenty metres high and fifty metres round My chamber sixteen metres underground reached from the northern tunnel Charcoal thick as one man's foot - and clay - surrounds my chamber where - in centuries of careful state - I lie I
My outer coffin covered wide in cloud lacquered white yellow red and black floating dainty round the wood And in my cloudly heaven monsters grapple hunt and swift pursue deer and birds and beasts and oxen or they stately dance and play the se inside the heaven where I lie I
My middle coffin rich vermillion A lid of clouds and battles Two great dragons and two tigers And around the sides high mountains in the clouds Dragons deer and monsters comfort where I lie I
My inner coffin made of wood is dressed in silk and feather and embroidered swathes of satin to do me honour where I lie I
Inside swathed in silken layers and linen bound around nine times with silken ribbon five feet and two inches tall sleeping straight my face towards the sky my head towards the northern door I lie
I Good Wife Lady of The Lord of Household Tai I lived two thousand and two hundred years before you came My family serfs were low and plenty And the craftsmen of The Household Tai Made all these silks and lacquers which you see buried where I lie
I wore silken stockings gloves and slippers Silk brocades in many colours Browns and yellows greys and blues Bright vermillion and pure cloud white Gold and silver dusted gauzy silks and clouds and animals and flowers attend all my gowns and garments bringing richness - which I loved - to where I lie
I brought my lacquer - finest lacquer pots - in the service of of My Lord of Tai
I was offered lotus root and fish dainty chicken rice and wheat cakes fruit and vegetable and herb and beans and ginger to suit The Lady of The Lord of Tai
I brought inside my resting place figurines in silk and linen twenty-two pipe yu to blow and a twenty-five string se to entertain me where I lie
I have all the choicest parts of life and written text on bamboo slips to tell the riches in my chamber to tell the world that I I am The Lady of The Lord of Household Tai
I am an Old One and revered Age fifty years I died My three strong sons were at my bed My daughters - one long dead and one was far away The courtyard just outside my window filled with children playing Children who were taught to honour me Honour me Honouring my status as The Lady The Lady of The Lord of Household Tai
I will wake to take my place where all the clouds are perfect high above the mountain peaks The Lady of The Lord of Household Tai I
se = zither yu = pipes Copyright Charlotte Peters Rock © 1999
BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Royal burials of early Imperial China, by Mark Hudson 2. Tombs, Graves and Mummies. Edited by Paul G Bahn. Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-83628-5 3. Perfect Presentation after 2100 years, by Chung Chan, from New Archaeological finds in China. Published by Foreign Language Press, Peking 1974. 4. China - a history, by Arthur Cotterell. Published by Pimlico, 1995. ISBN 0-7126-6251-0
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