Tomb of Princess Yongtai

Located in the north of Qian County, Xianyang City in Shaanxi Province, the Tomb of Princess Yongtai is the first tomb to be excavated and remains the most impressive of all the satellite tombs in Qianling. This tomb is renowned for the quality of the many items found in it as well as the extremely fine wall paintings. Although the paintings depict famous buildings and towers, the rich trappings of courtly life and magnificent ceremonial parades, it is the painting of sixteen maids of honor that catch the attention of visitors. 

Princess Yongtai was the granddaughter of Tang Emperor Gaozong and his wife Empress Wu Zetian. In 700, she married Wu Yanji, son of Wu Chengsi, who was Wu Zetian's nephew. In 701, Princess Yongtai died in Luoyang, Henan Province, at the age of 17.The epitaph suggests that she died childbirth, but supposedly both she and her husband were poisoned by her grandmother after Yongtai revealed secrets about the older woman's affairs with two lovers. After rising to the throne, Zhongzong posthumously conferred the title of Princess Yongtai upon his daughter, and gave orders that his daughter and her husband should be buried together in the Qianling Tomb in 705 A.D. .

Tomb of Princess Yongtai is built by bricks, and has grave mound. It is composed of tomb passage, arched gateway, patio, rain path and front and back coffin chamber. With the total length of 87.5 meters, tomb passage is a slope with two meters wide. There is huge dragon, white tiger and honor guard composed of warriors wearing coat armor standing at both sides of tomb passage. Passing through arched gateway to the narrow rain path, there are six small niches on both sides of walls, and funeral objects such as color painting pottery figurines, horse-riding figurines, and pottery utensils etc are placed in it.

Mural is one big feature in Tomb of Princess Yongtai. There are murals on the walls of comb passage, arched gateway, corridor and the ceiling of coffin chamber. The front coffin chamber works as parlor, and the maids in flowery costume are the main theme. These maids take articles for daily use with different poses forward like going to service their master. On the ceiling of back coffin chamber are murals with patterns of astronomical phenomena. 

The murals have been removed to the Shaanxi Provincial Museumfor safekeeping and replaced with replicas. This tomb had been subject to raids and many grave goods have been stolen. However, some 1046 pieces have survived intact. Ceramic figures, tri-color figures and wooden figurines represent 878 of these pieces. Among them, 700 ceramic figures include heavenly kings, male, female and ethnic equestrians, musicians complete with their musical instruments and animals. The tri-color figurines are of many subjects in a variety of poses. By contrast there are thirty carved wooden figures that are all male.

For more information, please visit www.top-chinatour.com