The Actual State of the Rule in Kingdoms as Seen from Kings' Tombs of the Former Han : A Case Study of the Han Tombs at Mancheng District in Hebei and Liu Sheng, King Jing of the Zhongshan Kingdom

The Former Han dynasty appointed kings (zhuhouwang 諸侯王) in eastern China, and assigned them to rule over their kingdoms. There has been much research about this system, which has been called the commandery-kingdom system (junguozhi 郡國制). But because of the lack of historical sources, the actual state of the relations established between the kings and influential residents of their kingdoms has not been clarified. In this paper, I examine this problem using the kings' tombs as a clue in solving this issue. First, I organized basic information about kings' tombs. They have common points : most tombs contain clothes made of jewels (yuyi 玉衣) and yellow wooden walls (huangchangticou 黃腸題凑). But on the other hand, they also have differences : some are pit tombs, while other are cave tombs. The difference in shape may provide an important clue in clarifying the relation between the kings and influential residents. Next, I made a case study, examining the particular qualities of the Han tombs at Mancheng found north of the Huang river. One was the tomb of Liu Sheng, King Jing of the Zhongshan kingdom (r. 154-112 BC). The tomb has two special characteristics : first, it is the only cave tomb north of the Huang river ; second, it was built at a place far from the capital of the kingdom. I considered the background affecting these two points in comparison with other tombs : the Later Han tombs at Beizhuang and the Former Han tombs at Baoanshan. As a result, I reached the following conclusions. First, Liu Sheng received the support of emperor's maternal relatives, the Dou clan, in building his tomb. Second, the reason he received this support is that kingdoms were weakened by the policies of the central government. Third, it may be that he had no choice but to build his tomb at a location far from the capital because he could not get the backing of local residents. Based on the above, I emphasize that examining the kings' tombs is very effective in grasping how the relationships between kings, who came from elsewhere to rule residents in their kingdoms, and those residents were established