[VOL IV] ANCIENT TOMBS, AMOY

ANCIENT TOMBS, AMOY

Cover Image: Ancient Tombs near Amoy / XiaMen FuJian China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by W.Le Petit – ALAMY Image ID:2X55NFC

*An ancient tomb and its guardian located in Xiamen. / Sketched on the Spot by Capt Stoddart R.N..

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire.
Hands that the rod of empire might have sway’d,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

GRAY’S Elegy.

EVERY addition made to our knowledge of Chinese history and habits, contributes to render the analogy with other Oriental countries closer, by which their vain notions, of a separate origin from the rest of mankind, meets with circumstantial contradiction. Ceremonies in honour of the dead, form no minor criterion of previous identity, and, whenever we find two nations, or people, observing rites nearly similar, and those of a very complicated character, it may, with great probability, be concluded, that they are derived from a common origin from a common origin. All the forms of a Chinese marriage are discoverable in some country or other of the Eastern hemisphere, their affectation of peculiarities being an insufficient disguise. So also, in the burial of the dead, a striking similarity to the practices of countries described in Scripture, has been ascertained, by modern travellers, to prevail in China. Exploring parties of British officers, actuated by no other motives than those of curiosity, amusement, or instruction, set out from Amoy, and, ascending the granite hills that shelter and adorn the vicinity, were astonished by the discovery of an ancient cemetery. It occupied a hollow or excavation in the mountain, such as would have been left by an extensively wrought quarry, and, from its weather-worn appearance, was evidently of most ancient construction.

A crescented tomb of triple walls, dedicated to a mandarin of high rank, stood in front of the enclosure, behind which rose a long flight of steps cut in the rock, leading up to a gateway of grotesque design, consisting of a double ogee-roof, sustained by four wooden columns. The inner space had evidently, in former ages, been excavated, the stone carried away, and the regular area left by its removal, formed into galleries and promenades, rising in tiers one above the other. In some instances, vast spaces were enclosed by walls of solid masonry, within which were temples, or tombs, hollowed from the rock, and filled with remains of the dead. In other directions, several hundred vaults stood, with opened doors, upon a gallery of considerable length. The cells, in whose corners were resting many skulls, had been altogether deserted and tenantless. Here, however, incontrovertible evidence is offered, that the Chinese anciently—for these sepulchres are, by themselves, considered to rank amongst their earliest records of civilization—entombed their dead in catacombs, like many other Oriental nations. The Egyptians constructed pyramids and labyrinths, to contain the remains of mortality. The Phoenicians and Greeks hollowed out rocks for tombs, surrounding their chief cities with depositories of the bones of their fathers. Beneath Rome, Naples, and Paris, are extensive catacombs; and gigantic constructions of similar description, but far more early dates, exist on the African shores of the Mediterranean. The doors, or the panels cut in the rock on each side of them, in these catacombs of Amoy, are carved with appropriate inscriptions, and with effigies of wives, or attendants, or slaves, or horses, or other objects that contributed to the honour or happiness of the deceased. This custom is precisely co-incident with that of the most ancient Egyptians. These catacombs give us an idea of those whose existence is still unknown to us. They contain the history of the country; and the customs and manners of the people, painted or sculptured in many monuments, are in the most admirable preservation.

It was customary in China to bury slaves, and even queens, alive, with the remains of emperors and princes; but, the Tartars substituted the less cruel and sinful system of burning representations of all imperial attachés in tinfoil, and of placing little wooden images of them also upon the graves of their royal masters. This very custom, Herodotus alludes to in speaking of the Scythians: he says, that at the funerals of their chiefs, wives, servants, and horses were all impaled alive, and placed around the tyrant’s tomb. In Egypt, the hieroglyphics on the walls of the mausoleum express the extent of the deceased prince’s authority, the number of his slaves, and of his subjects; at Amoy, the devices on the rocks are intended to express similar objects. These tombs, therefore, only made known to Europeans since the return of our victorious expedition from China in the year 1844, afford a convincing proof that the primeval habits of the Chinese did not differ from those of the earliest people spoken of in the Scriptures, for they also placed their dead in grottos. Abraham was laid at rest in the cave of Machpelah.

It may give confirmation to the conclusion here attempted to be drawn, to quote this well-known passage in the sixth Æneid of Virgil.

Those pleasing cares the heroes felt, alive,
For chariots, steeds, and arms in death survive,

as evidence that the Romans were familiar with that kind of sepulchral sculpture, which perpetuated the dignity of the deceased hero: and a passage in the Electra of Euripides, – Thou Queen Earth,to whom I stretch my hands, – demonstrates an analogy between the funeral rites of the Chinese and the Greeks, all tombs in the kingdom of Cathay being, to the present day, consecrated most especially to How-too, or, “queen earth. ”