Mysterious Stone Portraits Group
There are 61 stone portraits outside the Zhuque Gate of Qianling Mausoleum, 29 in the east and 32 in the west. According to history records, the stone portraits group was firstly located in palaces. Unfortunately, the palaces were destroyed as time went by, only left some ruins. These portraits are as tall as the real person, ranging from 1.5 meter to 1.77 meter. Most of them have a strong figure with their stomachs protruding forward. However, it is strange that these portraits do not have head at all.
Discovery of the head portrait
One day at the late autumn of 1971, two farmers were working in their fields in Guapoling Village of Qian County. Suddenly, a farmer’ hoe hit a hard thing which they thought it was just a buried stone at first. After digging it out, they found it was not a stone, but a delicate stone head portrait instead. The stone portraits without head had puzzled the experts for a long time. Wondering whether the discovered head portrait was relevant to the stone portraits, cradles and farmers went to the location of the stone portraits. Finally, they found the head portrait was right the head of a stone portrait among the 32 stone portraits in the west. Judging from his hair style and moustache, he seemed as a minority coming from border areas.
Who were these portraits? And where were they from?
Through careful study, the experts found that most of these portraits were in ethnic minority dress, different from clothes of Han people. They were either nomads, or minorities from Serindia and the surrounding of Tang Dynasty.
All these portraits have tablets in their hand and more and more than 20 of them wear “Yudai”. Tablets were long and narrow board that chancellors held when they met the Emperor. And the main affairs were written on the board. “Yudai” was the chop bag wore by officials above the fifth level of military exploit. That’s to say, more than 20 of them held important position.
Stone portraits with pigtails
After the discovery of the head portrait, some one discovered a stone head portrait with pigtail, which was the most complete stone head portrait among all the portraits in Qianling Mausoleum area. Judging from the head, it might be a head portrait of Turks. It seems that the life style of the minority had greatly influenced Han people at that time.
Why were these stone portraits built around the mausoleum?
It was on record that the nationality, position and name of these portraits were engraved on the back of them. However, only few of the names are still clear. It was said the merits of some portraits were told in the record book of Tang Dynasty.
These portraits were not only chief minority ethnic groups but also officers appointed by Tang Dynasty, which shows that Tang Dynasty was a dynasty with multi-nation leaders.According to Shannxi Tongzhi, these people attended the funeral of Gaozong. To record this, Wu Zetian ordered to make these portraits to show the power of Tang Dynasty and the good relationship with minorities.
However, many engraved words on the back of the portraits contained “Gu”, which means “die” in Chinese. So these people died before the portraits were completed. So it was not possible for them to attend the funeral of Gaozong.
Where is the head of these portraits?
There are also many answers to this question, among which the most popular one is like this: a foreign envoy visit to Qian Mausoleum in Transitional period and found his ancestor standing as guards of Tang Emperor. He felt shamed and wanted to break these portraits, but he was afraid that the officials may stop him. So he had an idea: he destroyed crops at the night and told the farmers that the crops were destroyed by these stone portraits. He also said that the head of these portraits must be broken so that the crops would not be destroyed any more. The farmers believed it was true and broke the head of these portraits as told.
Further stories about Qianling Mausoleum
1.Wu Zetian-the one and only female emperor in ancient China
3.Crown Prince Zhanghuai-A suicide emperor
4.Princess Yongtai-a beautiful princess died early
5.Tomb of Prince Yide
The Qianling Mausoleum