The Tomb with Han
Portrait Stones at Wu baizhu ang Village, excavated in 1972, is located in the northernsector of Wubaizhuang
Village, wh ich is six k ilometersaway from the downtown area of Linyi City in ShandongProvince. The entire tomb extends from south to north withan east-west width of fifteen meters, a south-north lengthof nine meters, and a total area of 135 square meters.Totally, 49 pieces of
portrait stones with 65 pieces ofpictures have been excavated so far. The most distinctivefeature of this tomb is that many pictures of immortals areinscribed on the stones. In one picture, there are two fig-ures poking a nest. One of them is poking the nest on thetree with a long rod while the other one is energeticallyshaking the tree trunk in order to shake off the nest. This isperhaps the most ancient portrait about poking a nest thatwe have seen. From the portrait it can be concluded thatthe birds that made nest on the fairy tree are not ordinarybirds. They should be the fairy birds, and the figures whoare poking the nest are immortals. On some stone portraitsexcavated from these tombs, immortals, fairy beasts andfairy birds are
contending for elixirs by diversified means.First, by means of extortion. For instance, in the portraiton the northern pillar in the front chamber, an immortal withfeatures on his body is holding the neck of a fairy bird to forceit to raise its head so that it cannot swallow the elixir.Second, by means of contending behind the back. Inthe portrait inscribed on the pillar in the rear of the frontchamber, a large fairy bird has just gotten an elixir. Behindit an immortal is extending his hand to the back of the bird?shead to contend for the elixir.Third, preventing the other from procuring the elixir.In a portrait on a pillar in the front chamber, a goat-headedmonster is holding the mouth of a fairy bird to prevent itfrom contending for elixir with him. Fourth, coercing theJade Hare, a legendary moon rabbit who is able to concoctelixirs of immortality. In the picture, the Jade Hare is knee-ing down at the foot of the fairy birds, which indicates thatthe fairy birds are coercing the Jade Hare to make the elixiras soon as possible or give them the recipe on how to makeit. From this picture, it can be seen that even in the birds'world, they are as anxious to get the elixirs as are humanbeings.These stone portraits vividly reflect people's aspira-tions for perpetual rejuvenation and eternal life during theHan Dynasty, as well people's love for their local culture.From the pictures, we can also get a fundamental under-standing of people's religious beliefs during the Han Dy-nasty and the folk and social customs then.