Ancient Tombs on the Donggou River were located on the bank of the Donggou River of Ji'an County in Jilin Province. Ancient Tombs on the Donggou River [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] are grand in scale, with altogether 10,000 tombs, and are the most glomerate place for tombs of the Koguryo Society. These tombs are in order, with great disparity in scale between one and another. In terms of shape, they can be classified into two types: stone tombs and earth tombs.
Stone tombs here have a relatively longer history. Older stone tombs were made of detritus and gravels, which were called Jishi (stone piled) Tombs; younger tombs were surrounded by stone bars or step altars, among which the King Tai Mausoleum, the General Tomb and the Qianqiu Tomb have a grand scale. The King Tai Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Yongle King Tai named Tan De, who was the 19thgeneration king of Koguryo. It was built between the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th century, and took the shape of square wimble-like step altar, with each side being 66m in length and 14.8m in height, which was the biggest tomb among Koguryo Tombs [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Eaves tiles carved with patterns of gray lotus petals and bricks inscribed with characters that mean Wish the King Tai Mausoleum to stand like a high mountain had been excavated from the top of the mausoleum, from which we may conclude that there were affiliated buildings like palace on the top of the mausoleum at that time. The General Tomb enjoys the fame of the Oriental Pyramid, each of its borders being 31.58m in length and 12.4m in height, and has a 7-layer step altar piled up by huge granite bars with three huge stones supporting it. In the middle part of the fifth layer, there is a corridor leading to the coffin chamber, which is 5m both in length and in width, 5.5m in height. Two groups of kistvaen seats stand inside the coffin chamber, and a huge stone serves as its cover. On the top of the tomb there are relics such as debris and iron chains, from which we guess there might stand buildings like palaces built in the early 5th century.
Compared with the stone tombs, the earth tombs have a shorter history. They were sealed with loess and their coffin chambers [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] were built of stones. The coffin chambers fall into three types: single chamber, double chamber and triple chamber, and most of them are square with an arched roof or a sunk panel of quadrangle or octagon on the top. Some coffin chambers are decorated with colorful frescos or inscriptions written in Chinese ink; more than ten tombs with frescos have been found. The frescos in the tombs built earlier were painted on white walls of the coffin chambers, which mainly describe debauched life of the nobles and are valuable materials for research into the life of Koguryo Society.
The famous tombs include the Wuyong (Dancing Tomb Figure) Tomb, the Juedi (an ancient wrestling skill) Tomb and No.12 Donggou Tomb, etc. The Wuyong Tomb was the tomb of a Koguryo noble at the end of the 4th century or at the beginning of the 5th century, and it enjoys widespread fame for a large area of the Group Dancing Fresco painted on its southern wall. In this fresco, six dancers are dancing elegantly accompanied by seven singers. As for the Juedi Tomb, it was built in the same time as the Wuyong Tomb, and within it there painted two strong men with high nose and deep eyes wrestling against each other under a tree and an aged man watching attentively beside. The No. 12 Tomb in Donggou was painted with frescos of varied subject matters like residential houses, family life, battle, hunting, dancing, drawing, carriage and stall. The frescos in tombs built in the late period were drawn at the sixth century or so, and they were directly painted on the flat stone surface. The frescos on the four walls take black dragon, white tiger, red sparrow and tortoise as the topics, while the sunk panels are decorated with the image of Fuxi (one of the earliest legendary rulers), Nuwa (a Chinese goddess), the sun, the moon, stars as well as various kinds of flying Asparas, some images being decorated with gold-plated sheet copper and turquoises.
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Stone tombs here have a relatively longer history. Older stone tombs were made of detritus and gravels, which were called Jishi (stone piled) Tombs; younger tombs were surrounded by stone bars or step altars, among which the King Tai Mausoleum, the General Tomb and the Qianqiu Tomb have a grand scale. The King Tai Mausoleum is the mausoleum of Yongle King Tai named Tan De, who was the 19thgeneration king of Koguryo. It was built between the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th century, and took the shape of square wimble-like step altar, with each side being 66m in length and 14.8m in height, which was the biggest tomb among Koguryo Tombs [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Eaves tiles carved with patterns of gray lotus petals and bricks inscribed with characters that mean Wish the King Tai Mausoleum to stand like a high mountain had been excavated from the top of the mausoleum, from which we may conclude that there were affiliated buildings like palace on the top of the mausoleum at that time. The General Tomb enjoys the fame of the Oriental Pyramid, each of its borders being 31.58m in length and 12.4m in height, and has a 7-layer step altar piled up by huge granite bars with three huge stones supporting it. In the middle part of the fifth layer, there is a corridor leading to the coffin chamber, which is 5m both in length and in width, 5.5m in height. Two groups of kistvaen seats stand inside the coffin chamber, and a huge stone serves as its cover. On the top of the tomb there are relics such as debris and iron chains, from which we guess there might stand buildings like palaces built in the early 5th century.
Compared with the stone tombs, the earth tombs have a shorter history. They were sealed with loess and their coffin chambers [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] were built of stones. The coffin chambers fall into three types: single chamber, double chamber and triple chamber, and most of them are square with an arched roof or a sunk panel of quadrangle or octagon on the top. Some coffin chambers are decorated with colorful frescos or inscriptions written in Chinese ink; more than ten tombs with frescos have been found. The frescos in the tombs built earlier were painted on white walls of the coffin chambers, which mainly describe debauched life of the nobles and are valuable materials for research into the life of Koguryo Society.
The famous tombs include the Wuyong (Dancing Tomb Figure) Tomb, the Juedi (an ancient wrestling skill) Tomb and No.12 Donggou Tomb, etc. The Wuyong Tomb was the tomb of a Koguryo noble at the end of the 4th century or at the beginning of the 5th century, and it enjoys widespread fame for a large area of the Group Dancing Fresco painted on its southern wall. In this fresco, six dancers are dancing elegantly accompanied by seven singers. As for the Juedi Tomb, it was built in the same time as the Wuyong Tomb, and within it there painted two strong men with high nose and deep eyes wrestling against each other under a tree and an aged man watching attentively beside. The No. 12 Tomb in Donggou was painted with frescos of varied subject matters like residential houses, family life, battle, hunting, dancing, drawing, carriage and stall. The frescos in tombs built in the late period were drawn at the sixth century or so, and they were directly painted on the flat stone surface. The frescos on the four walls take black dragon, white tiger, red sparrow and tortoise as the topics, while the sunk panels are decorated with the image of Fuxi (one of the earliest legendary rulers), Nuwa (a Chinese goddess), the sun, the moon, stars as well as various kinds of flying Asparas, some images being decorated with gold-plated sheet copper and turquoises.
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