The Sacred Way and Stone Statues

In the front part of imperial necropolises there is usually a “sacred way” or “divine road” for the spirits of the royal dead– in which the ancients believed to walk on. This road is often lined with stone statues of men and animals as important decorations of the grounds.

The traditional name for the giant-sized statues of men, popularly called “stone men”, is strictly wengzhong who lived in the Qin Dynasty and distinguished himself with great service in garrisoning the borders in Gansu and in fighting the Huns. After he died, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, to commemorate him, had a bronze statue carved in his likeness and erected at his palace in Xianyang. After that, all bronze men (and then stone statues) standing guard at palaces and imperial tombs came to be known as Wengzhong.

As for the stone animals, they have their origin from Huo Qubing (140-117 B. C.) Who was a young military genius in the period of the Western Han. Distinguished in archery and horsemanship, he became an imperial attendant at age 17 but died at the age of 23 only. To perpetuate the fame of his exploits in the northwest Emperor, Wudi built mausoleum grounds landscaped like the Qilian Mountains where the battles had been fought. And as the mountain range is marked by rugged rocks that resemble wild beasts, so Huo’s tumulus was strewn with grotesque rocks; furthermore, masons building the tomb sculptured many stone statues of animals– leaping and squatting horses, resting tigers, kneeling elephants, piglets and fish, bears and other wild beasts preying on sheep. The group of statues are the earliest giant-sized stone sculptures known to stand in front of an ancient tomb in China.

Emperors in later epochs, taking their cue from this, had stone men and animals made for their own tombs, and they are now a common sight to greet visitors to imperial mausoleums of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Erected where they are in A. D. 1435 (or the 10th year of the reign of the Ming Emperor Xuande), they consist of 12 human figures (civil and military officials and courtiers with meritorious records) and 24 animals (lions, camels, xiezhi, elephants, qilin, and horses-four of each, two standing and two squatting). The human figures were meant to imply firm and popular support to the imperial house, while the animals in different postures signified alternate day and night services to the dead monarchs.

Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty.