Among hundreds of thousands of ancient graves and tombs excavated to
date in China, the Mancheng site stands out for its unparalleled
complexity and richness. It features juxtaposed burials of the first
king and queen of the Zhongshan kingdom (dated late second century BCE).
The male tomb occupant, King Liu Sheng (d. 113 BCE), was sent by his
father, Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE), to rule the Zhongshan kingdom
near the northern frontier of the Western Han Empire, neighboring the
nomadic Xiongnu confederation.
Modeling Peace interprets Western Han royal burial as a political
ideology by closely reading the architecture and funerary content of
this site and situating it in the historical context of imperialization
in Western Han China. Through a study of both the archaeological
materials and related received and excavated texts, Jie Shi demonstrates
that the Mancheng site was planned and designed as a unity of religious,
gender, and intercultural concerns. The site was built under the
supervision of the future occupants of the royal tomb, who used these
burials to assert their political ideology based on Huang-Lao and
Confucian thought: a good ruler is one who pacifies himself, his family,
and his country. This book is the first scholarly monograph on an
undisturbed and fully excavated early Chinese royal burial site.