First you pick a peck of pickled peppers…
Oops. No. Wrong alliteration. I think I better think this out again.
In order to pinion a pall in place prepare to pick a pall placing
puma. Ahhh. Much better… wouldn’t you say?
And so… once again… I slide by way of cunning segue… with
seemingly little relevance to the main topic… to the Splendors of
Ancient Chinese Tombs and the treasures therein.
Prince Liu Sheng… son of Jingdi… with his wife Dou Wan… became
determined that–at the end of their sojourn upon this planet–they
would make it their business to ensure they would enjoy eternal life
in the great beyond.
Wondrous tombs were constructed at Mancheng… cut 165 feet deep
into the hillside. They had stables and storerooms and four chariots
with horses. They had food and wine. In those days folks… they
died right. None of this simplistic six feet down in a box with a
stone on top. They had tables and tents inside… set up in such a
fashion as to be able to hold banquets.
They had in their private chambers prized possessions of gold and
silver and food which would enable them to grow fat and enjoy good
health in death. Is this an oxymoron? They had silver and gold
acupuncture needles… just in case. And … instead of pumas… they
had a pair of large gilded bronze leopards.
The prince and his spouse occupied the center of the grand chamber,
each enclosed within a wooden coffin. And draped over the prince’s
coffin was a pall. And pinioning the pall in place in order to
ensure it wouldn’t slip off of the coffin should it suddenly find
itself in the throes of a netherworld cyclone… were two gilded
bronze leopards which I conveniently called pumas because I needed a
word with a “p” and which were used as weights for the cloth.
The leopards are quite striking… and should it ever happen that I
decide to undertake the excavation of a hole in a hill 165 feet deep
in which to entertain all who cared to join me in the next life… I
would not mind having a pair of these cats holding my pall in place.
Just for your … only the prince had these leopards.
All the rest had jade pigs squatting on their palls.
So. Ya wanna see?
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits… click it… and you will see represented on
our pages an image of a pair of gilded bronze pall pinning leopards
of striking imagery.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark