Tomb of Wirkak


The Tomb of Wirkak, in Chinese, commonly referred to as Tomb of Master Shi, is the grave of the Sogdian sabao Wirkak and his wife Wiyusi, dating from 580 AD. The tomb was discovered in 2003 in the east of Jingshang village in Daminggong township, Weiyang District, Xi'an, and excavated between June and October in the same year. It is especially significant for the rich content of the reliefs on the stone structure contained in the tomb and a bilingual epitaph.

Tomb occupants

The bilingual epitaph written in Classical Chinese and Sogdian language sheds light on the life of an 86-year-old man named Wirkak in Sogdian, but Shi Jun in Chinese, and his wife Wiyusi. The Sogdian name Wirkak is derived from the word for "wolf". The Chinese name Shi Jun is composed of the surname Shi with the honorific jun or "master"; the space for his Chinese given name was left blank, so it is unknown. The name of his wife, Wiyusi, means "dawn" in Sogdian. The couple came from the and the State of Kang respectively. In his lifetime, Wirkak served as a sabao in the ancient province of Liangzhou, or today's city of Wuwei, a once-booming hub of international trade on the Silk Road. Sabao is a Chinese translation of the Sogdian term s′rtp′w, meaning a "caravan leader", but later became the title of an administrator in charge of the international and foreign religious affairs of Central Asian immigrants who settled in China at the time.
According to the epitaph, Wirkak had lived in the Western Regions but had moved to Chang'an. His grandfather, italic=no, had been a sabao in his native land. His father, named italic=no, but no office is listed for him. Wirkak was appointed as chief of the judicial department of the sabao bureau in the Datong reign during the Liang dynasty, then in the 5th year of the same reign, he was made sabao of Liangzhou. He died in 579 at the age of 86; his wife Wiyusi died a month later. The tomb was built by their three sons, and the interment took place one year later in 580.

Tomb

The total length of the tomb was 47.26 metres, with long slope path and yard faces south with an azimuth of 186º. It consists of ramp, yard, tunnel, a corridor and a chamber. The number of the yards and the tunnels are both five. The corridor measures 2.8 m long, 1.5 m wide and 1.9 m high with an arch ceiling. The chamber has a rectangular plan, it is 3.7 m long from the east to the west and 3.5 m from the north to the south.
There are two sealed gates of bricks and stones between the ramp and the chamber. The lintel and side posts of the stone gate are carved with interlocking grape and acanthus patterns, celestial musicians and lokapalas. Mural paintings can be seen in the ramping passageway and the chamber, however, the subjects are undistinguishable owing to the poor condition. A sarcophagus was found in the mid-north of the chamber.
The tomb had been robbed, from what remained, archaeologists identified a gold earring, a gold ring and a gold coin which is an imitation of Byzantine coins.

Sarcophagus

The sarcophagus measures 2.46 m in length, 1.55 m in width and 1.58 m in height, shaped like a timber-framed Chinese house or temple with a hip-and-gable roof, made of originally painted and gilded stone slabs, and is formed of a base, middle wall slabs and a top. It is densely decorated with bas-reliefs to convey blind architectural details and a complex figural programme. The four sides are carved with four-armed guardian deities, along with other Zoroastrian divinities and scenes of sacrifice, rising to heaven, banqueting, hunting and procession. Their subjects and style demonstrate features of the Western Regions. The French historian Étienne de la Vaissière argues that the iconography of these bas-reliefs representing a religious syncretism by blending Manichaean and Zoroastrian symbols in the funerary art. Despite the fact that the sarcophagus has adopted a unique style to create a miniature model of a traditional Chinese temple, the sinicisation of Wirkak's tomb is of the lowest degree among the other two Sogdian tombs: those of and.
The front side of the sarcophagus is organised in strict formal symmetry around a large two-winged door. The Sogdian and Chinese inscriptions of the tomb occupants' career are manifested above the door. Flanking the door is a pair of inner panels with a guardian deity in each, and an additional pair of outer panels that feature three sections. From top to bottom, each outer panel contains a group of musicians, a stylised window flanked by a pair of foreigners, and a half-human half-bird priest standing before the holy fire in a portable brazier. The six biographical panels start on the middle panel of the left side and conclude on the last-but-one panel of the back. They are preceded and followed by two single religious panels, which continue with three additional religious panels on the right side. The description of the six biographical panels as stated by Albert E. Dien:
The description of the five religious panels as stated by Zsuzsanna Gulácsi: