01 / THE NAME
Where Did the Name Begin?
Different accounts describe the name in different ways. Stories overlap, change in retelling and sometimes contradict one another.
L · LEGEND
One Old City · Two Underground Narratives
Changsha Underground Stories
Tufuzi and Mawangdui: two routes into Changsha's buried past.
Through the GatePrologue Beneath the Gate
CHAPTER 00 · THE OLD CITY
A Map That Descends Into Old Changsha
Follow the Xiang River and the old city gates through three layers: the city above, the world below, and the stories that remain.
The map is used as a narrative guide rather than a precise archaeological reconstruction.
CHAPTER 01 · PEOPLE WHO READ THE EARTH
Readers of the Earth
In stories of old Changsha, experience, local knowledge, antiquities and legend formed another way of understanding what might exist beneath the ground.
TUFUZI · OLD CHANGSHA
02 / OBSERVATION
What Does the Earth Reveal?
Terrain, soil, place names and accumulated local experience could become clues for people attempting to understand what was hidden underground.
O · ORAL HISTORY
03 / CIRCULATION
When Objects Leave the Earth
Once an object is separated from its original location, relationships between the object, the burial and surrounding remains may also disappear.
F · HISTORICAL CLUE
When an object leaves the earth, part of its original context may leave with it.
TWO UNDERGROUND NARRATIVES
Two Ways of Reading What Lies Below
THE FOLK PATH
Experience · Memory · Legend
Knowledge passes through observation and storytelling. Meanings can change as stories move from one person and one generation to another.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PATH
Layers · Records · Context
Archaeological work records where remains are found and studies their relationships to layers, structures and surrounding objects.
MAWANGDUI · CHANGSHA
1972—1974
Three Western Han tombs · one archaeological recordFIELD RECORD / TOMB NO. 1
Read the earth, layer by layer
Surface · modern Changsha
Burial mound · soil layers
White clay · charcoal
Burial chamber · nested coffins
Burial objects · recorded in place
Each layer anchors the objects to a place and moment.
MAWANGDUI / OBJECT REGISTER
A life in objects
01
Lacquerware
Food, vessels & feasting
02
Plain gauze robe
Textiles, craft & the body
03
Wooden figures
Music, attendants & ritual
04
Silk manuscripts
Learning, medicine & ideas
CHAPTER 03 · THE EXCAVATION
Three Han
Tombs
From 1972 to 1974, archaeologists excavated three Western Han tombs at Mawangdui. The mound became a record of people, objects, and burial practice.
Explore the Three Tombs →TOMB NO. 1 · BENEATH THE MOUND
Read the
Sealed
Layers
In Tomb No. 1, white clay, charcoal, and nested coffins formed a carefully sealed burial. Recording their positions preserved the context of each find.
Inspect the Tomb Layers →THE FINDS · A WESTERN HAN ARCHIVE
Objects as
Evidence
Lacquerware, gauze garments, wooden figures, and manuscripts open a view of food, dress, ritual, and knowledge in early Han Changsha.
Open the Artifact Archive →FINAL ARCHIVE
Two Stories Beneath One City
Changsha's underground past can be approached through stories and through archaeological evidence. The two paths do not work in the same way, but both shape how the buried city is remembered.
LEGEND
Folk Memory
Stories preserve impressions, experiences and mysteries surrounding the old city.
FACT
Archaeological Record
Excavation preserves relationships between layers, locations, structures and objects.
ARTIFACT
Material Evidence
Objects reconnect the present with lives that existed in Changsha more than two thousand years ago.