Gendered Space and Avian Imagery in the Tomb of Crown Prince Yide (706 CE)

Male and female attendants with birds appear in prominent places and are executed in multiple media in the tomb of Crown Prince Li Chongrun (682-701; buried in 706 and known posthumously as Yide), which like other Tang (618-907) elite tombs was designed as a postmortem estate. In murals depicting a large procession on either side of the tomb ramp are four male trainers with raptors. Two sancai (three-color) ceramic mounted falconers are also among the hundreds of tomb figurines placed in four niches on either side of the tomb ramp. In the rear chamber of the tomb, female attendants holding pet birds are depicted in a garden-like setting on three of the stone panels of the prince’s house-like sarcophagus. Unlike other images of birds in the tomb that serve as space-fillers or are part of decorative patterns, these representations are part of the gendered nature of the Crown Prince’s postmortem estate, whose exterior space (tomb ramp) was populated primarily by males, and whose interior space (front and rear corridors and tomb chambers) was inhabited by females. This paper will examine how these birds further served to articulate and enrich the gendered space of the Crown Prince’s tomb.