The book Catalog of Official Seals from the Qin,Han,Northern and Southern Dynasties records a Northern Wei official seal of"Zhongningling Ling(Order of the Zhongning Mausoleum)".Combined with the establishment time of the Zhongning Mausoleum,it can be inferred that this official seal was made between 499 AD and 519 AD,making it a unique item among the official seals of Northern Wei mausoleums discovered so far.Since Emperor Yuan of Han Dynasty's decree in the fourth year of the Yongguang Era(40 BC)to cease the establishment of mausoleums,the system of mausoleums gradually fell into disuse.From the Wei and Jin dynasties onwards,imperial mausoleums were only established as gardens and settlements,no longer as mausoleums.These gardens and settlements were managed by mausoleum officials,and the number of households in these areas rarely exceeded three to five hundreds,significantly smaller in scale compared to the mausoleums of the Qin and Han dynasties,which were equivalent to the size of counties.
the Zhongning MausoleumNorthern Wei official sealmausoleum yardsgarden and settlement
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