In November 1965, the tomb of Sima Jinlong was unearthed in Shijiazhai Village, thirteen miles southeast of Datong City, Shanxi Province. This is a set of painted screens depicting characters and stories. Each wooden board is 81.5 cm high and 20.5 cm wide. There were five pieces in total when they were unearthed, and these are two of them.
This is an early Northern Wei Dynasty tomb, and the owners of the tomb are Sima Jinlong, King of Sikong Langye Kang, and his wife Ji Chen. Ji Chen died in the fourth year of Yanxing (474); Sima Jinlong died in the eighth year of Taihe (484). The two died ten years apart. The content of the wooden board lacquer painting is taken from "Biography of Women" by Liu Xiang of the Han Dynasty, which depicts the stories of emperors, loyal ministers, filial sons and martyr daughters. It seems that it should be buried with Ji Chen. The painting uses rendering and iron line tracing techniques. The board is painted with vermilion lacquer and black lacquer is used to outline the lines. The colors are very rich. The unearthing of this group of painted screens is a major discovery in the history of Northern Wei painting. The paint liquid is viscous, making it difficult to paint. However, the brushwork in this painting is delicate, the eyebrows and clothing are meticulous, and the line drawing is similar to Gu Kaizhi's brushwork. The unearthed lacquer paintings on wooden boards filled the gap in the research on lacquerware during this period, and at the same time provided people with extremely valuable research materials in calligraphy and painting. There are text inscriptions on each painting, such as "Han Cheng Emperor Class", "Wei Linggong" and so on. It is rare to find such well-preserved calligraphy and ink with a clear date like this. It is a rare masterpiece of Northern Wei calligraphy that can be seen today, and it should occupy an important position. Because it is made of ink, it is even more valuable.
The calligraphy strokes are square, strict and firm, and the knots are straight and broad. For example, the lower parts of the characters "you" and "male" are very stretched, forming the basic characteristics of strength and insight. Some words, such as "Han Chengdi", etc., can also be seen in the official script's last words. Three types of stone epitaphs were unearthed from the same tomb, namely "Sima Jinlong's Tomb Table", "Sima Jinlong's Epitaph" and "Ji Chen's Epitaph". The inscriptions in the inner book are very similar to the fonts on the tomb table, and may have been written by one person.
Now stored in the Datong Museum of Shanxi Province.
