Han dynasty tomb architecture

"According to the ancient rites, the sacrifices to the ascendants were performed in temples, the modern custom is to offer them at the grave."

Well-known examples of Eastern Han tombs have been scientifically excavated: Yi'nan, Donjiazhuang and Dahuting.

The Hou Han shu relates that at the death of Kong Guan there were so many officials in attendance that there were ten thousand carriages.

Sweet dew is reported to have fallen from heaven, and Emperor Ming wept upon seeing the personal effects of his mother.

Mortuary ritual functioned as a homeostat, providing a mechanism to repair the tear in the fabric of Han society caused by the death of a family member.

The doors were thus instruments linking the living and the dead and uniting the past, the present and the future for "ten thousand generations."

As wealth and power in outlying regions of the Eastern Han increased, so did the call for mortuary monuments.

The citizens of the Han period lived under a central government but they differed in habit,; custom, dress and ritual.