The Princess and Companions
The epitaph explains that Princess Jeonghyo (정효공주, 貞孝公主) is the fourth daughter of King Mun, the third ruler of Balhae. Princess Jeonghyo was also the younger sister of Princess Jeonghye (정혜공주, 貞惠公主).
The epitaph also recorded that the Princess died on Monday, 6 July 792, during the fifty-sixth year of the Daeheung era. She was accompanied in the burial at Ran Valley (染谷) in Xi Yuan (西原 or Western Plains) in the winter of 809 (已卯), western Gregorian solar calendar Monday, 11th January 810, Chinese lunar calendar 28th November 809. She was given the posthumous name "Jeonghyo" to qualify her as virtuous and filial. She was likely a horse-rider, as the remains of a horse were found in the chamber.
The epitaph recorded the year of death as 792. This corrected previous works such as Jin Yufu's (金毓黻) Book of the Balhae Kindgdom (渤海國志長編), which recorded 793 instead.
The skeletal remains are scattered all over the chamber when discovered by archaeologists, due to previous lootings. However, the looters missed several golden and copper items, jewellery, pottery, and figurines. Reconstruction showed that the bones belong to a woman, presumably the princess; but there is also a male, possibly an attendant or child. In addition, there is the horse skeleton.
Read more about this topic: Mausoleum Of Princess Jeonghyo
Famous quotes containing the words princess and/or companions:
“He is blowing on light
each time for the first time.
His fingers cover the mouths of all the sopranos,
each a princess in an exact position.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son of earth and of Heaven, and by his greater strength and endurance his fainting companions will recognize the God in him. It is the worshipers of beauty, after all, who have done the real pioneer work of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)