Yongling is the tomb of Wang Jian, who ruled the Former Shu kingdom from Chengdu during the Five Dynasties period, and it stands in the middle of the modern city rather than out in the countryside. The tomb was excavated in the 1940s and is now protected under a museum building, with the burial chamber itself open to visitors. It is small by imperial standards and all the more interesting for it: this is a regional ruler's tomb, not an emperor's, and the scale is domestic.
The carved orchestra
The reason Yongling matters is inside the chamber. Around the walls of the burial hall, carved in high relief, stand twenty-four figures of court musicians and two dancers, arranged as an ensemble and each holding an instrument: drums, flutes, mouth organs, lutes, zithers, cymbals and clappers. The group is regarded as the most complete surviving representation of a Tang-dynasty court orchestra anywhere in China, which makes it a document rather than decoration - you can see which instruments were played together and how the players were seated. Wang Jian's own seated statue stands at the far end of the chamber.
The museum and the setting
The surrounding museum holds the tomb goods, including jade belts, silverware and a seal of state, along with material explaining the Five Dynasties period in Sichuan and the excavation itself. The tomb sits in a small garden in a residential part of central Chengdu, and the visit is short - an hour is enough - but it combines well with the nearby Du Fu Thatched Cottage and the Sichuan Museum, both within a short taxi ride.
Practical notes
Yongling is in the western part of central Chengdu, easily reached by metro and taxi, and admission is modest. Photography inside the burial chamber is restricted, as is normal for Chinese tomb sites, so check the notices at the entrance. Captions are largely in Chinese, and a translation app or a guide is worth having for the orchestra carvings in particular. Because the tomb is underground it stays cool in summer, which makes it a sensible stop on a hot afternoon.
