Boat Burial on the Other Shore: Mysterious Meanings of the 'Boat Coffin Burial' in Bashu from 'Huayang Guozhi'

In the 'Huayang Guozhi' (Records of Huayang), the Eastern Jin historian Chang Qu recorded the highly representative 'boat coffin burial' custom of the ancient Ba and Shu peoples ('The Ba people buried their dead in boats, as if sailing or floating'). Through the comparison of ancient texts and archaeological findings, there are three core reasons for placing the deceased in coffin-like vessels shaped like 'ferry boats': • A Tool for Soul Transference: The ancient Ba and Shu people, who lived by the water (such as the Pu, Cong, and Yan tribes), heavily relied on rivers during their lives. They believed that after death, souls needed to cross the River Styx to reach the ancestral origin. Thus, the ferry boat-shaped coffins served as transportation for the deceased, guided by invisible boatmen to the other shore. • Ancestor Worship of the Kaiming Dynasty: Texts record that the Kaiming ancestor 'Bie Ling' of ancient Shu traveled upstream along the Yangtze River, died, and was resurrected, becoming the King of Shu due to his meritorious deeds in water control. The prevalence of boat coffins among the nobility was to commemorate this outstanding ancestor of water control and navigation, and to showcase their own lineage and ethnic identity. • A Symbol of Class and Wealth: Carving giant Phoebe or Toona sinensis logs into ferry boat shapes was immensely costly. Therefore, boat coffins were a symbol for tribal leaders, nobles, or high-ranking warriors to display their power and wealth in the afterlife. Recent discoveries of Ba boat coffins from the Eastern Zhou period at the Chengba site in Sichuan and in the Chengdu Plain, containing numerous bronze weapons (like willow-leaf shaped swords) and musical instruments, perfectly corroborate the records in 'Huayang Guozhi,' showcasing a cultural microcosm of the Ba-Shu people who 'viewed boats as home.'