This paper documents a previously uncharted area of the Han Empire Southwest frontier, where it identifies an overlooked type of burials in artificial caves dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Until now, this specific funerary tradition located south of the Yangzi river (Changjiang 長江) has been presented as a local effect of the centralized phenomenon of “Han tombs”. As a result, its peculiarities were ascribed to logistical constraints in technology, material and terrain. This research, instead, argues that the man-made caves south of the Yangzi correspond to a distinctive tradition of placing the dead emerging in the last decades of the Eastern Han dynasty.

The crucial point made by this research concerns the location of the burial type, which appears to systematically be distribution along secondary fluvial routes. Despite their absence in written history, minor tributaries of the Yangzi river potentially played an important role in interregional communication and trade, in a context of weakened imperial rule. Resting on a field report of two major southern tributaries of the Yangzi – the Chishui and Wu rivers, and a case study of the Qi river, a minor tributary of the Yangzi and an area of concentration of the atypical rock-cut cemeteries, a situational definition for the identity of the cave builders is proposed, in the backstage of imperial presence.

Direct field survey conducted by the author in the years 2013–2016 in 63 clusters of burial caves and the compilation of data gathered by other researchers for 562 groups of burial caves and 579 individual burial caves within these groups, shows that, far from being peripheral, the alternative burial type was practiced along a 500 km long section of the upper Yangzi river. This paper highlights the typological and iconographical consistency of the alternative funerary tradition south of the Yangzi river, blooming at the end of the Han dynasty, as compared to cemeteries in the Sichuan basin and the Yangzi gorges.

本文记录了汉帝国西南边疆地区一个以前未知的地区，该地区在公元2世纪和3世纪之前的人工洞穴中发现了一种被忽视的墓葬类型。到现在为止，这个特定的丧葬传统，位于扬子江（南长江长江）一直呈现为“汉墓”的集中现象，局部效果。结果，其特殊性归因于技术，材料和地形方面的后勤限制。相反，这项研究认为，扬子以南的人造洞穴对应于一种独特的传统，即把死者出现在东汉最后的几十年中。

这项研究的关键点在于埋葬类型的位置，该位置似乎是系统地沿河流的次生途径分布的。尽管没有书面历史记录，在帝国统治减弱的背景下，长江的小支流在区域间的交流和贸易中仍可能发挥重要作用。基于扬子的两个主要南部支流-赤水河和吴河的现场报告，以及and河，扬子的一个小支流和非典型凿岩墓地的集中区域（一种情况）的案例研究。在帝国存在的后台，提出了对洞穴建造者身份的定义。

作者在2013-2016年对63个埋葬洞穴进行了直接实地调查，并收集了其他研究人员针对这些组中的562个埋葬洞穴和579个单独的埋葬洞穴收集的数据，结果表明，这远非外围的，替代的埋葬类型是在长江上游500公里长的一段上进行的。本文着重介绍了汉代末朝盛开的长江以南的替代丧葬传统在类型和形象上的一致性，与四川盆地和扬子峡谷的墓地相比。