Research On The Chinese Tombstone

As the Chinese tombstone is the material embodiment of funeral culture, its shape and decoration, inscriptions and writing, material selection, carving skills and etc, reflect people’s values and aesthetic care on the funeral, and also show the political and economic system, ethics, religion, customs of the different times or society. This paper strives for the comprehensive review, analysis and research on the traditional tombstone on the angle of art design in order to exhibit its whole process of the beginning, evolution and prosperity, and display its cultural, functional and artistic value.The paper is divided into three sections. The first section is the introduction of the Chinese tombstone. The second section is devided into four chapters. The first chapter mainly reviews its historical evolution, discussing the related political, economical and cultural influence on it, and summarizing its overall characteristics in every period. The second chapter analyzes its culture, focusing on the funeral ceremony and law, Yinzhai Feng Shui, religious culture which restrict on the graded shape, burial location and layout design, decoration and other aspects of the tombstone. The third chapter expounds the artistic characteristics of tombstone, mainly relating to the craftsmen, material selection, engraving procedures and its techniques, interpreting its sculpture, decoration and epigraph on the reference of relic examples. The fourth chapter describes the development status of modern tombstone and the traditional tombstone losing its way of handwork and calligraphy in the modern tombstone design. The third section is the conclusion of the thesis, a summary from the first to the fourth chapter.