The Aesthetic Research And Atistic Style On Jade Ornaments Of The Han Dynasty

The jade ornaments of the Han dynasty are not only an important milestone in the development of the Chinese jade history,their aesthetic level and artistic style,which can't be reached by the later generations,also emit bright lights.However,the academia has not made a comprehensive and systematic study on the form and style of jade of the Han period from the aesthetic genre.This paper aims for the aesthetic form and artistic style of the jade ornaments of the Han period,analyses and discusses their characteristics as well as their spiritual and material fertile ground.By the West and East Han Dynasty(the two Han period),the white "mutton-fat" nephrite from Hotan(Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region)has become a main material in jade engraving with its tenderness,fine and smooth texture and abundance of natural physical characters,which cause it to become associated with certain profound aesthetic and cultural experience of the people of Han,thus also ensured the white "mutton-fat" nephrite a further connotation in moral and aesthetics.There is a great progress by the jade engraving craftsmanship of the Han period.The smooth and exquisite intaglio technique offers the jade ornaments the vigorous and solid lines,full of firmness and fluency.The shallow relief on the jade ornaments – while carving the jade items also removing the tiny bottom parts of the material-increases the dimensionality of the shape and freehand emblazonments.The technique of the openwork carving,circular engravure and high relief has come to full maturity,which lead to the beauty of stereoscopic vision.There is a strict ritual jade mechanism and manufacturing organization of jade burial suits-with gold or silk thread – during the Han dynasty,which propel forward therefore the development of jade from this period with its category,type and style in the ceremonial jade items(“Ceremonial Jades”)and decorative or utilitarian jade ornaments,burial jade objects as well as jade talismans.Jade of the Han dynasty has a unparalleled charm.The design is based on the material with its nature and almost feels like a nice coherent entity.By taking the big picture and removing the elaboration,the multipurpose of jade ornaments create an infinite imagination.The jade craftsmen in this period are good at using different kinds of compositions,such as fluid vivid “S form” composition,asymmetric composition with centre-of-gravity shift,dynamic tilted composition and reversed composition with multipleperspectives as well as the truncated composition with local conformality to show richer movement effects.They also create various craft skills,such as image formation with multiple viewpoints and perspectives,cutting and twisting of the material as well as hollow out artistic modelling.These techniques result not only into a spiral tension of graven images from space torsion and continuously circling one another in space-time,but also a strange and shocking aesthetic experience,which provided by the Relation between blankness and actuality in jade engraving.The curve with large radian and concave surface are widely used in the shape of jade ornaments,producing luxuriant light and shadow effects.The craftsmen of Han also create cloud gasification module as modeling unit,and combine these modelling units freely,which lead into an abundance of proportion,balance,rhythm and other beauty in structure.The emblazonments of jade of Han are dominated with decorative and structural decoration.The combination of these emblazonments builds up the beauty of jade in terms of tempo,rhythm,and diversity.The structural decorations in this period are increasingly embellished with animal motifs,with the non-detail-oriented exaggerated postures,those animal motifs show some kind of wild and impressive strength,beauty of movement and imposing manner.Aesthetics has become an important function of jade of the Han period,so the jade grain also break through beyond the religious and rational motifs of Shang and Zhou dynasties,characterized by dignify,rigorousness and symmetry,and deliver some new aesthetic tastes full of tension and vividness.The artistic style of jade of the Han period is mainly embodied in the artistic form full of dynamic and tension,as well as the aesthetic characteristics of vigorousness and nimbleness.The craftsmen in the Han dynasty are good at translating the physical tension of the lines and shapes into visual and spiritual tension,giving the jade objects full vitality.They are also skilled at shaping the posture of tempo and movement,making the jade objects filled with some bold and energetic imagination.The jade ornaments of Han present a vigorous and unsophisticated ancient artistic style with the shape full of simplicity,conciseness,exaggeration and freehand style.They abandon the pure focus on original physical structure but cherish more the inner spiritual charm of the jade objects.The spirit of the jade ornaments of Han,embodied in vigorousness,robustness,vitality and aggressiveness,deliver also the unique progressiveness and optimistic energy of the Han's society and its booming vitality.The artistic style of jade of the Han dynasty is built up by absorbing and integrating the mysterious romantic spirits of Chu(state)and heavy,rational northern culture.According to the evolution of the art style of the jade ornaments in that period,the development of jade in this period can be divided into three stages,whichchanges from individual to graphical.The philosophy and aesthetics of the jade mechanism concept is the spiritual soil for building up the aesthetic form and artistic style of the jade articles of Han.The craftsmen in this period embrace the inclusiveness in their jade mechanism: complement of Taoism and Confucianism by ideology,coexistence of ritual and mundane life by usage,collaboration of northern and southern by artistic style and blend of freehand and realistic by artistic techniques.Jade of Han has a close connection between moral and pureness of personality,and focuses both sides of “De”(virtue)and “Fu”(symbol)-the rational form of jade-of the jade ornaments.The moral and personality connotation of jade is fusing into the visible forms such as color,material and texture.The balance of “Tao” and “Qi” is the highest ideal of the article creation in ancient China.It facilitates craftsmen's cherish of the aesthetic form of jade.The “Tao” is invisible,it only can be seen from the “Xiang”,which is exact the perceptual form of jade.The value of balancing between "Tao" and "Qi",carried by the jade ornaments of the Han,leads to a high integration of the spiritual connotation and aesthetic form of jade in this period.It influences the aesthetic thoughts of Han and builds up unification between material and art,crafting and technique,utility and aesthetics,shape and spirit,emblazonment and texture.The vigorousness,progressiveness and exquisite profoundness of the jade ornaments of the Han period symbolize the spiritual kernel of the Chinese nation,and that is the practical significance of our study on the aesthetic form and artistic style of jade ornaments of the Han period in present days.