Musical And Dancing In The Stone Relief Of The Han Dynasty

The thesis centers on dancing pictures from the stone relief of the HanDynasty with a focus on the musical instruments, dancing and nuo rites. Based on theliterature and archaeological findings, the thesis attempts to explore the realimplications of music given the specific conditions in the graves of the Han Dynasty.While the subject in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty is about being immortal andentering the heaven, the music inside is used as a tool in expelling the ghost andoffering the sacrifices to gods. The stone relief also indirectly shows the boomingdevelopment of folk dancing in the Han Dynasty. Furthermore, the dancing in thesacrifices offering partly illustrates how the music is employed in the funeral.There are five chapters in the thesis. In the introduction, the first chapter, Ibriefly discuss the objectives and significance, present literature, research methodologyand expected results on the dancing sculptures from the stone relief of the Han Dynasty.In Chapter Two, I provide an examination on the distribution and boomingbackground of dancing sculptures from the stone relief of the Han Dynasty. The dancingsculptures are mainly found in four regions, yet there are both common and differentfactors contributing to the flouring of each region.Chapter Three is about the musical instrument in the stone relief of the HanDynasty. There are three sections in this chapter. Section one shows how the Bell andChime Stone are used in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty and explains why they fade.The jade chime stone, which only appeared in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty inShandong, is a sign of relics of the Confucian culture in Shandong. In section two, theuse of Jian Drum and Tao Drum are discussed in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty.The Jian Drum is viewed by the Hans as a sacred instrument. There are detaileddiscussions in this section on its origin, use in Qin Dynasty, usage scenes in the stonerelief of the Han Dynasty and its decoration. The Tao Drum is a common musicalinstrument in the bamboo band. In Sichuan, the Pai Xiao and the Zhao Drum replacedGui and Ju used by Fu Xi and Nu Wo. This is a unique phenomena in the region. Silkstring and Blowpipe are two popular musical instruments in the Han Dynasty. Theirshapes and usage in the sacrifices are acknowledged in the section three. Chapter Four is on the Nuo in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty. Nuo, a rite forthe purpose of driving out the ghosts and other things alike, has an important position inthe stone relief of the Han Dynasty. There are two sections in this chapter. In section one,based on the literature, Nuo's origin, characteristics, its rites and purposes, evolutionfrom Qin to Han Dynasty are presented in detail. Combined with the image of Nuo inthe stone relief of the Han Dynasty, Nuo's embodiment, Xiong, its people and the ritesare discussed in section two.Dancing in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty is given in Chapter Five. Thedancing style in the Han Dynasty centers on the dancing from Chu, which is a result ofthe preference of ruling class in the Han Dynasty. The stunt show in the dancing in theHan Dynasty benefits greatly from the cultural communications caused by the opennessof the Silk Road. Many factors contribute to the booming of dancing in the Han Dynasty.The wide use of folk dancing in the funeral and the possibility of quick success as adancer are the two main reasons. In section two, I discuss the style, characteristic,showing place and the significance of three dancing styles, Qi-pan dancing, Long-sleevedancing and Jian Drum dancing. In the end, an overall statement is offered to thepurpose of dancing scenes in the stone relief of the Han Dynasty.