Stone History And Geography Of The Han Study

Stone relief is the construction stone used in Han Dynasty to carve portraits on architectures such as underground tomb, graveyard, ancestral hall, imperial palace, on which portraits of various themes and abundant contents are carved, directly recording the social life at that time. Therefore, they become valuable materials for us to study aspects of politics, economy, thought and culture, art and customs.Stone relief is mainly excavated in four areas:Shandong, Northern Jiangsu, Northern Anhui and Eastern Henan; Nanyang and Northern Hubei; Sichuan and Chongqing; Northern Shanxi and Northwestern Shanxi. In the East and West Han period, because of different politics, economy and culture in different areas, the stone relief in each area presents quite different characteristics. This paper will mainly base on those four areas to discuss and try to discover the unique characteristics and causes of formation of the stone relief in each area.In the first chapter, we will mainly discuss the background for the generation of stone relief. All things have their own background to impel their generation. In middle period of West Han, its specific politics, economy and ideas impel the generation of stone relief. Stone relief is an art combined with painting and sculpture, which is the artistic form generated under specific historical conditions based on previous artistic development.In the second chapter, we will generally discuss the characteristics of stone relief as a whole and respectively explain this artistic form from five aspects of theme, carving skills, mode of composition, perspective principle and coloring.In the third chapter, we will discuss the regional features of the first distribution area of stone relief:Shandong, Northern Jiangsu, Northern Anhui and Eastern Henan. Its features mainly represent in five aspects:the grave form of stone relief is multiple; it mainly reflects Confucianism; line cutting technique is its main carving skill; its mode of composition is complex and exquisite; it applies scatter perspective of overlooking and sprout of focus perspective.In the fourth chapter, we will mainly discuss the regional features of the second distribution area of stone relief:Nanyang and Northern Hubei. Its features mainly reflect in three aspects:the portrait is full of mystery and romance; embossment is the main carving skill; the theme is outstanding, concise and lively.In the fifth chapter, we will discuss the regional features of the third distribution area of stone relief:Sichuan and Chongqing. Its main features represent in the funeral building——cliff-tomb and the burial utensil——sarcophagus, and a large number of stone relief palaces remained in this area.In the sixth chapter, we will discuss the regional features of the fourth distribution area of stone relief:Northern Shanxi and Northwestern Shanxi. Its main features represent in three aspects:external factors are very influencing; there are portraits of farming, grazing production and hunting with highland characteristics; cutting surface engraving is the main carving skill.In the seventh chapter, we will give a brief introduction on the stone grief in other domestic areas apart from those four distribution areas.The eighth chapter is the conclusion part and it generally makes a conclusion about the main content of this thesis.