Chapter 7 Chapter Three Mausoleum Sculpture

The immortality of the soul is the most fundamental motivation for the construction of the mausoleum.The emergence of this idea can be pushed back to the caveman period 18,000 years ago.Many drilled stone beads, animal bones and bone pendants painted with hematite were scattered around some of the bones of the cavemen on the top of the mountain. Under the remains of the deceased, there were many red hematite powder particles, indicating that the Primitive religious beliefs.What the mausoleum sculptures reflect is the concept of the immortality of the soul, but after all, the sculpture of the tomb is an art in a period of highly developed civilization, so what it must reflect must have a deeper content than the concept of the immortality of the soul.

The eternity of life and eternity of life are the themes of the mausoleum sculptures.The eternity of life is the immortality of the soul, transcending the two worlds of life and death, and sharing the life with the heaven and the earth; the eternity of life is a kind of social spirit that rises from human experience, and shines with the sun and the moon, shining forever.The simple mausoleum sculpture reflects one of the aspects, while more, it expresses both aspects. There were various views on human life in the Han Dynasty.There is a belief that souls and qi are placed in the human body to bring life to people, and when a person dies, the souls are scattered, and the departed souls are reunited to become ghosts; ghosts still need food, clothing, shelter and transportation.There is also another view that the soul has two qi, one yang and one yin. After death, the positive soul qi rises and leaves the body;According to this theory, a person is divided into two after death, Yang Qi goes to the sky and Yin Qi goes to the earth, so careful arrangements must be made.Those who go to heaven shall arrive safely; those who enter the earth shall arrive safely.The third view is that people can achieve longevity by becoming immortals.There are two ways to ascend to immortality, the living ascend to immortality through practice and taking elixir; the dead enter the immortal world through consignment of gods.These ideas have influenced the tomb sculptures to varying degrees.But whether it is a ghost, a soul, or the whole person, ascension to the heaven is the best way out.Therefore, in the mausoleum sculptures, various forms symbolizing the heavens appeared.The most common ones are: designing the ground part of the mausoleum to look like the sky; using Queen Mother Xi, the main god of the fairy world, as a symbol of the fairy world; and decorating the entire tomb as the whole process of ascension to heaven.There is also a fourth view, which is the most popular view, that people return to hell after death.Huangquan, as the name of the underworld, first appeared in the literature of the Spring and Autumn Period. For example, "Zuo Zhuan Yingong Year" records that after Zheng Zhuanggong defeated his younger brother Gongshuduan's rebellion, he vowed never to meet his mother Wu Jiang who supported Gongshuduan. : "If it's not as good as Huangquan, you won't meet each other." Huangquan is also a name for the underworld in the Han Dynasty, in addition to Taishan, Artemisia (hao) and so on.People in the Han Dynasty believed that the world of the underworld and the world of the underworld had the same social structure and the same ideology, which made the people of the Han Dynasty have to be considerate when burying the dead.Not only should there be plenty of objects to be buried with, but the tomb should also be built like a mansion in the Yangjian, and the living environment and life needs should also be arranged according to what the deceased had or pursued during his lifetime.But people's desires are infinite and the space of the tomb is limited, so the artistic expression that replaces the real object has become the most commonly used method in the Han tomb, and sculpture is one of them.Life is short but immortals are happy, so the requirements for immortality are more strongly expressed in Han tomb sculptures.

In the past, it was always believed that the stone carvings on the tomb should not only protect and commemorate the deceased, but also be seen by the living.In recent years, some changes have taken place in the understanding of these stone carvings on the ground. The main breakthrough is the understanding of "que".Que is a building placed outside the gate in ancient times. It is not only used for climbing and watching or showing dignity, but also a sign of land boundaries.The tomb carved in stone is the entrance to the tomb area. On the silk painting unearthed in Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb in 1972, there is a pair of gates, indicating that it is the entrance to the heaven. In 1986, a sarcophagus of the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed in Jianyang, Sichuan, and the word "Tianmen" was engraved next to the stone carved que, which made the problem clear at once.The real meaning of the tomb is to represent the entrance to heaven.Que-shaped buildings appear many times in many stone carvings or brick sculptures of the Han Dynasty. Except for some pictures showing courtyards, Que is used as a general building, and most of them are related to some heavenly objects such as the sun, the moon, and the stars. , gods and men (Queen Mother of the West, Fuxi, Nuwa, Yuren, etc.) and gods (Suzaku, Xuanwu, Qinglong, Baihu, etc.), which clearly show the true meaning of Que.Stone carved tombs, gods, beasts, gods and men form a heavenly state in the tomb area, and the undead can enter the heavenly realm just one step away from the tomb. This kind of ascending to heaven cannot be simpler.

Among the mausoleum stone carvings of the Han Dynasty, the most closely related to the theme of ascension to heaven is the Queen Mother of the West.The Queen Mother of the West is the goddess of Kunlun Mountains. The legend about her entered the Central Plains during the Spring and Autumn Period.Her early image was extremely ugly: fluffy hair and hoopoe, tiger teeth and leopard tail.He also said that she was "the encouragement of the sky and the five punishments", and she was a plague god.Because she has the elixir of immortality, she can be swallowed in moderation for longevity, and consumed in excess to ascend to heaven, and more and more people worship her.According to historical records, in the fourth year of Jianping (3 BC) of Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty, there were fanatical activities due to the society's worship of the Queen Mother of the West, which eventually led to a riot across the country.With the increase of believers, coupled with the influence of the traditional trinity thought of "truth, goodness and beauty", the image of this goddess who can bring benefits to people has changed. woman.In the portrait bricks and stone portraits of the mausoleum sculptures, the Queen Mother of the West is everywhere.The appearance of the artistic image of Queen Mother of the West was only regarded as a reflection of the thoughts of immortals in the past. On a portrait sarcophagus unearthed in Nanxi County, Sichuan in 1987, a picture similar to a comic strip was carved.Engraved from right to left: a man and a woman holding hands, a divine deer, an alchemist who tells the news with festivals, a half-open door and a boy with half of his body exposed, and the Queen Mother of the West sitting on the Dragon and Tiger Seat.Beside the Queen Mother of the West at the end of the screen stands a man and a woman at the beginning of the screen.This is a picture of ascension to immortality with clear meaning: from the husband and wife saying goodbye, riding a deer to ascend, the alchemist reported the letter, the fairy boy greeted him, and finally came to the Queen Mother of the West and became a fairy.The Queen Mother of the West thus became a symbol of the fairy world.With this comic strip, we can read the other sketchy pictures.For example, a person, a horse, the Queen Mother of the West; a person, the boy who opened the door halfway, the Queen Mother of the West;In this regard, there are more elliptical expressions in the stone inscriptions of Han Dynasty mausoleums.For example, in the Han tombs in Anqiu, Shandong, and on the door of the tomb in Pengshanya, Sichuan, the meaning of "West Queen Mother Dai Sheng" is taken, and only a general image of "Win" is carved on the stone wall, which represents the West Queen Mother and the realm of immortals. "Sheng" was originally an ornament worn by a woman to tie her hair. Because it is said that the Queen Mother of the West wore it, it became a magical symbol.Just as a cross represents Christianity, a proverb represents Islam, and a handprint represents Buddhism, the winning pattern also represents the world of gods.

Opening the portrait tomb chamber of the Han Dynasty, a magical atmosphere comes oncoming. This magical atmosphere is a comprehensive effect, which is caused by the artistic power of each piece of stone carvings and brick sculptures.It was a trend in the Han Dynasty to carve the tomb into a fairyland atmosphere.People in the Han Dynasty did not think that there were some beautiful fairies with "skin as white as snow and graceful as a virgin" living in the fairyland, nor did they think that there was a peach blossom garden full of tranquility and peace.In the world in the minds of the people of the Han Dynasty, there are countless gods and monsters. These gods and monsters float up and down in the yin and yang that fills the world.Naturally, there are these gods and monsters in the fairy world.Clouds, flying immortals, and gods and monsters are the most common scenes that accompany the tomb owner's ascension to heaven in the fairy pictures of the Han Dynasty.A stone carving on the second stone in the back stone chamber of the Wu's Ancestral Hall in Jiaxiang, Shandong, completely shows the process of the tomb owner's ascension to heaven.Behind a pair of tombs, the ghost of the owner of the tomb comes out of the tomb accompanied by a wisp of cloud. Guided by the feathered man, it rises into the sky in a chariot driven by a winged horse, and finally arrives at the side of the Queen Mother of the West at the top of the picture.In the picture of this stone carving, there are transpiring clouds everywhere, winged immortals, gods and monsters, and gods with human heads and snake bodies.This stone carving is a concentrated description of the plot of Shengxian.In many burial chambers, multiple pictures cover the tomb chamber, making the entire tomb chamber a place for ascension to immortality.

The ground stone carvings in Chinese mausoleum sculptures formed a system in the Qin and Han Dynasties. After the Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, they were customized in the Tang Dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty, there was little development. The peak of Shi Qi was in the Han Dynasty, and it gradually fell silent after the Han Dynasty. Among the existing sculpture varieties in China, the mausoleum sculpture is the most sculptural.Among them, stone towers and stone beasts in ground sculptures, figurines, portrait stones, and portrait bricks in underground sculptures are the five main forms of Chinese mausoleum sculptures.