Chapter 10 Section 3 Carvings on the Ground of the Mausoleum

Ancient Chinese buildings, especially the early objects, are rarely preserved today.Some important palaces with very specific descriptions are recorded in historical books, such as the Afang Palace built by Qin Shihuang, the Hanyuan Hall of the Daming Palace in the Tang Dynasty, and the Tianning Temple Pagoda in Luoyang in the Northern Wei Dynasty.The reason for this is that apart from the fact that the feudal dynasties changed and were destroyed by human beings, the main reason is that these buildings are wooden structures, which are easy to be destroyed.In contrast, ancient mausoleum buildings are easier to preserve, because most of them are masonry structures, and some of them are buried underground, especially the masonry carvings in mausoleum buildings, which survive more.This provides a very favorable condition for us to understand the carving art in ancient buildings.

As mentioned earlier, since the Eastern Han Dynasty, stone carvings have been widely used in mausoleum construction.The stone que placed at the front of the mausoleum is an important entrance sign; behind it is a series of stone carvings, such as lions, evil spirits, tigers, cows, horses, camels, sheep, etc., arranged in pairs on both sides of the tomb passage, forming an indispensable mausoleum building. Shinto part.In the Tang Dynasty, stone figures were added on both sides of Shinto, including civil servants, military officials, and statues of foreign vassal kings.There are more than 110 stone figures and beasts in the Tang Qianling Shinto in Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province.The imperial mausoleums of the subsequent Song, Ming and Qing dynasties all have such stone carvings arranged in rows.Now we choose several common stone carvings to introduce.

(1) Stone pillars, also known as stone pillars, watch pillars, and Shinto pillars, are usually placed in front of the Shinto.The most typical ones are the stone pillars from the tomb of Emperor Qin of the Han Dynasty unearthed in the western suburbs of Beijing and the tomb table of Xiao Jing from the Southern Dynasty period in the suburbs of Nanjing (Figure 9).Their form is composed of several parts: column foundation, groove column, square plate, beam column, cover plate and squatting beast.The position and surname of the owner of the tomb are engraved on the square plate, so the stone pillar is a symbol of the tomb.Both the base of the column and the cover plate are carved with images of animals and lotuses, and the lower part of the column is a grooved column. This form is rarely seen in ancient my country but is a common column form in ancient Greek and Roman architecture. This reflects the characteristics of the integration and absorption of Western culture and art at this time.The stone pillars in front of the imperial mausoleums of Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties have changed in form.The trough column and the square plate disappeared and were changed to a six-sided or eight-sided column body; the squatting beast on the top was missing and replaced by a cylindrical column head; It is covered with cloud patterns, and the column caps are carved with dragon patterns; the overall shape is simpler than that of the previous generation.

(2) The stone lion, the king of beasts that appears in front of important building gates, is naturally an indispensable and important stone beast in mausoleums, and can be seen in almost all mausoleum Shinto.As the guardian animal at the entrance of the gate, the stone lion sometimes squats on both sides of the gate of the mausoleum instead of being around the Shinto. Several stone beasts in front of the mausoleums of the Southern Dynasties in the suburbs of Nanjing, Jiangsu are the best of the ancient stone carvings that survive today (Figure 10).The stone beast in front of Xiao Jing's tomb is named to ward off evil spirits, but it is actually in the shape of a lion.It has a huge body with flying wings carved on both sides. It is named to ward off evil spirits, which means to ward off evil.In terms of carving, it does not pursue the detailed depiction of lions, but uses simple techniques to highlight the overall dynamics.The lion stands on all fours, with its chest protruding forward, its head raised back slightly, its mouth open and its tongue sticking out. Its body is bigger than real, and its limbs are shorter and thicker than real.It uses exaggerated techniques to try to show the majesty and strength of the lion, which is the characteristic of "emphasis on similarity in spirit rather than similarity in shape" emphasized by ancient Chinese plastic arts.The stone lions of Tang Shunling Mausoleum and Qianling Mausoleum near Xi'an (Fig. 11) inherit the style of the Southern Dynasties in shape, and strive to show the overall look of the lion without emphasizing the details of the lion.The lion squatting on the seat, with its forelimbs upright and its paws on the ground, seems to be three points into the ground, with a sense of full strength.The stone lions in front of the Songling Mausoleum in Gongxian County, Henan Province are closer to real lions in shape, and the details are more specific than before. The curly hair on the head and body, the necklace and bells on the neck are all clearly expressed, but in terms of overall demeanor But it is not as good as the works of Tang and Southern Dynasties.The mausoleums of Ming and Qing dynasties left a large number of stone lions, ranging in size from large to small, and from thick to thin in carving methods. There are various expressions of lions, but the overall momentum is not as vivid as that of the early stone lions. And powerful.