Page 82 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

Elaborate as some of these tombs were, they were nothing
compared to the tombs of the Ch'in and Han emperors, whose
stone passages and vaults were enclosed in the heart of an artificial
hill approached by a "spirit way" lined with guardian figures
carved in stone and guarded by booby traps. It has long been
thought that all the tombs of the Han royal house were desecrated
at the fall of the dynasty. But the accidental finding of the con-
cealed rock-cut tombs of Han Wu Ti's elder brother Liu Sheng and
his wife Tou Wan, clad in the jade suits described in Chapter 3,
suggests that this was not the case and that, hidden Tutankhamen-
like in the cliffs and valleys of North China, there may be more-
great tombs still intact, awaiting discovery.
SCULPTURE AND THE It is in the Ch'in and Han Dynasties that we encounter the earliest
DECORATIVE ARTS monumental sculpture in stone, surprisingly late in the history of
one of the major civilisations, and suggestive, possibly, of the ef-
fect of contact with western Asia. Near Hsicn-yang in Shensi is a
mound believed to be the grave of General Ho Ch'ti-ping, who
died in 1 17 B.C. after a brief and brilliant career of campaigning
against the Hsiung-nu. Before the tomb, a life-size stone figure of
a horse stands with majestic indifference over a fallen barbarian
82 Horse trampling on a barbarian
archer. Stone sculpture which formerly soldier who is attempting to kill him with his bow. The modelling
stood before the reputed tomb of Ho is massive but shallow, giving the impression more of two reliefs
Ch'u-ping (died 117B.C ). Hsing-p'ing,
Shensi. Western Han Dynasty. back-to-back than ofcarving in the round, and indeed in its heavy.

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