Page 86 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

flat surface of a stone slab or flat relief with the background cut
back and striated to give a contrasting texture. These slabs pre-
serve the subject matter—and something even of the composi-
tion—of the lost mural paintings of the Han Dynasty. They not
only give a vivid picture of daily life in this far-off time but also
show clear regional differences in style, so that we can without
much difficulty identify the elegant dignity of some of the Shan-
tung reliefs, the luxuriance of the stones from Nanyang in Honan,
the cruder vigour of the reliefs from distant Szechwan. After the
Han Dynasty, China becomes ever more a single cultural entity,
and these regional styles will largely disappear.
The stone shrines standing before the tombs were often deco-
rated with engraved designs, the best-known series being those at
8? Top ofmemorial pillar {eh'uth) for a
member of the Shen family. Scone. the Hsiao-t'ang-shan (Hill of the Hall of Filial Piety) near Fci-
ch'eng in Shantung, and the slabs from four now-demolished
Ch'u-hsten. Szechwan. Han Dynasty.
shrines of the Wu family near Chia-hsiang in southwestern Shan-
tung, which are dated by their inscriptions between a.d. 145 and
168. They give a vivid impression of the syncretic nature of H311
art, in which Confucian ideals, historical events (real and legend-
ary), and Taoist mythology and folklore are all brought together.
On the shallow end gables of two of the shrines to east and west
we find Tung Wang Kung and Hsi Wang Mu, respectively; below,
the legendary meetings of Confucius and Lao Tzu, or ancient
kings, filial sons, and virtuous women. The attempted assassina-
tion of Ch'in Shih-huang-ti, and his effort to raise one of the tri-
pods of the emperor Yu. are favourite themes. The central recess
and most of the remaining space is devoted to a banqueting scene,
of which we can only show a detail. This depicts on the left the cult
hero Yi, shooting out of the Fu-sang tree the nine extra suns (here
88 The archer Yi. the Fu-amx tree, and a
mansion Detail of rubbing from a stone symbolised as crows) that were scorching the earth, while to the
relief in the tomb shrine of Wu Lung, right the guests bow to their host and a feast takes place upstairs.
Chia-hsiang, Shantung. Eastern Han
Dynaity.