The Development And Evolution Of The Plastic Arts Of The Han Dynasty Stone Reliefs In Shandong Area

According to historical records,the Han Dynasty stone relief was produced approximately from the middle of the Western Han Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.As the main decorative form of the interior of the tombs and buildings in front of the tombs,the stone relief of the Han Dynasty undoubtedly shares the similarities with the way of expressing visual images.It reflects the evolution of Chinese society,culture and beliefs in the Han Dynasty more than two thousand years ago.The stone reliefs of the Han Dynasty reveal the cultural connotation and aesthetic expression of its era,which has important academic value and practical significance for exploring and grasping the unknown world expressed by images.Shandong area is one of the four major stone relief gathering places in China.Its stone reliefs are densely distributed and large in number which has an important status in academic research throughout the country.In this article,the Shandong area is generally centered on Jining,Zaozhuang and Linyi in southwestern Shandong,extending eastward to Jiaodong and westward to the junction of Shandong and Henan,southward to the junction of Shandong,Jiangsu and Anhui,and northward to Binzhou,Dongying Yellow River Delta.Because the Han Dynasty stone reliefs found in the above regions share the same regional culture and artistic characteristics,the academic circle usually studies the Han Dynasty stone reliefs as a whole to distinguish them from the stone reliefs in Nanyang region,Sichuan region and northern Shanxi region.The regional characteristics of the Han Dynasty stone reliefs in Shandong are obvious,and they have formed their own unique artistic style,especially the regional characteristics of stone reliefs in terms of plastic arts.In fact,the art of Han stone relief not only reflects the aesthetic thought of symbolism,but also reflects the development of social politics,economy,culture,belief and other aspects at that time.The academic community generally believes that throughout the Han Dynasty,the stone relief is a kind of tool that the ruling class and elite class used to unify thoughts and educate people.Therefore,its specific content and way of expression,not only reflects the society,culture and beliefs at that time,but also shows the unique way that people used in that era to artistically express through various plastic arts.As for the plastic arts of the Han Dynasty stone reliefs,their characteristics are mainly manifested in four aspects:the treatment of shape,composition,decoration and material.The first aspect is the deformation treatment of the shape that is the use of the silhouette method.In the aspect of stone relief modeling,the Han Dynasty stone relief uses the treatment of the silhouette method to express the typical dynamics of the shape.The second is the processing of composition of the relief stones,which is the application of the image segmentation method.It is the application of this method that gives the stone reliefs the beauty of order.Then,it is the treatment of decoration,that is the application of the filling method.Between the figures shaped in the stone relief,there are other shapes to fill the gap in order to achieve a full effect.Finally,it is the processing of materials,which the Han Dynasty craftsmen often apply the space reduction method to deal with it.This is a method of removing the spare space and retaining the main body in order to highlight the theme.As early as the Warring States Period,the method of space reduction has been adopted on the processing of high-end jade,and the craftsmen of Han Dynasty widely apply this method to the carving of stone reliefs,which has a profound influence on various carving techniques of later generations.The above technologies adopted by the Han Dynasty craftsmen enable the Shandong stone reliefs majestic,enriched but not crowded,complicated but not stiff.In the process of studying the development and evolution of the plastic arts of stone reliefs at the turn of the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty,this article will not only analyze and discuss the characteristics of carving techniques,but also explore its social,ideological and aesthetic connotations from the perspective of the phenomenon to the essence.This study conducts in-depth research and discussion on the theme of Han Dynasty stone reliefs in Shandong and classifies the themes of creation into four categories.The first is the theme of daily life that is the most common theme of all Han Dynasty stone reliefs in Shandong.Among all scenes carved on the stone reliefs in Shandong and northern Jiangsu,there are a large number of scenes related to music,dance and drama,which is the embodiment of the scenes and customs of the rich officials' feasting in the Han Dynasty.Besides,the courtyard kitchen theme of the Han Dynasty stone relief reflects the real scene of the life of the tomb owner and is also the secular world theme of the stone relief.Another daily life theme is the hunting activities of the ruling class in Han Dynasty.At this time,the hunting is not only a means of human survival,but also a kind of recreational and fitness activities,so it has become a common theme.The second is the theme of historical stories that accounts for a relatively large proportion of the entire discovered stone reliefs in Shandong.The appearance of this theme has specific purpose and plays the role of "Teaching by virtue and disciplining later generations".The themes of these historical stories are divided into princes,famous ministers,loyalists,filial piety,martyrs,chaste females,sages and so on.It can be concluded from these classifications that the main purpose is to promote the moral character and Confucian ethics of those wise emperors,sages and the righteous filial sons.The third is the theme of war.The stone reliefs of war themes concentrate on the themes of Hu and Han wars including prisoner dedication,warfare,King Hu and other fixed contents.The fourth is the immortal and auspicious theme which describes the image of Fuxi Nvwa,the Queen Mother of the West,the King Father of the East,and divine monsters.From the classification of Han Dynasty stone reliefs in Shandong,it can be found that the shapes of tombs and the ancestral temples in front of the tomb in the Han Dynasty are deeply influenced by their themes.People set the secular tomb owner and the divine gods in the same spatial dimension to achieve the progressive relationship between life and death in the view of time and space.This is a reflection of the idea of ascending to immortals after death taught by the ruling class in the Han Dynasty,and an idealized image expression of the dead reappearing the world of the living.The means of expression of the above themes often have distinctive stylistic characteristics and become an important vehicle for the development and evolution of style in Han Dynasty stone reliefs.During the Western and Eastern Han Dynasty,the ruling class constantly advocated the idea of heaven-human induction and auspicious sign and advertised feudal ethics such as loyalty,filial piety,courtesy,and righteousness,which can be seen as an important social reason for the appearance of the stone reliefs and the proof of the occurrence of a large number of historical figures,fairy gods and other images appearing in the Han Dynasty stone reliefs.In addition to social reasons,the author also believes that the source of these images is related to the artistic concept formed since the primitive society and the close exchange of Chinese and foreign cultures.These figures,in addition to influenced by the Confucian filial piety concept,have an inevitable relationship with the prevalence of elaborate funeral and the concept of immortality of soul and belief.The formation and development of the stone relief image,which is an important part of the Han Dynasty tombs,is also the product of this concept and belief.As early as the late Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty,stone reliefs in Shandong were produced.In the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty,it reached its heyday,producing many representative reliefs that were the typical representatives of stone reliefs in Shandong.The ancient Chinese art forms,myths and legends have inextricably linked with the governing the ruling class and Han Dynasty stone reliefs are no exception.In ancient Chinese society,people began to regard the ideas advocated by the ruling class as a determining factor of the social ideology at that time.The specific existence of this influence can be seen in the theme of the stone reliefs.The historical figures in the Han Dynasty stone relief mainly include the ancient sages,the loyal ministers,the chaste females,the filial sons,the legendary figures,etc.,which are derived from the historical records and legends of the Han Dynasty.The purpose is to"Exhortation by logic and help with each other" and exercise the educational function of the image.The immortal thought of the ruling class also plays a vital role in the shape of the Han Dynasty stone relief.The inunortal thought is rooted in the survival instinct of human beings.The fear of death and the expectation of longevity are a common psychology of people.The pursuit of immortality has been particularly strong in the aristocrats of the pre-Qin Dynasty,because they are the people with vested interests of politics and economy,and they have a strong sense of superiority and possessiveness.Therefore,they hope to live forever,and want to continue the rich life that they have forever.Thus,it can be concluded that the immortal thoughts have reached the peak in the Han Dynasty under the support of ruling class.So the image expression of the stone relief is also influenced by the ruling class thought.The image of folk auspiciousness is not only an important part of the traditional Chinese culture,but also an art form for recording and expressing national history.In the long history of development,the folk auspicious thoughts have run through the entire history of the Chinese nation.It uses the image of processed art to reveal the life process,customs,feelings and ideal pursuits of our ancestors.This kind of art form is model of perfect combination of our life and ideals.It also reflects the background of that time,social mentality,national psychology and aesthetic taste,furthermore reflects the constant pursuit of belief of the Chinese nation.With the increase of the land and sea connections between the Han Dynasty,the Western Region and the Central and West Asian countries,the image of the combination of people and various animals in the Western Region has also spread to the Central Plains,resulting to the appearance of many long hairs figures in the Eastern Han Dynasty stone relief.The characters are also presented in a variety of different combinations,for example,the combination of human head horse,nine head snake,birdhead monster,Tao Tie(a mythical ferocious animal)and etc.The appearance of these images also reflects the close political,economic and cultural links between the Central Plains,the Western Regions,Central Asia and West Asia in the Han Dynasty.The reasons for the formation of the stone relief image in Shandong can be elaborated in three aspects:the rule of the ruling class,the folk auspicious thoughts,and the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.The emergence of regional image inevitably has social,ideological and cultural origins.The social ruling class of the Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties used Confucianism and Taoism as a tool to educate the people,and preached in ideology,thereby consolidating class rule,and the integration of society and culture brought by the foreign exchange in Han Dynasty is also an important source of the formation of stone relief.The state of Qi an Lu is the birthplace of Confucianism,which is closed to the northern Jiangsu and the witchcraft prevailing state of Jing and Chu.The former provides the ideological basis for the creation of stone reliefs,and the latter becomes the source of plastic arts of stone reliefs.Therefore,the themes of Han Dynasty stone reliefs are rich in Shandong,with ever-changing shapes and exquisite and magnificent style.Against this background,the modeling style and aesthetic form of the Han Dynasty stone reliefs have a strong consistency in Shandong,which is the treasure house of Chinese Han Dynasty stone relief art.