Study On Aboveground Buildings In Cemetery Of Han Dynasty

The history of Han-dynasty architecture remains obscure in the history of Chinese architecture,such as the aboveground buildings in cemetery which is the research object of this thesis.Although the shrines of Han dynasty and ancestral temples of Ming and Qing dynasties share an identical name in Chinese,namely Ci Tang,they are quite different from each other.The ancestral temples were public places for an entire clan used as a site of education or judgment,while the shrines were built for the dead by their family.The thesis explores the aboveground buildings in cemetery built according to the funeral etiquette and customs in the Han dynasty,containing shrines,houses,food-sheds,Que towers and ornamental columns.The first chapter of the essay mainly clarifies the connotation and denotation of the key concept of the word "Ci Tang"(Shrines)and" Mu Di Ci Tang”(aboveground buildings in cemetery).Then the second chapter analyzes the historical and cultural context of aboveground buildings in cemetery in terms of immortal belief,structure of family,and funeral etiquette and customs and evaluates their effects to the aboveground buildings in cemetery.The third chapter and fourth chapter are core chapters of this thesis.The third chapter chiefly explores the architectural elements and their spatial sequence of aboveground buildings in cemetery,and the fourth chapter specifically analyzes the combination mode of aboveground buildings in cemetery.Finally,Lanzhu No.1 and No.2 tombs in Su town Anhui province are selected as a case to study and their original states are restored in the last chapter.The thesis summarizes the basic ingredients of the aboveground buildings in cemetery,namely shrines,Que towers,ornamental columns,houses,and food-sheds,and the combination modes of that,namely a group of buildings without a courtyard,that with a courtyard,that with two courtyards.A shrines without a courtyard can be divided into three categories,namely a single room,a room with two bays,a room with three bays.Further,the thesis analyzes the connotation of vertical space of shrines and the symbolic meaning of Que towers,and points out that central columns and brackets were regarded as fetishes or tokens of ascending to immortal spaces in the Han dynasty as brackets were located in the transitional joint between immortal spaces and worldly spaces in the shrines,which influenced their forms.In addition,the thesis discusses forms and functions of Fusi-an architectural elements in the aboveground buildings in the cemetery as well as characteristics and functions of triangle stone in the shrines.