A Study Of Vehicles And Palanquins In The Album Of Song Paintings

The ways of travel are important to people since ancient time.There are plenty of historical documents and archaeological materials,but the lack of image data which are systematic and explicit restricts the study of travel tools.Thanks to the publication of the Album of Song Paintings,Song paintings are gathered together from all around the world.It provided a new opportunity for studying material and cultural life in the Song Dynasty.Based on the the Album of Song Paintings,combined with historical documents and archaeological materials,the travel tools on land could be mainly divided into three categories:the horse-drawn vehicle,the ox cart rattled and Palanquins.Firstly,the author will take vehicles and Palanquins in Song paintings as main subjects,then categorize different icons of vehicles types and Palanquins types by using historical documents and archaeological materials.In order to study the implications of Song Paintings,the carriage,cart and sedan are regarded as the artistic symbols.At last,the ways of travel in Song Dynasty are further discussed.Thus the research through Song painting is of vital importance to the study of the travel tools on land and the trip mode of Song people.It is also a preliminary attempt to explore ancient material culture by using image materials.