Study On The Image Of Human Head And Bird Body In Huatsogdian Tombs

Known in Chinese history as the ’Zhaowu Nine Surnames’,the Suthenians entered China as merchants along the Silk Road during the Northern and Southern Dynasties,becoming a unique and mysterious commercial people who controlled the land-based Silk Road in the Middle Ages,and many of them settled in China,never to return.Since 1999,the burials of the incoming Chinese in the Northwest of China have been unearthed,attracting widespread scholarly attention.This paper focuses on the origin of the image,its location in the specific burial space and its configuration in relation to other funerary objects,in order to clarify the characteristics,meaning and function of the image of the human-headed bird.The thesis draws on the results of iconography,archaeology,religious studies and other disciplines to provide a more holistic analysis of the image of the human-headed bird in the burial site of the Chinese Asuetans,through a stylistic and comparative approach centred on the ontological study of art history,in order to develop a new understanding of the burial site and to uncover the cultural origins behind the image.The first part of the paper is divided into four parts,the first of which is a chronological collation of the available data,listing a number of representative burials of the Chinese and the incoming Chinese Suthenians,from which some images of human-headed birds are extracted.The burial form,excavated relics and images are summarised and collated.The second part of the discussion focuses on the’human-headed bird body’,listing the sources of the images and comparing the similarities and differences between the two;the second part provides an in-depth analysis of the changes in the style of the burials of the incoming Chinese,focusing on the changes in the ritual fire worship scene and the human-headed bird body priest,and illustrating the process of the changes in the two with diagrams.The third section builds on the discussion in the second chapter to further analyse the function and meaning of the images in the burials of the Inhasuites,and to analyse their concept of burial in terms of their religious beliefs and burial practices.The fourth part,based on the previous discussion,explores the cultural background behind the images and the related cultural interactions between ethnic groups and peoples,and explores the unique aesthetics of the incoming Chinese.The fourth section builds on the preceding discussion by exploring the cultural background behind the images and the cultural interactions between the peoples associated with them,as well as exploring the unique aesthetic tastes of the incoming Aws.