Han Dynasty Tomb Sculpture
Stone sculpture was something of a latecomer to Chinese art, starting a thousand years after figures were being made in jade and bronze Under the first period of the Han dynasty, known as the Western Han (206 B.C.E. 9 C.E.), it was used mainly for the tombs (burial chambers) of emperors or local rulers, but by the Eastern Han(25 C.E. -220 C.E.), the second period of Han rule, it had spread more widely. This change was largely the result of the increased importance of the tomb in the political philosophy of the time. The early Western Han emperors, faced with the problem of forging a unified empire threatened by uprisings on the part of ambitious rival kingdoms. had retained many of the first emperor’s policies based on military force and harsh laws. But by the middle of the first century B.C.E., these were being replaced by an adaptation of the ideas of the fifth-century B.C.E. philosopher, Confucius, whose philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, to the conditions of a united empire. Believing that in the long run, stability depended on an acceptance of the legitimacy of the ruler(and dynasty) rather than on military force, Han intellectuals and officials adopted a moral philosophy based on the belief that humans are perfectible through education, and that a hierarchical society consists of a network of reciprocal duties and obligations: the subject’s duty to obey the ruler was matched by the ruler’s obligation to care for his subjects.
The increased emphasis on civic duty and order encouraged stability, loyalty, and obedience to the state, reinforcing central power. At the same time, the insistence on the value of education attracted intellectuals into state service, providing a well-qualified administration. In an age of rising standards of living with the growth of upwardly mobile merchant and artisan classes, the importance of filial piety (respect for parents and ancestors), one of the greatest of Confucian virtues, led to competitive tomb building. The imperial mausoleums(aboveground, freestanding tombs constructed as memorials)set the example and their extravagance was copied downwards. But why was there such urgent building of mausoleums?
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