The famous Chinese historian Qian Mu once said, apart l from calligraphy the most important form of Chinese arts was paintings. Although the earliest Chinese paintings can be dated back to prehistoric times, most paintings in the Qin (221 t0 206 BC) and Han (206 BC t0 220 AD) Dynasties were murals and stone carvings in palace and tomb chambers. It was until the Wei (220 t0 265 AD) and Jin Dynasties (265 t0 420 AD) paintings had developed into a more popular art form as silk and paper became more affordable and was gradually used for paintings. This illustrates that the earliest Chinese paintings were used almost exclusively to serve aristocracy and religions. From the Wei and Jin to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Chinese paintings had a gradually transformation to become more accessible to relatively ordinary people. Since the early paintings of aristocracy and religions were mainly drawn or carved on the walls and floors of religious buildings, tomb chambers and palaces, most paintings of Qing together with the destructioN of palaces and temples. A few exceptions are preserved in tomb chambers, which have become the main sources to study paintings of those periods.
Like clay figures buried in graves, paintings were used to accompany and to protect the dead by the practice of witchcraft. Painting as art was not practiced by conscience and deliberation yet. On Dragon, Phoenix and Beauties there is a lady in the middle. It is difficult to tell whether it is a witch praying for the deceased or it represents the deceased herself. Above the lady, there are dragon and phoenix, both are fictional figures of ancient China and they are auspicious signs. Like angels in Christian teaching, they are believed to be able to guide the dead to the heaven.
Another important silk painting was unearthed from the Mawangdui Tomb near Chanshan. It is estimated to belong to the period around 165 BC. The painting is in a T-shape. Archaeologists call it “non-dress” painting as it looks like e a dress but could not be worn. Composition of the painting depicts “a soul going to heaven.” S The top section of the painting clearly represents the heaven, the middle section is the earth and the low section is underground scene. Reality is mixed with fantasy. The middle earth section tells the story of the person buried. She was the wife of Licang, an aristocrat. She dresses in very colorful lavish silk cloth. Judging from her composure, she looks like an old person. She is walking through a large hall with servants kneeling in front of her and maids following her behind. Slightly below this, there is a banqueting scene but without the presence of the master. The banqueting tables are packed with luxury dishes and plates with delicious foods and glass full of wines. As there is no master present, all the people are not eating and drinking but are standing and bow forward as if they would see the master off. Symbolically she is sent off to the heaven by all her servants and maids. The top heaven section is full of imagination and romantical fantasy. The traditional belief in the Han period was that a person died his or her soul would go to heaven and become a celestial being in another world. The celestial world in the painting has the Sun, the Moon two auspicious animals which people in the Han period considered to be associated with the Sun and the Moon. Also seen is a large mulberry tree shinning in moonlights and a dragon flying through sky. Under moonlight, a young woman flies with the dragon. She looks as if she has eventually escaped the chores of earthly life and totally rejuvenated, dancing with dragon in a celestial world.
This wonderful Han period silk painting carried the tradition which we see first on the silk painting Dragon, Phoenix and Beauties of the Warring State period. All characters on the painting have only showed their side profiles. Chinese ancestors believed that a person’s side profile could demonstrate more of his or her characteristics. The Han silk painting is more sophisticated than the silk painting of the Warring State period. The latter only has simple lines of drawings showing symbolic meanings. Though it carries the symbolic tradition, the Han painting has used more elegant lines of drawing and fine composition to depict an imaginative and romantic story on earth and in heaven. It has adopted “non dress” format to show the direction of painting, from the top to the bottom, the heaven, the earth and the under world. In the middle section of the earthly life, we could also see time direction of the present and the past. The present is above the past. The Han painting also shows more elegant and sophisticated drawing technique. It uses black ink to draw an outline and add colors on spaces in ween afterwards. Th between afterwards. The mineral pigments of cinnabar red, malachite green, azurite blue and chalk white on the painting still have remarkable original colors more than two thousands of years later.
