Rethinking Recarving; Ideals, Practices, and Problems of the "Wu Family Shrines" and Han China

by Cary Y. Liu, Michael Loewe, Lydia Thompson, Zheng Yan, Susan N. Erickson, Klaas

• ISBN13: 9780300137040
• ISBN10: 0300137044
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2008-12-16
• Publisher: Princeton University Art Museum

Summary

The "Wu Family Shrines" pictorial carvings from Han dynasty China (206 BCE220 CE) are among the earliest works of Chinese art examined in an international arena. Since the eleventh century, the carvings have been identified by scholars as one of the most valuable and authentic materials for the study of antiquity. This important book presents essays by archaeologists, art and architectural historians, curators, and historians that reexamine the carvings, adding to our understanding of the long cultural history behind them and to our knowledge of Han practices. The authors offer a thorough analysis of surviving physical and visual sources, invoking fresh perspectives from new disciplines. Essays address the ideals, practices, and problems of the "Wu Family Shrines" and Han China; Han funerary art and architecture in Shandong and other regions; architectural functions and carved meanings; Qing Dynasty Reception of the Wu Family Shrines; and more.

Author Biography

Cary Y. Liu is curator of Asian art, Princeton University Art Museum, and coauthor of Recarving China’s Past (Yale).

Table of Contents

Ideals, practices, and problems : the "Wu family shrines" and Han China
Perspectives on the "Wu family shrines" : recarving the past	p. 20
Ideals, practices, and problems of Han China	p. 52
Han funerary art and architecture in Shandong and beyond Ritual, art, and agency : consecrating the burial ground in the Eastern Han period	p. 78
Concerning the viewers of Han mortuary art	p. 92
Que pillars at the Wu family cemetery and related structures in Shandong province	p. 110
The northwestern style of Eastern Han pictorial stone carving : the tomb of Zuo Biao and other Eastern Han tombs near Lishi, Shanxi province	p. 132
Architectural functions and carved meanings
The iconography of the "homage scene" in Han pictorial carving	p. 162
Han Steles : how to elicit what they have to tell us	p. 180
Constructing Citang in Han	p. 196
Composition, typology, and iconography of the "Sino-barbarian battle scene" in Han pictorial images (abstract)	p. 232
Qing dynasty reception of the "Wu family shrines"
Huang Yi's Fangbei painting	p. 236
Mediums and messages : the Wu family shrines and cultural production in Qing China	p. 260
Ideals, practices, and problems : a critique of Recarving China's past and responses
The intellectual legacy of Huang Yi and his friends : reflections on some issues raised by Recarving China's past	p. 286
Response to	p. 338
Perspectives on the "Wu family shrines" : recarving the past	p. 342
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