A GUIDE TO THE TOMB AND SHRINE ART OF THE HAN DYNASTY 206 B.C. - A.D. 220

This book explains the function, meaning, and use of pictorial art in the funerary context during the four hundred years of the Han dynasty, with references to social values and contemporary texts that describe those values. The bulk of the works discussed has not been published outside of China and all of it has been excavated and dated correctly. It presents a logical interpretation of Han pictorial art based on the works themselves rather than on an a priori theory of what they mean. The first three chapters deal with late Zhou antecedents, then early and middle Western Han and Late Western Han and early Eastern Han. Chapter four treats Eastern Han concentrating on the art of Henan province, and the book concludes with a discussion of the late Eastern Han offering shrine and one late tomb. With many illustrations.