A Guide to the Tomb and Shrine Art of the Han Dynasty 206 B.C.-A.D. 220 (review)

Reviews 457 Jean M. James. A Guide to the Tomb and Shrine Art ofthe Han Dynasty 206 B.c.-A.D. 220. Chinese Studies, vol. 2. Lewiston, Queenston, and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996. vii, 266 pp. Hardcover $89.95, isbn 0-7734-8772-7. This book is a straightforward overview of figurai decoration on funerary banners and the walls and ceilings ofHan tombs and shrines. Almost all the material included , which is illustrated in rubbings and line drawings, has been excavated in China from the 1950s on, and an introductory map indicates important sites. Although the text focuses on iconography and deals with archaeological finds in China, it provides a baseline for the understanding of Han pictorial art as it traces the development and proliferation ofmotifs. Moreover, the audior does not shy away from discussing rituals of mourning and conceptions ofdie afterlife—the necessary context of funerary decoration. The first chapter, "Eastern Zhou Beginnings: The Two Souls," treats the evolution ofthe terms po and hun, crystalized by the Western Han in the need to house the po soul in the tomb before its eventual decay into the underground regions . Five banner paintings from the Chu and die Eastern Han depict die ascent of hun souls to the realm of the stars, thought by Han times to be via Mount Kunlun. The Mawangdui banners also portray homage to the deceased by family members and funeral rites in the middle section, which is framed by supernatural beings above and below. A combination ofworldly and otherworldly imagery continues to appear throughout the Han, and the banners are thought to have had both public and private functions as insignia in funerary processions and guides to the afterlife for the deceased. Material from the Mawangdui tombs is treated in the second chapter, "Early and Middle Western Han," which discusses the iconography of the banners in conjunction with the decoration on lacquered coffins. This material is well known from the interpretations of East Asian and Western scholars, here summarized by James. She doubts that Lady Dai's soul has ascended to become the half-serpent godling atop her banner, as Michael Loewe suggests, and prefers to identify this figure as one of the star gods. She does not accept the identification of the woman in die T-shaped banner as Chang'e on the way to the moon, nor ofthe archer as Yi destroying the sunbirds. Interestingly enough, a contemporary banner from Jinque Shan, Shantong, features events from everyday life along with the homage scene, as will be the case in later Han tombs and shrines. Included in diis chapter© 1998 by University is the grave ofBu Qianqiu, a late Western Han painted tomb from the region of ofHawai'i PressLuoyang. There the destination ofdie hun souls, male and female in a couple burial, has become Xiwang Mu, who is seated on ceiling clouds next to the sageruler Fuxi and the yangred sun with crow. A procession ofmythical animals 458 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 across the ceiling is started offby the figure ofa psychopomp with shaman's staff at the eastern end, behind Fuxi's consort, Niiwa, and the yin moon with toad. Thus demigods in human and semi-human form begin to supplement the functions ofthe animal helpers in the afterlife. At the same time, a protective imagery ofmonsters and ofdragons and tigers is placed on back walls or over entrances. The third chapter on "Late Western Han and Early Eastern Han" deals with the multichambered brick and stone tombs with pictorial designs that replaced the timbered pit graves. Confucian themes begin to appear in Henan tombs such as Luoyang M61, built of stamped bricks and painted hollow tiles. A triangular lintel of tiles divides the front and rear chambers. On its front side is the story of the clever minister Yan Zi below a frieze of fantastic creatures associated with Mount Kunlun. On the reverse side two hun souls ride on dragons toward a pardy open door, the Changhe gate to Kunlun, and a star map decorates the ceiling . Pictorial bricks with repeated stamped decoration were evidendy produced in quantities in Henan. Large hollow bricks for doorway posts...