Those placed in front of the tomb of General Huo Qubing ( 140 BC - 117 BC) in what is now
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Emperor Qianlong was a devoted follower of Buddhism. On his order, the underground palace where he was to stay after death was made an undergrsund niche for Buddha worshipping. Photo xhows a stone relief of the Buddhist Goddessof Mercy in his underground palace.
| Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, are the most representative of stone statues left over from the Hart Dynasty. Intelligent and courageous, the general distinguished himself in battles against nomads known as the Xiongnu, or Hurts, who often crossed the northern borders to loot and kill during the early period of the dynasty. After the general died, he was buried near the capital on order of Emperor Wudi. The funeral was grand enough to suit his contribution to stability of the new dynasty, during which troops, clad in black armor suits, stood in full attention to pay their last respect to their dead commander.
To ensure that the general's heroic deeds would be remembered forever, the tomb site was transformed in such a way as to assume the topographical features of the Qilian Mountains in northwest China, where imperial troops under his command fought the decisive battle and won. The earthen mound with the dead general buried beneath looked like a huge hill, and numerous stone animal figures were placed in front of the mound and on its slope. The exact number of such stone figures is unknown, and so is the exact location of each. Anyway, sixteen have survived erosion by nature over the past two milleniums, which are now kept in a museum set up by the local government. Most of these are 1.5 meters long, and the largest is 2.5 meters in length.
Among the animal statues we find a crouching horse, a leaping horse and a horse with a Hun under one of its hoofs. These may well be the theme statues. symbolic of the three stages of the war fought under the general's direction - preparations for the war, the battles fought and the final victory. The crouching horse seems on alert, ready to jump up for battle. The leaping horse impresses the viewer with might and resolve. The third horse stands firm as the bearded human figure beneath its hoof struggles to get free by trying to stab its belly with a spear.
Among other statues we find a crouching tiger, a crouching pig. a crouching bull. a sheep, an elephant and a fish. There is also a statue featuring a ferocious- looking legendary animal eating a sheep. Another statue features a man jostling with a bear.
Seen from an artistic point of view those stone statues dedicated to Huo Qubing are quite crude. The traditional carving techniques were still in an early stage of development and cutting, carving and chiseling tools were primitive. More often than not, sculptural artists had to make do with the shape of the stone material with which they were going to produce a statue. In other words, they had to use the kind of stone material resembling, in shape, the statue they planned to make, so that carving and chiseling would be reduced as far as possible. They would, first of all, process the stone material and make it roughly resemble the planned statue and then concentrate on the most striking parts, the head. for example. For details, they had to resort to techniques of bas-relief and line cutting. Most statues were
deliberately made crouch with the legs withheld from view in order to minimize the
cutting. |
