It was a period of great development of ancient Chinese culture. This development was a summary and sublimation of the cultural achievements of the pre-Qin Dynasty, and laid the foundation for the development of feudal culture for more than two thousand years. There are two main factors that determine this development: first, the development of the feudal economy based on landlord land ownership, and second, the long-term unification of the feudal country and relatively stable society. ‘
Literature and Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties 1. Literature The literature of the Qin and Han Dynasties was mainly prose, fu and poetry.
Essays
Warring States Period Cauldron with Beast Patterns
Prose can be represented by "Historical Records", which is a very good collection of essays, and many biographies are detailed and vivid It vividly describes or depicts events or characters in all aspects of society, and expresses the author's love and hate in a tortuous way.
During the Han Dynasty, there were many political articles with vivid writing and profound reasoning. Among them, Jia Yi's "On Passing the Qin Dynasty" and "Political Policy", Chao Cuo's "On Gui Su Shu" and "Immigrating People to the Border" Policy" is the most representative. "On Salt and Iron" written by Huan Kuan is a work with the central content of discussing the salt and iron policy of the Western Han Dynasty. The text is vivid and the language is fluent. It is an excellent dialogue-style literary work.
Fu
Spring and Autumn Rat Ji Ding
Fu is a new literary genre in the Han Dynasty, and most literati like to write poems. At first, Fu in the Western Han Dynasty was mainly about expressing the author's thoughts and feelings. After the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, it became a tool for the supreme ruler to praise his virtues. Such a fu is very long and is called a big fu. For example, Sima Xiangru's "Zixu Fu" and "Shanglin Fu" are some typical examples. Although there is a bit of satire on the rulers, it has no effect.
The Fu in the Eastern Han Dynasty was short in length and developed in the direction of reflecting reality, so it was called Xiao Fu. Zhang Heng's "Si Xuan Fu", "Guitian Fu", Zhao Yi's "Emperor's Fu", etc. all expressed the author's dissatisfaction with the society at that time, exposed the darkness and decadence of the palace, and also had a certain impact on the poor life of the people. of sympathy.
Poetry
The poetry of the Han Dynasty is represented by "Yuefu" and "Nineteen Ancient Poems". "Yuefu" is also called "Yuefu Poems". It is a collection of poems compiled by Yuefu during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that collected folk poems and compiled them to music. The content extensively reflects all aspects of social life at that time. Among them, "Battle in the South of the City", "Fifteenth Military Expedition", "Pingling East", "Thinking of the Sorrowful Old Man", "Travel to the East Gate", "Thinking", "Moshang Sang", etc., respectively reflect the misery of the people. Encounters, dissatisfaction with heavy corvee labor and excessive taxation reflect women's unfortunate fate and their strong and unyielding character.
Nineteen Ancient Poems is a work by middle- and lower-class intellectuals in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty. In the dark society at that time, these intellectuals left their homes and traveled around in order to seek fame and fortune. They poured their feelings about society into their works. For example, "The Solitary Bamboo Grows Slowly", "The Winter's Cold Arrival", "How Bright the Moon Is", "The Far-Away Altair", etc. are poems that describe life and death, emotional pursuits, and the ups and downs of career. "Not a Hundred Years Old" and "Green Grass by the River" are full of negative and decadent thoughts about the impermanence of life and carpe diem, reflecting the author's desperation and inner depression.
The poetry form of the Han Dynasty is natural and simple, and the language is popular and profound, which is very different from Fu style. It developed the realist spirit of "Guofeng" in "The Book of Songs" and had a great influence on the development of literature in later generations. 2. Art Painting
Liu Che
The art of painting during the Han Dynasty was very developed. Paintings were popularly decorated on the walls of palaces and temples, as well as on the walls of residences and tombs of nobles, bureaucrats, and landlords. The most representative one is the Lingguang Hall built in Qufu by King Lu Gong, the son of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty. According to Wang Yanshou's "Lu Lingguang Palace Ode", the murals first show naked and strange mythical figures from ancient times, followed by the Yellow Emperor, Yao and Shun wearing crowns, and then the rise and fall of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. All the famous deeds of loyal ministers, filial sons, martyrs, and virgins in history, the wise and foolish kings, and the success or failure of political affairs are all recorded. In addition to the theme, it is a set of huge pictures with bright colors and vivid moods, decorated with astronomy, all things, gods, monsters, and strange things.
A colored silk painting was unearthed from Han Tomb No. 1 in Mawangdui, Changsha, with a total length of 205 centimeters, a width of 92 centimeters at the top, and a width of 47.7 centimeters at the bottom. The content of the silk painting consists of three parts. The upper and left parts depict two mythological stories of Fusang Nine Days and Chang'e flying to the moon respectively. The middle part depicts a journey of a noble lady, and the lower part depicts a feast. In addition to the theme, it is decorated with flying dragons, strange beasts, special bells, giant chimes, etc., and is painted with cinnabar, azurite, and stone green. The lines are smooth, the coloring is bright and detailed, the characters are calm and composed, and the birds and beasts are lifelike (xǚ Xu). .
Sculpture
Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang
Sculpture art was very developed during the Qin and Han Dynasties. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses pit in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is a treasure house of sculpture art. This figurine pit was discovered in 1974. It displays more than 6,000 warrior figurines. Each warrior is 1.8 to 1.86 meters tall. Some are dressed in short brown, some are covered with armor, some hold bows, and some hold swords. All lively. The unearthed pottery horses are 1.7 meters high and more than two meters long. They have their heads raised and their necks raised, their eyes are looking forward, their legs are standing upright, and they are majestic. This is really a powerful military formation, seemingly ready for war.
The most representative stone carvings of the Western Han Dynasty are the group of stone carvings in front of Huo Qubing's tomb.
Among them, the "Horse Trampling the Huns" stone carving was carved to commemorate Huo Qubing's military exploits. The image is vivid and lifelike and is the most famous. Other stone carvings are made of huge and complete natural stones. There are crouching tigers, crouching horses, gu (gǔ ancient) oxen, prancing horses, crouching elephants, humans and bears fighting each other, ferocious beasts eating sheep, etc.
The sculptures of the Eastern Han Dynasty are most representative of the bronze horses and bronze figurines discovered in a tomb in Leitai, Wucheng, Gansu Province in 1969. There are forty bronze horses and twenty-eight bronze slaves. There is a Pegasus horse, galloping in the sky, with a vigorous posture, its head slightly raised to the left, three legs raised high, one foot stepping on a flying swallow, the swallow spreads its wings and flies quickly, looking back in fear. This is an extremely outstanding representative work in ancient Chinese sculpture art.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, portrait stones (bricks) were mainly used to build tombs, and they were also a valuable carving art. The portraits mostly use single-line intaglio or inode carving techniques, and include official travel plans, hunting plans, war plans, as well as scenes of agricultural production, boiling salt, forging iron, carpentry, textiles, banquets, performances, cooking and other scenes. This is the earliest portrait in my country. A batch of relief art.
Edit this paragraph Historiography of the Qin and Han Dynasties During the Han Dynasty, the feudal rulers inherited the tradition of compiling history by the state in previous generations, and established historians in the central government to compile history. Among them, the most famous historical books are "Historical Records" and "Hanshu".
Sima Qian and "Historical Records"
Sima Qian (145 BC - 87 BC), courtesy name Zichang, was born in Xia Yang (now Hancheng, Shaanxi Province). My father, Sima Tan, was Taishi Jin during the reign of Emperor Wu and was very knowledgeable. He originally planned to write a history book, but he died of illness before writing it. Sima Qian was smart when he was young and began to recite ancient prose at the age of ten. When I was twenty years old, I traveled around many famous mountains, rivers and scenic spots in present-day Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Shandong and Henan, learned about some customs and folklore of various places, and came into contact with people from all aspects of society. Later, he became a doctor and was sent as an envoy to Sichuan, Yunnan and other places, where he got to know the local ethnic minorities. After his father was appointed Taishi, he had to read the books collected by historians. He had a deep academic foundation and rich experience, which were extremely favorable conditions for him to later write "Historical Records".
The writing of "Historical Records" began in the first year of Taichu of Emperor Wu (104 BC) and took nearly ten years to complete. Starting from the Yellow Emperor and going down to the "contemporary period" (the time of Emperor Wu), it was mainly based on biographies, supplemented by chronological and chronicle styles. The style was rigorous and the content was rich. It was the first general history of biographies in ancient my country, and set the stage for the next two thousand years. Establish standards for the compilation of official history. The whole book is divided into twelve chronicles, ten tables, eight books, thirty aristocratic families, seventy biographies, one hundred and thirty chapters, and 526,500 words.
As a historian, Sima Qian's original purpose of writing was to promote "the Ming Sage and the Virtue" and "the achievements of meritorious officials and virtuous officials, as mentioned by the ancestors." to serve the rule of the Western Han Dynasty. However, in the second year of the Tianhan Dynasty (99 BC), he defended Li Ling's surrender to the Huns, which angered Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and was sentenced to corruption (castration). This was a big blow to him and caused some changes in his thinking. He said: "There is no greater criticism than castration." He was extremely sad and angry at that time, and thought about death; but in order to complete the writing of "Historical Records", he still needed to survive. His grandson Binjiao, Qu Yuan's exile and other ancient events inspired him to express his frustrations and state his ambitions through writing. He was extremely dissatisfied with the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty, and exposed the brutal political behavior of the emperor, clan nobles, relatives and bureaucrats, as well as the luxurious and decadent life. He sympathized with Chen Sheng, Wu Guang and other peasant uprising leaders. He said: "Qin lost its power, but Chen She became prosperous. The princes were in trouble, the wind and clouds were rising, and the Qin clan was destroyed. The top of the world, She was in trouble." Therefore, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were called "family", together with the five hegemons , Qixiong and other princes are juxtaposed, and their evaluation is very high. In addition, there are also biographies of famous ancient and contemporary scholars, doctors, merchants and other representatives of all walks of life. There are also special chapters to discuss and compare astronomy, calendars, rituals and music, water conservancy, economy, and ethnic minorities. It concretely and vividly reflects the appearance of the multi-ethnic country that was forming in the early stage of my country's feudal society.
Ban Gu and "Book of Han"
Ban Gu (32-92 AD), courtesy name Meng Jian, was a native of Fufeng Anling (now northeast of Xianyang, Shaanxi). His father, Ban Biao, was a famous historian. Since Sima Qian's "Historical Records" only wrote about the Taichu period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he collected historical materials and wrote sixty-five chapters of "Historical Records" to supplement the Western Han Dynasty part of "Historical Records". Before the book was completed, Biao died, and his son Gu was appointed as the Lantai Lingshi. He was transferred to Lang, secretary of the Dian School, and was ordered to complete his father's work. It took him more than twenty years to complete one hundred volumes of "Han Shu" (later divided into one hundred and twenty volumes). The whole book is divided into twelve chapters, eight lists, ten records, and seventy biographies. It begins with Liu Bang's rebellion and ends with Wang Mang's fall. It records the historical figures of more than 230 years. The contents belonging to the early Western Han Dynasty are mostly taken from "Historical Records". The style of the whole book is also imitated in "Historical Records", but the "book" is changed to "Zhi", and the "biographies" of people from "aristocratic families" are abolished. The ten records of Hanshu are more detailed than the eight records of Shiji. "Criminal Law", "Five Elements", "Geography", "Arts and Literature" and "Hundred Officials and Officials List" are Ban Gu's new creations. "Hanshu" is my country's first chronological history with complete style and rich content. Various biographies and annals contain many relevant academic and political articles, so they also have the nature of a collection of articles of a generation. When Ban Gu died, the "Eight Tables" and "Tianwen Zhi" had not yet been written. They were later completed by his sister Ban Zhao and the historian Ma Xu.
The main shortcoming of "Hanshu" is the serious feudal orthodoxy.
Fu Xuan, a native of Jin Dynasty, said when commenting on the "Book of Han": "When discussing the state system, it emphasizes the ruler and betrays the loyal ministers; when describing the world and teaching, it values ??the content and despises the straight book." The ideological nature of the "Han Shu" is far inferior to that of the "Historical Records".