Qinhan arts and crafts

During the Qin and Han Dynasties in China, due to national unity and relative social stability, the policy of recuperation adopted by the rulers objectively promoted the recovery and development of production and made the social economy increasingly prosperous. Qin and Han dynasties were centralized feudal countries, and many important social activities and engineering construction were unified by the central government to build the Great Wall, palaces, tombs and so on. This centralized political system is embodied in its unity and greatness in art and technology. During the Western Han Dynasty, the central and local governments also set up special institutions to manage handicraft production, and with the improvement of production technology, arts and crafts developed in an all-round way on the basis of the previous generation, and some made outstanding achievements. Mainly in the following aspects:

Bronze Craft The bronze craft production in Qin and Han Dynasties was an important department with outstanding achievements. The gold-plated bronze chariots and horses unearthed from the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit in Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum are famous for their huge volume and excellent production (see Painted Copper chariots and horses in Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum). Other varieties include the traditional tripod, shield and reed. Qin Ding's abdomen is shallow with short hooves, and there are strings between the abdomen, such as the Ding unearthed from Qin Tomb in Song Cun, Huxian County, Shaanxi Province, and the Pan Qin Ding in xi 'an History Museum. The shield has a ring ear and a string pattern between the abdomen, which is roughly the same as the tripod. However, reeds have many mouths, small ears and no pendants. With the characteristics of the times, it is tobacco, alcohol and garlic bottles. The former is a cooker with a flat abdomen, a flat bottom, a necking and an open mouth. The abdomen and shoulders have double-ring ears, which are symmetrical, large and small, or one ear, and are often decorated with veins. The lines are smooth, changeable and beautiful. The latter is famous for having a bulge as big as garlic near its mouth. By the Han dynasty, bronzes had developed into daily utensils, which were characterized by the emergence of some new varieties. Lamps, stoves, pans, pots, washing machines, mirrors, etc. The output is very large, and other products, such as ding, pot, pot, cup, plate, basin, washing machine, kettle, kettle, bell, priest and drum, are also produced. The production is mainly based on plain ware, and there are few decorative patterns. Bronzes in Han Dynasty have the following characteristics: ① Bronze lamps. With a wide range of uses and varieties, it is the heyday of copper lamp production. There are dish lights, rainbow tube lights, downlights, walking lights, chandeliers and so on. Among them, the elephant lamp has beautiful shape and exquisite design. Such as suzaku lanterns, with birds as the lamp body and a lamp plate in the mouth; Humanoid lamp, holding the lamp; In addition, there are sheep lanterns, wild goose foot lanterns and wild goose fish lanterns. The latter is the most brilliant unearthed in Shanxi. Its light is a goose standing upright, turning its neck and looking back, with a fish in its mouth. As a lamp, fish can be inserted into the fish head and rotated left and right, which is convenient to adjust the direction when used and has a more exquisite design. The goose body and fish head are covered with feathers and scales, which are quite delicate. ② Copper furnace. Because of different uses, it is divided into two parts: incense burner, which is used to burn spices, also called aromatherapy. The bean-shaped, high and pointed cover is carved into a mountain shape, symbolizing the fairy mountain and Boshan mountain on the sea, so it is also called Boshan furnace. Representative works include the Cuojin Boshan Furnace unearthed from the Han Tomb in Mancheng, Hebei Province (see the color map [Cuojin Boshan Furnace unearthed in Mancheng, Hebei Province (Western Han Dynasty)] and the high-handle incense burner with gilded gold and silver bamboo festival unearthed at Maoling 1 in Xingping, Shaanxi Province. Hand warmers are used for heating. There are air holes for heat dissipation on the side wall and upper part of the furnace body, and some have handles or chains, such as copper stoves with chain lifting unearthed from Xingping Han Tomb. Warm wine stoves, mostly rectangular, can hold a cup of warm wine. The furnace body has holes, and some are engraved with four gods, animal images and handles. 3 copper pot. The shape is a bulging belly, a small neck, a small mouth, round feet, and there are many rings of animal faces in the belly. The wrong gold, silver and bird-sealed pot unearthed from the Han tomb in Mancheng, Hebei Province is the most exquisite, and the pot is full of bird-shaped characters, which is really rare. (4) bronze mirror (see China bronze mirror). The fastest development, rich styles and exquisite production. Its characteristics are thin body, flat edge, round button, stylized decoration and high artistic level. Its varieties mainly include early mirror, grass mirror, nebula mirror, sunlight mirror, mirror, mid-term positive mirror, late double-headed mirror, cloud ray mirror, bat mirror, painting mirror, square mirror, stage mirror and so on. Its decorations include figures, animals, myths, birds, flowers and figures. ⑤ bronze drums (see Chinese bronze drums). The artifacts made for ethnic minorities in Southwest China are percussion instruments. It takes a long time to make, with the most styles in Han dynasty and exquisite production. Due to different regions and styles, it can be divided into two systems: Yunnan and Guangdong. The former is small in size and has many immortal stripes. The latter is tall and the drum surface is decorated with three-dimensional frogs.

[Goose fish lamp]

On the basis of the previous generation, the craft of gold and silver wares in Han Dynasty has been further developed to meet the needs of luxury life. The utensils made are extremely exquisite and luxurious, such as the single gold and silver box unearthed from Liu Sheng's tomb of Zhongshan King in Mancheng, Hebei Province, the silver bowl and spoon unearthed from Wulipai in Changsha, Hunan Province, and the tomb of Donghan in Wuyi Street. Besides tableware, there are more kinds of gold and silver decorations. 1980, a large number of gold jewelry were unearthed from the Han tomb in Ganquanshan, Hanjiang, Jiangsu. Among them, 1 Duijinsheng consists of two opposite triangles and circles. The circles are convex like spheres, with turquoise and cloisonne inlaid at the center, and a circle of beads made of small golden balls outside, which is very exquisite. Some gold and silver vessels are decorated with figures and animals in addition to turquoise and other materials. For example, in 1965, bronze car ornaments with hunting patterns unearthed from the Han tomb in Dingxian County, Hebei Province were made of bamboo with raised wheel joints on the surface. The car decoration is divided into four sections, decorated with gold and silver, and inlaid with round and diamond turquoise, in which decorative figures are elephants, dragons, deer, bears, horses, rabbits, wolves, monkeys, sheep, cows and pigs. And interspersed with diamond patterns, ripples, sawtooth patterns, the whole car decoration, full composition, majestic, magnificent style, reflecting the author's rich imagination and superb skills.

Ceramic craft pottery making in Qin dynasty was more common, and there were many government or private pottery workshops in Xianyang, the capital, and other areas. There are many kinds of utensils, many of which are modeled after bronze wares, such as pottery ding, pottery, pottery beans, pottery pots, pottery garlic pots and so on. There are also some objects with the characteristics of pottery itself, such as pottery reeds, pots, pots and so on. Among them, pottery pots are especially famous for their exaggerated ears, diverse forms and beautiful shapes. Moreover, pottery is very developed and the level is very high. 1974 The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum in Lintong, Shaanxi Province, with its huge size and superb modeling skills, show that the pottery-making technology and sculpture art in Qin Dynasty have made unprecedented achievements.

In the Han Dynasty, ceramic technology was further improved. With the further expansion of ceramics into the field of life, the variety and output of ceramics are also increasing, and the technology is improving day by day, which has gradually become an important field of arts and crafts in the Han Dynasty. At this time, glazed pottery appeared in the north, which is a kind of pottery coated with yellow-green low-temperature aluminum glaze. Its varieties are pots, pots, boxes, Boshan furnaces and so on. Among them, the glazed pottery pot is the most distinctive, with a bulging shape, a long neck and a dish mouth, and is decorated with embossed hunting patterns or animal faces, which is very beautiful. There are blue glazed pottery in the south, which is high in fire and hard in glaze, also called hard glazed pottery. Painted pottery also made great progress in the Han Dynasty. Its varieties include pots, boxes, bowls, stoves, pots and so on. Mainly used as funerary wares, they are colorful and often painted with geometric patterns, figures and animals. Porcelain in the Han dynasty is mainly celadon, but also black porcelain. , mostly produced in the south, developed on the basis of firing with pottery. Most of its products are household utensils, with simple patterns and often incomplete glaze. At this time, pottery sculpture also developed, with a wide range of subjects, people, animals, buildings, ships and cars, all of which were fruitful.

In addition, the bricks and tiles in Qin and Han dynasties are also famous for their hard texture, diverse forms and simple and exquisite decorative patterns. Qin bricks are often decorated with patterns such as diamonds, squares, palindromes, cirrus clouds, triangular clouds, ropes and coarse cloth. The technique is floral pattern printing. On the other hand, the Qin tiles are mainly cirrus clouds, and the tiles have developed from semicircle to circle. Han bricks are best produced in Henan and Sichuan. The rectangular hollow bricks produced by the former are printed with various geometric patterns and animal, figure and architectural patterns. The latter produces a large number of square bricks, often decorated with various patterns to express a certain theme, mostly for productive labor, cycling, social customs, myths and legends, garden architecture and so on. , such as shooting bricks, salt well bricks, garden bricks, etc. These are representative. Hanwa is very exquisite, and the decorative patterns are mainly cirrus clouds, animals, four gods and figures, mostly auspicious, mostly round in shape and a few semi-circular.

Dyeing and weaving technology developed by leaps and bounds in the Han Dynasty. The state has specialized officials in charge of production, and there are two kinds of workshops, government-run and private, with more employees and varieties than the previous generation. Mainly includes: ① silk weaving. Shandong and Sichuan are the main producing areas, with varieties of brocade, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk and silk. Weaving methods include plain weave, twill weave and rib weave, among which brocade is the most representative. Hanjin is a kind of silk woven with colored warp, also known as warp brocade. Its weft uses only one color, and its warp has as many as three colors, namely, background color, pattern and outline. A large number of tapestries have been unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, which is the representative of Han tapestries. The patterns of silk fabrics in Han dynasty include moire, animal pattern, flower pattern, geometric pattern and text pattern. 2 printing and dyeing. This technology is relatively developed, and the government has set up special institutions. Its printing and dyeing can be divided into pigment dyeing, dip dyeing, register dyeing and mordant dyeing according to different processes. The dyes used are divided into plant dyes and mineral dyes, and the dyed fabrics have rich colors and various names. Silk embroidery unearthed in Minfeng, Xinjiang has dozens of colors such as red, green, purple, tomato sauce, lotus root, bronze, green, blue, emerald blue, lake blue, barnyard grass, camel, yellow and so on. There are more than 30 kinds of fabrics unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb. ③ Embroidery. Embroidery stitch in this period is mostly divided into embroidery or lock embroidery. Embroideries have been unearthed in Minfeng, Xinjiang, Wuluchong, Mawangdui, Changsha and other places. The latter is the most abundant. In addition to distinguishing embroidery, there are embroidery in the alphabet period, longevity embroidery, cloud embroidery, chess embroidery and velvet embroidery. In addition, the technology of cloth and wool weaving in Han dynasty was also very developed. The former is most famous in Sichuan, while the latter is mostly produced in the western regions. Wool products unearthed in Xinjiang and other places have tortoise shell patterns, stripes, grape grain and other graphics.

[Crimson multicolored embroidery]

According to archaeological excavations, lacquer crafts include lacquer boxes, lacquer pots, lacquer cans, lacquer bottles, lacquer earrings, lacquer spoons, lacquer knives and lacquer wood combs. All wooden tires, mostly infrared black, with red or ochre patterns painted on the black paint, with people and animals. Most lacquerware is carved with needles, such as "Xianheng", "Beili", "Zhu Gong" and "Xu's". Some are names of places of origin, some are names of institutions and some are names of craftsmen. Its lacquerware was unearthed in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, and Qin Tomb in Fenghuang Mountain, jiangling county.

[paint can]

Lacquerware in Han dynasty developed greatly and reached its peak. At that time, the central government set up a special management organization, and local officials were also responsible for specific production management. The design and production of its utensils are mostly practical, with a fine division of labor, including work, painting, painting and carving. Lacquer tires are mostly made of wood, and there are also sandwiched tires and bamboo tires. Compared with the previous generation, their varieties have increased, including boxes, plates, boxes, earrings, plates, bowls, trays, boxes, combs, rulers, spittoons, masks, chessboards, tigers and so on. The colors are mainly red and black, the shapes are rich and varied, and the patterns are fresh and gorgeous, such as moire, animal pattern, figure pattern, plant pattern and geometric pattern. Decorative techniques include painting, needle carving, copper buckle, gold plating and paint piling. It is produced all over the country.

"Nine lacquer boxes"

In addition, the stone reliefs in the Han Dynasty are characterized by figures, animals and plants, which are simple and vivid, vigorous and generous. Most of its methods are relief method of picking up ground bumps, and some are in the form of line carving. These stone reliefs were unearthed in Shandong and Henan. The production technology of jade carving has also been greatly improved, and the processing methods such as general carving, line carving and relief have been developed, and the carved items are exquisite. Glass, wood, weaving, etc. They also have their own characteristics.