The Value of This Painting on Silk

　The value of this painting on silk is many-sided. Mainly:

　　1、Allowing us to know the funeral practices of and before the Han Dynasty: This T-shaped Painting on Silk vividly and specifically showed the actual practice of pacifying the spirit and soul in ancient funeral system. The Rites of Zhou, Ceremonial Rites and The Book of Rites all record the practices and conventions of funeral and burial processes. The Book of Rites records that the person responsible for holding high the streamer and walking ahead of the coffin when it is carried to the burial ground is called “the restoring person”. Such streamers have been excavated in Changsha from Chu tombs of the Warring States period. Those paintings on silk are of small size and known to usher the dead to heaven. They only show the occupants of the tombs riding imperial dragons or taking boat trips to the west where heaven is. By the Han Dynasty, the painting began to show three realms with far more complicated contents. This shows a continuous development in the religious beliefs of the ancient people.

　　2、The painting on silk is a kind of painting. The appearance of this T-shaped Painting on Silk shows that in the early Han Dynasty ink-brush painting had reached an extremely high level in terms of skill, coloring and layout. Masterful painting skills and free wielding of the brush come together to create this lively and vivid painting that combined reality with imagination. The coloring technique also varies with the contents of the painting, from monochromes to mixed colors. The layout is even more exquisite. A good example is the division of the heavenly world, the human world and the underworld. The heavenly world is indicated by the heavenly gate; the underworld is partitioned by a platform; and lying between is the human world. Each of these realms is represented by typical objects in prominent areas, without any confusion or clumsiness. In particular, the human world places the occupant of the tomb in a prominent position to bring the main theme into bold relief. This is completely in agreement with the function of this painting on silk. It can be said that the artistic language used in this painting on silk is very straightforward.

　　3、The painting on silk itself should be considered as part of Chinese traditional culture. The funeral practices as reflected by it were formed on the basis of ancient conventions. The paintings on silk of the Han Dynasty were the direct predecessors of the Chinese traditional paintings that started from Wei and Jin dynasties. This unique form of art gradually developed into a traditional culture of the Chinese people and still has far-reaching impact today.