floresoleil

           Xi'an was the location of the capital Chang'an of Tang Dynasty. There the tombs of nineteen successive emperors and members of royal families and officers in the Tang period between the seventh to the ninth century have been found. Currently, more then ten thousand tombs of Tang, including one hundred and twenty tombs with murals have excavated by the Museum of Shaanxi History and the Institute of Archaeology of Shaanxi.
              The importent Tang tombs were built long sloping ramps, several courtyards and corridors, and a coffin chamber. The style symbolizes the house, the palace or the royal court during the life of the deceased. While frescoes reflect the life of the deceased and the wishes for another world. So these paintings are both an imitation of life, but also a decoration of tombs.
              In general, on the walls of the two sides of the entrance of the royal tombs are images of a white tiger and a blue dragon. Subsequently they are images of the trip or hunting. On the walls of the corridors, there are images of halberds or servants. In the room of the coffin are found the frescoes of maids or musicians and dancers. All of the subjects can be changed depending on the identity or the life of the deceased in their eras. For example, in the first period at the beginning and the end of the seventh century, the contents of frescoes concerns the ceremony, hunting and agriculture; in the boom period in the early eighth and the middle of the eighth century, the contents relate to hunting, travel, ceremony and cultural life. In the late Tang, from the middle of the eighth to the end of the ninth century, it is the images of everyday life, of mountains or of birds.
             The frescoes in the tombs of Tang are the oldest Chinese paintings. These images show the precise proportion of buildings, animals, plants, flowers and landscapes, especially of different characters. The methods of painting are often meticulous or abstract or reality, as the great scenes with hundreds of people or the landscapes in depth with details of a feather of a bird. These paintings are both works of art and historical documents. They are the origin of various types of paintings, but also the reconstruction of societies, spirits, systems, a cultural life and customs, even characters of Tang people.
            This book demonstrates mural paintings of Tang in her powerful period, for those images are richer than our imaginations or writings to present all the aspects of great empire in the history of China.