Yesterday's story of Qin focused on the reason for the unification of rules and standards, which is also a basic consensus of the big family of the Chinese nation, if there is no real unity of Qin Shi Huang's real writing and standards, now we will also be like the scattered organizations in Europe, can not talk about the real country, I do not believe you look at these conquerors in history, even if they occupy most of the territory, in the end will inevitably be fragmented, it is because they lack the great unified thinking pattern of the first emperor and the government.
Xu Zhuoyun, the author of "Wangu Jianghe", once said that "the status of the individual is the smallest, the shortest is the person, the one who is slightly longer than the person is the politics, the one who is slightly longer than the politics is the economy, the one that is slightly longer than the economy is the society, the longest period is the culture, and the longer is nature."
However, things must be reversed, the development of history is like this, the vigorous Great Qin train will send the time to 221 BC, this country and mountains laid by the first emperor painstakingly changed owners, after the Chu and Han rivalries, embattled and ambushed various legends and narratives, Han Gaozu Liu Bang finally ascended the throne, began to build the proudest and proud territory of the Han nation, and began to rebuild into an imperial dream that towered for a thousand years.
First, the historical and cultural background of the Han Dynasty
In the early western Han Dynasty, the pattern of great unification of the world began again, and in addition to continuing the system of writing and weights and measures promoted by Qin, Gaozu conscientiously absorbed the consequences of the destruction of the country by Qin's harsh government and the socio-economic withering consequences caused by the wars and chaos of various princes, and began to promote Huang Lao's art of governing the country, resting and raising the people, waiting for the revival of a hundred wastes, and neglecting the poor and thin strategy of governing the country.
In the second year of Emperor Wen of Han (that is, in 178 BC) and the twelfth year (168 BC), there were two "half of the land rent", and Emperor Wen was also free of land rent for thirteen years. At the same time, it is not easy to send troops to neighboring hostile countries to maintain peace, so as not to deplete national strength.
Later generations referred to this history as the Western Han Dynasty, and under the inspirational management of the two emperors who had gone through the "rule of Wenjing", the productive forces were gradually restored and developed rapidly, and there was a stable and prosperous scene that had not been seen for many years. The people's living standards have been greatly improved, and the material foundation of the Han Dynasty has also been greatly enhanced, which is the first prosperous era of Chinese civilization after entering the imperial era. The rule of Wenjing was not only a great era of rapid economic and cultural development in Chinese history, but also a period of recuperation that laid a solid material foundation for the later conquest of the Xiongnu by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Second, the jade manufacturing style in the early Han Dynasty
At this point, the basic features of ancient Chinese culture have been initially established, and the field of culture and art has absorbed more of the free and romantic, elegant, and wild and uninhibited Chu cultural traditions, and integrated them into the majestic and magnificent artistic style unique to Han Dynasty jade. The jade system is associated with Confucianism. The design ideas are active and novel, the composition is unpredictable and not limited to the conventional form, the ornamentation is gorgeous but not conventional, and the emphasis is on the dynamic and aura of the overall image.
The jade of the formation period of the Han national culture has the result of the cultural integration of the early Spring and Autumn Warring States, and also has the typical Confucian style of the Han culture, which is different from the simplicity and lines of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, nor does it conform to the complicated ornamentation style of the Spring and Autumn Warring States, and the jade of the Han Dynasty is deeply branded with the era, and gradually moves towards the pursuit of personalized artistic realm, which is the performance of the high integration of material civilization and spiritual civilization, and is also the pinnacle in the history of jade manufacturing so far.
Third, the basic characteristics of Western Han jade appreciation
The early western Han dynasty jade was mainly inherited from the traditional crafts of the Warring States. Strictly speaking, the jade manufacturing at this stage, or the use of jade craftsmen in the Warring States period, in terms of process means and processing methods, follow the old system and rules, there are not too many new highlights, especially during the reign of Wenjing, even Emperor Wen's costumes are patched, just imagine, how much development space can jade have?
For example, in our fifties and sixties, when the whole country and society regarded filling their stomachs as their only task, the demand for jade was naturally seriously underestimated, the demand decreased, and the creativity also declined. Therefore, when looking at my previous texts on the early Han Dynasty jade diagnosis articles, I now feel that it is also too hasty, for this kind of theory on the market, do not comment on it and do not want to argue, this is a point of difference between the Han Dynasty and the Warring States Period, the early and middle periods of the Han Dynasty have hardly changed much, and after the middle period, under the influence of Confucian culture, the moderate style of jade has begun to appear, and the representative jade of the real Han Dynasty has begun to appear, which is the main reason why I promote jade culture common sense. If even the basic historical and cultural knowledge is easily confused, it is impossible to fully understand the jade production process.
After the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, in the first year of the Reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (134 BC), Emperor Wu of Han followed the governing strategy of "a hundred schools of thought", issued an edict to solicit advice and strategy, Dong Zhongshu combined Confucianism with the social needs of the time in the famous "Measures for Raising The Virtuous and The Good", and absorbed the theories of other schools, created a new ideological system with Confucianism as the core, which was deeply appreciated by Emperor Wu of Han, and was appointed as a minister, and he systematically put forward the doctrines of "heaven and man induction", "great unification" and "all those who are not in the six arts and the art of Confucius. The ideas of "deposing a hundred families and respecting Confucianism alone" were adopted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, making Confucianism the orthodox idea of Chinese society and influencing it for more than two thousand years.
Strictly speaking, the emergence of Dong Zhongshu not only changed the fate of the development of Confucianism in Chinese culture, but also pushed the development of Chinese culture and jade culture to a new height, and under the influence of this ideological system, new instruments appeared, combined changes occurred, and the characteristics of the times were formed.
Fourth, the key points of appreciation of Western Han jade
Western Han jade has not been surpassed so far, with its unique cultural connotation and historical background, mainly manifested in:
First, the Xiongnu in the Western Regions were tribes that had been ravaged by the Han Dynasty for a long time, and almost every conquest was full of returns, and a large number of trophies were indispensable to the beautiful jade offered by the dynasties, and the proportion of the use of beautiful jade was very large, and the white jade of mutton fat was prevalent.
Second, the types of traditional jade, either disappearing, or rare.
Etiquette uses "Ruiyu" to see Gui and Bi, while others change their social functions.
New ones include jade clothes in burial jade, horn cups, bean-shaped boxes, jade lid cups and jade pendants in daily utensils, butterfly-shaped pendants and jade swords in decorators.
Single apparel for human body decoration is extremely popular, while group wearing is a simplified trend. The highest artistic value should be the decorative artworks, such as horses, eagles, evil spirits, shop heads, Weng Zhong, etc.
This kind of jade, full of realism and vitality, the combination of form and god is ingenious, reflecting the highly developed craftsmanship level of Han Dynasty jade.
Third, the ornamentation is more inherited from the previous generation.
Geometric patterns are most common in puddle, grain, paisley, and moiré, and are mostly seen alone or in combination.
Animal motifs are the dominant ornaments of Han jade, ranging from mythical and legendary gods and monsters to real-life characters, beasts and birds.
There are mainly dragon patterns, phoenix patterns, tiger patterns, animal face patterns, etc., of which the patterns are quite abstract, and the realistic image is realistic.
Fourth, the carving techniques are diverse and closely related to the stone carvings of the same period.
Most of them use hollow carving, high relief carving and circular carving.
The piece decoration is mostly engraved with openwork and engraved with a fine line along the edge of the hair. Circular sculpture tends to be realistic.
The concise and rugged "Han Eight Knives" carving style is a major feature of Jade Carving in the Han Dynasty.
At the same time, gilded jade bronze ware appears, which has the effect of gold and jade reflection.