Chinese art is visual art that originated in or is practiced in China, Greater China or by Chinese artists. Art created by Chinese residing outside of China can also be considered a part of Chinese art when it is based on or draws on Chinese culture, heritage, and history. Early "Stone Age art" dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. After that period, Chinese art, like Chinese history, was typically classified by the succession of ruling dynasties of Chinese emperors, most of which lasted several hundred years. The Palace Museum in Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taipei contains extensive collections of Chinese art.
The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting him in his afterlife.
Tang dynasty art refers to Chinese art created during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The period saw significant advancements in arts such as painting, sculpture, calligraphy, music, dance, and literature. During the Tang dynasty, the capital city Chang'an, was the most populous city in the known world, and the era is generally regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization and a golden age of Chinese literature and art.
Hanzhong is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gansu to the west.
Xianyang is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now integrated into the Xi'an metropolitan area, one of the main urban agglomerations in northwestern China, with more than 7.17 million inhabitants. Its built-up area, consisting of 2 urban districts, had 945,420 inhabitants at the 2010 census. It has a total area of 10,213 square kilometers (3,943 sq mi).
Baoji is a prefecture-level city in western Shaanxi province, People's Republic of China. Since the early 1990s, Baoji has been the second largest city in Shaanxi.
A Chinese palace is an imperial complex where the court, civil government, royal garden and defensive fortress resided. Its structures are considerable and elaborate. The Chinese character gong represents two connected rooms (呂) under a roof (宀). Originally the character applied to any residence or mansion, but it was used in reference to solely the imperial residence since the Qin dynasty.
Sancai is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown, green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang dynasty (618–907) and its tomb figures, appearing around 700. Therefore, it is commonly referred to as Chinese: 唐三彩 Tang Sancai in Chinese. Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred in China and the West as egg-and-spinach by dealers, for their use of green, yellow, and white, especially when combined with a streaked effect.
The Qianling Mausoleum is a Tang dynasty (618–907) tomb site located in Qian County, Shaanxi province, China, and is 85 km (53 mi) northwest from Xi'an. Built in 684, the tombs of the mausoleum complex house the remains of various members of the House of Li, the imperial family of the Tang dynasty. This includes Emperor Gaozong, as well as his wife, Wu Zetian, who assumed the Tang throne and became China's only reigning female emperor from 690 to 705. The mausoleum is renowned for its many Tang dynasty stone statues located above ground and the mural paintings adorning the subterranean walls of the tombs. Besides the main tumulus mound and underground tomb of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian, there are 17 smaller attendant tombs, or peizang mu. Presently, only five of these attendant tombs have been excavated by archaeologists, three belonging to members of the imperial family, one to a chancellor, and the other to a general of the left guard. The Shaanxi Administration of Cultural Heritage declared in 2012 that no further excavations would take place for at least 50 years.
The Bell Tower of Xi'an, built in 1384 during the early Ming Dynasty, is a symbol of the city of Xi'an and one of the grandest of its kind in China. The Bell Tower also contains several large bronze-cast bells from the Tang Dynasty. The tower base is square and it covers an area of 1,377 m2 (14,820 sq ft). The tower is a brick and timber structure and close to 40 m (130 ft) high. It is located in the center of Xi'an, at the intersection of the four streets of the east, west, south and north. It is the largest and most preserved one amongst the many bell towers left over from ancient China.
Luoyang Museum is a historical museum in Luoyang, Henan Province, China. Situated in the Yellow River valley. It offers exhibits of the rich cultural heritage of Luoyang, a major Chinese cultural centre, which was the capital of numerous Chinese dynasties including the Eastern Zhou and the Eastern Han.
The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty.
The Yangling Mausoleum of Han is the mausoleum of Emperor Jing, the sixth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and his Empress Wang. The mausoleum complex is a part of the Western Han dynasty imperial tombs located in the Weicheng district of the City of Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, on the northern bank of the Wei River and about 20 km to the north of the city center of the provincial capital of Xi’an.
Tang dynasty tomb figures are pottery figures of people and animals made in the Tang dynasty of China (618–906) as grave goods to be placed in tombs. There was a belief that the figures represented would become available for the service of the deceased in the afterlife. The figures are made of moulded earthenware with colour generally being added, though often not over the whole figure, or in naturalistic places. Where the colouring was in paint it has often not survived, but in many cases it was in sancai ("three-colour") ceramic glaze, which has generally lasted well.
Standing Horse is a tomb figure created during the Tang dynasty in China. In ancient China, numerous tomb figurines and other artefacts were designed specifically to be buried with the deceased in large burial mounds. This large figurine features the use of Sancai, a glazing technique popular during the Tang dynasty.
In 2001, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences organized a poll for China's 100 major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. The participants included eight national-level institutions for archaeology and cultural relics, provincial-level archaeological institutes from 28 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, as well as from Hong Kong, the archaeological departments of 11 major national universities, and many other scholars in Beijing. After three months and three rounds of voting, the results were announced on 29 March 2001 and were published in the journal Kaogu (Archaeology). In 2002, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press published the book China's 100 Major Archaeological Discoveries in the 20th Century (二十世纪中国百项考古大发现), with more than 500 pages and 1,512 pictures.
Duan Qingbo was a Chinese archaeologist. He served as the chief archaeologist of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and Dean of the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwest University in Xi'an. He discovered the large-scale drainage system of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum and a high-ranking noble tomb in the mausoleum precinct. He also spent over two years surveying more than 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi) of the Great Wall on foot.
The Tang West Market Museum (大唐西市博物館) is a museum in the city of Xi'an, Shanxi, China. It houses many artifacts from the Tang dynasty period and the Silk Road. Part of the base of the tomb as well as the epitaph Tomb of An Bei, a Sogdian merchant and official in China in the 6th century CE, are now in the Tang West Market Museum. An Bei followed the Confucian moral principles of filial piety, and practiced Zoroastrianism. It is one of the National first-grade museums of China.
The Western Han dynasty imperial tombs are a series of eleven imperial burial grounds from the Chinese Western Han Dynasty in Shaanxi Province. Two of the emperor's mausoleums are located southeast of today's Xi'an, which was then the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, Chang'an, and the other nine mausoleums are located in a string of pearls in an east-west direction north of the Wei River in Xianyang Prefecture north of Xi'an. The line of tombs stretches from Xingping in the west to Pingling in the east. The nine burial areas can be roughly divided into three districts: the eastern one around Changling with Anling and Yangling, the western one with Maoling and Pingling and the central district around Weiling with Yanling, Yiling and Kangling. There were officially thirteen emperors who ruled the Western Han Dynasty. Empress Dowager Lü does not have her own tomb but is buried together in Changling with Liu Bang. It is unclear where the last emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, Ruzi Ying, is buried. The construction of the tomb complexes usually started during the respective emperor's second year as regent.
The Changling or Chang Mausoleum is the mausoleum of the Han dynasty Emperor Gaozu, and for his wife Empress Lü. The Chang Mausoleum is located in the north of Sanyi Village in Yaodian Town in Weicheng District east of Xianyang in Shaanxi, China, about 20 km to the north of the provincial capital of Xi'an. Changling is one of the eleven Western Han dynasty imperial tombs located in the area around today's Xi'an.
