The Maoling Museum was built in front of Huo Qubing's tomb. On exhibition here
are 16 pieces of large stone sculptures originally placed before the tomb and
other valuable historical relics excavated from the Maoling Mausoleum. Large
stone carvings were started from the Qin Dynasty, but the earliest works left
in history belongs to the Western Han Dy- nasty. The stone carvings before Huo
Qubing's tomb are the most representative works, which are the earliest and
world-famous mas- terpieces of ancient stone carvings preserved in groups under
state protection. In this group of large stone sculptures, there are the Hun
Un- der Horse Hoofs, a Galloping Horse and a Crouching Ox. There are also other
sculptures such as a Tiger Lying in Wait, a Crouching Elephant, a Wild Man,
a Stone Frog and a Stone Fish, which were made with the technique of line carving
and circular engraving. Some carvings were originally installed in front of
the tomb, while most of them placed on the tomb resembled the Qilian Mountain.
The stone carvings were made according to the texture of huge nat- ural stones.
Only some key parts were engraved with care and pre- cision so as to lay stress
on the momentous manners and an romantic style of carving. The Hun Under Horse
Hoofs:As the main statue of this group of stone carvings, it is 168 cm high,
190 cm long, 48 em wide, and almost as big as life size. It was originally erected
before the tomb. Applying the technique of romantic art, the artist carved out
a man and a horse, highly describing the brilliant military success of Huo
Qubing. The stone horse is muscular, holding its head high, drag-
ging its tail down to the ground. A Hun soldier is lying face up un-
der its hoofs, whiskered, looking ferocious and struggling desper-
ately with a weapon in hand, Folklorists believe that the intention
of the moulding is to keep the evil under control and to get rid of the
ghost. During the 2,000 years after the Eastern Han Dynasty, all
kinds of tomb guardians erected before tombs to exorcise evil spirits
probably originated here, and gradually developed into pattern
like, symbolic and mysterious forms.
A Galloping Horse: Its hind legs are kneeling down, and its
forelegs are galloping. The technique of straight--line carving along
with its shape is used to show a strong sense of movement.
A Crouching Horse:The horse is healthy and strong in natural
and vivid posture. Its head inclines to the left side. The right fore-
leg is a little bent. The eyes are gazing forward, which reminds us
of the brave and bright cavalrymen in the Western Hah Dynasty.
A Tiger Lying in Wait:The scupltor selected natural stone ma-
terial with undulations and made a ferocious tiger with the technique
of straight engraving. The custom of placing stone tigers before
tombs in ancient times first appeared before Huo Qubing's tomb.
A Crouching Elephant: The carving style is realistic. The
trunk is hanging over its left foreleg, and the whole body is crawl-
ing. The consummate skill made a docile and lovely elephant.
A Stone Pig:It is in a squatting position, with small ears and
triangular eyes. The head was engraved with great care and preci-
sion. According to its appearance, it is possibly a wild pig (hoar),
or a sort of domestic pig not completely tamed in ancient times.
Two Stone Fish:The sculptor worked at the selected stone ma-
I
terial and made a rough shape of fish. The bold engraving line on its
head shows an outline of its mouth and eyes, which looks like a fish
in water now visible, now invisible.
A Man Struggling with Bear: The stone man bares his teeth,
his head leans forward, shrugging his shoulders, tightening his
muscles, bending his left leg, kneeling down his right leg, wearing
a waist belt, holding a bear to eat. The bear is not to be outdone,
opening its mouth to bite the man. This carving was mainly made
with the techniques of straight engraving, twisting lines and exag-
geration to demonstrate a life-and-death struggle between the man
and the beast.
A Stone Ox:The strong ox is kneeling down as if it is resting
and ruminating. The statue is life-like and natural.
Beast Eating a Lamb: It is mainly made with high relief. The
beast has a square head, a big mouth, a short body and long legs.
Its two forepaws are clawing the lamb that is struggling. The use of
a kind of stone material heavily weathering which has a rough and
undulating surface produces strong artistic effect.
The stone figure is larger than a real man. His eyes and eye-
brows stand upright; its body remains legless. His left arm is not
complete but the right one is with palms on the stomach and facing
foreward. The stone carving basically keeps the original shape of
the rock. It looks like a piece of vivid cartoon work, and its emo-
tions are expressed conspicuously.
The two inscriptions on the stone carvings prove that this series
of carvings was made by stonemasons of royal court in the Western
Han Dyanasty.
Except in front to the tombs of Huo Qubing and Zhang Qian
who went on a diplomatic mission to the Western Regions, no stone
carvings were available in front of any emperors' mausoleums in the
Western Han Dynasty. Perhaps it was because Huo applied for it
from Emperor Wudi before his death. To the Han people, they had
no custom of laying stone carvings in front of tombs. The earliest
ones were found before tombs of Huo and Zhang. This was proba-
bly because they had been fighting and living in the Western Re-
gions for such a long time that they were influenced by their cul-
tures. Therefore, they accepted the customary idea that erecting
carved stones in front of tombs could keep the evil spirits away.
From the Eastern Han Dynasty onwards, the idea was accepted by
the people in central China. Hence, erecting stone carvings in front
of tombs became a common practice.
Besides these carved stones, there displayed in Maoling Muse-
um various cultural relics unearthed around Maoling, for example,
the green jade door-knocker, stone reliefs, eave tiles with inscrip-
ti0ns,bronze kvares unearthed from the tomb of Princess Yang Xin.
The most striking one on exibition is the gold-gilded bronze horse
which is honored as "the treasure of the nation".
The gilded bronze horse is 62 cm high,and 76 cm long. It's
gilded all over the body. It even lusters today. The bronze horse is
well-proportioned, and the carving of bones and muscles accords
with dissection theories. Neck long and thin, shoulers narrow, legs
slim and the length almost the same as the height, the bronze horse
is of desert-type which is fit for riding. Its shape is quite similiar to
the Aha Horse of the southern Turkmenistan in the Middle East.
The Fergana Basin that is located in Turkmenistan is exactly the
Dawan State of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Wu Di of the Western Han Dynasty ardently loved
line horses. As he heard that Dawan had steeds, he racked his
brains in scheming of sending expeditionay force to get such a horse
and named it "Heavenly Horse". The gilded bronze horse is a typi,
cal example of it. On its forehead between the two ears, there wasa
"flesh horn" carved intentionally which tallies with the descripti0~
in historical books--"Dawan horse has a several-inch-long flest
horn".