Han Dynasty Sculpture as a Representational Resource: Formal, Symbolic, and Interpretive Characteristics

This article examines Han Dynasty sculpture as a historical corpus and as a representational resource: a set of visual and cultural features that can be identified, organised, and compared. Based on a qualitative study of 30 sculptures grouped into animal, human, and mythological themes, the article combines structured visual analysis with museum labels, catalogues, archaeological records, and relevant scholarship. In response to the need for clearer visual evidence, four illustrative case studies are discussed in detail: Crawling Tiger, Bronze Rhinoceros Zun, the Statue of Li Bing, and Stone Bixie. The findings show that Han sculpture is organised through a layered structure of form, symbol, and interpretive meaning. Formally, the works privilege mass, contour, stable structure, directional tension, surface treatment, and the integration of image with object or function. Symbolically, they depend on recognisable animal motifs, human roles, and supernatural features activated by funerary, ritual, commemorative, utilitarian, and everyday contexts. At the interpretive level, the works point to funerary order, social hierarchy, public memory, performance, technical ingenuity, protection, and transcendence. The article contributes a compact feature library for identifying historical sculptural resources before comparing them with later artistic reinterpretations.