Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-03, Section: A, page: 0794.

Director: David Sensabaugh.

Mawangdui (dated to ca. 168 BCE) is an excellent example of the recontextualization of the Chu classical past that took place in the Changsha region during the early Western Han period. Unlike the stereotypical image of Changsha as a leading center of Chu culture, it was the Western Han that saw the kingdom rising as the capital for the restoration of Chu art forms, including music, literature and visual arts. Nevertheless, the creators of the Mawangdui tombs did not intend a smooth transition from the Chu past. They asserted a strategic reorganization over the decorative, visual and conceptual remnants from the Chu antiquity, and exercised a vigilant re-creation that was utterly driven by their own imagination. It was their sensitive mediation between a faithful adoption of Chu convention and a passion for innovation that inspired the original production evidenced by the Li family tombs.

My research establishes three types of cultural heritage that were kept alive in the Changsha kingdom during the second century BCE. The first is a strong Jiangling tradition which had been consistently influential in the Changsha area from the mid-fifth to the fourth centuries BCE. In addition, a large portion of the creative force from Jiangling migrated to the south around the beginning of the third centuries BCE due to the pressure of the Qin invasion in 278 BCE. The second was a Hunan local tradition that had developed in parallel to the Jiangling style during the fourth and the third centuries BCE. The last was a cultural shift conditioned by Qin preferences. My dissertation concludes with a critical analysis of the T-banner and casket designs from Tomb No. 1 in Mawangdui and reveals how the Changsha artists orchestrated various elements from these traditions into a pictorial program that was artistically cohesive and conceptually complex.