A Contemporary Study on “Describing Objects as They Like” of Portrait Bricks in the Han Dynasty through the Lens of Museum Aesthetic Education

In the contemporary educational system, museums have become an important venue for aesthetic education owing to their rich cultural relics resources. The remains of ancient humans displayed in the museums are just like a bridge connecting the past and the present. By perceiving these precious historical relics, people can deeply understand the unremitting pursuit of beauty by our ancestors, which is beyond the reach of the traditional classroom. “Describing objects as they like” (Yingwu Xiangxing in Chinese) is one of the Six Principles of Xie He, which refers to the expression technique of depicting objective things and integrating subjective emotions in artistic creation. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the centralization was further strengthened. The country was prosperous and the economy was thriving. With the opening of the Silk Road and under the influence of Confucianism centered on “filial piety”, the custom of sumptuous burial prevailed, and the portrait bricks in the Han Dynasty became an important carrier for people to remember their ancestors and express family affection. It is mainly distributed in regions such as Sichuan and Henan. There are various types, including hollow and solid ones with extensive themes covering many aspects such as daily life and mythology. People conveyed profound emotions through the formal beauty of lines and the narrative quality of the pictures, vividly showing the social outlook and spiritual world of that time. This paper aims to analyze portrait bricks in the Han Dynasty collected by the Sichuan Museum and explore their artistic characteristics of “corresponding to objects” (Yingwu in Chinese) and “depicting their forms” (Xiangxing in Chinese). These findings will provide new perspectives and inspirations for the development of modern museum aesthetic education.