The images carved on stones during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) were primarily burial art and reflected the Han people's views on the universe, life, and mortality. The universality of the concept of "death is like life" in the Han Dynasty is embodied in the burial art, whether it is the round carving on the ground or the stone relief under the earth.In these stone-carving images, animal images are just one of the themes. The characteristics of the stone, the carved images, or the creatures themselves motivated the artisans of the Han Dynasty. These images, which feature a variety of symbols, illustrate the Han people's collective consciousness of pursuing good luck and advocate for the profound symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural world. Despite the numerous research studies conducted on these stone carvings, there is a lack of semiotic analysis in these research methods, particularly in the academic discourse. This leaves a gap in the field: the provision of a theoretical analysis framework for the animal image in the Han Dynasty stone carvings. This study fills in that gap by combining historical and cultural methods with semiotic analysis to look into where animal symbols in stone carvings from the Han Dynasty came from and what they meant. There are two primary objectives of this investigation: (1) to examine the forms and varieties of animal images in stone carvings from the Han Dynasty; (2) to elucidate the relationship between humans and animals by looking at the material and spiritual world of the Han people.
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