Editing Sculpture (section)

====China====
{{Main|Chinese art|Chinese ceramics|Lacquerware|Chinese jade}}
[[File:Guanyin 00.jpg|thumb|Seated [[Bodhisattva]] [[Guanyin]], wood and pigment, 11th century, [[Northern Song dynasty]]]]
[[Chinese ritual bronzes]] from the [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] and [[Zhou dynasty|Western Zhou dynasties]] come from a period of over a thousand years from {{Circa|1500 BCE}}, and have exerted a continuing influence over [[Chinese art]]. They are cast with complex patterned and [[zoomorphic]] decoration, but avoid the human figure, unlike the huge figures only recently discovered at [[Sanxingdui]].<ref>Rawson, Chapter 1, 135–36.</ref>  The spectacular [[Terracotta Army]] was assembled for the tomb of [[Qin Shi Huang]], the first emperor of a unified China from 221 to 210 BCE, as a grand imperial version of the figures long placed in tombs to enable the deceased to enjoy the same lifestyle in the afterlife as when alive, replacing actual sacrifices of very early periods. Smaller figures in pottery or wood were placed in tombs for many centuries afterwards, reaching a peak of quality in [[Tang dynasty tomb figures]].<ref>Rawson, 138–38.</ref>  The tradition of unusually large pottery figures persisted in China, through Tang [[sancai]] tomb figures to later Buddhist statues such as the near life-size set of [[Yixian glazed pottery luohans]] and later figures for temples and tombs.  These came to replace earlier equivalents in wood.

Native Chinese religions do not usually use cult images of deities, or even represent them, and large religious sculpture is nearly all Buddhist, dating mostly from the 4th to the 14th century, and initially using Greco-Buddhist models arriving via the [[Silk Road]]. Buddhism is also the context of all large portrait sculpture; in total contrast to some other areas, in medieval China even painted images of the emperor were regarded as private. Imperial tombs have spectacular avenues of approach lined with real and mythological animals on a scale matching Egypt, and smaller versions decorate temples and palaces.<ref>Rawson, 135–45, 145–63.</ref>

Small Buddhist figures and groups were produced to a very high quality in a range of media,<ref>Rawson, 163–65</ref> as was relief decoration of all sorts of objects, especially in metalwork and [[Chinese jade|jade]].<ref>Rawson, Chapters 4 and 6.</ref>  In the earlier periods, large quantities of sculpture were cut from the living rock in pilgrimage cave-complexes, and as outside [[rock reliefs]].  These were mostly originally painted.  In notable contrast to [[Scholar-official|literati]] painters, sculptors of all sorts were regarded as artisans and very few names are recorded.<ref>Rawson, 135.</ref>  From the [[Ming dynasty]] onwards, statuettes of religious and secular figures were produced in [[Chinese porcelain]] and other media, which became an important export.

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File:Liu Ding.jpg|A bronze [[ding (vessel)|ding]] from late [[Shang dynasty]] (13th century–10th century BCE)
File:Chinese tomb guardian 300 BC.jpg|A tomb guardian usually placed inside the doors of the tomb to protect or guide the soul, [[Warring States period]], {{Circa|3rd century BCE}}
File:Soldier Horse.JPG|Lifesize calvalryman from the [[Terracotta Army]], [[Qin dynasty]], {{Circa|3rd century BCE}}
File:Gold monster.jpg|Gold stag with eagle's head, and ten further heads in the antlers. An object inspired by the art of the Siberian Altai mountain, possibly [[Pazyryk culture|Pazyryk]], unearthed at the site of Nalinggaotu, [[Shenmu County]], near [[Xi'an]], [[China]].<ref name="JR">{{cite journal |last1=Rawson |first1=Jessica |title=Design Systems in Early Chinese Art |journal=Orientations |date=1999 |page=52 |url=https://www.zacke.at/sites/default/files/styles/artobject_huge/public/artobjects/b.1e_jessica_rawson_design_systems_in_early_chinese_art_orientations_nov._1999_p._52.jpg |access-date=2020-10-18 |archive-date=2020-10-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018213315/https://www.zacke.at/sites/default/files/styles/artobject_huge/public/artobjects/b.1e_jessica_rawson_design_systems_in_early_chinese_art_orientations_nov._1999_p._52.jpg |url-status=dead }}</ref> Possibly from the "Hun people who lived in the prairie in Northern China". Dated to the 4th-3rd century BCE,<ref name="JR"/> or [[Han dynasty]] period.<ref name="SHM"/> [[Shaanxi History Museum]].<ref name="SHM">{{cite web |title=Shaanxi History Museum notice |url=http://e.sxhm.com/en_product_content.asp?id=49 |website=Shaanxi History Museum |access-date=2020-10-18 |archive-date=2021-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114125435/http://e.sxhm.com/en_product_content.asp?id=49 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
File:Nswag, dinastia han, figurina dipinta di danzatrice.jpg|Tomb figure of dancing girl, [[Han dynasty]] (202 BCE—220 CE)
File:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - bronze cowrie container.jpg|Bronze [[cowrie]] container with [[yak]]s, from the [[Dian Kingdom]] (4th century BCE – 109 BCE) tradition of the [[Western Han]]
File:Wei-Maitreya.jpg|[[Northern Wei dynasty]] [[Maitreya]] (386–534)
File:China Pferd und Pferdeknecht Linden-Museum.jpg|[[Tang dynasty tomb figure]] in ''[[sancai]]'' glaze pottery, horse and groom (618–907)
File:Mahayanabuddha.jpg|Seated [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], [[Tang dynasty]] c. 650.
File:Song-Bodhisattva1.jpg|A wooden [[Bodhisattva]] from the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279)
File:Chinese - Cup with Dragon Handles - Walters 42250 - Profile.jpg|[[Chinese jade]] Cup with Dragon Handles, [[Song dynasty]], 12th century
File:Bodhisattva Guanyin from Nantoyōsō Collection.jpg|[[Guanyin]] [[Bodhisattva]] in ''[[Blanc de Chine]] (Dehua porcelain)'', by [[He Chaozong]], [[Ming dynasty]], early 17th century
File:Man blowing conch (Wanli Reign Period).JPG|Blue underglaze statue of a man with his pipe, [[Jingdezhen porcelain]], Ming [[Wanli Emperor|Wanli period]] (1573–1620)
File:China - Beijing 12 - lion outside the Tibetan Monastery (134036069).jpg|A [[Chinese guardian lion]] outside [[Yonghe Temple]], Beijing, [[Qing dynasty]], {{circa|1694}}
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