Allison R. Miller, Kingly Splendor Court Art and Materiality in Han China, New York, Columbia University Press, 2021, xii + 348 p.

Résumé En

A very original book on art and the political relationships between the imperial court and local kings during the early Western Han 西漢 dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE). It is also a robust reference book on funerary art, including all recent excavations results and their Chinese and Western analysis. It includes very meaningful notes (58 pages) and a detailed index. The main objective of the author was to "break the disciplinary silos" of political history and art history, which are two fields not often in communication with one another, despite the fact that political leaders are the main commissioners of art. Kingly Splendor focuses on the beginning of the Western Han, from Liu Bang's 劉邦 (256-195 BCE) accession to power in 209 BCE, to the reign of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (141-87 BCE). Liu Bang took power by building a complex coalition of warlords and thus, after "gaining the throne", he created a hybrid political structure that relied partly on fiefdoms. On the one hand, the court took direct control of the commanderies of the previous imperial domain of the Qin 秦 dynasty (221-206 BCE).