Ziliang Liu

This project examines how changing conceptions of materials shaped art in the Qin (221–206 BCE) and the Western Han (202 BCE–9 CE). It focuses on the convergence of artisanal practices with fangshu technical knowledge—divination, medicine, and alchemy—rooted in proto-scientific and cosmological thought within court workshops. Centering on excavated artworks in jade, lacquer, silver, bronze, glass, and mercury, the project shows how materials conditioned by fangshu gained potency through reinterpretations of their physical properties and symbolic encodings of craft processes. These developments not only gave rise to innovative artistic forms but also redefined the relationship between the art object and the human body in early imperial China.