Picture stone - Gazoseki (English spelling) Hua-xiang-shi

Japanese: 画像石 - がぞうせき（英語表記）Hua-xiang-shi

Also written as "picture stone." These are stone tombs, stone shrines in front of tombs, and stone ques (stone quays) that were popular in China during the Later Han Dynasty, and are carved or engraved with images. Some are from the Western Han Dynasty or after the Three Kingdoms period. It is thought that their origin was to preserve the murals permanently. The subjects of the paintings include mundane subjects such as banquets, singing and dancing, chariot and horse processions, hunting, pavilions, and trees, historical tales, exhortations, and Taoist theories of immortality such as the Queen Mother of the West, the King Father of the East, the Rain Master, the Wind Bo, the Thunder Gong, and the Sun, Moon, and Stars. They are valuable as a source of information on the paintings and customs of the Han Dynasty. The most famous ones are those at the Wu Clan Shrine in Shandong Province, the Xiao Tang Mountain Ruins, and stone ques in Sichuan Province. A similar type of stone is the image brick (sen), which was introduced to Korea and Japan and used in palace and temple construction.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

画象石とも書く。中国，後漢代に盛行した石造の墳墓，墓前の石祠堂，石闕 (せっけつ) に浮彫や線刻で画像を表わしたもの。前漢あるいは三国時代以降のものもある。壁画を恒久的に遺存する目的がその起源と考えられる。画題は酒宴，歌舞，車馬行列，狩猟，楼閣，樹木など現世的なものや，歴史的説話，勧戒を表わすもの，西王母，東王父，雨師，風伯，雷公，日月星辰など道教的神仙思想に取材するものなどがある。漢代の絵画，風俗習慣を知る資料として貴重である。山東省の武氏祠，孝堂山遺跡，四川省の石闕などのものが著名。同種のものに画像塼 (せん) があり，朝鮮，日本にも伝来し，宮殿，仏閣建築などに用いられた。

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