| Summary: | 博士 === 國立中央大學 === 中國文學系 === 106 === Abstract
In this paper, the research of art history gets out of the traditional and potential position of "Han centralism", and abandons a series of views guided by “Han standard”, such as "Chinese ancient art history", "Chinese minority art history" and "Chinese frontier area art history", which are popular and widely used in current educational system. From a more objective and modern view, the history and the art of the Khitan Empire are restudied, which have been ignored, undervalued and distorted by the mainstream of art academia and educational filed nowadays.
The art of painting has been greatly influenced by social reality and social ideology, throughout the whole process of its production, development and evolution, no matter in which time and space of the history. To be specific, from the appearance of the picture, including painting technique and visual effect，to the meaning of the work，including the theme setting and the artistic spirit，the art of painting has been influenced directly or indirectly by the character of the race，the living environment, the ways of life, the political environment，the cultural context, the type of civilization and so on.
Therefore, to study the art of painting in specific historical time and space, the first thing to do is to treat the history as objectively and completely as possible. As far as this paper，the first thing to do is to objectively treat the history of the race of Khitan，which has been deliberately undervalued by current art academia and educational field.
The race of Khitan was a huge empire more than 100 years earlier than the Song Dynasty established by the race of Han. The Khitan empire maintained a peaceful and friendly relationship for more than one hundred years with Song Dynasty which represent China at that time.
However, as the art academia and the educational field regard Han as the center, they has undervalued the Khitan although it had a long history of more than three hundred years.
Such attitudes and views are unfavourable to study the painting of Khitan. Therefore, during the research, the academic attitudes of jumping out and geting out of the fence are particularly important.
The history of the Khitan Empire which has been ignored or undervalued is far more complicated and important than the schoolbook taught or we knew.
The Khitan Empire was highly connected to the Dynasty established by the race of Han which represented China at that time，thus Khitan Empire' civilization and culture presented two characteristics，one showing its racial nature as Khitan and the other showing its close relationship with the race of Han and being assimilated into Han.
Both characteristics influenced Khitan'painting，which also presented these two characteristics and various features.
The painting of Khitan had been assimilated into the culture of Han. It was reflected in the paintings created by Khitan' s noblemen who were proficient in the culture of Han. It was also reflected in paintings in many Khitan's graveyards which spread in the provinces of Hebei，Nei Monggol and Liaoning. It was the inheriting and developing of the painting methods of the Dynasty of Tang，and on the other hand，it was the describing and narrating of the ways of Khitan' producing and living which had been assimilated into the culture of Han.
The large mural painting "The landscape of the four seasons"，the screen painting "Deer group in maples" and "Herd of deer in autumn forest"，and Small painting"Man with a horse" are the outstanding representatives showing Khitan's racial nature. These paintings were at the peak of the realistic painting art of the Ancient Northeast Asia, meanwhile they represented Khitan Empire's own characteristics on the subject selecting，the aesthetical standard， the composition of the picture and the artistic spirit，and they reflected Khitan Empire's living environment, racial characteristics，life style and so on.
Although the painting of Khitan and the Dynasty of Song both belonged to realistic painting，they were different in nature in various aspects.<br>Therefore，the painting of Khitan will be analyzed and narrated in details in this paper.
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