Abstract: Rhapsody in the Han Dynasty is commonly categorized into two sub-genres, namely, prosaic rhapsody (greater rhapsody) with more descriptive details and lyric rhapsody (lesser rhapsody) which is often used to express personal thoughts and feelings. The tomb art in this paper specifically refers to the relief sculpture and the mural painting. The comparative study between rhapsody and tomb art in current scholarship has rarely taken their ontological relationship into consideration. Greater rhapsody and mural paintings may be considered as mainstream or upper-class art forms while lesser rhapsody and relief sculpture tend to be private or lower-class oriented. Recognizing the ontological relationship between the two art forms helps us to better understand how they are connected to and differ from each other. They may be examined in three aesthetic aspects. Firstly, rhapsody is open to multiple interpretations, while tomb art tends to be close, requiring its audience to decipher its imbued meanings before reaching more personal interpretation. Secondly, greater rhapsody attempts to create an imaginary world for the audience in reality, while relief sculpture tries to represent the other world with objects in this world. Finally, in terms of the verbal-visual relationships between the two art forms, rhapsody demonstrates the dynamic force of language, while the tomb art attains the balancing force of visual arts, and they together contribute to a balanced structure and dualistic relationships of two art forms for differed aesthetic orientations.

Key words: rhapsody, tomb art in the Han Dynasty, ontological relationship, comparative study