The stone carvings related to tombs and mausoleums are the figurines of men and animals lined up along the 
tomb paths . The stone sculptures in front of the tombs not only represented the guards of the tombs , but also the prestige and achievement of the persons buried in the tombs . The earliest set of stone carvings well preserved now is the set of stone carvings in front of the tomb of General Huo Qubing in the Western Han Dynasty , located in Xingping County of Shaanxi province . The set of stone carvings consists of 16 statues of elephant ; ox , horse , fish , pig , tiger , sheep , “monster eating a sheep” , “man wrestling with bear” , and “horse striding over the Huns” . Its style is very vivid and terse . So , it is a world treasure of art .
Matchable with this set of stone carvings is the set of stone carvings in front of the mausoleums of the Southern Dynasties located near Nanjing . These stone carvings 
include stone beasts , stone pillars and stone steles . They are large , carefully sculpted , streamlined , vivid and imposing. The stone carvings at the 18 mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty are also treasures of ancient Chinese sculpture . Their themes and technique both surpass that of the mausoleum stone carvings before them . They include sculptures , reliefs and line carvings . The relief of “Six Horses at Zhao Mausoleum” , is rendered vividly with consummate skills , representative of the art of Chinese stone carving at its peak .
The stone and brick carving related to religion are numerous .
They are mostly stone carvings in the Buddhist grottos and also the stone statues in the temples .The most famous grottos with stone carvings are : Yungang grottos , Longman grottos ,Binjun Temple grottos , Qingyang North and South temple grottos , Gong county grottos , Mount Heaven-Dragon grottos , Ten-Thousand-Buddha Temple 
Grottos in Yi county , and Jianchuan Stone Bell Grottos . In addition , there are the Dazu Stone Carving , the Flying-in Peak statues and the stone carvings at Mount Xixia in Nanjing . Beside , there are the Daoist grottos carved at Mount Dragon in he thirteen century , and the Confucian , Buddhist and Daoist grottos at Mount Shizhuan carved in the eleventh century . They are all excellent works of all .
. The religious stone carvings are done most artistically , comprising sculptures , reliefs , pierced stone carving etc . Some are very large , e .g. the Leshan Giant Buddha statue ; some are very small , less than one inch high . Many of them are very artistic and had an immeasurable effect on the development of art in ancient China . The stone and brick carvings related to architectures are also plentiful . They are seen commonly on structural members of palatial buildings . The most famous of these are the figures stone carvings in Wuliang Temple ; the paved passageway and cloud pillar at the Imperial Palace ; and the stone pillars of Dacheng Hall in the Confucian Temple .
