墓葬山水的形制似乎与地上山水画保持一致，其画面也受到地上山水画技法的影响，但其形制的发展却似乎总是略迟于地上山水画。山水图像被应用于地下以后，不仅所处的环境、载体发生了改变，其绘画目的与受众也都发生了转变。

不同形制的墓葬山水虽然使用方式各不相同，但其创作目的都是要服务于实际的功能——或是营造虚拟的家居空间，或是暗示理想的生活环境等等，而非独立的审美需求。     

本文所关注的，正是这两种形制相同却功能迥异的图像艺术，在同样的时代背景下各自不同的发展历程。

   The "Tomb-Landscape" shares all of the same formats as the Landscape Paintings, even the techniques it used in production had been deeply effected by the latter, though the development of its formats always seemed to be slower than overground Lanscape Paintings. Since the landscape-images has been used in the underground burials, all the conditions had been changed----not only the surrouding environment and the bearer of images，but the purpose of its production and the status of beholders.
   Although the Tomb-Landscape in different formats has variant theories of utility，but the purpose of its production serves the actual functions----to constitute virtual domestic spaces, or to indicate kinds of ideal circumstances of living, or such, but dosen't serve any selfcontained aesthetic needs.    
   What my thesis exactly concerns is the trajectory of the development of these two contemporaneous genres of art.