| All the artifacts in the collection are burial goods found in ancient Chinese tombs. The practice of interring with the deceased various wooden, bronze, and terra cotta goods stretches back at least ten thousand years. Over the centuries, the practice has evolved. Prior to 500 B.C.E., that is, during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages and extending into the Warring States Period, items buried with the deceased were articles of the kind actually used during life -- food storage pots, eating utensils, carriages, and even horses and real human servants, grooms, and warriors. Unfortunately for the servants, grooms and warriors, they had to be killed in order to accompany their master or mistress beyond the grave.
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| It is difficult to reconstruct the beliefs of the ancient Chinese concerning the afterlife, but apparently they thought of the dead as surviving in two stages -- first in a kind of transitional period in which they yearned for and tried to duplicate the life they had enjoyed on earth, followed by a gradual acceptance of a quite different, but never clearly described, god-like existence as ancestor spirits. It was to facilitate this first phase of the afterlife that the elaborate grave goods were provided. The living thought of the recently dead as beings who wanted just what we want in life -- food and wine, servants, music, entertainment, sex, comfort, beauty and luxury.
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| For reasons not fully understood, though possibly encouraged by Chinese philosophers, beginning around 500 B.C.E. and continuing for another two thousand years, i.e., until roughly 1500 (during the Ming dynasty), actual articles and people and animals were replaced by effigy terra cotta, wooden, and straw representations. In most cases, straw effigies were burned at the grave site and not interred in the tomb (hence the expression, "Straw dogs" for something completely disposable). Perhaps some of the wooden models were also burned graveside. Naturally, most of the straw and wooden effigies, baskets and clothing are long since gone. What remains today are primarily the fired clay terra cotta figures buried with the dead. The most famous of these are the hundreds of life size warriors and horses found in the tomb of China's first imperial emperor, Chin Shih Huang Di, who militarily unified the whole of China under what became known as the Chin (or Qin) dynasty (from which the word "China" comes) around 200 B.C.E. These are the remarkable life size terra cotta figures open to tourists on the outskirts of Xian. Most of the effigy figures, however, found in the graves of important people, though far below the level of the emperor, are considerably smaller, most measuring between six inches and two feet. These include terra cotta figures of musicians, servants, acrobats, guards, dancers, grooms, horses, camels and other animals, carriages, warriors, and in some cases entire replicas of a Chinese household, including living quarters, farming out-buildings, and so on.
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| Most of these terra cotta figures were mold-made in two longitudinal sections joined together while the clay was wet and prior to firing. So, for example, the front and back of a musician were pressed into separate molds, the two pieces, each about a quarter of an inch thick, were then pressed together with the seams smoothed over by hand. Arms and legs projecting out from the body generally had to be molded by hand. Some of the figurines are glazed (in one, two or three colors), but most were painted after firing. Since the objects were not meant to be used by living persons, the paint, especially of Tang dynasty (600-900) figures is very fragile, smearing at the touch of a wet finger.
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| Again, for reasons not well understood, though probably connected somehow with Buddhism, this practice began to change again during the Ming dynasty (1400-1600) when terra cotta figures began to be replaced by paper effigies of items thought to be needed in the afterlife (including money). Like the earlier straw models, these were not buried with the body but burned on the outside of the grave. These burnt paper goods could now be updated yearly, during the annual Qing-Ming festival, adding new items which had come into use since the loved one died. This practice continues today in China.
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| Needless to say, none of these items were made as works of fine art, to be viewed aesthetically in the gallery or museum, though the quality of the effigy figures in the middle period (500 B.C.E.-1500 C.E.) are now widely regarded and appreciated as art works. The earlier pieces, mainly Neolithic cups and bowls which were burnished (rubbing the outer surface before firing to create a smooth, glazed-like surface) and painted in colorful clay slips (watery colored clays painted on the dried clay pot before firing), can also be viewed as art in much the same way we treat Greek vases as works of art. There is good reason to believe that the pieces were made to be beautiful and impressive -- not only for the dead but also for the family purchasing the items. Supporting the idea that these Neolithic pots were meant to have aesthetic quality is the fact that the burnishing of the outer surface and painting in colored clay slips before firing was only applied to pots used in burials; pots for everyday use were always much plainer. Also, we know from later written records (from the Zhou dynasty on) that it was customary for the burial goods to be displayed at the home of the deceased for viewing by the entire community before ceremonially being carried to the grave site. There are many references to families making extravagant and prestigious displays to show respect for the dead and to promote family pride.
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The use of effigy figurines replacing real people represents a major cultural shift. It is interesting that Chinese philosophers seem to have played a role in this shift. During the Zhou dynasty (1100-700 B.C.E.), the previous Shang dynasty practices of slavery and human sacrifice were outlawed. Although the practice appears to have continued for some time during the Zhou and beyond, several notable philosophers voiced objections. Kongzi (Confucius) strongly condemned the human burial sacrifices that occurred during his lifetime. China's second philosopher, Mozi (fifth century B.C.E.) also criticized these elaborate burial practices. As a "utilitarian" Mozi argued that if a social practice benefits the people, then it is good and should be followed; but if it harms the people, then it is bad and should be abandoned. In the case of traditionally elaborate and extremely expensive and time consuming funerals, he asks his readers to consider whether this enriches or impoverishes the people -- with the clear implication that it is a useless expenditure of time, money, energy, property, and human lives -- and therefore should be abolished. After going through an exhaustive list of all the expenditures of time and money of traditional Chinese funerals of his day, at least those of the nobility, including elaborate coffins, burial clothes and jewelry, expensive carriages and articles of gold and ivory to accompany the dead, along with constructing a large tomb and mound over that, with access roads in several directions, family members must observe three years mourning (actually a little over two years by Western reckoning), thus providing a kind of "cost-benefit" analysis, Mozi also mentions the waste of human lives sacrificed to accompany the deceased into death:
"The burials of the rulers and officials of today . . . still require spears, swords, tripods, baskets, vessels, basins, embroideries, silks, countless horse bridles, carriages, horses, waiting women, and musicians. On top of this they demand roads and approaches to the grave going this way and that, and a mound as round and high as a hill. All of this interferes with the daily labors of the people and wastes their wealth to an incalculable degree. Such is the uselessness of elaborate burials!"
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| Many women of emperor Shih Huang Di's harem accompanied him in death (210 B.C.E.), while thousands of warriors and horses were spared by being replaced by life-sized terra cotta replicas. As late as the first century B.C.E. a Han dynasty prince ordered sixteen slave musicians to commit suicide on his death, but his family was severely punished afterward on Confucian grounds. And finally, in the Records on Ceremonials, Confucius's disciple Tzu-Ch'un prevented the killing of some people at his brother's funeral.
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The controversy among philosophers about the practices of burying actual people extended to the burying of terra cotta replicas such as that described and sold at this Website. Mencius the philosopher Mengzi (Mencius, fourth century B.C.E.) quoted Confucius as having condemned even the burying of substitute wooden and terra cotta effigies of people, presumably because this suggested the older practice of killing actual people to accompany the nobles in death. What upset Confucius was presumably the realism of the terra cotta and wood figures, which might encourage a return to the days of human sacrifice. As Confucius is quoted as saying, "for was there not a danger of their leading to the use of living victims?" Another well-known Confucianist, Xunzi, who lived at the end of the Warring States period, also took a thoroughly rationalist view of burial goods. He said that these figures should be strictly symbolic. Unlike Mozi who believed in ghosts who would continue to use the burial articles (although he opposed burying costly burial goods as simply too expensive), Xunzi thought of the burial practices as having only a ritual importance for the living to express their grief and pay their respects to the dead in a humane and civilized manner. To indicate that these articles buried with the body are strictly symbolic, Xunzi says they must be altered in some way which makes it clear that they cannot be used -- and of course these must not include animals or human beings other than the deceased.
"As for the articles placed in the coffin, the hats have bands but no strings; to tie them to the head; the jars and wine flagons are empty and have nothing in them... the lutes and zithers are strung but not tuned. A carriage is buried with the coffin but the horses are taken back home... Articles that had belonged to the dead when he was living are gathered together and taken to the grave with him, symbolizing that he has changed his dwelling... And the spirit articles prepared especially for the dead man [the wood, terra cotta and straw effigies] have the shape of real objects but cannot be used... To deprive the dead for the sake of the living is niggardly; to deprive the living for the sake of the dead is delusion; and to kill the living and force them to accompany the dead is hideous."
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| Nonetheless, despite Mozi's "cost-cutting" measures and Xunzi's rationalist and symbolic interpretation, the history of China indicates that the majority of people continued for thousands of years to think of the afterlife in a more literal and less symbolic manner.
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| From the Tang dynasty (600-900) Chinese people began admiring and collecting works of Chinese art, such as Ming dynasty blue-and-white bowls, prized for their fine craftsmanship and aesthetic sensibility. The terra cotta grave goods, on the other hand, were not even known to exist until fairly recently, that is, not until archaeologists began systematically uncovering ancient Neolithic, Han, and Tang dynasty grave complexes toward the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In mainland China, where these objects have been found, it is illegal either to dig up the graves or to sell them in China or to export them abroad. But in Hong Kong where most of these pieces have been smuggled, it is perfectly legal to sell and export them. A relative rarity twenty years ago, more and more examples of ancient tomb art began appearing in Hong Kong antique shops during the last five years or so. Since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty July 1, 1997, it is difficult to know how long it will be before China attempts to restrict their sale and/or export to conform with the law in mainland China. In the meantime, enjoy browsing this Website and collecting if you find something you like!
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