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- many popular subjects of human images were plump court ladies, female attendants, dancing girls, musicians, warriors, civil officials, foreigners, male servants and grooms. Judging by the number of portly women figurines and the stoutness of the women depicted in the tomb wall paintings of the eighth century, it appears that plumpness during Tang times was considered beautiful and en vogue for women (fig. xi). The figurines of female attendants, dancing girls, and musicians are graceful, charming and intimate with a subtle and respectable air about them. Perhaps the most outstanding human statues are the warriors, lokapalas, and civil officials with their powerful pose and scowling expressions. The imposing lokapala guardian figures standing on reclining bulls or demons, reflect a Buddhist influence. From the comic depictions of numerous figurines of foreign merchants and grooms, it is obvious that the Chinese ceramic sculptors derived much amusement from carica�turing the exotic clothes, the beards and great jutting noses of the visitors from distant lands.
In the animal section, horse and camel figurines were prized above all others. The powerful and spirited horses were usually depicted in a variety of natural poses (fig. xii), while the camels, sometimes fully-laden with merchandise, were depicted with heads tilted back, bellowing, and with bodies gleaming with vibrant glazes.
The mythical hybrid figurines are usually of zhenmu (grave-quelling beasts) images which have large ornamental wings, horns and human or feline heads on seated animal bodies. They were placed at the entrance of the tomb chambers to give an impressive and terrifying frontal view. During the late Tang, all sorts of mythical hybrids made their appearance revealing the early Chinese beliefs in the supernatural.
From the Tang tombs in the Astana graveyard at Turfan in Xinjiang, all sorts of amazing and unusual tomb figurines have been excavated (fig. xiii). These figures, both large and small, crude and well sculpted, are made of clay or wood, painted with extremely bright colours and occasionally dressed in real textile garments.
At Tang funerals, people would parade the brilliant and elaborate tri-colour figurines in the streets with great pomp and ceremony, flaunting their wealth and vying with other rich families to create the biggest spectacle, thus showing that they had the greater filial piety. Throngs of mourners were invited into tents and pavilions along the procession route for food, wine and entertainment. The entertainment at these events, as well as the showy assortment of tomb furnishings, were expensive and, as a result, extravagant funerals sometimes became the financial ruin of families. The increasingly ostentatious nature of funerals compelled the Tang au�thorities to give orders limiting the size and number of tomb figurines according to rank. These regulations governing burials, however, were widely abused. Edict after edict came down to reduce the size and number, but from excavated tombs we can see they were generally ignored.
From the multitude of outstanding Tang tomb figurines that have been excavated, it is hard to single any out for special mention. Perhaps suffice to say that the power and greatness of the most glorious period in the history of China is admirably reflected by their tomb figurines.
During the time of disunity known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-960), the artistic merit of the clay figurines in the tombs began to decline. The best examples of this decline can be seen in the numerous, small, unglazed figurines excavated in 1950 from the mausoleums of two Southern Tang emperors near Nanjing. The figurines of humans, animals and mythical hybrids have become stiff and simplified, and lack the imposing gestures and animation of the Tang figurines.
Although most of China was reunified in 960 under the Song dynasty �which breaks down into the Northern Song period (960-1126) and the Southern Song
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