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- Tomb Figurines Through the Ages
Over various parts of the ancient world there has been a belief that at death man simply changes the scene of his existence and that his needs and desires in the afterlife are, in fact, the same as during his lifetime. A deep concern for the welfare of the deceased in the next life, as indicated by the custom of burying various items with the dead, dates back to Neolithic times (c. 8000-2000 b.c.) in China. A wide range of objects have been found in the excavated tombs of Neolithic China, from utilitarian items like primitive stone tools, weapons and pottery containers with food, to ornaments made of stone and bone.
By the Shang period (sixteenth to eleventh centuries b.c), the belief in the immortality of the human soul and the necessity of proper care for the deceased in the afterlife reached a new level of development. At this time, large tombs were constructed for members of high rank and filled with wonderful treasures, including finely carved jade objects and beautiful bronze vessels which were suggestive of power and wealth, as well as sacrificed people and animals which were expected to accompany the deceased to the spirit world where they would serve, protect and amuse the interred as they had done in life. By the latter part of the Shang period, human sacrifice was practiced on a colossal scale. In one excavated Shang tomb, it was estimated that more than three hundred people were sacrificed. Recent archaeological excavations have revealed that besides the sacrificial victims, small crudely sculpted ceramic images of humans and animals were occasionally made for burial with the deceased.
By the middle of the late Zhou period (eleventh tothird centuries b.c.), human and animal sacrifices must have proven too costly and morally objectionable as the number of victims seems to have greatly declined, and there was an increasing tendency to substitute straw, wood or clay figurines for humans and animals. It has been suggested that these inanimate objects placed in the tombs would be transformed into animated spiritual counterparts to serve the dead man or woman as the living models upon whom they were based had served them while they were alive.
According to literary records, Confucius (551-479 B.c.) condemned human sacrifices and is reported to have said that the burial of simple straw figures at tombs was good, but that the making of more realistic wooden figures was not benevolent as there was danger of this encouraging a tendency towards human sacrifices.
By the Warring States period (475-221 B.c.), funerary practices underwent major changes and surrogate figures of various material generally replaced human sacrifices. Most tomb figurines thus far excavated from the Warring States period are crudely made ceramic figurines with some exceptions, such as the stylized wood figurines carved in simple planes belonging to the State of Chu (fig. i). The practice, however, of burying human sacrifices in tombs did linger on in some isolated incidents as evidenced by ancient literary records which mention that harem ladies and tomb construction workers were buried in the tomb of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang (d. 210 B.c.).
The terracotta figurines made for the tomb of Qin Shi Huang offer a quantum leap forward in the ceramic technology and art of early China (figs, ii, iii). These life-size tomb figurines show an unprecedented development from the small primitive clay figurines of earlier periods to large, handsome, more realistic masterpieces. Since 1974 more than seven thousand life-size ceramic figurines of horses and warriors in three separate underground pits, as well as a few kneeling female servants, have been excavated near his tomb. A building has recently been erected overthe largest
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