Page 110 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

miniature," in Susan Stewart's words, "finds its 'use
value' transformed into the infinite time of

reverie." 9 The tiny Warring States figurines thus not
only "substituted" for human beings but also

extended life in perpetuity.

These early figurines provided antecedents for the
famous terra-cotta army of Qin Shihuangdi, the
First Emperor of Qin (cats. 88-92; fig. 4). Ladislav
Kesner has argued that these Qin dynasty figures,
instead of replicating real Qin soldiers or abstract
figurative types, have "the goal of creating a reality
of a different order, a self-conscious
representation." 10 This goal, as well as the figures'
clay substance and decorative method, reveals their
debt to the northern tradition of pre-Qin figurines.
But instead of forming a miniature universe, the
project signified the First Emperor's desire for the
gigantic. Here the concept of the gigantic can be
understood in two senses: it refers to the scale ot a
Qin figure compared with a Warring States clay
figurine (fig. 5); and it also refers to the scale of the

Aarmy relative to a human observer. visitor to the

site is surrounded by the army, engulted by it,
encompassed within its shadow (fig. 4)."

Miniature figurines regained their popularity

during the early Han period (206 BCE-220 12

ce).

Like the northern miniatures of the Warring States

period, these construct a fictional interior space, but

the Han figurines demonstrate a stronger effort to

mimic life forms and an intense interest in the

human body. The naked figures from the Fig. 10. Painted silk bannerfrom tomb No. 1,

mausoleums of Emperor Jing (r. 156— 141 bce) and Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province.
other Han royalty show sensitively observed and
After 168 bce.
modeled torsos and faces (fig. 6). Although these
structures constructed at the bottom of a deep
clay sculptures basically followed the northern shaft. The outer wooden encasement (guo) was
divided into five rectangular compartments, or
tradition, they also integrated features of southern chambers (fig. 7). The middle chamber, called gucm,
contained the woman's body inside nested painted
figurines: their naked bodies were originally coffins. Numerous household articles and food
were stored in the four surrounding compartments,
clothed, and their wooden arms, which have identifying these chambers as a replica of the
deceased's former residence.
completely decomposed, could have been
Most of the wooden figurines were found within
manipulated into various positions. Typical southern the four peripheral chambers of the guo. Some ot

figurines of the second century bce, still made of them, including a group of five musicians (cat. 94),
were in the northern chamber, which imitated the
wood, are exemplified by those from the famous "retiring hall" (qin) in a traditional household. Silk

Mawangdui tomb Number 1 , whose discovery in curtains were hung on its four walls and a bamboo
1972 near Changsha, in Hunan Province, was one mat covered its floor. Eating and drinking vessels
and a low table were displayed in the middle. The
of the most spectacular archaeological finds in
western section of the qin was equipped with
Chinese history. 13 The tomb's undisturbed condition bedroom articles and furniture, including cosmetic
boxes, an embroidered pillow, incense containers,
further enables us to explore the belief in the and a painted screen; in the eastern part of the qin,
clothed figurines represented Lady Dai's personal
afterlife, an ideological system that must have

underlain the structure and furnishing of this

burial.' 4

The Mawangdui tomb belonged to an aristocrat,
Lady Dai, who died shortly after 168 bce: it yielded
more than a thousand objects, figurines, clothes,
and documents in perfect condition; even the
woman's corpse had miraculously survived.'5

Following the typical structure of a "vertical pit"

grave, the tomb consisted of a cluster of wooden

REALITIES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 108