Page 107 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

longer provided by nature but had to be created, Fig. 3. Wooden tomb figurine. Warring States period.
Tomb No. 2, Baoshan, Hubei Province.
instead, through artistic observation and
production. From this time on, the artifacts

—contained in a tomb comprised not only things
—vessels and other kinds of grave goods but also

figures or characters essential for imagining and

constructing a posthumous world.

Four kinds of archaeological evidence allow us to Fig. 4. ( Underground army o/Qin Shihuangdi. Qin
hypothesize that grave figurines were first used as dynasty. Lishan necropolis, Untong Xian, Shaanxi

substitutes for the human sacrifices found in earlier Province.

and contemporary tombs. First, figurines were often
placed next to or around the deceased, an

arrangement following the burial pattern of human
sacrifices. Second, we know that figurines and
human sacrifices were used in combination to
furnish tombs: for example, Niujiapo tomb
Number 7, in Changzi, Shanxi Province, contained
three human victims along the east and south walls

and four figurines near the west and north walls
(fig. 1). Together, these seven "figures" surrounded
and protected the dead person in the middle. 2
Third, figurines were sometimes identified by
inscriptions as "dead servants" {wangtong or

mingtong) who would serve their master in the
underworld. 3 And fourth, the increasing popularity

REALITIES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH 105