Page 70 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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20 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

for grave implements from this time onward. Thus, Chu Hsi of
the Sung dynasty taught in his Ritual of Family Life " the custom

of bur>4ng the dead with a good many wooden servants, followers,

and female attendants, all holding in their hands articles for use
and food " ; and the contents of the Ming graves included " a

furnace-kettle and a furnace, both of zvood, saucer with stand, pot,

or vase, an earthen wine-pot, a spittoon, a water basin, an incense

burner, two candlesticks, an incense box, a tea-cup, a tea-saucer,

two chopsticks, two spoons, etc., two wooden bowls, twelve wooden

platters, various articles of furniture, including bed, screen, chest,

and couch, all of zvood ; sixteen musicians, twenty-four armed

lifeguards, six bearers, ten female attendants the spirits known
;

as the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Red Bird, and the Black

—Warrior ; the two Spirits of the Doorway and ten warriors all

made of wood and one foot high." These were among the imple-
ments permitted in the tombs of grandees ; the regulations of 1372

allowed only one kind of implement in the tombs of the common

folk.

From the foregoing passages it may be inferred that wood super-

seded pottery to a very great extent in the funeral furniture of

the Sung and Ming periods, and consequently that the tombs in
which a full pottery equipment has been found are most probably
not later than the first half of the T'ang dynasty. Needless
to say, the wooden paraphernalia rapidly perished under the
ground, and while the pottery implements have preserved their
original form and appearance, the wooden objects have mostly

disintegrated.

An amusing fragment of folklore, translated by de Groot ^ from

the Kuang i chi, " a work probably written in the tenth century,"

Avill form a fitting conclusion to this note, revealing as it does the
thought of the Chinese of this period with regard to the burial

customs which w'e have discussed :

"During one of the last generations there lived a man, who

used to travel the country as an itinerant trader in the environs
of the place where his family was settled. Having been accom-
panied on one of his excursions for several days by a certain man,

the latter unexpectedly said, ' I am a ghost. Every day and every
night I am obliged to fight and quarrel with the objects buried
in my tomb for the use of my manes, because they oppose my will.

1 De Groot, loc. cit., p. 809.