Page 71 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

The Han Dynasty, 206 b.c. to 220 a.d. 21

I hope you will not refuse to speak a few words for me, to help

me out of this calamitous state of disorder. What will you do in

this case ? ' ' If a good result be attainable,' replied the trader,

' I dare undertake anything.' About twilight they came to a large

tomb, located on the left side of the road. Pointing to it, the

myghost said : ' This is grave. Stand in front of it and exclaim,

" By Imperial Order, behead thy gold and silver subjects, and all

will be over." ' Hereupon the ghost entered the grave. The pedlar

shouted out the order, and during some moments he heard a noise

like that produced by an executioner's sword. After a while the

ghost came forth from the tomb, his hands filled with several de-

capitated men and horses of gold and silver. ' Accept these things,'

he said ; ' they will sufficiently ensure your felicity for the whole

of your life ; take them as a reward for what you have done for

me.' When our pedlar reached the Western metropolis he was

denounced to the prefect of the district by a detective from Ch'ang-

ngan city, who held that such antique objects could only have

been obtained from a grave broken open. The man gave the pre-

fect a veracious account of what had happened, and this magis-

trate reported the matter to the higher authorities, who sent it on

to the Throne. Some persons were dispatched to the grave with

the pedlar. They opened the grave, and found therein hundreds

of gold and silver images of men and horses with their heads severed

from their bodies."

In the present dayi at important sacrifices to ancestors (and

presumably at the funeral itself), it is customary to burn counter-

feits of all kinds of furniture and objects which might be useful

in the spirit-world. In general these counterfeits take the form

of small square sheets of cheap paper adorned with pictures, stamped

with a rudely carved wooden die, and representing houses, chairs,

implements for cooking, writing and the toilette, carts and horses,

sedan chairs, attendants and servants, slaves (male and female),

cattle, etc. It is not clear when this custom first came into being,

but it evidently replaced an earlier practice of burning real furni-

ture, clothing, etc., at the tomb ; and de Groot implies, at any
rate, that the two practices existed side by side in the eleventh
century. " Bonfires of genuine articles," he says,- " and valuables

continued for a long time to hold a place side by side with bon-

Wefires of counterfeits. read e.g. that at the demise of the Emperor

1 De Groot, loc. cit., p. 717. ^ lq,.. cit., p. 718.