Funerary Guardian Figure of a Warrior

While the elite of the Shang dynasty (circa 1600–1200 B.C.E.) had commonly sacrificed humans as part of burial rites, around eight hundred years later, a new order of funerary art of sacrificial victim surrogates appeared in early China. Called mingqi, or spirit vessels, this system of substitution extended in addition to humans to most aspects of daily life including models of horses and other animals, stoves and furniture, and buildings. Mingqi— believed to attend to the needs of the deceased in the afterlife—were usually smaller in scale than their models and made of inexpensive clay.


As the practice of mingqi developed so too was the system of production streamlined. Molds replaced individual modeling by hand. These two figures of warriors (1995.83 &1996.1)—who guarded the owner of the tomb from spiritual pollution—were made in two-part molds and the while the clay was still damp and pliable, the craftsman joined the front and back halves were before the finished piece was fired to the desired hardness in the kiln. Yet the maker added some parts by hand, introducing a small note of individuality. By the Song dynasty, when this pair was fashioned, even modest tombs included a full array of creature comforts intended to make eternity all the more bearable.