Funerary Vessel with Lid

The offering of rice to the souls of the departed was a burial practice in Song and Yuan China. In the tombs of the wealthy such gifts were contained in ceramic jars, often in matching pairs. The outer sides of one such set of jars is decorated with three-dimensional images of the Green Dragon of the East, together with figures of the sun god and star gods, as well as cranes, the birds of long life. The lid is in the shape of the Vermilion Bird of the South. According to the Chinese philosophical tradition called Daoism, the Green Dragon of the East and the Vermilion Bird of the South are two of the mythological creatures representing the four directions in the Chinese constellation of the cosmos. They are also symbolic of the four seasons: The Green Dragon represents spring and the Vermilion Bird the summer season.