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Proto-Yue ware Hunping funerary jar
Artist Unknown, ChinaChina, Western Jin dynasty (265-316)
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, United States
Details
- Title: Proto-Yue ware Hunping funerary jar
- Creator: Artist Unknown, China
- Date Created: China, Western Jin dynasty (265-316)
- Location: Jiangsu, China
- Physical Dimensions: w23.6 x h40.8 x d22 mm (work)
- Label Copy: This charming pot, with its engaging depiction of musicians and flocks of birds gathered by a many-roofed structure, bears silent witness to a tragic period in Chinese history. In the early fourth century, invasions by nomadic raiders from the steppes to the west forced tens of thousands of Chinese to flee southward. Aside from the terrible toll of lives lost, the surviving exiles could not provide proper tombs for deceased family members. Instead, they sought to appease the souls of the departed by providing a resting place in ceramic containers such as this one, known as a hunping, or “jar for the soul.” The structure on the lid presents a square building within a circular enclosure, reminiscent of an ancient Chinese formula using a jade bi and cong to symbolize the joining of earth and heaven, and thus fitting as a home for wandering souls. It is also possible that the hunping form may have been inspired by Buddhist reliquaries or containers for the ashes of the deceased; the gate (the two roofed pillars at the base of the tower) would then symbolize the boundary to Buddhist paradise. The two overlapping meanings were common during this period in Chinese history. The jar is made of grey stoneware with a coat of green glaze typical of Yue wares. The glaze is an early form of celadon that is thin, lustrous, and evenly vitreous. It is the precursor to the renowned, later translucent celadon glazes of the Song dynasty (960-1279).
- Type: Ceramic
- External Link: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2000-sl-1.39/2000_1.39.JPG?lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=musart_an;select1=starts;q1=2000%2F1.39
- Medium: Stoneware with celadon glaze
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