It is highly probable that some of the tomb pottery discussed in the next chapter belongs to the later part of this intermediate period. Indeed among the pottery figures of this class there are specimens with slender, graceful bodies and elaborate details of costume (see Plate 7) which closely resemble the stone statues of the Northern Wei and the Sui dynasties; but with our present imperfect information on the tomb finds, it will be more convenient to treat these nearly related figures as one group.
Turning to Chinese literature, in default of other and more tangible evidence, we read in the T´ao shuo[27] of pottery dishes and wine vessels in the Wei dynasty (220–264 A. D.), and in the T´ao lu of pottery made at Kuan Chung, in the district of Hsi–an Fu, and at Lo–yang for Imperial use. The poet P´an Yo, of the Chin dynasty (265–419 A. D.), speaks of "cups of green ware." The actual words used are p´iao tz´ŭ,[28] of which the former is elsewhere used to describe "the bright tint of distant, well–wooded mountains," and as a synonym for lü (green), though, like the common colour word ch´ing, it is capable of meaning both blue and green. The ceramic glaze which most closely corresponds to the description p´iao is the bluish green celadon best known from Corean wares, but we have not yet sufficient grounds for assuming the existence of this particular type at such an early date.
Another poet[29] of the same period bids his countrymen, when selecting cups for tea–drinking, to choose the ware of Eastern Ou, a place in the Yüeh territory, and apparently in the neighbourhood of, if not identical with, the Yüeh Chou, which was celebrated for its wares in the T´ang dynasty. The period of the "Northern and Southern Dynasties" provides but two references, to a kind of wine vessel known as "crane cups" but otherwise unexplained, and to chün–ch´ih of fine and coarse ware,[30] which appear to have been Buddhist water vases for ceremonial washing, or Kundikâ, which the Chinese have transcribed in the form Chün–ch´ih–ka.
Buddhism was making great strides in China at this time. It was proclaimed the state religion of the Toba Tartars or Northern Wei, who ruled the north from 386 to 549 A. D., and Buddhist thought and the canons of Buddhist art were now firmly imposed upon the Chinese. The rock sculptures of this period visited and photographed by Chavannes show unmistakable traces of the Græco–Buddhist art of Gandhara; and in one remarkable instance among the figures which were sculptured round the entrance of a Buddhist grotto were deities with a thyrsus like that of Dionysus and a trident like Poseidon's.
In the annals of the brief Sui dynasty (581–617 A. D.), we find that a man named Ho Ch´ou succeeded in exactly imitating a glassy material called liu li by means of green ware. The exact meaning of this interesting passage is discussed elsewhere (p. 144), but it is difficult to imagine any but a porcellanous ware which could satisfy the conditions implied. Under the circumstance it is not surprising if theorists see in this green ware (lü tz´ŭ) something in the nature of the later celadon porcelain.
NOTE ON THE EARLY CHINESE TOMB WARES
With reference to the figures of men and animals and the other objects which were placed in the ancient tombs of China, much information will be found in Dr. J.J.M. de Groot's Religious System of China. The fundamental idea underlying these burial practices seems to have been that the soul of the dead was the actual tenant of the grave; but it is not clear in every case whether the sepulchral furniture was provided in expectation of a bodily resurrection, or in the belief that it would minister to the wants of the dead in his spiritual existence. Both ideas appear to have obtained in early times, though it is certain that the second alone explains the more modern custom of burning either the objects themselves or paper counterfeits of them at the tomb, and thus transmitting them through the medium of fire direct to the spirit world.
The older custom of burying with the dead all that was necessary for the continuation of the pursuits of his lifetime, dates back to the farthest limits of history, so that we read without surprise that in the Chou dynasty (1122–255 B. C.) there were placed in the tomb "three earthen pots with pickled meat, preserved meat, and sliced food; two earthen jars with must and spirits,"[31] besides "clothes, mirrors, weapons, jade and food pots." It became customary to hold a preliminary exhibition of the funeral articles at the dead man's house before removing them to the tomb, and this, as we may well imagine in a country of ancestor–worshippers, led to ostentation and extravagance which legislators of various periods vainly endeavoured to curtail.
The magnificent burials of the Chin and early Han emperors, the vast mausolea built by forced labour and stocked with costly furniture and treasure, chariots and live animals, and even human victims, must have been an intolerable burden to the community. There is no lack of instances of the immolation, voluntary or otherwise, of relatives and retainers at the tombs of great personages in ancient China, though the practice never seems to have been general, and was strongly reprobated by Confucius (551–479 B. C.). The sage even went so far as to condemn the substitution of wooden puppets, "for was there not a danger of their leading to the use of living victims?"[32] Images of straw were all that he would permit.
When humaner influences prevailed, the ladies of the harem, and the military guards, instead of following their Imperial master to the spirit world, were condemned to reside within the precincts of the mausoleum; and doubtless the clay figures of women and warriors placed in the graves of more enlightened times were intended to relieve their human prototypes of this irksome duty. The earliest recorded allusion[33] to clay substitutes appears to be the words of Kuang Wu (in the first century A. D.), that "anciently, at every burial of an emperor or king, human images of stoneware (t´ao jên), implements of earthenware (wa ch´i), wooden cars, and straw horses were used."