Ancient Figurines(古俑 Guyong)

Each discovery at and near the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum has caused--- and will cause—a stir among archaeologists the world over.

Han Dynasty figurines show clear influences of the Qin, but are smaller in size. An impressive discovery was made a few years ago in a Han tomb at Yangjiawan, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province of a total of 3,000 painted pottery figures. Most of the standing figurines represent warriors, and some of them are equestrians. Compared with the human figurines represent warriors, the horses are more expressive: some stand quietly and others rear up with an unheared neigh. They must be truthful portraits in sculpture of the foot and mounted troops of the Han Dynasty.

With he flourishing of ceramics during the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties (10th-17th century), the tomb figurines of this long period, among which the “tricoloured glazed pottery of the Tang” is world-famous. Out of the ancient tombs of Xi'an and Luoyang have been unearthed many colour-glazed females, horses and camels. Noteworthy especially are the pottery camel drivers with their deep-set eyes, protruding noses and hairy faces, evidently Central Asians who plied the Silk Road with their caravans. The “tricoloured Tangs” represent in effect a special handicraft art catering solely to the funerary needs of the aristocracy at the heyday of China's feudalism.

Wooden figurines have a much longer history which extends back to the Warring States Period(475-221 B.C.). They have been found in many ancient tombs of different ages and in different localities. The tomb of Zhu Tan, prince of Lu (the tenth son of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming), situated in Zouxian, Shangdong Province, yielded in 1974 a total of 406 painted wood figures in the formation of a ling funeral procession. It consists of three parts: musicians leading in front, followed by attendants and military officers in the middle, and civil officials bringing up the rear. The figures—a sculptured model of an early Ming (2nd half of the 14th century) funeral—are on display in the Provincial Museum of Shandong in Jinan.

Some wood figurines have been found in the Dingling Mausoleum of the Ming Tombs. They are few in number and crude in workmanship, showing that wood figures were already going out of vogue towards the end of the dynasty.

During the Qing Dynasty(1616-1991), paper figures appeared; they were not buried with the dead but were burnt at funerals to follow the dad to the nether world. After the fall of Qing, tomb figures have fallen completely into disuse.