A Study of the Funeral Figurines from Tombs of
the Northern Zhou Period
Ni Run’an
Key words: funeral figurines from tombs of the Northern Zhou period
concepts of the Northern
Towns
Guanzhong–Gansu model
Luoyang combination manner
evolution of
ritual
Since the 1950s, tombs of the Northern Zhou period have
been discovered in the Shaanxi 陕西 and Ningxia 宁夏
regions. With the accumulation of archaeological data,
scholars’ studies have been increasingly deepened and
widened. Based on these accomplishments, I try to reveal in depth the evolutionary course of funeral figurines in the Northern Zhou by investigating the division
of their types, subtypes and phases.
The pottery funeral figurines of the Northern Zhou
period are not so rich in variety but rather distinct and
uniform in character. According to their differences in
symbolizing meaning, I divide them into three classes.
The first class comprises figurines of tomb guardians
and evil spirit exorcists, i.e. statuettes of tomb-protecting animals and warriors. The second class represents
processional attendants, embracing walkers, horsemen
and pack animals. The third class is formed of figurines
of household servants, including livestock and poultry
breeders and models of their implements.
Through a typological study of the funeral figurines I
trace their evolutionary course, divide them into the
“old style”and “new style”that prevailed in different periods, and reveal the phenomenon that the replacement of the former by the latter was brought about in
the way of “sudden change.”Therefore, I divide the
Northern Zhou funeral figurines into three phases: the
“old style prevailing phase”
before the full development
of new style figurines, corresponding to the earlier Northern Zhou period (AD 557–571); the “new style prevailing phase”after the vanish of the main body of old
style figurines, corresponding to the later Northern Zhou
Jiande 建德 reign through the replacement of the Zhou
by the Sui Dynasty (576–581); and the “transitional
phase”for the rapid replacement of the “old style”by
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the “new style,”roughly in the earlier Northern Zhou
Jiande reign (572–575).
On this basis I sum up the problems calling for discussion in three points: 1) The Northern Zhou funeral
figurines flew their own colors with strong distinctive
features and formed a unique style in the late Northern
Dynasties period. What does their formation course look
like? 2) In a short period for some 20 years (557–581),
they went through three phases of evolution. How were
the changes brought about? 3) At the final stage of the
new style prevailing phase, new changes appeared
among the Northern Zhou funeral figurines. Did they
represent the developmental direction of Northern Zhou
funeral figurines?
To research into the formation of the features of Northern Zhou funeral figurines, the first step is investigating
the factions of political forces in the Northern Zhou ruling clique and their strength, and tracing the matter up
to the time of the founding of the Western Wei Dynasty.
At that time, the political and military foundations of
the Western Wei consisted mainly of three groups. The
first group was the officers and soldiers following the
Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowudi 孝武帝 and fleeing
from Luoyang 洛阳 into the Guanzhong 关中 region.
The second consisted of personages from the“Northern
Towns.”They were the backbone for Yuwen’s political power holding its ground in the Guanzhong–Gansu
甘肃 region, and occupied most of the higher-rank positions of the Western Wei ruling clique. The third embraced those from the Guanzhong–Gansu region, including Han nationality local bullies largely from Yongzhou
雍州 and influential figures from the Qiang 羌 and Di
氐 ethnic groups in this region. Although they acted
principally as middle- and lower-rank officials, the
Chinese Archaeology
Yuwen 宇文 power should closely draw them over to
its side and rely on them. Of these groups the first was
the weakest in force and was being weakened constantly,
so Yuwen Tai 宇文泰 considered mainly the latter two
groups’ interests and ideas when he formulated his
policies. This is just the clue for my studying the formation course of Western Wei and, further, Northern
Zhou funeral figurines, and prompts us to start with the
funeral culture and concept of the regions where the
above-described political groups came from.
At present the Western Wei tombs excavated are still
small in number. An exemplifying discovery is Hou
Yi’s 侯义 tomb of the 10th year, Datong 大统 reign,
Western Wei (AD 544), at Hujiagou 胡家沟 in Xianyang
咸阳. The funeral figurines from this grave show the
following three features: 1) In type they represent tombprotecting animals and warriors, northern tribesmen,
saddled horses, foot soldiers, officers, officials, male and
female servants, walkers and horsemen in cowl-like hats,
armed horsemen on barded horses, musicians on horseback, camels, donkeys, dogs, chickens and maids at
work. 2) In appearance and style, the human figurines
are largely fat-bodied, big-bellied, and often in northern
tribesmen’s dress, showing a strong bearing of northern
tribesmen. 3) In making technique, they are shaped not
in sectional molds but half ones with the body made
solid and the back straight. The works are made in the
same mold for the same type and finished without
retouch, producing a stereotyped feeling.
A comparison of the funeral figurines from the Hou
Yi’s tomb with the Sinicized ones from late Northern
Wei tombs in the Luoyang area shows that the two groups
are fairly close in type, but distinctly different in style
and technique. By contrast with the luxury and degeneration embodied in the Luoyang pottery funeral
figurines, the Hou Yi’s grave can be taken as a simplified burial. Nevertheless, simple burial must have led
to the simply- and coarsely-making of funeral figurines
rather than to the northern tribesmen bearing of human
figurines as seen in the Hou Yi’s tomb. This feature
must have brought about due to other factors.
Thus I turn my research to the traits of Northern Wei
funeral figurines in the Yun-Dai 云代 region. Among
the dated tombs of the middle Northern Wei so far discovered in the Pingcheng 平城 area are the tomb of Song
Shaozu 宋绍祖 of the first year, Taihe 太和 reign (477)
and that of Sima Jinlong 司马金龙 and his wife of the
eighth year, Taihe (484). The funeral figurines of the
two graves are characterized, in appearance, by the
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Xianbei 鲜卑 dress of the human figurines, but in type
and features, they followed the style prevailing, to trace
to remote periods, during the Han and Jin dynasties in
the Central Plains, and, to speak of later times, across
the territories under the control of the strongly Sinicized
Xiongnu 匈奴, Di and Qiang nationalities in the
Guanzhong–Gansu region. The new traits brought about
in the Yun-Dai region were the appearance of camel and
pack donkey figurines and some human statuettes with
footboards, but these were not so district. On the whole,
the Tuoba 拓跋 Xianbei tribes created few new things
except for covering a Han-style or Sinicized undercurrent with a dazzling Xianbei coat. However, the forces
of Xianbei in the Yun-Dai region were so deep-rooted
that it called for a long time to fulfill an all-round
Sinicization although there was such a tendency, so the
Emperor Xiaowendi did not will to wait for this and decided to move his capital to Luoyang and open a new
world for Sinicization. After his moving capital, he abandoned the implementation of Sinicization in the YunDai region and allowed the continuous practice of old
Xianbei costumes. Meanwhile, in the Luoyang area,
the Xianbei-colored coat was rapidly thrown away, and
the Han-style one was formally covered on the Sinicized
frame. The appearance and bearing of funeral figurines
were sharply changed, their workmanship became much
more elegant than that of Yun-Dai works, and the division of their varieties was more elaborately on the basis
of the latter. Nevertheless, the emperor“ordered immigrates in Luoyang to bury the dead in Henan and not
to convey them back to the north,”
which made the new
accomplishments of Sinicization fail to exert effective
influence on the Yun-Dai region. In this circumstance,
the Yun-Dai burial custom that previously had influenced
southward on Hebei and even Luoyang went quickly to
vanish. Moreover, pottery figurines were withdrawn
from late Northern Wei tombs in the Yun-Dai region.
Therefore we believe that there was already no practice
of burying pottery figurines in late Northern Wei tombs
of the Yun-Dai region. After their entry into the
Guanzhong–Gansu region, the Northern Towns personages in the Yuwen Tai government exerted their influence in the Xianbeiization of concepts. They requested
to embody northern tribes’ customs rather than to introduce models directly.
Then what a developmental tendency did the
Guanzhong–Gansu funeral figurines present? In the Sixteen Kingdoms and Northern Dynasties periods, the cultural aspect of tombs in the Guanzhong–Gansu region
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was more complex than that of Luoyang and Yun-Dai
graves. For the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the features of
Guanzhong–Gansu funeral figurines can be investigated
by referring to two burials: the first is the tomb at
Caochangpo 草场坡 Village, Xi’an, with pottery figurines in a distinct Han style; and the second, Tomb No.1
at Xinji 新集 in Pengyang 彭阳, which bears no strong
color of Sinization, and the figurines of walkers with
cowl-like hats show heavy northern tribesmen’s manner.
After the Northern Wei capturing Chang’an City, Tuoba
Xianbei dress began to be introduced into the
Guanzhong–Gansu region. Among the funeral figurines
from the early Northern Wei tombs discovered in Xi’an,
in addition to works following the products of Sinization
brought about under previous northern tribes’ power,
there appeared again figurines of tomb-protecting animals and warriors. As for the middle Northern Wei
period, no dated tombs have been discovered so far in
this region. Judging by the multifarious aspect of late
Northern Wei funeral figurines, the early Northern Wei
tendency was not successfully developed; on the contrary,
its northward spread produced important influence on
middle Northern Wei tombs in the Yun-Dai region.
Turning back to the funeral figurines from the Hou
Yi’s tomb of the Western Wei, the factors of their features can be described as follows. The coarse workmanship corresponded to the weak economic base in the
Guanzhong–Gansu region, which demanded restraining
luxury and advocating thrift so that Yuwen Tai would be
able to concentrate his forces to struggle against Gao Huan
高欢. The fatness and northern tribesmen manner of the
human figurines came from the psychological desire of
Northern Towns personages. Emperor Xiaowendi’s
Sinicizing reform with the Han nationality fostered and
the northern tribes restrained led to the loss of the original advantageous position of the Six Towns 六镇 personages and to the rise of their strong anti-Sinicization
mind. The sharpened contradiction between the Han nationality and the northern tribes bred finally large-scale
revolt. As military expeditions went on, the Six Towns
personages entered the Central Plains, and held influential positions in both the Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai groups.
After the fall of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the reaction
of resuming Xianbeiization appeared in the Eastern and
Western Wei, the officers from the Northern Towns set
up Yuwen Tai as the ruler, and the forces for Sinicization
in the group were much weaker than those in the Eastern
Wei. All these made him bound and able to pursue extensive Xianbeiization. Just from this came the northern
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tribes’ air of the funeral figurines of the Hou Yi’s tomb,
which suggests that the big-bellied body must have been
the common appearance and aesthetic sense of the then
officers from the Northern Towns. During the period of
occupation by the Northern Wei, the local bullies of Han
nationality and the Di and Qiang tribes after Sinicization
suffered mainly military control, but their cultural aspect was rather heterogeneous, and their tombs provide
no complete, uniform model of funeral figurines. In the
Western Wei period, they became the forces Yuwen Tai
should rely on and win over, which their tombs reflected
as the absorption of any types with local features. But
this is not enough to explain the matter, as the funeral
figurines of the Hou Yi’s tomb were quite complete in
type, the maker of which must have consulted the practice for late Northern Wei tombs in Luoyang. That is to
say, the group of funeral figurines in the Hou Yi’s tomb
was formed by combining the Xianbeiization concept
of the Northern Towns with the Guanzhong–Gansu
model featuring local colors, and by following the combination manner of Luoyang figurines.
For Northern Zhou tombs, the funeral figurines of the
old style prevailing phase were developed just by following closely the appearance, variety and making techniques of the works represented by the funeral figurines
of the Hou Yi’s tomb. So the old style figurines of the
Northern Zhou resulted from the political and cultural
backgrounds corresponding to those of the Hou Yi’s
tomb. To consolidate his power, Yuwen Tai strove to
unite and gather the forces of the northern tribes and
Guanzhong–Gansu personages around himself by implementing the so-called“policy based on the Guanzhong–
Gansu culture”by “acting on the classical institutions
of the Zhou Li 周礼 (Zhou Rituals) and conforming with
the current conditions of the northern tribes and Han
nationality in the Guanzhong–Gansu region.”Although
it did not reach the height of “using vehicles, dress,
utensils and other objects in accordance with ancient
institutions,”the Hou Yi’s tomb was just a product of
the combination of the Northern Towns Xianbeiization
concept with local features in the Guanzhong–Gansu
region, corresponding completely to the essence of the
“policy based on the Guanzhong–Gansu culture.”
When
the Northern Zhou inherited the power of the Western
Wei, smooth transition was brought about in various
aspects except for the alteration of the emperor, and the
cultural policy was continued down to the Northern Zhou
naturally. In the earlier Northern Zhou period, Emperor
Wudi advocated Confucianism with the purpose of elimiChinese Archaeology
nating the Xianbeiization color of his power and adding
the Confucian mode to the then ritual. But under the
restriction by Yuwen Hu, in his earlier reign, he continued to implement the cultural policy of the Datong reign,
and most of the new ritual institutions he intended to
carry out did not reflect his will to the full. In the first
year of Jiande reign (572), Wudi killed Yuwen Hu, his
son and their partners and began to conduct every administrative affair in person, and the new ritual institutions could be fully implemented. As a reflection in
burial, there appeared new-style funeral figurines, and,
with Wudi’s forceful advocating, the transitional stage
from the old style to the new one was very short, only
four to five years long, and the making of old-style figurines terminated roughly in the earlier Jiande reign.
In the sixth year of Jiande reign (577), the Northern Qi
fell down, and “most of the wealthy personages moved
to the south of Shanhaiguan 山海关.”Emperor Wudi paid
great attention to the introduction of social customs and
cultural institutions from the region outside Shanhaiguan,
and invited Xiong Ansheng 熊安生, Lu Changheng 卢
昌衡 and others to participate in the revision and enrichment of the new ritual institutions he advocated, which
greatly accelerated the Sinicization of Northern Zhou
ritual. Correspondingly to this background, Northern
Zhou funeral figurines would undergo again new changes.
The new character would be, on the basis of original
Northern Zhou style, to absorb selectively and alternately
features of Northern Qi funeral figurines and to show increasingly strong mode of Sinicization. This course,
however, was broken off and changed owing to the usurpation of Yang Jian 杨坚.
After the Sui Dynasty replaced the Zhou power, the
emperor Sui Wendi 隋文帝 ordered definitely to consult and follow the ritual institutions of the Liang and
Northern Qi dynasties and discard those of the Northern
Zhou, although the latter had won political and military
victory. Under this cultural policy, the funeral figurines
of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi system completely
changed their state of only being absorbed selectively
and began to be intruded into the central zone of Northern Zhou funeral figurines on a large scale, making the
latter discarded and replaced, although they already demonstrated still stronger tendency of Sinicization. But
they vanished in a gradual course rather than as a sudden change. This was much concerned with the noblemen that had a deep-rooted relationship with the Northern Zhou power and strove to maintain in secret old
Northern Zhou institutions. But the Sui Emperor Wendi
restrained them step after step and combed them out
finally, and appointed new political personages royal to
the new dynasty to important positions. Thus the forces
on that the Northern Zhou ritual institutions had been
able to survive were weakened day by day until thorough fall, and the funeral figurines with Northern Zhou
features stepped down from the stage of history gloomily.
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Note: The original paper, published in Kaogu Xuebao 考古学报 2005.1: 27–54, with five figures and a table, is
written by Ni Run’an 倪润安. The present summary is prepared by the original author and English-translated by Mo
Runxian 莫润先.
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