Spirited Utensils

We can thank Herbert Wade Kent for the excellent collection of Chinese art at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Here are some lively funerary earthenware pieces (Mingqi-made for the spirits of the dead).

The Confucian rationale for burying such objects goes like this:

In dealing with the dead, if we treat them as if they were entirely dead, that would show lack of affection and should not be done; or, if we treat them as if they were entirely alive, that would show lack of wisdom and should not be done…

| Chinese earthenware pots, Neolithic period 3000-2000 BC |

This neolithic hand made jar used the coiled method. I love the crosshatching device. Adds to the fullness of this bulging shape. A whole lot of abundance into the afterlife.

| Chinese earthenware Jar, Yangshao culture, Neolithic period 2400 BC |

Julia Ritson