View source for Hunping

{{Short description|Imperial China funerary urn}}
{{Redirect2|Soul jar|Soul vase||Phylactery (disambiguation){{!}}Phylactery}}
{{Italic title|reason=[[:Category:Chinese words and phrases]].}}
[[File:JinJar.JPG|thumb|upright|A ''hunping'' jar of the Western Jìn, with [[Buddhist]] figures]]
[[File:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - celadon soul vase.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[celadon]] ''hunping'' jar with sculpted [[Chinese architecture|designs of architecture]], from the Jin dynasty]]
The '''''hunping''''' ({{zh|c=魂瓶|p=Húnpíng}}), translated as '''soul jar''' or '''soul vase''', is a type of ceramic [[funerary urn]] often found in the tombs of the [[Han dynasty]] and especially the [[Six Dynasties]] periods of early imperial China.<ref name=dien/> It was characteristic of the [[Jiangnan]] region in modern southern [[Jiangsu]] and [[Zhejiang]] provinces.<ref name=met/>
The purpose of a ''hunping'' is somewhat enigmatic, but archaeologists suggest that they may have been used as containers for fruit accompanying the deceased into the afterlife.<ref name=dien>{{citation
|first=Albert E. |last=Dien
|publisher=Yale University Press |year=2007
|isbn=978-0-300-07404-8
|title=Six dynasties civilization|series=Early Chinese civilization series
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0zp6iMZoqt0C&pg=PA214
|pages=214–215
}}</ref> According to the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], the ancients may have hoped that the soul of the deceased would eventually reside in the vessel.<ref name=met>[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1992.165.21 Funerary urn (''hunping''), Western Jin dynasty (265–317), ca. 250–300. China. Earthenware with green glaze. (1992.165.21)] (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)</ref>
Since the last decades of the Han dynasty, the top of ''hunping'' vessels started to be decorated with miniature sculptures of men, animals, birds, etc. Gradually, sculptural compositions became more elaborate, including images of entire buildings.<ref name=dien/>
It is due to an early-[[Jin dynasty (265–420)|Jin dynasty]] ''hunping'', dating to 272, that an early example of a [[bixi (tortoise)|tortoise-born stele]] is known to us.<ref>{{citation|first=Stanley K. |last=Abe |author-link=Stanley K. Abe|publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2002|isbn=0-226-00044-3|title=Ordinary images
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=q7mSgzODyKMC&pg=PA72|pages=71–72}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Haniwa]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{commons category|Hunping}}
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/38422/rec/3 A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics] from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
{{Chinese ceramics}}
[[Category:Chinese pottery]]
[[Category:Death customs]]
[[Category:Jin dynasty (266–420)]]
[[Category:Pottery shapes]]
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