Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)
Györgyi FAJCSÁK: The hun soul's wanderings. A pair of Chinese burial jars from the 13th century
dragons 20 are considered the forerunners of the totally undecorated jars of the early Song dynasty. In the early Song time there was only a bird seated on the cover of the jar and a twisting dragon by way of decoration. The earliest tomb in which an example has been found dates back to 1172. It was only from the 12th century onwards that burial jars were excavated from several tombs in Jiangxi province decorated with mythological figures and immortals (both male and female), as well as with twisting dragon, animals and cloud motifs. The popularity of burial jars decorated with animal and human figures was continuous until the 14th century (Fig. 12.). Burial jars of the Song dynasty were high, pillar-shaped vases representing the cosmic mountain, Mt. Kunlun, where the Queen Mother of the West reigned in the realm of immortals. This idea was based on religious Daoism which associated the great mountains and particularly Mt. Kunlun with the theological concept of the realms of the immortals. During the Song dynasty this idea was reflected in the shape and in the decoration of the burial jars. Early burial jars were almost entirely undecorated. A pair of burial jars was excavated in a rectangular tomb (L.: 3.3 m; W.: 1.12 m; H.: 1.12 m) at Nancheng (Jiangxi Province) in 1964-1965 which dated back to the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). 2/ High vases on round feet were decorated with a twisting dragon on their neck and with a bird on the conicalshaped lid of the vase. There were three handles between the neck and the shoulder of the vase. The height of the yellowish glazed items was 47 cm and they were found at the head and at the side of the deceased. Two pairs of burial jars were excavated in another tomb at Qingjiang (also in Jiangxi Province) dated to the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) in 1965. 22 One pair was found in a female tomb, which was decorated with 13 standing figures and above them there were dragon, snake, dog and cloud motifs. Trie other pair of burial jars was found in a male tomb decorated by 12 warriors. The height of the latter one was 82 cm, but the former one was only 67 cm. Burial jars dating back to the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) were higher than the Song items. Decorations remained similar to the Song pieces. Besides animals, warriors and standing female figures became common motifs on the jars. Loops can be found on the necks of the vases. A bird seated on the pointed lid was characteristic element of the decoration, too. 2i Four burial jars which contained paddy were excavated south of Nancheng (Jiangxi Province) and dated back to the Yuan period. 24 These examples and the incised characters (dongcang, 'east storage'; xiku 'west storage') on the neck of some other vases referred to the storage function of the jars. An explanation could be that these granaries served as food for the hun soul on its long journey to heaven. Among the burial jars which are similar to those housed in the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts we can find also several pieces in the famous public collections of the world: the ceramic collections of The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 25 and the Hong Kong Museum of Art 26 , as well as in Taiwanese 2 and Chinese public collections such as Gugong (Palace), Museum, Beijing; the Sackler Gallery, Beijing; the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, etc 2 *. Considering these excavated items and analogies treasured in public collections, our pair of vases in the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts can be dated back to the 13th century. These vases might have been produced in Jiangxi province and might have belonged to a Hungarian private collection before the Second World War. The Museum bought the vases them separately but in the same year, 1958. One was bought in a shop of belonging to the BAV (Hungarian Antiques
