Hunping

The hunping (Chinese: 魂瓶; pinyin: 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.

[1] It was characteristic of the Jiangnan region in modern southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

[2] 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.

[1] According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the ancients may have hoped that the soul of the deceased would eventually reside in the vessel.

[2] 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.