They included daily utensils, musical instruments, weapons, armor, and intimate objects such as the deceased's cap, can and bamboo mat.
[2] Mingqi also could include figurines, spiritual representations rather than real people,[3] of soldiers, servants, musicians, polo riders, houses, unicorns and horses.
[4] Extensive use of mingqi during certain periods may either have been an attempt to preserve the image of ritual propriety by cutting costs, or it may have a new idea separating the realm of the dead from that of the living.
The deceased person's po was said to remain in the realm of the tomb while the hun ascended to heaven.
Mingqi was thought by these Confucianists to be able to harness the hun and po to give the status of an immortal unto the deceased.