A hunping is a ceramic funerary vessel (funerary urn) often found in the tombs of the Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

  and especially the Six Dynasties

Six Dynasties

Six Dynasties is a collective noun for six Chinese dynasties during the periods of the Three Kingdoms , Jin Dynasty , and Southern and Northern Dynasties ....

 periods of China. It was characteristic for the region south of the Yangtze River

Jiangnan

Jiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...

 within the modern Jiangsu

Jiangsu

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

 and Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

 provinces.

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. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

, the ancients may have hoped that the soul of the deceased would eventually reside in the vessel.

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.

It is due to an early-Jin Dynasty hunping, dating to 272, that an early example of a tortoise-born stele

Bixi (tortoise)

Bixi , also called guifu or baxia , is a stone tortoise, used as a pedestal for a stele or tablet. Tortoise-mounted stelae have been traditionally used in the funerary complexes of Chinese emperors and other dignitaries. Later, they have also been used to commemorate an important event, such as...

is familiar.