Pottery Towers of Han Dynasty China

Some of the most remarkable burial objects (mingqi) from early Chinese tombs are the tall pottery towers (taolou) created during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.). In the prevailing view, these pottery towers, along with other architectural mingqi, have been considered a critical source of information about the architecture of the Han period. While there is truth in this view, a significantly different interpretation of the architectural burial objects emerges from this comprehensive analysis. This dissertation presents a history of scientifically-excavated pottery towers and examines the complex and, sometimes, ambiguous meanings of the towers in relation to Han culture-its artisans, patrons, and religion. The study has established that pottery towers were made from the end of the Western Han (first century B.C.E.), attaining greatest popularity during the turbulent years of the late Eastern Han (second century C.E.), and continuing for several decades into the third century C.E. A total of 119 towers of the Han and immediate post-Han periods have been identified and categorized by regional styles. Artisans who made the pottery towers were anonymous craftsmen-working in local workshops away from the sphere of influence of the court, but utilizing the court factory techniques of mass production and modular construction. The patrons of the Western Han period came from a small corps of the middle levels of the elite, and during the Eastern Han from a very large segment of the nation's elite. By the Eastern Han dynasty (first and second centuries C.E.) this group included high-level bureaucrats, landowners, merchants, the military, and even one royal prince. In the interaction of artisans and patrons, local traditions, not centrally-controlled court traditions, largely determined the design of the works. Accordingly, the iconography of the pottery towers can be identified as non-scholastic in origin, with two main subjects-the mingtang (Bright Hall, a traditional ritual structure with cosmological significance) and the taicang (Great Granary, a building symbolizing food and wealth). Both have. been characterized as popular utopian visions, expressing hopes for a bountiful and harmonious existence in the afterlife.