ABSTRACT
Attentions paid to the dead derived from mythology, religious observance and philosophical theory. Literature of the pre-imperial period reveals something of the early beliefs and practices, many of which survived until the Ch'in and Han ages. In discriminating between recognised motives it is of some importance to realise that the Chinese themselves did not necessarily believe that they were mutually exclusive. The provision of extravagant funerals was no new practice introduced during the Ch'in and Han periods. The painting shows the dead man riding aloft on a dragon, on his way through wind and wave to a better realm. In addition the dead were sometimes equipped with figures of those who could amuse them in the next world, either as musicians or as acrobats. Excavations reveal how attempts of a very different nature were sometimes made to provide for the well-being of the dead.
