The localization of exotic Buddhism——Forms of Hunping (Soul Jar) and its animals and Buddhist images

Abstract

The hunping is an unusual shape of the buried Ming’s vessels. The characteristics of its shape originated from the realization of people’s concepts of life, death and funeral in ancient times, which has a strong local color and carries a variety of research values such as artistic decoration, living customs and religious myths at the same time. This paper will sort out the morphological changes of hunping in different periods, including how it evolved from the wulianguan to hunping, and analyze the reasons why wulianguan & hunping are mostly found in the South in relation to the areas where they were excavated. Then, this paper will discuss and conjecture around the funerary concepts and Buddhist connotations reflected in the Buddha statues and other decorations on hunping. The Buddhist elements on hunping aren’t an indication that Buddhism was widely spread and deeply rooted in people’s minds at that time, but only vaguely existed as part of the idea of the Divine Immortal’s formula.