
Chinese Funerary Figurines
Ancient people believed in the immortality of the soul and its continued existence in the afterlife. In early antiquity, it was not uncommon to bury humans alive alongside the dead. During the Shang (ca. 1600–ca. 1100 BCE) and Zhou (ca. 1100–256 BCE) period, the nobility generally lived a luxurious life; in order to main this lifestyle after death, a large number of the deceased’s slaves would be interred alive alongside their master.

The Art of Chinese Painting
The history of Chinese painting dates back over five thousand years when petroglyphs, pottery ornamentations, and pictures incised on utensils first appeared. Paintings on silk that were made two thousand years ago during the Warring States period (476–221 BCE) have been unearthed which demonstrate that a mature style of Chinese painting was already developed at this early date.