Did the Early Chinese Preserve Corpses? A Reconsideration of Elite Conceptions of Death

Abstract

This article challenges the standard view that early, and especially, Han, Chinese elites attempted to preserve the corpse at death in order to ensure the post-mortem survival of the deceased's po (corporeal) soul. I will argue that the standard interpretation derives less from extant written records of mortuary practices and more from analogies sought by scholars between ancient Chinese and Egyptian notions of the afterlife. More importantly, the standard view has suffered from a propensity to interpret early material artifacts using much later medieval sources. Examining the archaeological and literary record, I propose that the early Chinese elites took for granted the impermanence of the body.

Human body preservation – old and new techniques

“…In China deceased people were obviously embalmed (Brown, ), with the main example of Xin Zhui, the Lady of Dai of the Western Han Dynasty, who died between 187 and 145 BC (Chunhong, ). Her corpse was found in 1971, when workers were digging an air raid shelter near the city of Changsha.…”

Exotica, Fashion and Immortality: The New Use of Gold in Han Dynasty China (206bce–ce220)

“…Some mentioned that these suits were aids to achieving immortality besides reflecting status, and that the bi-disc usually set at the top of the head was probably for the soul to rise to the immortal realm (Erickson 2012;Gu 1996, 135-40). For other critical examinations of the protective function of the suits, see Brown (2002); Miller (2020, 163-5). 19.…”