The artifacts in the Colville collection are predominantly tomb relics. They
demonstrate the cultural beliefs of different eras of Chinese civilization:
their beliefs about life and death, spirits and deities. They let us gauge the
social status of the occupant and the person’s way of life, and they help us
piece together a history. Tomb art provides us a very interesting view of
Chinese society, at large.

        The array of tomb art in the Colville collection ranges from an intricate dui to
demonic tomb guardians. Each of these pieces symbolizes a bygone era, an era in
which the afterlife was just as important as life in this world. These
furnishings were placed in the tomb to provide for the bodily soul, the po, in
the afterlife. The journeys to Penglai Island or Kunlun Mountain, Daoist
paradises were mapped out on bronzes so the ethereal soul, the hun, could find
its way to paradise.