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How did Han dynasty hill jars represent Daoist beliefs?

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Neolithic Banshan pottery: funerary urn — Chinese pottery Painted Pottery funerary urn, Neolithic Banshan phase, c. 3000 bce, from Yangshao, Henan province, China; in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Height 13.2 inches (33.5 cm).

During the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), hill jars were a common form of pottery frequently discovered in graves. These vessels featured covers molded to represent the Daoist "Isles of the Blest" (also known as the Isles of Penglai).12

In Daoist belief, these mythical islands were located in the midst of the sea and were inhabited by immortal beings (xian). The design of the hill jar served as a physical manifestation of these spiritual concepts, reflecting the era's preoccupation with the search for immortality and the desire to behold the immortals.3

This imagery was closely related to the "hill censer" (boshan xianglu) found in Chinese bronzes, which was designed as a miniature, three-dimensional mountain of the immortals. These censers often depicted cosmic waters at the base and were used in religious practices, such as funerary rites associated with the ascent of the soul, to help the deceased reach a heavenly setting.45