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Why were Tang tomb figurines made in such large quantities?

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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).

Tang tomb figurines were produced in such vast quantities because they served as mingqi, or funerary objects, intended to provide the deceased with a familiar material environment in the afterlife, thereby assuring their immortality. These figurines acted as symbolic substitutes for the servants, retinue, and daily necessities that were once sacrificed or buried with the deceased in earlier times.12

By placing models of servants, musicians, dancers, animals, and even entire architectural structures into the tomb, the living sought to recreate the deceased's earthly life within the grave. The popularity of this custom during the Tang dynasty was so pervasive that the government attempted to implement sumptuary laws to restrict the number and size of these figurines, though these efforts were largely unsuccessful. While many of these items were mass-produced using molds, their quality varied significantly, ranging from crude pieces for the less affluent to magnificent, large-scale glazed figures for the influential.134