PEASANT-FOOT SOLDIER

Description The man stands upright, his stubby legs slightly apart and his small arms not detached from his body: his left arm is stretched out at his side, his hand holding a sort of paddle-shaped sieve without a handle; his right hand is folded in front of his chest and holds the end of the long handle of a spade, resting on the ground and close to his right leg. Statues of peasant-soldiers are common in Han grave towards the end of the dynasty, when wealthy Sichuan landowners became more independent from the central government and felt free from strict funerary protocol. These figures represented the peasants who worked on the deceased's manor lands and, when needed, also performed military functions.