Descending to the Underworld and Ascending to Immortality: The Dual Imagination of the Afterlife as Seen in Han Dynasty Pictorial Bricks

Han pictorial bricks present two distinct imaginations of the afterlife: “descending to the underworld” and “ascending to immortality”. The “descending to the underworld” scene emphasizes the permanent enjoyment of wealth and comfort by the deceased's soul in the netherworld, while the “ascending to immortality” scene depicts the dynamic process of the deceased transforming into an immortal and ascending to Kunlun. These two depictions of the afterlife are common themes in Han art, reflecting the core concepts of Han cosmology and views on life and death. The universe centered on the human world, the dualistic concept of life and death with the soul and body, and the social consensus that the soul retains awareness and agency after death are the foundational sources of Han pictorial art's development. On this basis, the “descending to the underworld” scene was directly influenced by Han Neo-Confucian ideas of loyalty and filial piety, reflecting the governance philosophy of embedding moral education in funerary art. The “ascending to immortality” scene provides a visual representation of the evolution of immortal beliefs from the pre-Qin to the Han period, illustrating the transformation of “humans” into “immortals”, the formation of the logical chain between Kunlun Mountain, the Queen Mother of the West, and the elixir of immortality, and the concept of body dissolution as its theoretical core. The full affirmation of the human subject in Han pictorial art signifies the near-completion of the secularization process that characterized the sociocultural transformation from the pre-Qin to the Han period.