The Quest for Eternity: Chinese Ceramic Sculpture from the People's Republic of China will be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from March 22 to May 24, 1987. Philadelphia will be the only East Coast showing of the first exhibition to be mounted in the West which traces the full evolution of Chinese ceramic sculpture from the Neolithic period (beginning c. 8000 B.C.) to the end of the Ming dynasty (1644 A.D.). Beautifully modeled clay representations of the people and possessions valued in life were commissioned through several millennia for the tombs of emperors and other high-ranking officials to serve the deceased in the afterlife. This selection of exceptional examples from each major period, organized chronologically and grouped by archaeological sites, provides a survey of the stylistic and technical innovations in the potter's art and proves a rich source of information on everyday life and customs.