Accession Number
2015/2.139

Title
Tomb Guardian

Artist(s)
Chinese

Artist Nationality
Chinese (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
618-906

Medium & Support
stoneware with glaze

Dimensions
27 in x 6 1/2 in x 8 1/4 in (68.58 cm x 16.51 cm x 20.96 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Professor Walter M. and Nesta R. Spink

Subject matter
This is a glazed stoneware zhenmushou (镇墓兽, tomb guardian beast) mingqi (明器, bright object) of the Tang Dynasty (618-906). 

Relics from one of the golden eras of Chinese art and culture, these fierce beast figures were always placed in pairs in tombs that often contained numerous ceramic figures of humans, animals, and supernatural creatures. Because of their position near the tomb entrance and their ferocious demeanor, such figures are thought to have been sentinels protecting the deceased from evil spirits.

Developed during the Six Dynasties period (222 - 589), spirit beast pairs always included one figure with a human face and one with a bestial face. Such tomb guardians with canine or feline bodies, seated on their haunches with straight forelegs, also were produced in the Tang dynasty.

Chinese believed that after death, the soul was freed from the body and could roam around the universe without hindrance. Family members did not like the idea of powerful ancestors, particularly those with unsettled grievances, wandering around unrestrained, so guardians were posted at the doorways of tombs to keep spirits from getting out as well as from coming in. Wandering spirits would have to think twice about passing through portals watched over by these fantastic hoofed creatures with menacing bestial or human faces and flaming manes or serrated wings. These composite creatures of clay, known as qitou (earth spirit) in Chinese, must have touched the eighth- century imagination the way sci-fi cyborgs of titanium and modern technology have captured ours in the twenty-first millennium.

Physical Description
This stoneware figure of an anthropomorphic form consists of a lion-like body and paws, wings, human face with beard, and central flame-like horns and spikes extending down the back. The figure is covered in a straw-colored or light greenish-brown glaze. 

Primary Object Classification
Ceramic

Primary Object Type
funerary sculpture

Additional Object Classification(s)
Ceramic

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
ceramic (material)
figures (representations)
grave goods
stoneware (pottery)