GUARDIAN DEITY OF THE TOMB

Description According to some scholars, this demonic character depicts an exorcist expelling demons and plagues from the tomb. Others instead consider him as a deity charged with protecting both the deceased and his burial (zhenmushen or zhenmuyong). The statue stands tall, with its stubby, spread legs that are disproportionate to the long, thin body with small arms. His arms are folded, with his hands in front of his chest clutching a snake: snakes, in Han imagination, are devourers of corpses and must be expelled from tombs. The statue's head is the most striking part of the ensemble, with two large, upright pig ears on either side of the head, three rounded horns above the wrinkled forehead, the eyes elongated in slight relief under arched eyebrows in more marked relief, the large nose, the open mouth with two sharp fangs, and finally the hanging tongue forming a long, flat ribbon on the chest.