Zhenmushou

As we can see, this is a sculpture of a beast, whose face looks like a lion, with two horns in its head and dressed an armor. It looks really horrible, right? It's name is zhenmushou in chinese and be translated to Tomb Guardian Creature. And we can get some information about this sculpture from its name. Yes, it's used to protect the soul of the tomb's host and the funerary objects because its fearful outward and can frighten the demons. The other function of it is said to guide the dead's soul to the sky because there are some connections between zhenmushou with the dragon. And we can see this zhenmushou was made in Tang dynasty. It is more than one thousand years old. So the initial color of it faded from red to khaki. The first zhenmushou in the history appeared even another thousand years earlier than Tang dynasty. It's the warring States Period of China. And it disappeared after Tang dynasty. It was very popular in the whole Tang dynasty. The well-made, magnificent and eloquent zhenmushou is not only a cultural treasures of China, but also a representative of the Tang dynasty's culture.