CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

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A group of twelve painted pottery zodiac
animals
Height 38.5 (15 Vs)-41.5 (16 3 A)
Tang Dynasty, eighth century CE
From an unnamed tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province
Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an
This group of figures, representing the twelve animals
of the zodiac, reportedly was excavated in 1955
from a Tang dynasty site in Xi'an. Little has been
published about the circumstances in which they
were found, and little comparative material exists
to define the nature of the tomb or the status of
the individual for whom they were made. Although
painted rather than glazed (glaze was the preferred
finish of higher-status sancai pottery), the scale
and quality of the objects suggests that they were
made for a member of the middle ranks of the
Tang aristocracy.
Numerology and astrology have been an integral
to Chinese culture from at least the beginnings
of its written history. Associations of animals with
directions, times of the year, certain constellations,
and specific qualities were central in iheyinyang
wuxing (Yin and Yang and Five Elements) beliefs of
the Han dynasty. The appearance of certain animals
played an important role in Chinese beliefs regarding
omens and portents and reflected a complex
and evolving system of belief that spanned the Han
dynasty, through the Period of Disunity, and into
Tang dynasty.
The origin of the twelve animals of the Chinese
zodiac, however, remains somewhat obscure. Their
earliest appearance as funerary sculptures in northern
Chinese tombs dates to the latter part of the
Six Dynasties period (sixth century). Almost all
early examples represent human bodies, in kneeling
position, with animal heads; no full set has yet
been found in a tomb from that period. The earliest
known twelve-piece sets date from the Tang dynasty
but are relatively rare; sets of zodiac animals become
common only later in the Tang dynasty and
during the Song period. These figures from Xi'an
are unusual in their depiction of standing figures;
their height as well distinguishes them from other,
contemporary examples.
Some scholars have theorized that sets of
zodiac animals appeared in northern China as a
result of contact with western and Central Asian
peoples. Certainly, the animal zodiac constituted
a well-developed iconographical element in these
498 | EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA