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Pair of guardian warriors
Northern Wei dynasty (386–534), 5th century
Earthenware with pigments
Left: h. 15 7/8 in. (39.5 cm); right: h. 17 1/8 in. (43.5 cm)
Excavated at Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 1975
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Museum
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Distinguished by their bulging eyes, astonishing noses, and grimacing expressions, the two guardians are among the thirty-four handmade pottery figures found in a fifth-century tomb in Inner Mongolia in 1975. The guardians, who stand with their feet apart and hands held partially open (suggesting they once held weapons), belong to a tradition of such figures, generally found in pairs, which characterizes Chinese funerary culture, particularly from the late fifth to the eighth century. The use of such figures in a tomb in Inner Mongolia is another indication of the spread of Chinese practices among the Xianbei and other peoples who inhabited the area.
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