The twelve zodiac animals in pottery painting — dragon

[The twelve zodiac signs in pottery painting — dragon]

The twelve zodiac signs in pottery painting — dragon, Tang Dynasty, 24 cm high and 6.5 cm wide
The twelve zodiac signs refer to the twelve zodiac signs of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig. The bamboo slips of the “Book of the Sun” unearthed in the Sleeping Tiger Land in Yunmeng, Hubei Province, and written before the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty became emperor, are the earliest known records of the twelve zodiac signs, but they are not completely consistent with the later ones. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the prevalence of the theory of yin, yang and five elements, people gradually began to use the twelve zodiac signs to represent the twelve local branches of the ancient calendar, and combined them into the Zi Rat, Chou Niu, Yin Hu, Mao Rabbit, Chen Long, Si Snake, Meridian Horse, Wei Yang, Shen Monkey, You Ji, Xu Gou, and Hai Pig, which not only indicate the Gan Zhi year, but also indicate the phase of a certain year. The murals in the tomb of Lourui Tomb in Taiyuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the four images appeared together with the twelfth hour and immortals. The twelve zodiac animals in the Sui and Tang dynasties can be divided into three types: one is a human body with animal face, wearing a robe, hands hanging down or holding a wat plate intersecting in front of the chest, wearing the same clothes as the civilian figurines, and the head is carved into 12 kinds of animals; The second is a human figure, standing or sitting, wearing a cage crown, a wide-sleeved robe, and holding the Chinese zodiac in his arms; The third is animals. The twelve zodiac signs on the top of the epitaph of Li Siben and Li Jingyou in Yanshi, Henan Province, and the stone strips on the side of the coffin of the Ambu couple in Luoyang are all animal prototypes, which are simple, vivid and interesting. Such decorative themes are most common in Sui and Tang stone epitaphs. According to the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty, from the ninth grade to the first grade can be buried with the twelve zodiac animals after death, which plays the role of tomb control. The arrangement is generally dominated by rats in the north, turning from north to east to south and then turning to west. The rats and horses form the meridian (north-south) line. This is a red pottery body, painted with white powder, with a dragon head, wearing a long-sleeved robe, standing with a square supporting plate under the foot