Western Han dynasty (206--AD 25)
Height 48 cm, Width 33 cm
Excavated at Beimang township, Xingyang, Henan province 1988

Around 200 BCE, Han’s people loved to adorning the afterlife with polychromed murals, pictorial stone or bricks, and religious-themed funeral goods. This hu vessel for burial in the Han dynasty, covered by polychrome painting, has a seated monster-like body with its two claws clenching a fish, seemingly in an attempt to swallow it. And the monster-shaped vessel body is flanked by two birds who stand on the shoulders of the monster, and each turns its head backward forming a perforation with its beak and body; and each bird has its long tail connected with the head of another bird in the lower part. With an ingeniously design, and a frightening and weird appearance, this hu vessel is a rarity in the contemporary archaeological finds from the Han tombs.