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Eastern Han Dynasty, 25 AD - 220 AD
Sichuan Provincial Museum, Chengdu
These tomb tiles portray Xiwangmu, a goddess of immortality. The Queen Mother of the West sits upon a throne, flanked by two symbolic animals: Tiger (east, spring, yang) and Dragon (west, autumn, yin). She is surrounded by attendants, including a nine-tailed fox, two seated women, a leaping frog, a male attendant, and a three-tailed crow. In the more elaborate tile to the right (which was displayed in the museum exhibit, Daoism and the Arts of China, pp. 154-5), her throne includes a vase and canopy, and she is also attended by a hare on the right who presents a candelabra; the standing attendant on the left is stirring the elixir of immortality in a cauldron, with a pole that is surmounted by some sort of standard. Both tiles were unearthed in Chengdu.
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