seated on a separately cast throne. The god wears a long robe, tied over a large medallion of a confronting, two-horned dragon amid clouds in relief, and a scarf falling over his shoulders; his bare feet protrude from the hem of the robe. Zhenwu’s right hand rests on his knee and his left is positioned with the palm outward and his first finger pointing down. His head is well cast with incised long hair falling in a point, long ears and a composed, slightly smiling expression to his features. Two inscriptions are incised on the back of his robe. The first reads: Jiajing ershi san nian wu yue shi er ri zhao zao (Made by Zhao on the twelfth day of the fifth month of the 23rd year of Jiajing [corresponding to 1544]); and the second: Sheng xiang yi tang gong qi zun (Seven idols in all for the Temple Hall). The rectangular throne is formed of pierced panels and is surmounted by four dragon’s heads with the upper body of a fifth dragon to the top panel. The footrest is surmounted by a tortoise and a snake. The bronze bears a dark surface with remains of lacquer and gilding.

Zhenwu, the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, is a god in the Daoist pantheon and Mount Wudang in Hubei province is sacred to him.

For an informative essay on Zhenwu, tracing his history from the late Warring States period or Han dynasty, when he was known as Xuanwu, Dark Warrior, to his position as the most important god in the Daoist pantheon, see Little, Taoism and the Arts of China, pp. 291–2.

It is rare to find bronze figures of Zhenwu seated on a throne, but for similar figures without thrones, see “The Arts of the Ming Dynasty”, no. 294, pl. 79; Little, op cit,
nos. 103–4, pp. 294–5; and China: Cultuur Vroeger en Nu, no. 190, p. 131. Porcelain figures of Zhenwu on integral thrones are more common: see, for example, Cohn, “The Deities of the Four Cardinal Points in Chinese Art”, pl. 15, figs. c and d; and Wu, Earth Transformed: Chinese Ceramics in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, pp. 131–2, where it is noted that his apparel suggests the imperial robes of the Ming period. The latter figure is also illustrated in Little, op cit, no. 106, p. 297.