Ming: Figure of Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior

What we are seeing here is a very impressive bronze sculpture of Zhenwu, the perfected warrior, a Taoist god that was very important in the Ming dynasty. We see him seated and some of the typical characteristics of Zhenwu you can see here with his hair loose down his shoulders, he's got bare feet and he's wearing a warrior's costume with a large dragon on the centre part of his body. You've got traces of gilding on it and also a lacquer colour on the surface of the statue. So originally it would have been very colourful and also glittering in the light. This sculpture will be located in the section that we deal with the arts of war and the reason for that is we want to show the importance of the divine powers that were referenced in Yongle Emperor's military campaign against his nephew. So Zhenwu has become almost like a god of war in this context and one of the reasons for that is because the Yongle Emperor actually credited Zhenwu for helping him in his military campaign that helped him become the Emperor and after he becomes Emperor in 1403 he commissions the building of a very elaborate temple structure at the top of Mount Wudang in Hubei province and at the peak of that temple structure we have a hall with the bronze statue of Zhenwu that was worshipped there. Zhenwu becomes almost like a protector of the Emperor and also of the This is a very important god for Ming dynasty. We can trace his origins of belief in Zhenwu back to about the 3rd century BC. At the time he was known as Xuanwu or dark warrior and was actually not in human form, he was actually represented as an animal, as a tortoise with a snake coiled around it and it was a symbol of the north. This particular sculpture had some relationship with especially since that it also has a large dragon motif on his costume with clearly five claws which is an imperial symbol as well. This sculpture came into the British Museum collection in 1908. It was donated to the museum by a company called Yamanaka & Co. What's special about this bronze statue is probably one of the biggest bronze statues of Zhenwu, one of the most impressive outside of China.