Dark Warrior (Xuan Wu) Han Dynasty, Yangling Museum, Xi'an Xuan Wu is the Daoist directional guardian of the North. According to ancient folk mythology, there were no male turtles, so the female turtle had to be impregnated by a snake. Originally a constellation, this symbol became transformed later on into an anthropomorphic warrior-god.

Yangling is the burial complex of Han Jingdi, one of nine Western Han emperors buried northwest of Xi'an, between the modern city and the airport. Jingdi's burial precinct consisted of his own mounded tomb; the nearby, separate-but-almost-equal mound of his empress; satellite burials of important officials; and a "mausoleum town" to the east that provided five thousand households¹, and their taxes, as required to maintain the site. Jingdi's tomb was oriented to the east; facing the tomb were buried 40,000 pottery attendants² in orderly rows and columns of men, women, and horsemen. The Han tombs were visited as a tourist attraction, even in ancient times.

¹Liu Xujie, in Steinhardt, Chinese Architecture, p. 52.
²Paludan, Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors, p. 34.