Twelve Zodiac Animals: Snake

Subject Matter:

The snake is the sixth animal in the zodiac. Depicted in this rubbing, it is one of the guardians of the tomb of General Kim Yusin, either to protect the tomb from erosion, or to show a high level of honor as Kim Yusin was highly influential in the unification of Korea.

The symbol of the snake has many other associations, including being connected to the elemental power of fire and signifying the time between 09:00 and 10:59. People born in the year of the snake are said to be intelligent and wise, but also materialistic and stress easily.

Physical Description:

This is a rubbing of a figure with the head of a snake dressed in robes. A tongue is protruding from the mouth. A staff or sword is held in the right hand.
 

These rubbings are taken from reliefs of the twelve Chinese zodiac animal deities on the surface of guardian rocks (護石, hoseok ) placed around the edge of the tumulus of General Kim Yusin (金庾信, 595–673) on Songhwasan Mountain (松花山) in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. The twelve animal deities guard the twelve Earthly Branches which can be interpreted as spatial directions. Each animal deity has the face of a certain animal and a body of human. The twelve animal deities occur in the following order according to the Chinese zodiac: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. While the twelve deities on guardian stones placed around royal tumuli from the Unified Silla period are normally clad in armor, those carved on the guardian stones surrounding General Kim’s tomb appear in plain clothes and with weapons.

[Korean Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art (2017), 221]

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