The handmade and painted statue is one of the Four gods of the Chinese constellations, Black Tortoise or Xuan Wu in Chinese. The Black Tortoise represents the north and the Winter season, which is also called the Black Warrior of the North. It is usually depicted as both a tortoise and a snake, specifically with the snake coiling around the tortoise.
Graceful and charming, every piece of scale on the snake and tortoise is clear-cut and exquisite. The snake lifts head coiling around the lusty tortoise, both showing their sharp teen and looking into each other.
Tortoise is regarded as holy animal since the very ancient age of China. The Oracle Bone Script, a kind of Chinese character used in mid Shang to early Zhou dynasties, was usually carved on the shell of tortoise, since the ancient Chinese people believed that tortoise can deliver the oracle from God to human beings. As the tortoises live in the river and sea, they are esteemed as one of eudemons to charge of water. And it also sees as the sign of long life. On the other hand, snake is regarded as the symbol of procreation. So the combination of tortoise and snake as the Black Tortoise stands for the remarkable sign of copulation and procreation.
