Paintings on ceramic tile from the Chinese Han
Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD); these figures, cloaked in Han Chinese robes,
represent guardian spirits of certain divisions of day and night. On
the left is the guardian of midnight (from 11 pm to 1 am) and on the
right is the guardian of morning (from 5 to 7 am). From the National
Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Source: Robert Temple’s The Genius of China (1986, New York: Simon and Schuster)
