Marine animal ornament

Although the "marine animals" in the decorative patterns have different postures, they are all big and round animal images. According to textual research, marine animals are actually "lions" in ancient times, and the ancients called them "sisters-in-law". Two ya stone beast: "Sister-in-law is like a tiger cat, eating tigers and leopards." Guo Pu's Note: "Even lions go out to the Western Regions." During the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, after Zhang Qian's voyage to the Western Ocean, precious animals such as lions were introduced to Chinese mainland, and animal pens were widely set up for nobles to enjoy. The image of the lion in the design of Tang mirror can't be described in detail because of the narrow painting area, so the rough relief technique is used to highlight the characteristics of the lion and exaggerate the head to make the shape vivid. In ancient books, the lion images in decorative patterns are prefixed with the word "sea", which does not mean that they are produced in the sea. The word "sea" here expresses a regional concept in ancient China. Because these animals are not owned by China, but originated from the Western Regions, the word "sea" is added before their names.