Lacquered or painted wooden tomb guardian figures with gaping, open mouths, protruding tongues, and deer antlers have been recovered from large tombs of the Warring States Period in the territory of the Kingdom of Chu in Junan and Hubei Provinces and extending into southern Hebei. These frequently have a serpentine body that emerges from a block-like base. Some of these divinities are double, addorsed figures, as one unearthed in tomb no. 1 at Tianxingguan, Jiangling, in Hubei, illustrated by Li Xueqin, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations, New Haven, 1985, p. 350-51. A tomb guardian very similar to the present example, though missing its antlers, was recently recovered from tomb no. 2 at Baoshan, Jingmen, also in Hubei, along with many other fine articles of painted lacquer ware, bronze and jade, illustrated in Wenwu, 1988, no. 5, pl. V:1

Other comparable painted wood examples are discussed and illustrated by Alfred Salmony, see "Antler and Tongue", Artibus Asiae, 1954, pp. 1-57, figs. 1-3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17