Roofline Ornaments - 10

Along the unions between the roof panels, near the corner, a row of small figures is placed. These are often made of glazed ceramic and form an outward marching procession. Here we see the imperial yellow glaze reserved for the emperor. Wenshou are zoomorphic (animal-form) roof ornaments, that occupy the roof corners of nearly every building in the Forbidden City. The lead figure is an immortal riding a phoenix, or an official riding a chicken (there are several folkloric explanations of this character, none of them convincing). The back figure is a horned dragon, a qilin. In between are a (usually) odd number of figures, three in this case; the more figures, the more important the building.