linguistic:paraphrasing
Monuments

After consolidating the Tang Empire, Emperor Taizong ordered six large stone panels, known as Zhaoling Liujun (昭陵六駿), to be carved with the portraits of his favorite horses. These were the horses he had ridden in overcoming his rivals and securing the borders of the country.

Since I engaged in military campaigns, those war chargers which carried me rushing on the enemy and breaking the line, and which rescued me from perils, their true images should be portrayed on stone and be placed left and right of my tomb to demonstrate the righteousness of "curtain and cover."

Emperor Taizong further composed laudatory poems for each of the six horses depicted in the stone reliefs. Constructed between 636 and 649 CE, the stone reliefs "exemplify the beauty of early Tang sculpture; the images are realistic yet powerful, created with simplicity and matured craftsmanship."

After Taizong's death, the monuments were situated along the east and west sides of the "spirit path" at the North Gate of the tomb complex named Zhaoling or Zhao Mausoleum. The six stone horse reliefs remained at the Mausoleum until the early twentieth century, when four were removed to the Beilin Museum in Xi'an, China and two were sold and subsequently donated to the Penn Museum in Philadelphia in 1921.