An animal and bird representing hero

An animal and a bird are carved from a jade pebble suffused with white mottling and brown streaks. It has been synthetically enhanced to resemble a piece of jade that has been buried for a long time. The crouching animal, with its tail curled around it, resembles the mythical animal bixie with a single horn. It has bulging eyes, spirals for ears and eyebrows, a squared-off mouth, and ridges on its spine. The bird has curled wing feathers in the tradition of Han and Tang (618–907) birds. Its long tail, indicated by hatchings, rests on the animal's tail.

Traditionally, the eagle (ying) and bear (xiong) are used as a pictorial pun to represent "hero," or yingxiong. This creation of the early 1900s, however, is very different from the older representations. The craftworker chose a mythical beast to represent the bear and a sweet-looking bird to portray the fierce eagle, and aged the piece artificially.