Dragons in Ancient China
 

Dragons in Ancient China
Dragons in Chinese architecture, paintings, and culture

Dragon occupies a very important postion in Chinese mythology. It shows up in arts, literature, poetry, architecture, songs, and many aspects of the Chinese conscience. The origin of Chinese dragons is unknown, but centainly pre-dates the written history.

Wine Jar, Ming Dynasty, early 16-th century
These brilliantly colored large stoneware vessels are one of the most popular wares of the Ming period. The lively design features two pairs of dragons pursuing the flaming jewel amidst sea acn cloud motifs. - From Two Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics by V. Reynolds,P.H. Curtis, and Y.F. Pei

Vase, Chia Ching reign (1532-1455)
Porcelain, with five-color enameled decoration of imperial five clawed dragons sporting amid waves. Art Treasures of the Peking Museum.

Gilded bronze dragon
Tang Dynasty (AD618-906). Excavated 1975, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.
Shaanxi History Museum

Royal Dragon Robes of Emperors

A portrait of Emperor Tai-Tsung, Tang Dynasty (626-649). Both the dragon motif and the yellow color are restricted to the royalty only.

The "100 boys" jacket of Empress Xiao Jing is embroidered with figures of dragons, bamboo, flowers, and 100 boys playing games, flying kites, catching birds, and pretending to be officials. Empress Xiao Jing is a comtemporary of Elizabeth I of England.

Painting of Emperor Chien-Lung [Qianlong] , Ching [Qing] Dynasty (1736-1795).

Robes

Dragon robe
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Ching [Qing] Dynasty (1821-50).

Dragon robe of a Mandarian
The Rising Celestial Dragon. Details of a mandrarin robe of embroidered silk, Chia-ching period (1796-1820), Qing Dynasty.

Dragon robe silk
Chuba, Qing Dynasty (17-th century). Metropolitan Museum, New York
Emperor KangXi at his desk
Emperor KanXi of Ching Dynasty. This is his favorite location to pose for a portrait. Peking Museum, Beijing.

Red Dragon
A pair of dragons on a painted lacquer brush-pot, Wan-li period (1573-1620), Ming dynastry, h. 13 in.

Nine Dragon Wall
A very popular tourist site in Beijing is this Nine-Dragon Wall in BaiHai Park. After hundreds of years, the colors of the ceramic tiles are just as brilliant.

The wall was built in 1756. It is 21m long, about 15m high and i.2m thick. It is faced with 424 7-color ceramic tiles.
At the center of the wall, there is a giant dragon, flanged by four dragons on each side. In addition to these nine large dragons, the wall is covered from edge to edge with many smaller dragons. In all, there are 635 dragons.

Jade Coiled Dragon
Jade coiled dragon, Hongshan Culture (c. 4700-2920 B.C.)
Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Shenyang

Nine Sons of Dragon-And where to find them.
Tales from the Land of Dragons <http://boston.com/mfa/chinese/>-Boston Museum of Arts
Dragon and Phoenix <http://www.chinavista.com/experience/dragon/dragon.html>
Tricia's Chinese Water Dragon page <http://www.icomm.ca/dragon/>
Have you ever seen a Chinese water dragon before
Chinese alligator sinensis <http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herp...s/csp_asin.htm>
Celestial Dragons <http://www.crystalinks.com/chinadragons.html>

Thanks for all the dragon links, Billy!

One other part of Chinese culture that I enjoy is the game Mah Jong ... many Americans think that this is only a tile-matching solitaire game, but there are a few people who play the real four-player game. I don't play very well, but I have a lot of fun. Do you or members of your family play this game? Is it played mostly by men or women or both?

Isn't there something about the number of toes (5 or 7) that dragons have?:confused:

If anyone has a chance to visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, do it and thank me later. Among other things they have a tremendous collection of Egyptian and Chinese pieces. I loved the netsuke collection also.

Hey, that explains why early European maps had an area to the east that was labeled "Thar be Dragons":D

I will search
 

I will replay you when I get one answer. Ok? There are many stories about China dragon.

China Mah Jong
 

The Mah Jong game has a long history in China. In old time the tich have nothing to entertain. They invented the gambling game to paly. Ago the whole families stayed together to paly. Sometimes some friends did that. Now it is still popular in Chinese area, China, HongKong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia. Some people use it as one gambling tool. So the government prohibit people use it as gambling. Some people would lose all their possession to rob of other people. It is very funny to entertain, not gambling. Both women and men may do it. It is easy to learn. Some children can paly it. I do it bad. I am afraid that I will paly gambling with it so I paly it little.

The word you want is play not paly.:D

I would not like palying
 

I like reading books, not paly it. I do it just for entertaining my freinds. In my soul I don't like the gambling games.

Awww...
 

Last year I was working at a museum, and they did an exhibits on dragons from around the world as cultural icons, myths, "real" dragons (plants and animals named after or resembling dragons), marketing tools, art, etc.

It is a shame that it was last year, though. This information would have been wonderful to have for the exhibit. Very interesting stuff. :)

(we did have some trouble tracking down Central and South American dragons, though, not counting Quetzalcoatl.)

Re: I would not like palying
 

That's why I stay away from Las Vegas. I really stink at gambling!

Dagon in the west
 

I heard that the west don't like the dragon. They like tiger. We say the "Four Asia Dagron", but they say "Four Asia Tigers". Dragon is the east totem. What do you thjink about dragon? How many people like it? Why don't like the dragon?

I like dragons.

I like tigers too.

I would be interested in knowing what are the totems of all four directions, and also if these directions also have an element associated with them. (in some western magical systems (el, I'm leaving the K out because it might be confusing to Billy) the elements of the directions are East-Air, South-Fire, West-Water, North-Earth. I know that in the Chinese calendar there are wood and metal elements.)

As far as dragons go, I like them very much! I also like tigers and understand that there are different properties to their energies. I also know about the Phoenix. Is the dragon male and phoenix female, or is it the other way around? (there were dragon and phoenix hangings at my friend's wedding. he married a woman from China).

Dragons are very popular in America. You find dragon images in many forms, often on tee shirts, statues of all sizes, needlework projects, and I have seen many dragon tattoos.

China six directions
 

The six directions come from the China old "Book of Changes". It is very difficult to understand. I don't read it, just know we have the six directions. I can not express the meaning for you.The culture is complexed and profound. Japan, Korea, Singapore are all popular the culture. I will reply you if I get the information.

Re: Dagon in the west
 

Maybe it's that old St. George thing?
http://www.nainsfous.kicks-ass.org/g...and-dragon.gif ;)