The Chinese consider the Dragon to be the strongest of mythological creatures and the most prominent member of their array of auspicious beasts. Most people are familiar with its form, but no one has seen a real dragon in the flesh.
The Dragon is an important component of Chinese culture and, down the ages, has served to symbolise the pursuit of fine items and prayerful yearning for them. From the earliest times, it was absorbed into the conventions of daily life and formed an “auspicious culture”. Its material manifestation was as the “dragon” totem, reflected in vernacular customs and different genres of artistic creation, for example, painting, utensils, architecture, and clothing.
According to the explanation of the character for “dragon” given by Xu Shen (58–148 CE) of the Eastern Han dynasty in his Shuowen jiezi (Speaking of text and explaining characters): [The Dragon is] “the epitome of scaly creatures. It can live in darkness or light and be slender, massive, short, or long. At the spring equinox, it ascends to Heaven; at the autumn equinox, it sinks to the depths.” This indicates that the Dragon can adopt a multitude of guises and respond to the requirements of the time, ploughing the clouds and scattering the rain, the arbiter of agricultural production, with which the livelihoods of the common people are intimately linked. The usual image of the Dragon invoked nowadays is a combination of the body parts of nine different animals: rabbit eyes, deer horns, ox mouth, camel head, clam-like abdomen, tiger paws, eagle talons, fish scales, and snake body. Its magical powers are manifold: it can exorcise evil and cause happiness to descend, and it receives the enthusiastic adoration of all.
Carpet with nine five-taloned imperial dragons
Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
A brightly-coloured red tufted carpet depicting nine five-taloned imperial dragons, which should be used in palace or palace during imperial visits. Five-taloned dragons of this type is noble and symbolize imperial power, while the Chinese character for the numeral ‘‘nine’’ (pronounced ‘‘jiu’’) connotes ‘‘everlasting’’ (pronounced ‘‘chang-chang-jiu-jiu’’).
Tripod censer and cover with dragon handles decorated in gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel
Qing dynasty, 18th century
Supported on three tapered legs the compressed globular body decorated with an elaborate scroll of lotus blooms issuing foliage against a turquoise-ground, flanked on both sides by dragon handles, the rounded cover pierced with swastika medallions, further surmounted by a dragon- head knop.
In Chinese mythology, the phoenix is the most beautiful auspicious bird, and in its earliest form, it was also a clan totem of distant antiquity that possessed mysterious qualities. Legend has it that when the phoenix appeared, the myriad varieties of birds would flock together, and the fortunes of the empire would greatly prosper. With the world under Heaven (China) at peace, it was as if the phoenix and Dragon, of equal status, were situated at opposite ends of a hall, offering salutations to one other.
In another legend, the feng phoenix is the male, while the huang phoenix is the female. Taken together, the “feng-huang“ phoenix causes happiness. Every five hundred years, bearing the burden of the accumulated karma of humankind, it plunges into a fiery furnace and so ends its life in exchange for rejuvenating Auspiciousness and happiness in the human sphere. Finally, by bathing in fire, it obtains rebirth, and this is called “the nirvana of feng-huang“, which symbolises an unyielding and unflinching resilience of spirit. For this reason, feng-huang is also employed as a metaphor for the sage.
Tray with contrasting colours (doucai) depicting the characters in the story “Playing flute to attract phoenixes”
Kangxi period, Qing dynasty
This tray has a white glaze as its ground. The central portion of the tray uses the doucai technique of painting in contrasting colours to depict the characters in the story”Playing flute to attract phoenixes”. This tale comes from the chapter ‘‘Xiaoshi’’ (a person’s name) in Liu Xiang’s Lie xian zhuan (Biographies of assembled celestial beings). The central portion of this tray depicts just this very story of Xiaoshi and Nongyu attracting phoenixes.
This tray has a regular form and a general shape. Its roughcast is thin, and its glaze is lustrous jade-like white. Decorative patterns are crisp and clear, their style loftily elegant, and the contrast between red and blue is marked. The overall connotation of the depiction is one of happy celebration and the auspiciousness of wealth and rank.
Legend has it that in the epoch of Duke Mu of Qin (705 B.C. – 621 B.C.) in the Spring and Autumn period, there lived an individual called Xiaoshi who was adept at playing the vertical xiao bamboo flute. Whenever he played, birds such as peacocks and white cranes were attracted by its sound. Duke Mu had a daughter named Nongyu, who also loved music, so Duke Mu gave her hand in marriage to Xiaoshi. After the wedding, husband and wife accompanied one another, playing music. Xiaoshi taught Nongyu to play the xiao, which attracted phoenixes to stop on top of their house. Duke Mu had a phoenix terrace built especially for them, and after husband and wife had lived there for several years, one day, they flew away with the phoenixes and became celestial beings.
A crab apple-style teapot with handle, of painted enamel on copper decorated with coloured patterns of flowers and grasses, connected to a burner
Qianlong period, Qing dynasty
‘Painted enamel on copper’ is also called ‘Guangdong enamel’ and is a technique by which enamel glaze paints are painted onto a copper frame and pictures thereby produced, and after firing, they combine into a composite art form; painted enamel is also called ‘Western porcelain’.
Painting coloured enamel has its earliest origins in the fifteenth century in the European region of Flanders at the junction of the three modern countries Belgium, France, and Holland. Manufactured goods of this type came into China by sea via Guangzhou at the end of the seventeenth century after the Court of the emperor Kangxi relaxed prohibitions on seaborn trade. In the twenty-second year of Kangxi’s reign (1683), Western missionaries offered tributary gifts of items of enamel painted on gold frames, and the emperor was greatly attracted by these. Because in the Qing dynasty, Guangzhou was the only gateway open to the outside world, many non-Chinese were able to follow this route into China, which caused Guangzhou’s manufacture of enamel to retain a high standard of craftsmanship throughout and to occupy a pivotal position. At that time, Guangzhou was the most prolific producer of painted enamel, and not only were there largescale painted enamel commercial concerns and workshops, but Guangzhou also transported craftsmen specialising in painted enamel to the imperial court in the interior. Guangzhou and the enamel workshop of the Artisan Craft Office 造辦處 of the Court in Beijing began to carry out experiments in firing items of this kind, and after some ten years, finished articles were successfully produced. In the fifty-eighth year of Kangxi’s reign (1719), French craftsmen were specially despatched to the imperial court to guide the craftsmen there in painting enamel paints on a copper frame, and from this moment onwards, many more painted enamel vessels of a Chinese style were produced. In the wake flourishing of East-West trade, the demand for these products increased, and Guangzhou became an important Chinese centre for the manufacturing of enamel goods painted on metal frames, and in terms of quality, quantity, and variety of colour, was consistently in the front rank.
Confucius said: “When the Son of Heaven (the emperor) promulgates virtuous morality, this will cause peacefulness to prevail, and the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise, and dragon will be the first to present their auspiciousness for its sake’’, the meaning expounded here is that when four kinds of auspicious creatures appear—the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise, and dragon—they represent that the world under Heaven is at peace. This sentence is recorded in the ancient book Kong congzi (Collected essays of Confucian philosophers), from which the phrase “the dragon and phoenix present auspiciousness’’ was extracted and written more than two thousand years ago.
Wine pot with famille rose dragon and phoenix
Daoguang period, Qing dynasty
The entire teapot has a white glaze as its ground. In blue and white with other colours added, it imitates the style of wine flasks furnished with semicircular handles opposite the spout in the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty. The tip of the spout itself is moulded with a chicken’s head in red glaze as the mouth of the vessel and is thus a combination of form and spirit. The handle is embellished with a brushstroke of red glaze, which matches the spout and adds a further layer of inventive craftsmanship. One face of the body uses blue, green, and red glazes to depict a huge dragon with fangs opened and claws brandished and coiled in the air. Surrounding this on all sides are cloud patterns, gorgeously dense in colour. The other face depicts, in many hues, a brightly-coloured phoenix, lovely in form and gaudy in colour, soaring and wheeling in the sky. The phoenix body is in a yellow glaze, while its head and wings are blue, and its tail is richly multicoloured.
The dragon and phoenix are both auspicious spirits. A matching combination of dragon and phoenix is called in the vernacular: “the dragon and phoenix present auspiciousness”. The auspiciousness is for what one mainly desires: the country security, the people at peace, happiness and health, and a joyful marriage for a hundred years.
A pair of cups with famille verte dragon and phoenix
Jiaqing period, Qing dynasty
The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation, symbolises authority; while peonies connote wealth and rank. On porcelain, the typical pattern shows a phoenix, known as queen of the birds above the peony. However, during the Guangxu period, Empress Dowager Cixi, who saw herself as an emperor, introduced a new motif with a dragon above the peony. Rock carving of her mausoleum also reflects this shift, with the decorative pattern “the phoenix above, the dragon below’’ were carved.
