First depictions of the Chinese dragon

Until recently, I had taken the form of the Chinese dragon for granted. My zodiac sign had always been that auspicious beast with a camel’s head, a rabbit’s eyes, a snake’s neck, a carp’s scales, a tiger’s paws, a cow’s ears, a clam’s belly, an eagle’s claws, and a deer’s horn. The dragon is everywhere — on porcelain plates, on temple pillars, on tattoo stickers sold at the night market. But I never stopped to think: Why does it look like that? Who invented its form?

Three years ago, I finally learned about the first evidential visualization of the dragon. While working at Taiwan’s National Palace Museum, I was introduced to this small jade artifact, less than half the size of my palm, called the Jade Pig-dragon from about five thousand years ago (Figure 1). This piece turned out to forever impact the symbol’s artistic manifestation.

Figure 1.
Jade Pig-dragon
Late Hongshan culture, Neolithic age (3500–3000 BC)
h. 7.8, w. 5.65, thickest 2.6 cm

Before then, “dragon” was just a notion of power and dignity–there was no consensus on its depiction. Meanwhile, Chinese hunters and fishermen wore jade ear ornaments like the ones in Figure 2. These earrings started out tiny but grew in size over time. Residents of the Hongshan culture (around today’s Inner Mongolia) were imaginative enough to expand the earrings into the plump and embryo-like style of the Jade Pig-dragon. This new form featured well-polished, coiling bodies resembling the divine dragons of myth.

Figure 2.
Chalcedony jue earrings
Beiyinyangying culture, Neolithic age (4000–3000 BC)
Left: h. 2.8, w. 3.1, d. 1.1 cm
Right: h. 2.5, w. 2.8, d. 0.8 cm

I stood in front of the Jade Pig-dragon, fascinated to see the transition from pure animism into a concrete, defined form. This was the historical moment that kick-started the Chinese dragon’s evolution. Because people could visualize the notion, they were able to develop it. We see the numerous dragon artworks that we see today because some creative craftsman from the Neolithic Age decided to give an earring a head and a body. Later on, the form of the Jade Pig-dragon inspired the more sophisticated Jade Small Dragon (Figure 3), then the S-shaped dragon (Figure 4), and then the modernized dragon on porcelain vases of the Ming Dynasty (Figure 5).

Figure 3.
Jade Small Dragon
Late Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC)
l. 3.9, w. 3.5 cm

Figure 4.
Pei Ornament in shape of dragon
Warring States period (475–221 BC)
l. 20.5 cm

Figure 5.
Porcelain Underglaze-blue Celestial-Globe Vase with dragon décor
Ming dynasty, Yongle reign (1403–1424 AD)
h. 42.9, mouth diam. 9.7, foot diam. 15.8 cm

The evolution of the Chinese dragon starting from the Jade Pig-dragon was arguably my most captivating takeaway from tour guiding at the National Palace Museum. It is a cumulative process shown through not just one, but a combination of several artworks and artifacts. It allowed me to reinterpret the portrayal of my zodiac sign in a new, historical perspective. While this post focuses on the dragon’s original form, there is a lot more to discuss (number of claws, association with imperial power, development of the Chinese calligraphic character for “dragon,” etc.), but I will leave that for another time.

Bibliography

Deng, Shupin, Liduan Zhang, and Qingliang Cai. 2012. Art In Quest Of Heaven And Truth — Chinese Jades through the Ages. Taipei: National Palace Museum.

(All images were taken from the official National Palace Museum website.)