Arts & antiques
A recurrent theme in Chinese art for at least 7,000 years, dragons have changed their looks over time, but remain symbols of power, prosperity and wisdom
FORGET wings. Chinese dragons have none, although this doesn’t make them any less formidable. St George’s foe glides through the air as it seeks to terrorise villages and eat the odd girl or two; its Chinese counterpart f loats among waves, cliffs or clouds, almost looking ‘like a primitive snake or fish,’ according to Mark Slaats, partner at Asian art specialists Littleton & Hennessy. It’s closer to ancient Greece’s Hydra or the sea serpents of Scandinavian mythology, but, unlike them, it is a benevolent creature, ruling over water and weather and symbolising wisdom, prosperity and power.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that Chinese emperors quickly appropriated the motif. Dragons, explains Edward Luper, specialist for Chinese works of art at Bonhams, make a very early appearance in Chinese art, on stones from the Neolithic Xinglongwa culture (6200BC–5400BC) and jade carvings from the Hongshan culture (4500BC–3000BC). Mr Slaats mentions an interesting Hongshan green-jade example from the National Museum of China in Beijing, where a stylised dragon head tops a C-shaped body. ‘These stylised dragons also appear on bone carvings and lacquers and on bronze vessels from the Shang (1600BC– 1050BC) and Zhou (1046BC–256BC) dynasties.’
Since then, the creatures have remained a constant of Chinese art, although their depictions vary so much over the centuries that ‘a detailed narrative of their evolution would probably require a doctoral thesis,’ jokes Mr Luper. ‘The Chinese dragon as we might recognise it today was established by the Tang dynasty (608–918), with the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, ears of an ox, and eyes of a hare.’ By then, its link with imperial power had long been forged: it was in 200BC that Shi Huang, the king of Qin, having conquered neighbouring kingdoms and unified China, proclaimed himself Emperor of the Dragon Throne and Master of the Water.
The Song dynasty (960–1279), which brought China under control after a period of upheaval, took this relationship a step further, making the dragon an imperial prerogative: ‘In reigns where imperial rule is quite strong, there are heavy penalties on people using the imagery of dragons outside the Imperial Palace,’ says Mr Slaats. Rules were tweaked under the next dynasty, the Yuan (1279–1368), who descended from Mongol warlord Gengis Khan.
‘It was then decreed that the depiction of five-claw dragons was reserved for use by the emperor,’ says Mr Slaats.
The motif, adds Stuart Marchant of Marchant Asian Art, app
