Page 13 - Lydia Chen - The Complete Book of Chinese Knotting

01 Chinese Knots in Ancient Times (09-16) 3/23/07 4:36 PM Page 10

Knots in Stone Carvings and Fabric Paintings

The double coin knot is the oldest knot to be recorded, although the prototype, a
series of vertical double coin knots found on a pedestal box excavated from Zhao
Qing’s tomb in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (page 2), appears to be more of a design
concept than an actual knot. A stone carving depicting a single dragon and two
dragons intertwined at their tails, taken from the relic site of Xianyang Palace,
Shaanxi Province, dated to the Qin Dynasty (221–207 BCE), is thought to bear a
Cords tied in this way show the number of strong correlation to the fabric painting depicting two dragons in the shape of a
cattle, goats and horses in Okinawa, Japan.
This indicates a total animal count of 188. double coin knot at Ma Wang’s tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province (page 10).
More specific correlation can be seen in the recent discovery of stone and brick
carvings at the Western Han tombs in Henan Province or the Eastern Han tombs
in Shandong Province. In these artifacts, we can see double coin knots in the form
of intertwined dragons (page 2) or the intertwined ancient deities Fu Xi and Nu
Wo in the form of a human head linked to a dragon’s body (page 10). (Nu Wo was
the ancient goddess who created Man with mud and cords.) The carving of the
intertwined Fu Xi and Nu Wo, besides showing them as the initiator of marriages,
also signifies that the Chinese are descendants of dragons. This is one reason why
the double coin knot is the love knot popularly referred to in ancient poems. In
the stone carvings at an ancient tomb in Shandong, dated to CE 424, Six Dynasties
Period, we can see a multiple double coin knot in the form of four intricately
intertwined dragons (page 11). Apart from double coin knots, other Chinese
knots are depicted in frescoes, for example, the button knot in a stone carving
from Shandong (page 3). In terms of structure, the button knot and double coin
knot belong to the same system; the former is, in fact, a variation of the latter.

Rubbing from a stone carving depicting the
Superior Mother Goddess, Deity Fu Xi and Goddess
Nu Wo intertwined in a dragon’s body in the shape
of a double coin knot, Eastern Han Period (CE 25–
220), from Tung Wei Mountain.
Part of a fabric painting depicting two dragons Rubbing from a decorative brick, Han Dynasty
intertwined in the shape of a double coin knot, (206 BCE–CE 200), from Yang Kuan Temple, Nanyang,
Western Han Period (206 BCE–CE 8), from Ma Henan Province.
Wang’s Tomb, Changsha, Hunan Province.

10 THE COMPLETE BOOK OF CHINESE KNOTTING

The Complete Book Of Chinese Knotting
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