Page 113 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

FABULOUS AND OTHER ANIMALS. 81

heavy and thick ; can shorten or lengthen itself at pleasure.
In the it rises to the skies, in the autumn
spring it plunges
into the water. There are the scaly dragon, the winged
the horned and the hornless and the
dragon, dragons, dragon
rolled within itself, which has not yet taken its flight into
the upper regions.' The imperial dragon is armed with five
claws it is the emblem of the son and of
; equally emperor's
"
of the first and second rank
princes (see Nos. 219, 265).
"Princes of the third and fourth rank bear the four-clawed
dragon" (see Nos. 225, 264, 268); "but those of the fifth,
and the mandarins, have for emblem a serpent with four claws,
called mang." It is this last that we find represented in diaper
borders (see Nos. 318, 377).
"
217 The of the and similar
Marry at, p. : origin dragons,
figures, depicted upon the Chinese as well as the Egyptian
is a The Chinese back the to
pottery, mystery. carry origin
the time of Fuh-he who is to have seen
(b.c. 2962), supposed
a dragon issue from a river in the province of Honan ; and it
was then as the national standard. It is the
adopted dragon
which honoured the Feast of Lanterns '
(Jang) is yearly by
No.
(see 346).
The imperial dragon of Japan has only three claws, but in
China the three-clawed dragon is merely that of commerce.
"
Toktoise.— The Middle Kingdom," vol. i. p. 267 : " The
tortoise has so few fabulous qualities attributed to it, that it
hardly comes into the list. It was, according to the story, an
attendant on Pwanku when he chiselled out the world."
"
245 The tortoise was also a
Franks, p. : (kwei) supernatural
animal, and its shell was used in divination. The tortoise with
a hairy tail is depicted in Japan as an attendant on the god of
old age, and is used as an emblem of longevity. A Chinese
'
phrase, Kwei-ho-tung-chun,' signifies, 'May your days be as
'
long as the tortoise and stork."
94 " Divers marvellous tales are narrated with
Mayers, p. :
regard to its fabulous longevity and its faculty of transforma-
tion. It is said to conceive by thought alone, and hence the
' ' no taken
progeny of the tortoise (knowing father) is vulgarly
as synonym for the bastard-born. A species of the tortoise
kind is called the form of which is the in
pieli, largest yuan,
whose nature the qualities of the tortoise and the dragon are