Page 15 - Jades from the Chang We Hwa collection Hong Kong Dec 3 2021

CONTESTING DRAGONS

Hsiung Yi-Ching

The dragon has been the object of worship in China written forms of 龍 are primarily pictographs. In the 1976
even before written records began. The Hongshan exhibition Dragon in the Palace Museum, 120 characters
Culture, between 5000 to 8000 years ago, had already denoting 龍 were picked out from 1500 oracle bone scripts.
created the image of ‘C’-shaped dragons. In ancient texts, Although each is different, they share some characteristics:
the primogenitors of Chinese people, Fuxi and Nüwa, firstly, they are all written upright, as if soaring towards the
supposedly had human heads on dragons’ bodies. Chinese sky; secondly, they are all depicted with the head leading
people were also known as ‘dragon’s offsprings’. The oracle a slender curved body, either in ‘C’ or ‘S’ shapes. These
bones excavated from the Shang ruins show the first written depictions are no different to representations of dragon in
records of dragons, and the start of a ‘dragon culture’. jades from the Neolithic to Han periods.
Agriculture was China’s foundation economy, and irrigation
its life source. The dragon was associated with clouds and The Zhou Court and feudal lords of the Spring and
rain, and therefore a much depended symbol for both the Autumn and Warring States period all used the dragon
ruling class and the ordinary people. as the primary motif on jades. Depending on the states’
economical, religious, aesthetic and technical circumstances,
The dragon had many unique characteristics. It is the each developed a unique jade culture that together formed
only animal of the twelve zodiac that does not exist. The a dazzling and multifarious whole. The Five Hegemons and
descriptions of its appearance are many and varied, and Seven Powers not only competed in military terms, fanciful
its imagery and representations even more so. The written and refined representations of dragons also became a point
character of dragon, 龍 , has sixteen strokes but stands of competition that resulted in one of the most spectacular
as a radical as well as a complete character. The earliest chapters in the history of Chinese jade.

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