White Jade Dragon on Cloud Scrolls

By James Muth

In Hong Kong, the college students, Grace, dad and I all took the "Art in China" course. It was a three week course covering topics like calligraphy, jade, painting, bronze working, ceramics and much more. At the end of the course, it was required to write a course paper, so here's mine.

James Muth

Art in China

St. Olaf Global Semester

December 2015

In Chinese mythology, the dragon is represented as the bringer of rain, the symbol of the emperor and a sign of good luck and power. It is a symbol so sacred that only the highest officials or the emperor himself can wear it. The dragon is the animal representing the east direction and many times the ideal creature. Dragons are said to have the antlers of a deer, the head of a crocodile, the eyes of a demon, the neck of a snake, the innards of a turtle, the claws of a hawk, the palms of a tiger and the ears of a cow. Okakura Kakuzo wrote in his text “The Awakening of Japan”

“Hidden in the caverns of inaccessible mountains, or coiled in the unfathomed depths of the sea, he awaits the time when he slowly rouses himself to activity. He unfolds himself in the storm clouds; he washes his mane in the blackness of the seething whirlpools. His claws are in the forks of the lightning, his scales begin to glisten in the bark of rain-swept pine trees. His voice is heard in the hurricane which, scattering the withered leaves of the forest, quickens the new spring. The dragon reveals himself only to vanish.”

This is a poem that shows the power of the dragon. It portrays how strong, mysterious and elusive the dragon is. It also shows the amount of responsibility that is a dragon. There is always work for a dragon to do, and unfortunately the dragon sleeps quite a lot. The dragon has the responsibility of all the rainfall and weather all over the world. Although there is lots of pressure, the dragon handles all of it quite well. The dragon is one of the most hallowed creatures ever.

My piece is a white jade dragon on cloud scrolls. It is part of the Restrained Lustre collection by Cissy and Robert Tang and is currently on display at the Chinese University of Hong Kong art gallery. It was made in the Tang or Liao dynasty, around the 9-10th century CE. It is 4.8 centimeters tall, 8.3 centimeters long and 0.3 centimeters thick. It is identical on both sides and is flecked with brown around the feet, hands and bits of the clouds. It has lots of smooth curves and very sharp teeth and antlers. There are small bits of detail and texture on the head and body that show off the realistic muscles of the dragon. The clouds under the dragon are shaped like scrolls. They appear to be rolling under the dragon as though it is floating through the heavens on a cloud shaped chariot. This dragon has a long snake-like body that is pure white and is made to look very muscular.

During the span between the Sui dynasty and the Yuan dynasty, there was a change in the way that jade was carved. This change came out of nowhere because there wasn’t much interest in jade - after a huge demand for jade - before the Sui dynasty. Since this piece was carved in the Tang or Liao dynasty, there is a big difference because of this change. The change was that the carvers, were striving towards a lifelike realism. They wanted their pieces to look like they came straight from nature. There was a desire to be the creator of some of the greatest pieces ever. The carvers wanted to make items that resembled flora and fauna. Another change was that there was a sudden interest in mythology and deities. There were more and more carvings and appearances of gods and goddesses and creatures like dragons and phoenixes. This miraculous change brought back the cultural importance and love of jade along with new flourishing colors and styles for the jade.

In ancient China, jade was carved using a “water bench”. It is a machine that has a disc that is replaceable with other discs of different sizes. It also has two foot pedals that control the disc so that it spins. The disc has some abrasive sands that consist of ground quartz, chalcedony and agate, are on the edge of the disc and would create an ancient equivalent of a modern diamond drill. But before the “water bench” could be used, the large jade rocks needed to be cut down to a reasonable size. Two workers would hold a double sided saw with the abrasive sands on the edge, then they would saw the jade rock to have straight edges. Since jade is such a hard rock, (6.5 on the Mohs scale) there are certain extents that you have to go to, to get a successful work of art. After the jade was cut by the saw, the “water bench” could be used. The worker would start by drawing a basic design on the jade and then carving that basic outline with a coarse abrasive sand disc. On the piece, you can see where the artist might have made the drawing for the basic outline and carved just the edges and very basic divots. Then they would draw more detail onto the rock and keep on switching out discs and keep on adding details until eventually they would get the final designs. This dragon is a perfect example of a water bench carved jade piece because there are lines that you can tell where the artist likely used different grades of sand and different sized discs to get some of the very precise details.

This piece was found in the empress’s tomb of the Wu-Yue kingdom (907-978 AD) in Kangling (near modern Hangzhou). It is thought to be the emperor’s or a high official’s, but some archeologists believe that it is the end to a hairpin belonging to the empress. This is contradictory to the fact that a phoenix or a peacock is the symbol of the empress and the dragon is known and accepted symbol of the emperor. The dragon represents the emperor because he is the son of heaven and the dragon lives in heaven, therefore the dragon is the symbol of the emperor. There is no evidence against the fact that the dragon is the emblem of the emperor. There is though, a bit of confusion or mixed beliefs about the symbol of the empress. Some say that it is the peacock, others say that it is the phoenix and still more say that it is just a red bird. It is difficult to tell exactly which one of those is the real symbol for the empress because there was so much attention towards the emperor and not the empress. Many historians believe that it was a pendant that the emperor wore everyday, but there is still the belief that is was a hairpin that belonged to the empress. It is also thought that this piece was passed down through several generations before it was obtained by Robert Tang.

Jade is sometimes used as a metaphor for excellence. Especially if it was white jade. The Liji regulates the ceremonial jades and the zhen-gui belongs to the emperor or king. Ceremonial jade pieces show a high military power and a high political rank. This object may seem like an everyday pendant but I think an ornament of this elegance could be a ceremonial piece. Here are my reasons,1) white jade was used to represent only the highest officials. 2) This piece is very elaborately carved. If you were to look closely at a photo of this piece, you would see that the artist made some very realistic facial muscles, especially around the eyes, jaw and snout. 3) This piece is in pristine condition. Many pendants that were worn everyday were chipped, dented or broken but this piece is in top condition after over 100 years of use and 1000 years of sitting in a museum. 4) Finally, dragons are reserved for the emperor and high officials only. An emperor would need a very nicely carved and elaborate necklace or pendant for ceremonies or rituals and it would only make sense that he would take advantage of this exclusive figure.

This openwork ornament in the shape of a dragon on cloud scrolls is a gorgeous representation of jade-work. It is an intricately carved masterpiece from the Restrained Lustre collection. It was likely used by a high official if not by the emperor himself. It is believed to be a ceremonial jade pendant used by the emperor but others believe that it was a hairpin used by the empress throughout the Wu-Yue kingdom. There is no way to tell for sure, but in my opinion this dragon will always be fit for a king.

Bibliographies:

"Chinese Dragon." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon>.

"Chinese Jade: Sui to Yuan Dynasty." China Online Museum. Unknown, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. <http://www.comuseum.com/jade/sui-to-yuan/>.

So, Jenny F., Xin Chu, Jo-hsin Chi, and Robert Tang. "28a." Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 150. Print.

Sullivan, Michael. "Dragons." The Arts of China. Berkeley: U of California, 2008. 195-96. Print.

Xu, Xiadong. "Ancient Chinese Jade." Ancient Chinese Jade. CUHK, Hong Kong. 25 Nov. 2015. Lecture.