Pig dragon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about pig-dragon artifacts (using a different Chinese homonym). For the "Torch Dragon" creature from Chinese mythology, see Zhulong (mythology).
Jade artifact in the form of a pig dragon in the Paris National Museum of Asian Arts
Hongshan culture pig dragon jade artifact in the British Museum

A pig dragon or zhūlóng (

neolithic China. Pig dragons are zoomorphic forms with a pig-like head and elongated limbless body coiled around to the head and described as "suggestively fetal".[2]
Early pig dragons are thick and stubby, and later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies.

Pig dragons were produced by the

grave goods.[3]
Pig bones have been found interred alongside humans at Hongshan burial sites, suggesting that the animal had some ritual significance.

There is some speculation that the pig dragon is the first representation of the

Chinese writing has a similar coiled form, as do later jade dragon amulets from the Shang period.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Ko, Patrick. Federation of Medical Studies of Hong Kong, "The History of Ancient Chinese Jade Culture". Jan 2008.
  2. doi:10.3406/arasi.1991.1303
    .
  3. ISBN 0-300-10065-5
    .
  4. ISBN 1-58008-587-3
    .

External links

Media related to Pig dragons at Wikimedia Commons


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