Xu Shen's Explanation of Words. "The dragon, the length of the scale insect, can be bright, can be thin and huge, can be short and long, the spring equinox and ascend to the sky, the autumn equinox and the abyss." ”
Originally, the ancients imagined the dragon as the "chief of a hundred insects", worshipped the dragon as a protector, and gave the dragon all kinds of extraordinary skills and magical powers.
In the slave society, people said that the dragon was "the chief of the scale worm", the water god who controlled the rainwater, and the dragon became a sacred object worshiped and sacrificed by the ancients, with special significance and social function.
In feudal society, the dragon became a symbol of autocratic imperial power. The longer the time, the richer the cultural connotation of the dragon given by people, and with the development of history, for the purpose of some political, religious or cultural and aesthetic significance, the dragon pattern shape is constantly changing and improving.
Generally speaking, the dragon pattern modeling takes a path from pluralism to standardization, religion to artistic development.
Therefore, exploring and studying the ancient jade dragon ornamental modeling can not only enable us to understand the evolution and development process of Chinese dragon shapes, but also serve as a basis for the identification and dating of ancient jade.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", cao Cao's mouth is borrowed: "The dragon can be powerful and small, and it can rise and hide; the big is the cloud and spit fog, and the small is hidden; the rise is soaring between the universes, and the hidden is lurking in the waves." This spring is deep, the dragon changes in time, and the Jews are ambitious and across the sea. The dragon is a thing, comparable to the hero of the world. ”
Jade is also a symbol of morality and nobility in ancient culture, and the dragon-shaped jade pendant produced by the combination of jade and dragon has become the most common theme in jade carving.
In the history of Chinese jade, the Warring States to the Western Han Dynasty was a peak of craftsmanship. The cultural prosperity of the hundred schools of thought, as well as the use of iron and stone machines, brought about a revolution in jade craftsmanship, which made jade change from thousands of years of simplicity and become exquisite.
China is a big agricultural country, and the dragon has been the Sishui spirit creature and the heavenly god beast of the Chinese nation since ancient times, and has become an auspicious charm for the people. As a symbol of the Chinese nation, the dragon also has a profound spiritual foundation.
The image of the dragon is integrated, reflecting the characteristics of inclusiveness and eclecticism; the dragon is created for the benefit of all sentient beings, reflecting the spirit of Fusheng and the idea of the unity of heaven and man; the image of the dragon is advancing with the times, and in the process of evolution, we have seen a civilization trajectory of continuous development, continuous development and continuous innovation.
The Han Dynasty was a period of prosperity and development in the history of Chinese jade, and the accumulation of social wealth and the "competition for luxury" of princes and nobles all promoted the prosperity of the jade manufacturing industry.
"Dragon, beast of the East, Emperor Shengren, SoRen Deguan", in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the dragon became a symbol of autocratic imperial power. Therefore, the dragon pattern and dragon's momentum and charm added color to the jade culture of the Han Dynasty.
Hanlong, in form, reached an unprecedented height, and the Han Dynasty was the real stereotype period of dragon pattern modeling.
Dragon pattern is a pattern that is more used in Han Dynasty jade. Some of the dragon patterns in the early western Han Dynasty jade are similar to some of the dragon patterns on the Warring States jade, such as some dragon heads at both ends of the jade lock, the upper lip is thick and rolled up, and the overall shape is similar to the shape of the ancestor, the ring ink center or the ornamented jade dragon, which resembles the country and the lip resembles a blade, which is an arc-shaped axe lock.
In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the shape of the dragon pattern has changed greatly, and the dragon pattern can be divided into three categories: the side animal body dragon pattern. This type of dragon pattern is similar to the later esoteric, dragon body or animal body, or elongated animal body, some dragons are decorated with scale patterns. The dragon's tail is mostly tiger-like, long and reeling at the end.
Dragon head pattern. It can be divided into front dragon heads and side dragon heads, with the side dragon heads being the most. The lips of the lateral dragon's head become long strips, the upper lip is upturned or rolled up, the mouth is slightly open, and the upper part of the eye is the forehead, which is in the shape of a merchant.
There are many dragons whose forehead ends are pointed forward, and the top of the head has a horn that is often curved. The front dragon head is mainly found in the jade bi decorated with dragon patterns, which are divided into several inner and outer ring areas, or several sets of dragon head patterns in the outer area.
The style of the work is similar to that of the Warring States period. A jade ring excavated from the Tiger Dun Han Tomb in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, has a dragon head on its front, shaped like a fly's head, and the overall lower lip is extremely long.
Thallium dragon pattern. The dragon's body is long, either a curved jade pendant or a ring-shaped jade pendant. Ring-shaped jade pendants often carry a dragon foot and are hindgear.
Ant Pattern: An animal pattern with a head shaped like a tiger's head appears in the Warring States artifacts.
It is believed that this is what is called Xiu in the literature. This type of ornament appeared in large quantities in jade and continued to be used until the Qing Dynasty. There are many works decorated with patterns in the jade of the Han Dynasty, and the eyes have distinct characteristics of the times.
The smoke patterns decorated by later works are mostly in the style of the Han Dynasty copper pattern, which are similar as a whole and have great changes in the parts.
The characteristics of the Han Dynasty are mainly manifested in the head shape, facial features, body shape, horns, feet, tail and other aspects. The upper part of the head is transverse and broad, approximately oblong or oval.
The lower part is the nose, which is narrowed and obviously convex, showing different styles such as horizontal bars, axe sleeves, convex shapes, and tapers.
There are several types of ears: short ears, which root out to the sides. Several types of ears, each ear in a zigzag shape. Forked ears, two ears like double forks from the top of the head. The ring-shaped ear has a circular pit at the base of each ear.
There are several shapes for the limit: spherical, yin carved water drop, yin carved horizontal line, yin carved ring. The scorpion tail is long and has two main types.
One is split, or three, or two, with one fork being the main fork, the longer one, and the other next to it, with the tail end curled. One is a tiger tail, which resembles a thick and long tiger tail, with a curved end and some decorated with rope patterns.
The head of the early Han Dynasty jade dragon is similar to the shape of the Warring States Dragon, and the style is more similar to that of the late Warring States Jade Dragon. In the middle and late period, the dragon's head gradually became longer, and as the dragon's head elongated, the dragon's mouth opened up accordingly, and the length of the corner of the mouth was almost equivalent to its entire head.
The lips are upturned, the upper and lower fangs are sharp, the edges and corners of the eyebrows, foreheads, and jaws are clearly folded, the angles are rolled back or upward from the head, the eye sockets are larger, arched, the eyeballs are droopy, and the dragon body uses some yang lines to outline various parts and outlines, or engraved with simple variants of the cloud pattern, T-shaped pattern, dripping water pattern, willow leaf pattern and other ornaments.
The posture is still curly, but it is more dynamic and imposing than the Warring States Dragon. And the lines are gentle and smooth, and often support the forelimbs, the hind limbs are bent or upright, or soaring and flipping, opening their teeth and dancing claws, full of powerful, heavenly and earthly, omnipotent domineering.
The jade dragon is often outlined by thick and thin lines, and the thin lines are called "gossamer wool carvings" because of the thin lines and faintly visible hairs on the edges; the characteristics of the thick lines are very obvious, gentle and soft.
At the starting and closing of the knife, the oblique knife is suddenly sharpened, and the three-dimensional middle section of the knife groove is wide, which is a typical "Han Eight Knives" process.
Observing from the jade craftsmanship, pushing, punching, hollowing, and carving, the dragon's strong texture and vivid form have reached the realm of divinity.
The jade dragon of the Han Dynasty is beautiful in shape and full of vitality, and has developed from a simple group-shaped dragon in the Hongshan culture to a divine dragon with horns, tails, complete limbs, and almost the same as that of later generations, and is the most spiritual and charming jade dragon in Chinese history.
The dragon body of the Han Dynasty jade dragon developed to a disc shape, and the four legs of a dragon absorbed the characteristics of the beast in the shape of a pointed claw; the head of the dragon resembled a horse's head, the dragon horn resembled a horse's mane, and the slender length was like a broadband; the dragon's ears were extremely small; and the eyes of the Han Dynasty jade dragon were basically outer and inner circles.
Its shape is a variety of square round eyes, oval eyes with tips, no matter what kind of dragon eye, are bright and energetic, can be described as the finishing touch. At this time, flying wings also appeared on the dragon's body.
Some dragons resemble cockroach patterns, and the tail of the dragon is single-tailed or bifurcated. The frequent appearance of patterns combined with dragon patterns and other ornaments has also become a major feature of Han Dynasty jade.