Author: Erzi Congzhou

In later generations, these are all problems that can be solved by just raising your hand and Baidu, but today, being able to talk about them here is a real effort.

When Zhou Zhi talks about these professional knowledge, he is like a different person, with a calmer and wiser temperament. This temperament also makes many big guys forget his age.

On this special occasion, at this special time, only education is the top priority. In front of Zhou Zhi's current aura, even Sakamoto Goro had to bow his head.

"Elbow, drink some water." Lin Wanqiu was very proud, and then kicked Li Lehai, who was already dumbfounded.

The appraisal consultants of various auction houses are themselves a manifestation of the soft power of the auction houses. Zhou Zhi has already calmed down a lot of people when he stepped forward, and behind him, there are also Mr. Wang, Mr. Qi, the Forbidden City, the National Museum, and Shu University Chinese.

Department, Department of History, Institute of Ancient Book Restoration and other big names and national units...

What is a fox pretending to be a tiger's power? This is called a fox pretending to be a tiger's power!

Li Lehai was a little bit disgusted, but he had to rush to pour water for Zhou Zhi.

When he came back with the water, Zhou Zhi had already begun to explain the knowledge of Kuilong to everyone.

"The record of Kui Long first appeared in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness East Classic" - "There is Liupo Mountain in the East China Sea, seven thousand miles into the sea. There is a beast on it, shaped like an ox, with a pale body and no horns, and one leg that goes in and out of the water.

Then there will be wind and rain, its light is like the sun and moon, and its sound is like thunder, and its name is Kui. The Yellow Emperor got it, used its skin as a drum, and used the bones of thunder beasts as prongs. The sound could be heard for five hundred miles, so as to frighten the world.

.”

"Some ancient documents say that Kui is a snake-like monster. For example, Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" of the Eastern Han Dynasty explains: 'Kui is a divine creature with one foot like a dragon.'"

"In ancient classics, it is like a dragon with one leg, which is the characteristic of the Kui dragon."

"However, on porcelain, Kui Long is not represented like this. On the contrary, it is a changed image of Capricorn Fish, which is infinitely close to the Ying Long pattern at that time."

"The fundamental reason is that the Kui dragon pattern appeared too late. It did not appear on the official kilns of the Song and Yuan dynasties, as well as the Hongwu and Yongle kilns of the Ming Dynasty. It was not until the Xuande period that it began to appear on porcelain."

"Judging from the ornamentation of the artifacts, the Xuande Kuilong has very clear modeling characteristics - no scales, animal-like feet, a pig's mouth, small wings on the sides of the feet, and a curly grass tail."

"The only difference from the Yinglong pattern at that time is that the dragon body is shorter, has no fish-like scales, and spits lotus flowers from its mouth."

"Therefore, Kuilong also had an interesting common name at the time, called 'Hanhua Dragon', which was also its biggest feature that distinguished it from the Yinglong pattern."

"In addition to the standard classical beast-footed Kuilong, three-clawed Kuilongs began to appear in the Chenghua Dynasty, that is, the feet changed into three-clawed horned dragons. By the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial factory also produced five-clawed Kuilongs."

"After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the use of Kuilong as the main pattern on porcelain decreased sharply, and more of them appeared as auxiliary decorations. This kind of small Kuilong decoration also has a common name, called 'Kaizilong'."

"We just said that one of the major differences between Kuilong and Yinglong is that they contain flowers, including Ganoderma lucidum, but we also need to distinguish them from another type of dragon."

"There is a type of dragon that later evolved the characteristic of holding Ganoderma lucidum in its mouth, and that is the Chilong."

"In ancient legends, Chi is a kind of dragon without horns. This is what "Shuowen" says as "Chi without horns" refers to."

"But just as the reflection of the Kui dragon pattern on porcelain is very different from the one-legged feature in ancient books, the reflection of the Chilong pattern on porcelain is also completely different from the records in ancient books."

"The chilong patterns on porcelain are mostly single-horned, occasionally double-horned, and almost never hornless."

"The Chilong pattern originated very early. It can be traced back to primitive society. It was one of the totem symbols at that time and often appeared in ancient architecture, bronze, jade, ceramics and other handicrafts."

"In early literature, Chi is an animal shape, similar to a tiger, and is often referred to as 'Chi-tiger'."

"For example, it is recorded in "Book of Song·Zhi No. 8": 'When Emperor Gaozu entered the Pass, he obtained the Lantian Jade Seal and Chihu Button of the First Emperor of Qin. The text said, 'Accepting the order of heaven, the emperor will be Shouchang'. Emperor Gaozu wore it, and his descendants named it 'Zhuan'.

The national seal', and the white snake-cutting sword are both treasures of Chengyu."

"Chi pattern was used on porcelain, but it was not found in the imperial factories of Hongwu and Yongle. Chi pattern porcelain only began to appear in the Xuande Dynasty, which is roughly the same time as the Yinglong and Kuilong patterns were first used."

"The chidragons on Xuande porcelain are all four-legged, and the number of claws can be subdivided into three categories: three-clawed, four-clawed and five-clawed. Overall, their powerful and majestic body shapes are very similar to the popular dragon patterns at that time. The characteristics are:

The body lacks scales, the head has a single horn, and the tail is in the shape of a curly grass. The image of Chilong at that time was mostly of holding Ganoderma lucidum in its mouth, which should have been inspired by the shape of Kuilong holding a lotus in its mouth."

"After the Xuande chilong image was established, it did not change much for a long time. In the Qing Dynasty, chidragons with dragon whiskers on their lips and chilongs with animal feet began to appear in official kiln porcelain. Later, even animal feet began to appear.

Chi dragons and dragon-clawed chi dragons appeared on the same porcelain, and during the Qian and Jiaqing periods, chi dragon patterns such as flowers on the feet and ganoderma lucidum on the claws often appeared."

"Finally, let's talk about Bald-tailed Dragon. Bald-tailed Dragon is very easy to identify. It is the ceratopsian image that removes the broom-shaped tail and becomes a small tail or even a bald tail."

"This pattern is unique to official kiln porcelain in the Qing Dynasty, and was most popular in the Kangxi Dynasty. It is mainly related to a legend."

"This legend is recorded in "Zi Buyu" written by Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty."

"There was once a dragon in the sky who was punished to the human world and was reborn in the womb of Bi's wife in Wendeng County, Shandong Province. After giving birth, he turned into a small dragon. His father cut off its tail with a knife, thus becoming a bald-tailed dragon. After cutting off its tail, the dragon flew to the northeast.

Settled in Bailongjiang and took the pseudonym Heilong."

"When the black dragon grew up, he fought hard with the white dragon who harmed the people in the river, and finally won and became the master of the river. From then on, the weather along the coast was smooth, and the black dragon was also known as the 'Bald-tailed Lord Li Long'."

"To commemorate his achievements, local people renamed 'Bailongjiang' as 'HLJ', which is still in use today."

"The HLJ river basin had a very special status for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. It has always been regarded by the Qing government as the 'Land of Dragons'. Therefore, the bald-tailed dragon decoration was widely used in the official kiln porcelain of the Qing Dynasty and became a propaganda tool for the change of dynasties.

.It was not until the Qianlong Dynasty stabilized its rule that it gradually disappeared and returned to the normal shape of the horned dragon."

"To sum up, aside from the ceratopsian and tailless dragons that are easy to identify, the shapes of the other three dragons on porcelain can basically be summarized as Chi, Kui and Kui are all scaleless and animal-footed, among which the wingless one is Chi; the two-footed one is Chi

The one with wings is Kui; the feet may be present or absent, two or four, but those with scales and wings are the corresponding ones.”

"Among the auxiliary features, those containing passionflower are basically Kui; those containing Ganoderma lucidum are basically Chi."

"Judging from the use of dragon patterns in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, starting from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, three novel shapes, Chilong, Yinglong, and Kuilong, appeared at the same time, which shows that the imperial factory at that time was very innovative in making porcelain and the intensity of change was great."

"Although the imperial porcelain industry prospered several times in later dynasties, the main body of the shapes is still based on the Xuande dynasty."

"Therefore, the status of Xuande Dynasty porcelain in the development of imperial factories in the Ming and Qing Dynasties can also be reflected through the dragon pattern, which is a link between the past and the future, laying the foundation for future generations, and it has epoch-making significance."

"The subsequent changes and development of many different dragon pattern shapes later even caused difficulties in identification in museums and auction houses. It also reflects that the Imperial Factory's decorative design is still evolving and evolving while absorbing and inheriting traditional Chinese culture.

Innovation.”
Chapter completed!