DRAGONS are important in ancient China for three reasons. (1) They are part of the earliest cosmological iconography that we have from Chinese culture. (2) They are heavenly creatures who help mediate the mandate of heaven. (3) They are confabulated with bi and other ritual artifacts. What follows is my own personal classification of Neolithic dragons and some notes on what becomes of them as Chinese culture is elaborated through the ages.
     Last updated 03/02/2020.

SACRED FISH

Five Neolithic dragons. This Neolithic carving of a fish displays five kinds of dragon, stylistically well differentiated 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. (1) The eyebrow of the fish is the long, Tao tei dragon that soon becomes the face of ritual bronzes. (2 & 3) Behind the gill, there are two blocky cloud dragons. (4) Below the dorsal fin of the fish, is a J-shaped dragon with a long crest that comes to adorn many bi. (5) At the base of the tail is the "pig" dragon that become integrated with bi.

PIG DRAGONS

These are commonly called "Pig" dragons because of their general likeness to a pig. The first four images above (L to R) show the typical form of Pig dragons during the Neolithic period, 6,500 to 4,000 years ago. The fifth image is that of a Shang Dynasty Pig dragon that has been flattened so that the body and the head are of the same thickness, the ears have become a cowell across the top of the head, and the slit between the tail and the head has been closed. In the last two images, the dragon has been totally flattened around a large central hole, forming a bi, which is a ceremonial object used as a bridge to the world of the sacred. The earlier Neolithic forms are usually found in graves, as shown in the picture at the lower left.
   Next to the burial photo is a fully rendered Tao tei, that is used to decorate all manner of objects that are used to intercede with God, the ancestors, lesser gods and spirits, and creatures of the netherworld. Many believe that Pig dragons are representations of Tao tei.
   To the right of the Tao tei there are representations of silk worm dragons. Silk worms emerge in a curled posture which later scholars likened to the Pig dragon. This is a notion that was expressed by Guan Zhong (723-645 BC): "When the dragon wishes to be small it changes into a silkworm. Yet when it wants to be big, it can fill the entire universe."

J-SHAPED DRAGONS

J-shaped dragons appear early in the Neolithic and rapidly differentiate into a variety of flexible styles. Notice the crest, the horns in back of they eyes, the pig-like snout, and the long serpentine body. Over time, the horns become antlers, often growing from a wide cowl. Legs and clawed feet, scales, and fiery emanations, but not wings. Chinese dragons achieve flight through their mystical power alone. J-shaped dragons give rise to the imperial dragon associated with The Son of Heaven, i.e., the Emperor of China.

CLOUD DRAGONS

Cloud dragons begin modestly with something called the "hook and cloud dragon" in which the dragon is stylized and hidden in the decoration of the ornament. This is soon elaborated by opening up the clouds and separating the dragons from clouds.
  Above are Neolithic period hook and cloud dragons, which frequently occur in burials, where they may take on the role of mediators for the departed. The development of these into the cloud dragon form is continued in the upper row of the panel below. These are followed by an unusual square bi, from the Warring States period, in which the design is opened up and the dragons completely obscured by clouds.
  At the left are a pair of Zhou dynasty cloud dragons with small J-shaped dragons riding on their backs. These cloud dragons integrate elements of the hook and cloud style with the style of the J-shaped dragon. This integration leads to the liberation of cloud dragons from their clouds. Later styles become more about the dragon and less about his clouds, as can be seen the bottom row of the panel below.

TAO TEI DRAGON TYPE 1

Tao tei dragons have a brief but interesting history before they are fully engulfed by ritual paraphernalia. They are important from the beginning and are associated with rulers by the Xia Dynasty, as the example to the let shows. They have long, thin bodies and an enlarged head, often with a short snout and a variety of embellishments. The two Xia plaques in the pannel above how the body is shortened and the head stylized to accomodate the shape of the plaque. Next to these is a Shank dynasty ritual vessel, a Ding, with the Tao tei in its fully elaborated form. Next to this is a diagram explaining the anatomy of the Tao tei as it is found on ritual bronzes. The Ding was used in ritual meat feasts to reaffirm and dispense power within the ruling hierarchy.

The upper right corner of the panel above shows the lid of a box created around 400 BC, long after our Tao tei dragon been consigned to ritual bronzes. This is because it depicts catalogs the sky mansion constellations that rotate around Polaris, the North Star, seat the the Jade Emperor, ruler of heaven and the universe. The box depicts the form of the dragon who rules in heaven. It is logical that it is this dragon that is depicted on Ding through which the mandate of heaven is passed to the Jade Emperor's human subjects.

TAO TEI DRAGON TYPE 2

The second type of Tao tei dragon has the basic form of the hook and cloud style except that the central cloud structure is doubled and used to form the face of the , which is finished with a nose and a row of sharp, chisel-like teeth. This soon morphs into the Tao tei seen on ritual vessels, masks such as the one to the left from the earliest dynastic period and that above from the Western Zhou dynasty. It also lives on in weapons such as axe heads. The example in the lower right hand corner of the panel above is a Qing Dynasty showing that the Zhou style persisted into modern times.

THE DRAGON AND THE PHOENIX

The dragon is the symbol of heavenly authority and may only be invoked in certain contexts. One of these is the dragon stair, which usures humans into the presence of something which is sacred and has the authority of human. To the left is the dragon stair in the imperial palace in Beijing leading to precinct of the Emperor, who is the Son of Heaven. The phoenix is also associated with the rule of the Emperor because it symbolizes his wife. Together, they symbolize yin and yang, the female and male principles of generative power that underlies the universe.
  In the first clearly documented dynasty of China, the Xia, this principle is already incorporated into the ritual wine serving vessel, the guang (first item in panel, above). We can also see this in the Shang dynasty vessel of Jade (above).
  The early versions of the Chinese phoenix look a lot like chickens, with a few bits added to the tail and back (see panel, above), but they are quickly incorporated into bi. By the late Warring States period, about 2,500 years ago, we see elaborated versions of the phoenix (panel, upper right). The simpler forms persist however and continue to be used as royal symbols, such as the pair that adorn the imperial throne in Ming Tomb No 5 (panel above) and in later embroidery, such as the example shown above.

THE DRAGON AND THE BI

At the upper left, there is a typical early bi with the heads and backs of three dragons along its circumference. Dragons are intimately associated with bi since they command qi and may intercede on behalf of people in matters spiritual. The second image in panel above is from the end of a coffin from the 3rd century AD showing dragons entwined with a bi. The third image shows how bi were used to encode the celestial star palaces of heaven, while the fourth images shows how the bi and the tsung, pictured immediately above, might be used together to direct prayers to the proper region of heaven.
  In the early period, heaven was thought of as a parasole with the central handle corresponding to the position of the pole star and the celestial palaces on the curved surface of the parasol.

THE FLAMING PEARL

The flaming pearl is depicted as an object which dragons greatly desire and often quarrel over. It is occasionally depicted as a yang/yin symbol (panel upper left), but this is incorrect. The flaming pearl is composed of pure qi, which is the ale generative force and the energy that animates the universe. It is distributed by the Jade Emperor in heaven (the pole star) and dragons, especially cloud and water dragons, are in charge of using it to animate nature. The flaming pearl is a ball of energetic qi that dragons naturally want to capture and use. It is commonly pictured as the color of a pearl or the color of water, or sometimes as a pure ball of fire. It is usually seen together with cloud dragons as in the Ming dynasty dish pictured above. In the Ming dynasty, the yang/yin symbol is often depicted with a dot of yin (female) within the yang (male) portion of the symbol. Perhaps this is why you sometimes see the phoenix and the dragon arguing over the flaming pearl, as in the right hand image in the panel above taken from a Qing dynasty dish.