A pig dragon or zhūlóng () is a type of jade artifact from the Hongshan culture of 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". Early pig dragons are thick and stubby, and later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies.
Pig dragons were produced by the Hongshan culture (4700 to 2900 BC). Along with the same culture's jade eagles (),Ko, Patrick. Federation of Medical Studies of Hong Kong, "The History of Ancient Chinese Jade Culture ". Jan 2008. they often featured as grave goods.Howard, Angela & al. Chinese Sculpture, pp. 21 f. Yale Univ. Press, 2006. . Pig bones have been found interred alongside humans at Hongshan burial sites, suggesting that the animal had some ritual significance.
The more abstract shape of jades represents ceremonial or symbolic interpretations of the pig dragon, rather than being literal representations.
There is some speculation that the pig dragon is the first representation of the Chinese dragon. The character for "dragon" in the earliest Chinese writing has a similar coiled form, as do later jade dragon amulets from the Shang period.Salviati, Filippo (2002). The Language of Adornment: Chinese Ornaments of Jade, Crystal, Amber and Glass, Fig. 17. Ten Speed Press. .
See also
Bi (jade) Chinese jade Cong (jade) Gogok Lingling-o Magatama
References
External links