The Han dynasty adopted the dragon (Long) as the official symbol of imperial power, and for over 2,000 years only China's emperors were permitted to wear its image. They claimed to be earthly incarnations of the dragon itself. This incredible creature combined a camel's head, stag's horns, serpent body, fish scales, eagle claws, and tiger paws — controlling rain, rivers, and capable of shrinking to silkworm size or expanding to fill the entire sky.
Chinese Long Dragon Symbolized Imperial Power for Over 2,000 Years
Key facts
- Only the Emperor of China was permitted to wear the image of the dragon for over 2,000 years
- The Han dynasty, which ruled for over 400 years, adopted the dragon as the official symbol of imperial power
- Chinese emperors claimed to be the earthly incarnation of the dragon itself
- The Long was described as having the head of a camel, horns of a stag, ears of an ox, body of a serpent, scales of a fish, claws of an eagle, and paws of a tiger
- The Chinese dragon controlled rain, governed rivers, and could shrink to the size of a silkworm or expand to fill the entire sky
Sources
Chinese Imperial Dragons | Animal Legends - Online Exhibitionsexhibits.library.cornell.edu
Already a royal symbol in Zhou and Qing times, the dragon became the emblem of the Han Dynasty. It was related to the cult of two early (and probably invented) ...
Chinese dragon - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Historically, the Chinese dragon was associated with the emperor of China and used as a symbol to represent imperial power. Liu Bang, the founder of the Han ...
The Dragon in Ancient China: Symbol, Myth, and Powerbrewminate.com
The dragon was, therefore, a symbolic representation of the assimilation of these tribes into a single nation. An interesting hypothesis, it ...
A Long Tradition: Dragons in the East Asian Collectioncincinnatiartmuseum.org
In Imperial China, dragons were strongly associated with the emperor, a tie that existed since the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) when ...
Celebrating the Year of the Dragon with works from SLAM's collectionslam.org
More than 2,000 years ago, during ancient China's Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), 12 zodiac signs were established: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon ...
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