The Chinese Dragon

THE CHINESE DRAGON
Bronze Dragon, Kang Hsi Period
Three hundred years ago Pèro Veribest, Jesuit priest at the court of Kang Hsi, cast a number of bronze astronomical instruments for his imperial patron. The apparatus, of which this is a part, stands in the open, but the workmanship is so perfect and the care it has received has been so faithful that one would hardly imagine that this dragon was cast more than three centuries ago.
Dragon Colonnade at Chufu
Ten stately stone columns in the portico before the Confucian Temple at Chufu, Shantung. This temple stands near two of China’s most sacred shrines, the sites of the birthplace and of the grave of China’s greatest sage. The pillars are monoliths of white marble, nearly twenty feet in height. These are decorated with huge dragons in deep relief. This is said to be the most perfect and most beautiful stone colonnade in China.
THE CHINESE DRAGON
BY L. NEWTON HAYES WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FONG F. SEC, LL.D.
龍 THIRD EDITION COMMERCIAL PRESS, LIMITED SHANGHAI, CHINA
First Printed in 1922
Reprinted in 1922, 1923
The subject of this little book is of general interest to people who are acquainted with things Chinese. The dragon has played a large part in Chinese thought through four thousand and more years. Even in these days of the Republic it still fills an important place in Chinese life.
The dragon is one of the most common ornamental designs in China and one meets it wherever one goes in this country. However, in spite of the significance attached to the dragon, very little has ever been written concerning it in either Chinese or English. Only a few general articles on this subject have been published in magazines, and the references to it in books are very brief. No independent study of the dragon in book form has been made in either of these two languages until now.