A Living Dragon
Most representations of the dragon indicate peaceful, passive creatures. The artist who designed this dragon for the garden of the emperors at Peking was a master of his art. This graceful creature fairly throbs with life, and we almost hold our breath as we look with the expectation that it will detach itself from the mural background and launch out into space. It is a living thing, and we feel that in another moment it will jerk back its head and rise to disappear before our very eyes.
[[44]]
Two Porcelain Dragons
Of the nine huge saurians that play in the emerald waves beneath the pale blue sky on the imperial screen at Peking, no two assume the same attitude. Leaping, springing, and lunging, each is struggling to reach the sun disk, which lies just out of reach before its face.
[[45]]