This chariot fitting would have embellished one end of a yoke. It is in the shape of a roaring dragon, his head thrust back, prominent snout held high in the air, and mouth open with bared fangs and teeth,. His body morphs into a celestial mountain with clouds, his legs and arms curling into the peaks and crevasses. The scrolling curvature of the mountain itself defines the contours of the dragon’s body. Perhaps this is a representation of Mount Tai, in Shandong province, which was viewed as one of the main access routes to the spirit world of the immortals. It might also be Mount Kunlun, another peak with access to the heavens; this particular mountain acts as a cosmic pillar joining the earth to the heavens.[1] On one of the pillars in the late Eastern Han tomb at Yinan in Shandong, the peaks of Mount Kunlun are depicted as resting on the back of a dragon.[2] The imagery on this fitting as well as the chariot itself are embodied images (tixiang) which enhance the efficacy of celestial chariots to aid the deceased in his journey to the afterlife. This could also be a reference to dragon chariots which carry people to the land of immortals. One of the most important Han rhapsodies (fu) in the Chuci (Elegies of Chu) describes the magical journal of the emperor Han Wudi into the world of gods, spirits, and immortals. In the “Great Man Rhapsody” Sima Xiangru writes that a team of writhing, undulating dragons pulls his carriage across the sky:

Winged dragons, inching and creeping along, pull His ivory chariot;
At the traces are red and black dragons, twisting and turning.
Flying low and high, they expand and contract, proud and haughty;
Bending and bowing, they leap up in a continuous spiral…
Riding the void, He rises into the distance;
He transcends Non-being to subsist alone.[3]