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Directional tomb tile with Green Dragon of the East
Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) or later
Clay
L. 33.7 cm, W. 17 cm, D. 6 cm
Excavated 1988, Jinqueshan, Linyi Municipality
Collection of Linyi Municipal Museum
(cat. #46)
 

The sinuous, undulating body of the Green Dragon (qinglong) moves forward as he raises his rear haunches and springs into action.[1] His elongated jaw and open mouth end in fork-shaped lips. His horns or ears are perked back into curls. The clawed feet of three legs seem to shovel the air forward in frenetic motion while his uppermost leg reaches toward his mouth. The striped band under the throat runs down its neck to accentuate the curvature of his front chest and then continues under his trunk and along the tight reflex curves of his flicking S-shaped tail, which ends in a flame-like tip.

Known as the siling, or “four spirits,” the Green Dragon of the East, White Tiger of the West, Red Bird of the South, and Dark Warrior of the North are the animals of the four directions.[2] The concept of gods of the four directions harkens back to Shang dynasty oracle bones. An early representation of animals associated with the directions is seen in a mirror of the seventh century BCE bearing two tigers, a stag, and a bird.[3] During the Qin and Han dynasties, four directional animals were used to decorate tiles and bricks in palaces and tombs. By the early Western Han, these animals decorated both coffins and tombs. In Tomb 1 at Mawangdui, the siling, comprised at that time of the dragon, tiger, phoenix, and deer, are illustrated on the inner coffin of Lady Dai (d. 186 BCE). In 130 BCE the emperor Han Wudi formally adopted a correspondence between the directions and their symbolic animals, known as the sishen, or “four deities.” Some of the earliest large tomb bricks decorated with the four animals are found in his tomb at Maoling.[4]

Our four directional tiles, decorated with their four corresponding animals, were excavated from the tomb at Jinqueshan (Golden Sparrow Mountain) in Linyi. The design of each animal was impressed into the wet gray clay of the hollow tile, and the finished tile was then inserted into the wall of the tomb.[5] In addition to the four directional animals, this tomb also yielded a hollow brick tile with a unicorn (qilin) (cat. no. 50) as well as the handprints of perhaps the artisan who made the tiles (cat. no. 51). All seven tiles were stamped on the side with the character zhang, the name of either the artisan or the tomb occupant. The tomb also contained two hollow tiles bearing images of horses, two tiles with differing lotus designs, a tile with a female figure, and a tile with the impression of a wuzhu coin (see cat. no. 19).[6] The four directional animals are an integral part of the cosmology of the Han dynasty and transform the tomb into a cosmic diagram of the afterlife, providing protection in all directions.



all text & images © China Institute Gallery


Footnotes:

1. For a discussion of the cosmological associations of dragons, see cat. nos. 43 and 44.

2. According to Robert Campany, the Green Dragon (qinglong) is also the name of the position occupied by the six jia in the signs denoting segments of time. Campany quotes Stephen R. Bokenkamp to explain that “The “six jia” and “six ding” are spirits derived from the diviner’s cosmological compass (or a table derived from it) according to a method known as dunjia…jia was designated yang, and ding designated yin…These became the gendered jia and ding spirits of Daoism.” Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), pp. 73–74. The jia spirits are sometimes solicited for martial protection and concealment. The six jia are invoked in tandem with the practice of “breaking azure (qing) dragon grass” with the purpose of allowing people to remain invisible to humans, animal, and spirits when entering mountains. This is from Ge Hong’s Daoist text dating to 283–343. Ibid., p. 74.

3. Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament: The Dragon and the Lotus (London: The British Museum, 1984), pp. 90–92.

4. Wang Zhijie and Zhu Jieyuan, “Han Maoling ji qi peizang zhong fujin xin fajue de zhongyao wenwu” [Important relics unearthed in the vicinity of Maoling and its satellite tombs of the Western Han dynasty], Wenwu, no. 7 (1976), pp. 51–55.

5. For more details on how these tiles were made and the use of hollow tomb tiles in tomb architecture, see Susan L. Beningson in Liu et al., Recarving China’s Past, no. 9.

6. Linyi shi bowuguan, “Shandong Linyi Jinqueshan huaxiang zhuan mu” [The tomb with pictorial hollow bricks at Jinqueshan, Linyi, Shandong province], Wenwu, no. 6 (1995), pp. 72–78. In the excavation report there is a question as to whether this tomb dates to the late Eastern Han or the Western Jin dynasty. The placement of the four animals does not correspond to their exact directions, but as they are all there it is meant to symbolize protection in all directions and the order of the cosmos: the Green Dragon and White Tiger were on the north wall; the Red Bird, qilin, and horses were on the west wall; and the Dark Warrior was on the north wall. The tomb was robbed quite early in its existence, so there are few grave goods to be found. Zheng Yan dates the tomb to the post-Han era, saying that the pictorial hollow bricks have many of the characteristics of the Southern Dynasties. Zheng Yan, Wei Jin Nanbeichao bihua mu yanjiu [Research on Tomb Painting of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2002), p. 129.


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