Chinese Cloisonné Sea Dragon Plate, Late Qing Dynasty, Detail
Cloisonné Sea Dragon Plate, size about 40 cm diameter.
Historically, the dragon was the symbol of the Emperor of China. In the Zhou Dynasty, the 5-clawed dragon was assigned to the Son of Heaven, the 4-clawed dragon to the nobles (zhuhou, seigneur), and the 3-clawed dragon to the ministers (daifu). In the Qin Dynasty, the 5-clawed dragon was assigned to represent the Emperor while the 4-clawed and 3-clawed dragons were assigned to the commoners.
Amit Banerjee 04/10/2013 0:49