【Expo】
◎Zhou Qian
The Lunar New Year in 2024 is coming, which is the Year of the Dragon in our traditional Chinese zodiac calendar. In the ancient Chinese astronomical calendar, the twelve zodiac animals were used as the chronological system, and the dragon was one of them. The dragon is an animal in ancient Chinese mythology and one of the symbols of the Chinese nation. The earliest information about dragons in my country is a sculpture of a dragon unearthed from the Chahai site in Liaoning, dating back about 8,000 years. The ancients believed that dragons can ascend to the sky, dive into the abyss, call for wind and rain, and are omnipotent. They are mythical beasts that can ward off disasters, drive away evil spirits, and welcome good fortune. The ancients expressed their respect and worship for the dragon through various dragon-related activities in order to obtain good weather and abundant harvests throughout the year. Dragons were also revered by ancient emperors. The Forbidden City during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was the place where emperors governed and lived, and the image of dragons was almost everywhere. For example, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is the core building of the Forbidden City, has dragons of different shapes in its interior golden pillars, thrones, caissons, and colorful paintings.
In the field of ancient architecture, indoor columns are generally called "golden columns". There are 6 golden pillars on both sides of the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. On each golden pillar, there is a huge dragon. Panlong is a dragon that lies dormant on the ground but has not yet ascended to heaven. Its shape is winding and encircling. The dragon's tail is down, its body is wrapped around the pillar, and it is winding upwards. The dragon's head is raised, staring upward, with sharp eyes. Below the dragon tail is the Shoushan Fuhai pattern, and the dragon body is surrounded by floating auspicious clouds.
In the middle of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there is a gold-lacquered throne with clouds and dragon patterns. This is the throne with the most exquisite workmanship, the most luxurious decoration, the highest grade, and the most exquisite carvings in the Forbidden City. The throne was made during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and is made of nanmu. 13 golden dragons are coiled around the back of the chair, with different shapes. Among them, in the middle of the top crossbar of the chair back is a sitting dragon with its head held high, and the two sides are shaped into dragon bodies. Each of the four cylindrical chair columns is surrounded by multiple dragons, making a meandering motion to lift up the air. The throne is engraved with dragons and painted with gold. The "gold lacquer inlaid lacquer decoration" on the throne of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is a very high-level lacquer decoration in ancient Chinese palaces.
There is a caisson above the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is known as the "dragon, phoenix, treehopper, cloud, dragon with petals, square octagonal golden panlong" caisson. Among them, treehopper refers to the triangular or diamond-shaped area in the caisson. The main function of this caisson is to symbolize the majesty of imperial power and the emperor's legitimacy. In the center of the top of the caisson, there is a dragon shape with a Xuanyuan mirror in its mouth, supplemented by Ruyi cloud patterns. This dragon's body is coiled, its neck is bent and its chest is raised. Its eyes are wide and its tentacles are stretched out horizontally. It is majestic and ready to come out, giving it a very majestic and intimidating feeling. From the perspective of carving techniques, the Panlong shape adopts multi-layer carving, openwork, relief, intaglio and other carving techniques. The technique is exquisite and the lines are delicate and smooth, reflecting the exquisite carving skills of ancient Chinese craftsmen.
The style of the eaves paintings in the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the golden dragon and seal paintings. This kind of color painting was the highest-level type of color painting in the Qing Dynasty and was mostly used on important buildings in the Forbidden City. The most distinctive feature of its composition is that dragon patterns are painted on the center and algae heads. The center of this color painting depicts a moving dragon. It moves its head and tail, and walks with its four paws in the auspicious clouds. Its body winds forward, as if it is chasing the fire beads in front of it. The algae head is painted with rising dragon and descending dragon patterns. The gold dragon and seal paintings in the Hall of Supreme Harmony use a large area of leach powder and gilding technology. The so-called "leaking powder with gold" means first using a mixture of soil powder and glue to trace the shape of the bulge along the outline of the dragon and phoenix decorations, and then applying gold foil to the surface of the bulge, so that the color painting pattern achieves a resplendent effect.
It is not difficult to find that the shapes of the dragons in different architectural parts of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are the essence of ancient Chinese artworks, and the craftsmanship is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancients, highlighting traditional Chinese culture.
(The author of Science and Technology Daily is a research librarian of the Palace Museum)