In the age of dynasties emperorship was closely attributed with the image of a dragon. It wasn’t so much as the emperor chose the symbol of the dragon, but rather the belief was that the emperor was a dragon. One of the more prominent attributes of the mythological Chinese dragon was their association with their place in the sky and therefore the Heavens. The significance of this lays in the fact of how emperors derived their power from “The Mandate of Heaven” or the belief that the Emperor’s divine right to rule was mandated by the gods.
In relation to iconography, there were various artistic motifs present in the depiction of the imperial dragon that signified the emperor’s divine power. The first and most notable is the depiction of the imperial dragon with five claws as no other dragon was said to carry such an amount on their visage.
Bibliography
Anonymous (Chinese). 8th-9th century. Mirror with Dragon. mirrors. Place: The Walters Art Museum, Gift of Laurance and Isabel Roberts, 1993, 54.2854, Laurance and Isabel S. Roberts, Washington, D.C., 1933, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1993, by gift., http://thewalters.org. https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.guilford.edu/asset/AWALTERSIG_10312545710.
“清乾隆 刺繡御用十二章吉服袍 Emperor’s Twelve-symbol Festival Robe.” Digital image. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed November 29, 2018. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60506.
Zhao, Qiguang. Study of Dragons: East and West. New York: Peter Long Publishing, 1992.
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