tures, Kondui Palace in the Transbaikal region,
As for the myriad creatures be they feathered,
which seems to have developed upon the archi-
hairy, scaly or armored, they all find their ances-
tectural and spatial arrangement of Ögödei’s
try in the dragon 66
palace complex Tumen Amgalant at Qaraqorum
According to ancient ritual beliefs, particularly
The palace was built on a platform, surrounded
favoured in Buddhist and Daoist traditions, drag-
by double-tiered terraces, the dragon sculpture
ons are a symbolic expression of fertility and
being set on the upper terrace at intervals of two
fecundity, able to control rain and, if invoked, to
metres facing outwards Of the 150 dragon sculp-
procure rain in agricultural life 67 Far from being
tures that decorated the terrace, 102 were found
a mere symbol of the natural elements, the long
during Sergei Kiselev’s archaeological excavations
also carried imperial affiliations from ancient
in the 1940s (figs 188 and 189) 62 The excavations
times 68 This is symbolised not least by the mythol-
revealed traces of conflagration, and it is thought
ogising of the miraculous conception of Gaozu,
that Kondui Palace was burned to the ground
founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty,
during raids by the Chinese army approximately
who was born as the result of his mother’s union
at the same time as Qaraqorum was destroyed in
with a scaly dragon, a sure sign of a heavenly
1380 It is worthy of note that in contrast to many
mandate 69 Already in the Shang shu, one of the
of the previously discussed examples from Islamic
major historical works of early Chinese history,
architecture, these dragon sculptures were over-
the dragon is thought to have been depicted
all not only highly visible but were in fact inte-
together with “the sun and the moon, the stars
grated into the structural aspects of the palatial
and the constellations, the mountains, and the
architecture often with a supportive function 63
flowery animals on the upper sacrificial robes
Dragon imagery was therefore well established
of the emperor ”70 In spite of this association,
and had wide currency in Mongol culture In
dragons were used outside the court context in
ad di tion, glazed roof tiles, tile terminals (the cir-
China before and after the advent of the Mongols
cular goutou and the triangular-shaped dishui)
Early thirteenth-century Mongols of any rank
in particular, with moulded decoration of dragons
appear to have worn garments decorated with
have been found in many Mongol cities 64 The
dragons and phoenixes as witnessed by the Song
overall depiction of the dragons on the roof tiles
envoy Peng Daya who recorded his visit to
Ögödei’s court in the Heida Shilue (“Summary
is closely related stylistically to that on the tiles
of the Records of the Tatars”) written in 1237 71
from Takht-i Sulaimān
However, beginning with the Chinese Song
In Chinese culture the dragon (long) 65 is one
dy nasty (960–1279) the symbol of the dragon
of the oldest, most significant and most pervasive
became an imperial prerogative and paramount
symbols, recognised, according to a twelfth-cen-
imperial symbol, customarily referring to the
tury reading of the early Han-period account
“emperor’s person: his body was the dragon body,
Huainanzi, as an all-encompassing creature, the
his hands the claws, his capital the dragon’s
antecedent of all species:
pool ”72 The Song and Jurchen Jin dynasties, fol-
62 Kiselev, 1965, pp 325–69; for further examples of
66 Erya yi (“Ramifications of the Literary Expositor”),
dragon sculptures from Kondui, see idem, p 340, fig 180,
compiled by Luo yuan (1136–1184), 28 297, cited after
and p 343, fig 181 At least one of the dragon sculptures
Sterckx, 2002, pp 84–6 See also the study of Suetoshi Ikeda
remained in situ, cf Artemiev, 2003, p 306, fig 3 For
(1981, pp 290–5) who proposes an etymological relation-
comparable architectural marble sculptures of dragon
ship between the Chinese characters long (dragon) and the
protomes from Shangdu, see Legacy, 2002, fig 21, cat no
much debated, obscure gui (perhaps “ancestral spirits”) and
204 Similar sculptures were found in western Siberia in
considers the dragon to be an ancestral deity transformed
the territory of the Golden Horde, see Golden Horde, 2000,
into a mythical animal
pp 208–9, nos 2, 3
67 For detailed discussions of these rituals, see Loewe,
63 I must thank Professor Robert Hillenbrand for point-
1987, pp 195–214; and Jing, 2002, pp 70–3
ing this out to me
68 Masuya, 2002, p 96
64 See Kiselev, 1965, p 319, fig 166, p 321, fig 168,
69 Cf Sterckx, 2002, pp 194, 202
pl XXXI, fig 1 and 2; Masuya, 1997, pp 723–4, chart XVIII;
70 Shangshu zhengyi, 5 4b, annotated by Kong yingda et
Legacy, 2002, figs 22, 83, 105, cat nos 188–90
al , in Shisanjing zhushu, vol 1, cited after Sterckx, 2002,
65 As a “species” the mythological long encompasses dif-
p 53
ferent subspecies For a discussion of the dragon in ancient
71 Ed and comm , Wang Guowei, Menggu shiliao sizhong
Chinese myth, see Allan, 1991, pp 64–7 For the dragon in
(“Four Historical Sources on the Mongols”), Taipei, 1962,
Chinese art in general, see eadem, pp 157–64, 174; Rawson,
p 479, cited after Masuya, 1997, p 570
1984, pp 93–9
72 Rawski, 1998, p 42
218