Han Dynasty Dragon
Featured Post | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 4 July 2007
A while back Jenny emailed me asking how I imagined the dragons in my Dragonkeeper books would look. I told her that I had been inspired by a Han dynasty painting of a dragon. I thought other readers might be interested to see it. It is quite different to the usual images of Chinese dragons that we see.
This dragon looks a lot friendlier, I think. Almost like it’s smiling. And most importantly, it’s got wings. Normally Chinese dragons don’t have wings. I didn’t imagine that Danzi was as skinny as this dragon.
This image is a section of a painting on silk found in a Han dynasty tomb. It’s more than 2000 years old.
(Image from Zhongguo kao gu da fa xian by Gong Liang, Shandong hua bao chu ban she, 1999)
WOW!!!
That’s really cool, getting your ideas from an 2000 year old painting!
Thanks SOOO much!
Soooo pretty…
Amazing!!! Hey, whats really amazing is the fact that a piece of handmade material could last so many years!!! Especially the fact that you can still se the dragon on it, I looked at a piece of silk in a chinese art exhibition from 2000 years ago and the dyes of the silk had faded heaps!!!
what inspired you to make kai as it is. i think the picture is very beutiful.
Claire,
Perhaps it survived well because it was sealed in a tomb. So it had been in the dark until it was unearthed in 1972.
Sansthita,
I think a lot of Kai’s personality came from a very naughty dog I once had!
wow looks just like the cover of garden of the purple dragon aka a pitchure of Kai
Connor,
I sent the picture to the people who designed the cover and they redrew it as part of the cover design. I didn’t intend it to be Kai, but everyone assumes that it is.
But it’s still pretty. And rather curious because, as you DID point out, Carole, the dragon has wings. From the extent of my knowledge, most Eastern Dragons are shown as the pictured dragon without wings. It’s really curious. To me, at any rate
Krystal,
There are quite a few images of Han Dynasty dragons with wings. Early mythology refers to dragons growing wings after a thousand years or so.
I have a French book about the painting at the moment which I am trying to translate. That might give me more information.
Cool. I get most of my dragon-related information from my dragonology book. It has some beautiful images in it itself.
hi Carole,
dragons with wings in China are not very common maybe those dragon migrated to Japanese art
what about ping? i love her charector so strong and headstrong.
Connor,
Japanese dragons don’t have wings either. I think the winged dragons were in earlier Chinese art and then they disappeared. As I said I’ve seen quite a few images from the Han dynasty with wings. Sometimes they are very small.
Sansthita,
Ping wasn’t strong and headstrong to start off with, she was timid and lacking confidence. She learned how to be strong and confident, but even towards the end of the trilogy she still had self-doubt.
I think I was a bit like Ping when I started writing.
that dragon has no horns
maybe thay grow wings first instead of horns and then wings????
japanese dragons are not common compared to chinese what startles me is that to different country’s have drawn the same animal wich could mean dragons were real
Connor,
It should have horns. There is a bit of the painting missing. The other three dragons on the painting all have horns.
It could also be that people from different countries have all invented the same wonderful creature, which is just as startling I think.
I’m going with Connor on this one. I’ve always wandered about it. How can so many people (Chinese and Japanese) imagine of a dragon that almost has the same structure in everyone’s mind. Dragons DID exist.. o_0
P.S When Dragon Moon coming to the UK? You Aussies already have it
Link,
Dragon Moon will be out in UK about March next year.
maybe the horns were scraped off..???????????
you have inspired me with every book,the covers and all, i really enjoy your stories and you should write somemore dragon books they are amaizing
Connor,
Yes the horns have worn off.
Sarah,
Thanks for that. I’m delighted to hear that I have inspired you. I will write more dragon books, but different ones. In fact my dragon encyclopedia will be published in October.
Oooh, a dragon encyclopedia. I’m so gonna get that when it comes out.
…and when I get the money for it too
Hi Carole,
Want to get a book i’m writing published can you tell me some one who can anyway here’s the first few lines
The boy closed his eyes and created a image in his mind.He pitchured a mother,father and many brothers and sisters and a big house.But no he didn’t get any of that.He was a street rat in New York.His mother died when he was 3 and his father left him in a alley way when he was 4 and he was a onley child.His days were made up of stealing for food normaly nuts and fruit like apples or oranges but on a lucky day he may get a fish.
That story is about a boy who has a dream to find his father and his name.can he beleive in himself and find his father???
Connor,
I think you have to have a finished book before you start looking for a publisher.
My advice to aspiring writers is to keep working on your story until it’s as good as you can make it. That means not only writing it, but rewriting and editing it over and over again. It takes me about a year to write a novel and almost half of that time is spent editing and rewriting, polishing it.
If you have a novel that you think is at that stage, then you find a publisher who publishes books in a similar genre and send it off. It’s not an easy thing to get a book published.
Carole,
Because of our age would a publisher be interested
Carole,
I really enjoyed the talk you gave at Avila. It was very interesting. Everyone thought you were great! I also can’t believe you researched about dragons for 10 years! Thats a long time ago. And just so you know i’m doing a speech on you as the topic is “The person I admire..” and you do! Keep up the good work!
P.S I was on the ‘quiet’ side of the theatre.
Sarah,
Glad you enjoyed the talk. Talking to school groups can be scary, especially older kids, because I know some of them aren’t all that interested in listening to an author and didn’t choose to be there.
Thanks for picking me as the topic of your speech. I’m honoured.
i thougt dragons didnt have wings.everytime time i see the picture, i can’t see them.do they have wing actually?
Chris,
Chinese dragons don’t usually have wings, but in this painting there is a wing. It is red, purple and white striped.
are your dragon facts real?e.g. arsenic is good for dragons,metal burns dragons. please reply soon, i’m doing a project on chinese dragons.
Sarah,
These are all characteristics of dragons that are mentioned in ancient Chinese books. It is iron that hurts dragons, btw, not all metals.
It said in one of these books that dragons made a sound like banging copper bowls together. I took that a bit further and made up other metallic sounds they could make when they are in different moods.
thank you!
p.s. do you know a good book,anything to look at?there’s so little in the school library that i’m beginning to worry that i can’t write three pages.no websites please, this is a book only task,one of the reasons i need help.
Sarah,
A good book about what?
about dragons in china.
Sarah,
Sorry, there isn’t a book about Chinese dragons that you could easily find. The ones I have read weren’t that easy to track down, I’m afraid.
My new book about dragons isn’t out yet, but there are some extracts from it on the black dog website
http://www.bdb.com.au/dragoncompanion/chinesedragons.php
if you click on all the links you should get some information about Chinese dragons.
This isn’t strictly website info as it’s from an unpublished book.
Hope that helps.
wow .. the pic look cool =)
sorry to ask but do you have any pictures of what Kai could possibly look like? if you do, could u send it to my email
i sent an email before but i forgot to ask and i was checking out your website site so yeah
thanks =)
Tracey,
This is the picture that inspired my idea of what dragons look like in the Dragonkeeper books.
Except Kai didn’t have wings and horns because he was only young.
There is a description of Danzi at the beginning of Dragonkeeper (p.28) which tells you what I imagine Chinese dragons look like. Kai would be a smaller version of that.
are the other books avaliable in canada yet?
Emily,
Do you mean Garden of the Purple Dragon and Dragon Moon? Garden of PD should definitely be available. I assume you get the US edition in Canada. Is that right? If so Dragon Moon will be out in May.
do you mean Dragon Moon will be out in May 2008?
btw I Love the dragon pict
Henny,
Yes, Dragon Moon is out in the US 6 May 2008.
dear carol
your dragon keeper books are truly the best i have ever read i was on dragon moon and could not read the last chapter how could she leave kai there like that i know that it is just a book but not to me i really means something i can not read the last chapter .
does ping ever see princess yan xing ? or her mother . does she ever see kai again .do those places in china really exist i learn chinese and manderin did ping speak manderin?
i just cant let her out of my life carol pls do another dragon keeper book .and is the isle of the dead heaven …..love amy
dear carol
your dragon keeper books are truly the best i have ever read i was on dragon moon and could not read the last chapter how could she leave kai there like that i know that it is just a book but not to me i really means something i can not read the last chapter .
does ping ever see princess yan xing ? or her mother . does she ever see kai again .do those places in china really exist i learn chinese and manderin did ping speak manderin?
i just cant let her out of my life carol pls do another dragon keeper book .and is the isle of the blest heaven …..love amy
Amy,
Glad you like the books so much. You will have to read the last chapter.
I can’t answer your questions re what happens after the end of Dragon Moon. I don’t know. Ping lives her life in private. I think it is up to readers to decide for themselves what happens to her.
Some of the places exist in China like Chang’an and Tai Shan. Some I made up.
I don’t know what form of Chinese people spoke in China 2000 years ago. I imagine it would have been like Mandarin, but she could have spoken some sort of local dialect. I imagined it was Mandarin because that’s what I know.
No the Isle of the Blest is not Heaven.
hi carol
what is the isle of the blest
i would like to read the last chapter carol but i am so attached to the book and the charactors
i cant let go i know the joke is on me for getting so attached to ping ( its just a book)
but i really feel like i know her
love amy
p.s are you australian
Amy,
The Isle of the Blest is a magical place in Chinese mythology.
Yes I am Australian.