BABY ZHULONGS

Is this a Pig or a Dragon ? That is the question whether its a celestial dragon or a plebian pig....puzzles the  mind and makes us fly to wild theories ...:))

 

Pig or Dragon?



The experts says both hence Zhulong  as  Zhu=Pig and Long=Dragon. An unlikely marriage if you ask me. How a celestial mythical dragon became married to a plebian pig  baffles the brain but according to Wikipedia :

 

A pig dragon or zhūlóng (Chinese: t 玉豬龍, s 玉猪龙) is a type of jade artifact from Neolithic China. Pig dragons are zoomorphic forms with a pig-like head and elongated limbless body coiled around to the head and described as "suggestively fetal". Early pig dragons are thick and stubby, and later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies.

  

8 Zhulongs



Zhulongs are  hallmarks of the Neolithic Hongshan Culture (c. 4000–3000 bce) and are normally large imposing figures so I can't account for why my lot of 8 zhulongs  is so mini. Are they genuine artifacts or replicas is another unanswerable question. The only  examples of small size zhulongs that I have seen are documented in the book Language of Adornment by Filippo Salviati who showed 2 examples of mini zhulongs measuring 1.6cm x 2.2cm and another 3cm x 4 cm which are still larger than my pieces. 

 

 In the picture below my largest zhulong measures only 1.9 x1.6 cm   and  1.5 x1.3 cm for the smallest. All have uncut central perforations and of the 8 only 1 has a stringing hole. They also show the Hongshan characteristics of large heavy lidded  pop out eyes, curled up body, fly back ears and nose creases.

 



8 baby zhulongs

 

Four of the zhulongs are made from calcite

 

 

Calcite zhulongs



One of the calcite zhulongs is badly corroded on one side.

 

 

badly corroded on one side



 

Here are the rest of the zhulongs in nephrite jade.

 

 

Jade zhulongs





2 of the zhulongs are chewing on some ancient quartz. I know this quartz in a hole on ancient jade has been debunked by experts as  ploys to fake authenticity. But on these two it looks pretty natural

 

 

Zhulong chewing on quartz



 

 Although diminutive in size they still exhibit the essence of zhulongism especially that inimitable  expression of "the grimacing sneering look" as described by some writers. At the same time their smallness and coiled body makes them look less like some fearsome beast but more like a cuddly amulet ! (depends how you look at them) or even a panda.

 

 

Grimacing but cuddly !



According to some sources, zhulongs are recorded as being made "as late as the Shang dynasty..." around 1600-1050 BCE and I cherish hopes that mine may be Shang creations  which is still an immortal 3,000 (more or less) years ago.

 

immortal in terms of age!



 



Sa Huynth Earrings

This funny shaped three pronged stone (maybe nephrite ) ornament was purchased from South Vietnam. I think it belongs to the the nephrite earrings (sometimes called lingling-o) from the Sa Huynh Culture of Vietnam (1000 BC to 200 AD), a late prehistoric metal age society on the central coast of Viet Nam.

However my specimen may not be genuine Sa Huynh. I somehow got the feeling that it is a replica. The seller being uneasy himself, had said that it is from the Champa Kingdom, a later civilization and that could bring it as far down as 1800.

The curled up C-shaped ornament also reminds me of the Chinese Hongshan (3500 to 2000BC) zhulong(pig dragon.) The zulong is descended from the jue(slit ring) and the jue-form is also used in Vietnam although later than the Chinese period. So from this chain of reasoning my impression that the lingling-o and zhulong are distant cousins, relatives or whatever, may not be too far fetched ! Though I must admit that my assumptions are completely unscientific !

Are my eyes or mind playing tricks on me ? Seems like the more I look at it the more I see the zhulong pose (minus the prongs) in the earring ornament. Here are two views:

The picture on the left is a lingling-o looking view (the earring view) usually shown in books and other sources. The picture on the right shows a different view. Does it not resemble the curled up zhulong ? Wish I could post a picture of a zhulong for comparison. Unfortunately, I do not own one not even a replica. However jade collectors would be familiar with this legendary artifact and the Net would also have many images of this illustrous mythical animal.
So is this a fake lingling-o that looks like a zhulong ? Well I must say this is one tricky piece and the faker must be having a good chuckle baffling hapless collectors like me. :)

Here is another C-shaped, lingling-o/zhulong lookalike ornament made from glass also purchased in Vietnam.

Vintage unknown.