LIAO-JIN DYNASTY (1115-1234)

A stylistically similar, but more simply rendered, bronze figure of a seated dragon dating to the Jin dynasty, from Shangjing, Acheng City, and now in the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Gems of China’s Cultural Relics, 1992, Beijing, 1992, no. 122. (Fig. 1) Of larger size (19.6 cm.) than the present figure, the Heilongjiang dragon is shown with the front proper left leg raised and supported on a trail of vapor. A gilt-bronze figure of a seated dragon, also more simply rendered than the present figure and shown with the front legs firmly planted on the ground, of comparable size to the current figure, is illustrated in the Eskenazi exhibition catalogue, Inlaid bronze and related material from pre-Tang China, London, 1991, pp. 130-1, no. 57, where it is dated late Eastern Han-Six Dynasties period, 2nd-4th century.