The Hongshan “Age of Jade” features the jade pig-shaped dragon.

It is the medium through which the tribe chiefs connect with heaven and earth. It is the sacred artifact of ancestors’ totem worship.

It was only excavated in high-status tombs of the Hongshan mausoleum at Niuheliang, as a symbol of social status, hierarchy, and power.

This jade pig-shaped dragon is collected by Liaoning Provincial Museum from Jianping County, Chaoyang City.

It is chicken-bone white all over and tinted yellowish by soil seep.

Its body is curled up, its head and tail connected, bold in style.

The dragon’s head is finely and vividly sculpted. It is one relatively large in size and most formal in shape and material among the known Hongshan jade pig-shaped dragons.

According to archaeologists, the material of Hongshan jade items is Xiuyan nephrite, which is mainly found in Xiyugou valley of Xiuyan. In the Paleolithic Age, the ancestors in Northeast China began to use jade, starting from East Liaoning. The other sources of the Hongshan jade might include Chaoyang City, Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, and the Lake Baikal region in Russia.

What is the jade pig-shaped dragon exactly? From the perspective of the primitive religion of Liaohe River basin, its prototype might be a selective combination of pigs and bears. After intensely abstract artistic treatment, it becomes a collective idol of worship among Hongshan tribes.

The jade pig-shaped dragon is full in sculpt, finely polished, peaceful in expression, and endearing to its viewers. In its time, it was in the possession of tribe chiefs and used to connect with heaven and earth to pray for the blessings of gods and deities, to get rid of diseases and disasters, and to pray for warmth and happiness on earth. 

Experts have pointed out that the hole on the back of the jade pig-shaped dragon indicates its being threaded and hung either in front of the breast or beside the ears. Its mouth faces downwards and its shape thus resembles the Chinese character “人” （meaning people）. It also dovetails in spirit with the characters for people in inscriptions on Dawenkou pottery objects, oracle bone inscriptions, inscriptions on ancient bronze objects, and the Zhuan-style calligraphy of the Qin Dynasty.

The hole on the jade pig-shaped dragon is the exact point to keep the hanging jade in balance, precisely calculated in the golden section ratio. It expresses the timeless Chinese ideas: the unity between mankind and nature and the doctrine of the mean.

Mr Su Bingqi, a famous Chinese archaeologist, reminds people of the symbolic dragon culture represented in the Hongshan jade pig-shaped dragon. It influences the forms of characters for dragons in later inscriptions such as the oracle bone inscriptions. The prototype of the jade sculpted dragon excavated in the Fuhao Tomb of Yin Ruins also traces back to the Hongshan jade pig-shaped dragon.

The Chahai dragon stone-fashioned sculpture in Fuxin City from 7,000 years ago, and the Hongshan jade pig-shaped dragon from 5,000 years ago, verify the academic inference that “dragons rise from Liaohe River and ritual ceremonies stem from Hongshan”.