DRAGON

According to the Eastern Han scholar Wang Fu, the Dragon is a combination of nine animals: rabbit’s eyes, deer’s horn, ox’s mouth, camel’s head, mirage's belly, tiger's paw, eagle's paw, fish's scales, and snake's body, which is very close to the popular image of dragons today. According to legend, Dragon's power are unpredictable and all-powerful, capable of calling forth the wind and rain and soaring into the clouds. In different historical eras, different types of dragons have been designed and created, and have been given different cultural connotations Dragon is the fifth of the twelve traditional Chinese zodiac and its corresponding earthy branch is "Chen".

The Dragon in Calligraphy

The Han character is the official script of China throughout the ages and is the carrier of the art of calligraphy. Calligraphy is an important part in Chinese art, which can be expressed in a variety of styles according to the characteristics of Chinese characters. Although the traditional tools of writing are always paper, brush, ink and ink stone, what is indispensable is the knowledge and ideas of the calligrapher about the strokes and structure of the characters in order to create a unique work of art. With the innovation and development of technology, various forms of writing tools, and even computers can be used to help us in the writing and creation of calligraphy. In addition to the pre-Qin calligraphy (Oracle Bone Script and Bronze Script), the Han character has gone through five styles: Seal Script (Large Seal Script and Small Seal Script), Clerical Script, Cursive Script, Running Script and Regular Script.

Oracle Bone Script	Oracle Bone Script is a script from the Yin and Shang dynasties, dating back to the 1300s B.C. It is named after the words of divination that were inscribed on tortoise shells or animal bones.
Bronze Script	Bronze Script or bronzeware scripts, refers to the script carved or inscribed on bronze wares of bells and dings, during the 800 years between the end of the Shang dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.
Seal Script	After the first Emperor of the Qin dynasty unified the States into China, the script used by the former six States were changed into the small seal script (Qin seal). The Seal Script of and prior to the Warring states period were referred as large seal scripts. The writing of a seal script is rounded, smooth with beauty of balance. However, its writing is also complicated and difficult.
Clerical Script	According to legend, Clerical Script was created by Cheng Miao of the Qin dynasty who changed the way he wrote the Seal characters in order to make writing quicker. The most apparent feature of the Clerical Script is that the beginning of horizontal lines is akin to the head of a silkworm while the finish is akin to the tail of a wild goose and that its form appears flat and square, as if the characters were gliding in the sky. In the Han dynasty, almost all official documents were written in clerical script. In the Eastern Han dynasty, steles were also mainly inscribed in Clerical Script. The emergence of the Clerical Script ended the era of ancient writing that had spanned nearly two thousand years, while opening a new generation for calligraphic art which looked for beautification.
Cursive Script	Cursive Script can be divided into " Semi Cursive Script " and " Cursive Script ", the former being a fast version of the Clerical Script, while the latter is stripped of the characteristics of the Clerical Script in the Semi Cursive Script. The Configuration of Cursive Script has been completely developed and became the standard, particularly following the development of the Jin dynasty’s literati. Apart from the father-and-son of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzi in the Jin dynasty, there are major cursive script calligraphers in each dynasty, including Zhi Yong of the Sui dynasty, Zhang Xu, Huai Su of the Tang dynasty, Mi Fu, Huang Tingjian, of the Song Dynasty, and Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan dynasty.
Running Script	Running Script had reaching its prime in the Eastern Jin dynasty. Its style moderates between Regular Script and Cursive Script. Wang Xizhi’s “Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion” has been commonly recognized as the prime Running Script among all. Yan Zhenqing’s “Draft of a Requiem for My Nephew” in the Tang dynasty was rated as the second. The four major masters of the Song dynasty, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu and Cai Xiang were experts at Running Script. Zhao Mengfu of Yuan Dynasty was also good at the Running calligraphy and Wen Zhengming and Dong Qichang were the famous calligraphers of Ming dynasty.
Regular Script	Regular Script is a regular script directly evolved from Clerical Script. It turned the “silkworm head and wild goose tail” of Clerical Script into a flat and straight form. The word turns from being flat to square and regular. Regular Script had reaching its prime in the Tang dynasty. Famous calligraphers of Regular Script include Chu Suiliang, Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan.

The personalized stamp sheets "Longteng Nianfeng" and "Cheshui Malong” were issued by the China Post, respectively. The setting includes twelve postage stamps with face value and ten supplementary tabs which can be overprinted with figures or designs. The design of main postage stamps is printed with paper-cut patterns of the twelve Chinese Zodiac animals and portraits, and also the words "Eternal Legend of the Twelve Zodiac Signs” between the circles. The characters for "Dragon" on the tabs are adopted from ancient masterpieces or inscriptions of famous calligraphers.

The China Post issued the personalized stamp sheets using the “Sun and Immortal Birds Gold Ornament”, selected as the symbol of China's cultural heritage by the National Cultural Heritage Administration in 2005, for the image of the main stamps. The "Golden Bird, Jade Rabbit, Sun and Moon" sheet consists of ten postage stamps with face value and twelve tabs featuring the Oracle Bone characters of each zodiac sign and their corresponding Earthly Branches. The other sheet "Art of Calligraphy of Huang Jiajun" has a setting of 12 postage stamps with face value and twelve tabs featuring the calligraphic works of the twelve zodiac signs in Oracle-bone and Seal Script by said calligrapher.

Dragon in Crafts

The dragon in Chinese culture is the most sacred of all symbolic creatures, symbolising power and strength. To enrich the image and culture of the dragon, people from ordinary citizens to imperial families have used various vectors to depict the existence of the dragon. Apart from written works, other artefacts such as toys, textiles and ceremonial objects are also often created with dragons as the main theme, allowing us to find the dragon's manifestation and its significance in the space of a stamp.

On the first day cover with souvenir sheet of the Year of the Dragon, issued by the Åland Post in 2023, it depicts children playing with a dragon-kite on the sandy beach of Lilla Holmen, located by the inlet to the Eastern Harbour in Mariehamn. The art of kite-flying was developed in China almost 1500 years ago. The basic structure of a kite is a light frame over which fabric, paper or plastic is stretched, with a line attached to allow it to float and soar in the wind. Issued by the CTT Macao in 1996, the one-stamp souvenir sheet "Kites" features the logo of the World Stamp Show Taipei in the top left corner, with a huge dragon kite flying in the wind amidst the auspicious clouds of designer Chan Ieng Hin's brushstrokes.

Paper-cutting is a kind of paper art. Through a pair of scissors and a piece of paper, you can express all kinds of joys and sorrows in life. In addition to Chinese paper-cutting, there are also paper-cutting arts with local characteristics all over the world. As a type of openwork art, paper-cutting gives people the feeling of visual transparency and artistic enjoyment. During festivals or wedding celebrations, when the windows, walls, doors and lanterns of a home are decorated with beautiful and colourful paper-cuttings, the festive atmosphere is immediately be heightened. In 2009, Chinese paper-cutting was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

In 2011, the Liechtenstein Post issued the world's first holographic paper-cut stamp "Year of the Dragon", featuring a dancing dragon in the circular openwork pattern. The Hongkong Post and The Singapore Post also issued similar laser "Year of the Dragon" paper-cut stamps for the first time in 2024. The former's souvenir sheet features a hollowed-out dragon cutout by Fan Zuoxin, inheritor of high-density paper-cutting art, while the latter mini-sheet consists of four paper-cut dragons surrounding a gold stamping dragon stamp by graphic designer Andy Koh, in a modern interpretation of the traditional Chinese art of paper-cutting.

To celebrate the Year of the Dragon, China Post issued a set of six stamps "Dragon (Cultural Relics)", namely: " Neolithic Age, Jade Dragon " in dark green and the shape of the letter "C", "Warring States, Dragon Jade Ornament " cut in the shape of an "S", " Han dynasty, Craved Tile with Dragon ", "Tang dynasty, Copper Mirror with Dragon " in the shape of a sunflower, "Jin dynasty, Bronze Dragon", which combined images and features of dragons, Qilin, lions, dogs, and "Qing Dynasty, Dragon on Sandalwood Throne” inlaid with shells and conches. These stamps fully express the existence of “Dragon” in Chinese history and also reflect the common pursuit of “auspiciousness” in different eras.

Cizhou ware of the Yuan dynasty was characterized by the underglaze colours, perfectly combining the art of Chinese painting and calligraphy with that of Chinese porcelain, with free-flowing, unconventional brushwork and a strong folkloric flavour. The “Yuan dynasty, Flat Bottle with Dragon and Phoenix Pattern”, unearthed at the site of the Yuan dynasty capital in Beijing, was the fifth stamp of "Chinese Ceramics - Cizhou Ware", a set of six stamps issued by the China Post in 1981.

During the Ming dynasty, the city of Jingdezhen was the center of porcelain production in China, and its products were known for their unique style of being "as white as jade, as bright as a mirror, as thin as paper, as loud as a chime", with celadon, colour-glazed porcelain, nice-grain porcelain, and pastel-coloured porcelain constituting four of the most prestigious traditional products. This is the third stamp of "Jingdezhen Porcelain", a set of six stamp issued by China Post in 1991, entitled "Ming dynasty, Five-colour Jar with Clouds and Dragons", the cover of which is painted with a red dragon.

Bronze is one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind, as this alloy of red copper, tin and lead is the earliest alloy in the history of metal smelting. A freshly cast bronze ware is golden in colour, while later taking on a greenish hue due to copper embroidery. The smelting technology of the Western Zhou Dynasty has matured that the bronze wares presented a simple and dignified style and craved with long inscriptions. Bronze wares of the Eastern Zhou dynasty are renowned for their unique designs and exquisite casting, whereas those of the late Spring and Autumn period are more varied and sophisticated.

The China Post issued a set of eight stamps “Bronze Ware of Western Zhou Dynasty” in 1982. The image of the fourth stamp “Ding with Ox Head and Coiled Dragon Pattern” shows an ancient cooking utensil, and the sixth stamp “Lei with Coiled Dragon and Beast Mask design” shows a wine container with a tall and erect dragon standing on its lid. In addition, the China Post issued another set of eight stamps "Bronze Ware of Eastern Zhou Dynasty" in 2003. The seventh of these stamps features "Square Pot with the Design of Lotus and Cranes”, a bronze wine vessel from the Mid Spring and Autumn period, with cranes as the main character and dragons as the ornaments surrounding the bottle; and the eighth stamp shows a "Bronze Tripod with a Dragon-shaped Handle", which is a wine vessel used by the early Warring States period nobles, and features dragon as the main character.

In ancient times, “brocade” was regarded as the fabric with the highest level of production technology. With a history of nearly 1,600 years, Nanjing Yun Jin brocade is famous for its gorgeous and colourful fabrics, which are as beautiful as the clouds in the sky, and for its mastery of the art of brocade weaving. In 2009, the Craftsmanship of Nanjing Yunjin Brocade was inscribed on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

In 2011, China Post issued the "Yunjin Brocade", a souvenir sheet with three stamps, featuring the "First Grade Crane Patch” a pattern for the robes of the scholar-bureaucrat class, the "Real Gold Dragon”, a pattern for the imperial dragon robes, and the "Auspicious Double Remainders", a pattern used by the people in their celebratory attire. These three typical patterns fully reflect the beauty of Yunjin silk weaving technique, the harmony of its colours and its profound cultural and artistic connotations.

China was one of the first countries in the world to produce textiles, and is best known for its silk. Since the Western Han Dynasty, Chinese silk has travelled to Europe via the famous "Silk Road", which played an important role in bridging the economic and cultural gap between the East and the West. In 2012, the Hongkong Post issued its very first “Year of the Dragon" silk souvenir sheet with a certificate attesting it was made from 100% genuine Italian silk. It depicts a golden dragon with sharp teeth and claws as it rolls and dances against a backdrop of colourful auspicious clouds.

The silk paintings of Chu state during the Warring States Period, unearthed in Changsha, Hunan Province, are among the earliest paintings made of white silk. In 1978, the China Post issued the "Silk Painting from the Chu Tomb of Changsha”. One of the stamps, "Dragon and Phoenix Guiding the Soul to Immortality", depicts on the left side of the picture, from bottom to top, a twisted and ascending dragon with its legs spread out. Another stamp, titled "Character Harnessing the a Dragon", depicts a man wearing a tall crown, long robe, carrying a long sword at his waist while holding a bridle, is seen harnessing a long boat-like dragon. These two silk paintings are funerary objects, the soul-calling flags used to guide the deceased's soul to heaven, as items covering the coffin.

As early as the Yin and Shang dynasties, there were already historians responsible for archival management in China. During the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty, the library stack was constructed, which served as the royal archives of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1996, the China Post launched the issue "Collection of Ancient Chinese Archives", selecting the most representative documents of the ancient times. Among the stamps, the design of the fourth stamp "Paper Archives – Credential of the Qing Dynasty" is a book’s cover with a picture of two dragons coiling pearl, and the inscription of “Credential of the Qing Dynasty” in Manchu and Chinese characters.

Textiles are light industrial products made from textile materials. It is a necessity for people's lives and even for production. The raw materials for textiles include textile fibres, semi-finished products such as yarns, which are woven through processes such as fibre blending and carding, for weaving and rope making, as well as finished products such as clothing, carpets, and fishing nets. In 2012, the Micronesian Post Office issued a textile "Year of the Dragon" stamp, where the dragon image and text are woven with red thread on a yellow velvety surface.

In traditional Chinese culture, dragon is an iconic symbol of China and one of the world's greatest mythological creatures. For the millennium, the Canada Post issued a "Year of the Dragon" souvenir sheet that looks like an open scroll of fabric. On a gold background representing wealth, the designer used auspicious clouds and traditional wave patterns to set off a lively scene of two dragons playing with pearls.

Pos Malaysia celebrated the Year of the Dragon with the issue of the "Legacy of the Loom" souvenir sheet featuring a Chinese dragon robe. The stamp features an imposing holographic gold dragon grasping a dragon pearl. The dragon is surrounded by five-coloured clouds, with a dragon motif on its shoulders and bats, the symbol of "good fortune" added by the designer, as well as the logo of the World Stamp Exhibition held in Indonesia that same year. The "Fundação do Oriente e Museu do Oriente" souvenir sheet, issued by the Portuguese Post in 2018 to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Fundação do Oriente and the 10th Anniversary of Museu do Oriente, features a stamp on the right showing a detail of the costume worn by the Beijing Opera character Bao Gong, which is the head of a five-clawed dragon.

The formal robes worn by the emperors were strict in their choice of colours, with the Qin dynasty favouring black and the Han dynasty black with reddish colour. After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty first wore a yellow dragon robe, yellow was regarded as the most noble colour. Emperor Gaozu of the Tang dynasty issued an order during the Wude period his subjects not to wear yellow, yellow robes became the exclusive use of the royal family, and have remained so ever since. Take a closer look at the stamps issued by Carriacou and Petite Martinique Post, Ghana Post, Guyana Post, Guiné-Bissau Post and Sierra Leone Post, featuring dragon robes worn by the emperors of the Qin, Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Qing emperors wore some of the most elaborate and sophisticated custom-made clothes of all the dynasties, retaining the characteristics of Manchu clothing while incorporating the patterns and motifs of the emperors' clothing from previous dynasties. The main costumes of the Qing emperors were divided into seven categories: ceremonial outfits, auspicious outfits, regular outfits, travelling outfits, rain outfits, military outfits, and casual outfits, to meet the needs of different occasions. The military uniform, also known as the "Grand Inspection Armour", was worn by the Qing emperors when attending large-scale military activities and inspecting the military equipment and military prowess of the army.

The background image of the “Emperor Kangxi, Qing Dynasty” mini-sheet issued by Sierra Leone Post for the Beijing International Stamp and Coin Exposition in 2010, however, the background image is actually taken from the "The Qianlong Emperor in Armor on Horseback". To commemorate the 600th Anniversary of the Forbidden City in 2020, the Dominica Post issued a mini-sheet with a background image of “The Yongzheng Emperor Offering Sacrifice at the Xiannong Altar”, in which the second stamp is the “Yongzheng Emperor in Military Outfit”. In 2015, Ghana Post issued one souvenir sheet on the occasion of the 90th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Palace Museum, featuring an image taken from the “The Grand Review” painted by Giuseppe Castiglione, Jesuit Missionary, an official court painter of the Qing dynasty. With no exception, dragons were present on all of the emperors' military outfits.

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