Azure Dragon (Qinglong)
The Azure Dragon (青龍, Qīnglóng) is the dragon of the east, one of the Four Symbols, the animals of the four quarters of the sky in Chinese cosmology. It stands for the east and for spring, and on Han mirrors and tombs it faces the White Tiger of the west.
Meaning
Chinese astronomers divided the sky into four quadrants of seven lunar mansions each and gave each quadrant an animal: the Azure Dragon in the east, the Vermilion Bird (Zhuque) in the south, the White Tiger (Baihu) in the west and the Black Tortoise (Xuanwu) in the north. W. Perceval Yetts, in 1912, noted that the four still held their importance in his day, above all in geomancy (feng shui). The east is where the sun rises, Yetts explained, so the dragon of the east is spring. The Huainanzi’s chapter on the heavens gives the east to wood and to the planet Jupiter and names its beast the cang long (蒼龍); at the centre it adds a fifth beast, the Yellow Dragon (黃龍). English books name the eastern dragon in three colours: Yetts calls it the Azure Dragon, E. T. C. Werner the Blue Dragon and the China Institute Gallery the Green Dragon.
Origin and history
Gods of the four directions go back to the Shang oracle bones, the China Institute Gallery notes in its catalogue of Han tomb tiles from Shandong. Under the Qin and Han the four animals decorated tiles and bricks in palaces and tombs, and by the early Western Han both coffins and tombs. The set was not yet fixed: on the inner coffin of Lady Dai at Mawangdui (she died in 186 BC) the four are a dragon, a tiger, a phoenix and a deer. In 130 BC the emperor Wudi formally adopted the correspondence between the directions and their animals, the sishen, or “four deities”, and some of the earliest large tomb bricks with all four are in his own tomb at Maoling. The Shandong tile shows the dragon springing forward, its body undulating, its haunches raised.
Dragon on the left, tiger on the right
The dragon and the tiger form a pair. A Han mirror inscription quoted by the China Institute Gallery says that “the Dragon on the left and the Tiger on the right forfend all evil and keep the four quarters in order”. In Taoist temples, Werner writes, the Blue Dragon and the White Tiger guard the gates as Heng and Ha guard Buddhist ones, and in the legend he retells, the Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star was Teng Jiugong, one of the chief generals of the last emperor of the Yin dynasty. The V&A has a Song dynasty grain jar for a tomb modelled with the Green Dragon of the East, whose companion jar would have carried the White Tiger of the West.
The dragon in feng shui
In feng shui the dragon became the land itself. De Groot, quoted by M. W. de Visser in 1913, wrote that “the word Dragon comprises the high grounds in general” and the streams that rise in them, so that books on feng shui open with the “Rules concerning the Dragon”. The people of Amoy, De Groot reported, credited the town’s prosperity to two hills flanking its harbour, Tiger-head Hill and Dragon-head Hill.
The Blue Dragon in Korea
The four animals travelled with Chinese cosmology. The V&A has a slate chest for cremated remains from the Goryeo dynasty of Korea (918–1392), excavated near Kaesong, incised with the Four Guardian Animals: the Blue Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South and the Dark Tortoise of the North.
Read next
- Next in Chinese mythology and symbolsVermilion Bird (Zhuque)The Vermilion Bird (朱雀, Zhūquè) is the bird of the south, one of the Four Symbols, the animals of the four quarters of the sky in Chinese cosmology. It stands for the south and for summer, the direction Chinese palaces and tombs faced.
- The same shape in Tarot cardsSeven of CupsThe seven of cups in the tarot's Minor Arcana: strange cups of vision, filled with fantastic images. A. E. Waite read it as imagination and fancies with nothing lasting behind them.
See also
White Tiger (Baihu), Chinese dragon (long), Qilin, Flaming pearl, Fenghuang (Chinese phoenix), Guardian lions (foo dogs).
Sources
- Huainanzi, Tianwen xun 天文訓 (Chinese Wikisource), Huainanzi 淮南子, chapter 3 “天文訓” (Celestial Patterns), 2nd century BC; Chinese text on Wikisource, Wikisource (Chinese), Tianwen xun, “What are the five planets?”
- Symbolism in Chinese Art (W. Perceval Yetts, 1912), W. Perceval Yetts, “Symbolism in Chinese Art”, read before the China Society, 18 January 1912 (Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1912), The China Society, pp. 13–14
- Directional tomb tile with Green Dragon of the East (China Institute Gallery), China Institute Gallery, “Providing for the Afterlife: ‘Brilliant Artifacts’ from Shandong”, cat. 46, Directional tomb tile with Green Dragon of the East, Eastern Han dynasty, Linyi Municipal Museum, China Institute Gallery, cat. 46, entry text
- Directional tomb tile with Dark Warrior of the North (China Institute Gallery), China Institute Gallery, “Providing for the Afterlife: ‘Brilliant Artifacts’ from Shandong”, cat. 49, Directional tomb tile with Dark Warrior of the North, Eastern Han dynasty, Linyi Municipal Museum, China Institute Gallery, cat. 49, entry text (Han mirror inscription)
- Myths and Legends of China (E. T. C. Werner, 1922), E. T. C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China (London: George G. Harrap, 1922), Project Gutenberg ebook 15250, George G. Harrap, ch. V, Blue Dragon and White Tiger
- The Dragon in China and Japan (M. W. de Visser, 1913), M. W. de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan (Amsterdam: Johannes Müller, for the Royal Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam, 1913), Royal Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam, Book I, ch. III, § 7 (pp. 60–61)
- Funerary jar with the Green Dragon of the East (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, funerary jar for grain offerings, Longquan ware, Southern Song dynasty (1128–1279), Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
- Burial chest with the Four Guardian Animals, Korea (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, slate container for cremated remains incised with the Four Guardian Animals, Goryeo dynasty, Korea, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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