pig dragon

{{Short description|Type of artifact from ancient China}}

{{about|pig-dragon artifacts (using a different Chinese homonym)|the "Torch Dragon" creature from Chinese mythology|Zhulong (mythology)}}

File:Cultura di hongshan (neolitico), oggetto rituale zhulong (dragone-maiale) in nefrite, da lianing, 3500 ac. ca.JPG]]

File:British Museum Chinese jade Neolithic period Hongshan culture Coiled dragon Pig-dragon 11022019 1393.jpg]]

A pig dragon or zhūlóng ({{zh|t={{linktext|玉|豬龍}}|s={{linktext|玉|猪龙}}}}) is a type of jade artifact from the Hongshan culture of 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".{{cite journal|last=Childs-Johnson|first=Elizabeth|title=Jades of the Hongshan culture: the dragon and fertility cult worship|journal=Arts Asiatiques|year=1991|volume=46|pages=82–95|doi=10.3406/arasi.1991.1303}} Early pig dragons are thick and stubby, and later examples have more graceful, snakelike bodies.

Pig dragons were produced by the Hongshan culture (4700 to 2900 BC). Along with the same culture's jade eagles ({{lang|zh|玉鷹}}),Ko, Patrick. Federation of Medical Studies of Hong Kong, "[http://www.fmshk.org/database/articles/04ls.pdf The History of Ancient Chinese Jade Culture]". Jan 2008. they often featured as grave goods.Howard, Angela & al. Chinese Sculpture, pp. 21 f. Yale Univ. Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-300-10065-5}}. Pig bones have been found interred alongside humans at Hongshan burial sites, suggesting that the animal had some ritual significance.

There is some speculation that the pig dragon is the first representation of the Chinese dragon. The character for "dragon" in the earliest Chinese writing has a similar coiled form, as do later jade dragon amulets from the Shang period.Salviati, Filippo (2002). The Language of Adornment: Chinese Ornaments of Jade, Crystal, Amber and Glass, Fig. 17. Ten Speed Press. {{ISBN|1-58008-587-3}}.