Hongshan Culture Small Jade Carving: Pig-Dragon, circa 4000-3000BC
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An important Chinese small jade carving of a "Pig-Dragon", Hongshan culture, circa 4000-3000BC, a very similar example, see Sotheby's Paris, 10/06/2021, lot 83. A similar light green zhulong of slightly larger size and cut open, excavated from the Niuheliang site, Jianping, Liaoning and now in the Liaoning provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology, is illustrated in Guo Dashun &, Hong Dianxu, Hongshan wenhua yuqi jianshang/A study of Hongshan culture jades, Beijing, 2014, part 1, pl. 11, another larger one, acquired at Zhangfudian, Fushan, also in Jianping, and now preserved in the same Institute, ibid., part 3, pl. 1, the former illustrated again in Gu Fang, Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji/The complete collection of jades Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2005, vol. 2, pl. 111, together with a slightly smaller yellowish-green one, that was cut open, pl. 20, excavated at Hexi, Aohan banner, inner Mongolia. Another larger piece, with the slit cut open, is in the Tianjin Municipal Art Museum, illustrated in Mou Yongkang &, Yun Xizheng, eds, Zhongguo yuqi quanji[Complete series on Chinese jades], vol. 1, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pl. 25. Compare also a fragmentary piece in the British Museum illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, the British Museum, London, 1995, p.116, fig. 1, and two larger pig dragons, one in the Musee Guimet, Paris, the other excavated in Sanguan Dianzi, Liaoning, and today in the Liaoning provincial Museum, illustrated in Jao Tsung-I, 'Some notes on the pig in early Chinese Myths and Art', Orientations, vol. 19, no. 12, December 1988, pp. 39-41, figs 1 and 2, where the importance of the pig in early china discussed. 6.3 cm long, 4000-3000
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