Vietnamese pearl art

[KAC]

I was reading in strack about a common vietnamese image of a pearl on fire being chased by a dragon. I'm curious if anyone has come across this image?

 

[jshepherd]

I think this actually started in either Japan or China. The art typically depicts the pearl with a flame, it comes from a really old myth. You can find an account in "Sacred Books of the East" Vol. 15.

Near the Ho river there was a poor man, who supported his family by weaving rushes. His son, when diving in a deep pool, found a pearl worth a thousand ounces of silver. The father said: "Bring a stone and beat it to pieces. A pearl of this value must have been in a pool nine khung deep and under the chin of a black dragon. That you were able to get it must have been owing to your having found him asleep. Let him awake, and the consequences will not be small.

 

[Slraep]

It is not neccessarily a pearl, and comes from Chinese symbolism.

It may be a sun, moon, symbol of rolling thunder, egg emblem of the duality of nature or the pearl of potentiality(or night-shining pearl).

Loss of this object means a lessening or loss of power.


Slraep

 

[jshepherd]

There is also one account that thinks it may be a spider...

 

[Slraep]

.....a spider? How fascinating. I'll have to look that up.

Most, if not all of Vietnam's dragon symbolism has come directly from China.

Very ancient Vietnamese symbols come from the Champa peoples and look very similar to Mayan, Aztec or Inca symbols.

Slraep

 

[jshepherd]

Encyclopedia of the 11th century, Pietzilei, chapter 223:

The pearl of a fish is its eye, the pearl of a tortoise is its foot, the pearl of a spider is its belly."

Pearl as well as spider are pronounced the same but have a different character in Chinese.

 

[KAC]

well strack descibes it as fire, but water does seem more likely given the origins of a pearl.

The Dragon of the Sea

I've never seen this, do you have an image?

 

[Slraep]

Here is a nice sketch of the Vietnamese Sea Dragon. Notice the style in which the dragon is depicted. It is Chinese symbolism but rendered in the Champa style and therefore looks like something from ancient South America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dragonvietnam.gif

Slraep

PS. What's with the smiley? I cannot get rid of it.

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi All,

(http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041201dragon-pearl.htm)

 

[jshepherd]

PS. What's with the smiley? I cannot get rid of it.

It looks like a funny little trick of HTML. When you have a ":" followed by a "D", you get this!

 

[sleight]

Here's a clasp I received from China several years ago. I was told that the vendor said it referred to a myth about a dragon and a pearl. I always wondered what the myth was - it'd make the piece more interesting to know. Kind of looks like some sort of bovine with an easter egg !

 

[Satine De La Courcel]

In TEh book Pearls a natural HIstory, Pg 116, ther is a picture of a Dragon Chasing a "flaming Pearl" it is from an imperial robe of teh Ch'ing Dynasty 19th C. THis os something use a lot dueit this timeframe. bitht the dragon and Flaming pearl are made out of fwp

one of the legends....I have heard but have not been able to trace to this timeperiod is that "dew fell form the sky" and was swallowed up by oysters and in teh belly of the ouyster turned into a pearl.. I have heard this lore for a couple different civilizations.. that would explain the "Flame" about the pearl...

My reasoning for this is some ME and Eastern civilizations depict Heavenly bodies/objects and heroes etc.. with "fire" about their bodies or heads instead of "halo's" its very different to our western eye.... A pearl is Heavenly Body.. even though it comes from water. Its only for the rukers and Gods in many past civilizations.

my 2 bits