White jade dragon handle

[White jade dragon handle]

White jade dragon handle, yuan, height 4.9 cm, caliber 13.9 cm, bottom diameter 10 cm
White jade, slightly shiny blue, round mouth. The outer wall is embossed with two dragons in a moving state. The body of the dragon is long and thin without scales. Both of them have four open claws and are in the shape of wheels. One side uses the dragon’s head as the handle, the dragon opens its mouth and spits its tongue, and the upper and lower lips are turned outward. A flat bottom has no feet
The shape of this jade is derived from the Kui of the Han Dynasty. It was originally a utensil for holding soup. The main shape feature is the outward dragon head with a single handle. The dragon is the highest level divine beast, which conforms to the meaning of “the first and the largest” in the word “Kui”. The earliest Kui was often made of pottery and wood. In the Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were more copper Kui, also known as “Dragon Copper Kui”. Yuzhikui At present, the earliest one found is the dragon handle jade kui with the Qidan characters of the Liao Dynasty in the Nanjing University Museum, which is used by the Liao royal family. The shape of the jade is similar to that of this one, and has evolved into a wine vessel
Kui was mainly popular among Han people and ethnic minorities in the north, and was still widely used until the Yuan Dynasty