444 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



*'Iu Chinese Buddhism, " says Dr. Anderson, in his "Catalogue of Japan- 

 ese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum," "the dragon 

 plays an important part, either as a force auxiliary to the law, or as 

 a malevolent creature to be converted or quelled. Its usual char- 

 acter, however, is that of a guardian of the faith under the direction 

 of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or Arhats. As a dragon king it ofiSciates 

 at the baptism of S'akyamuui, or bewails his entrance into Nirvana; 

 as an attribute of saintly or divine personages it appears at the feet 

 of the Arhat Panthaka, emerging from the sea to salute the goddess 

 Kuauyin, or as an attendant upon or alternative form of Sarasv^ti, 

 the Japanese Benten ; as an enemy to mankind it meets its Perseus 

 and St. George in the Chinese monarch Kao Tsu (of the Han dynasty), 

 and the Shinto God, Susano no Mikoto. * * * As to the origin of 

 the relation of the Cobra to Indian Buddhism, there appears to be 

 little doubt that the Cobra kings represented a once hostile Scythic 

 race of serpent-worshippers which first invaded India in the seventh 

 century B. C, and that a subsequent alliance with portions of the 

 foreign tribes gave rise to the stories of converted Nagas, and of 

 Nagas who defended the faith. When the religion made its way into 

 China, where the hooded snake w^as unknown, the emblems shown 

 in the Indian pictnres and graven images lost their force of suggest- 

 ion, and hence became replaced by a mythical but more familiar em- 

 blem of power. The multiplication of the cobra-head seen in the 

 Amravati topes becomes lost in Chinese Buddhism, but perhaps may 

 be traced in the seven-headed dragons and serpents of Japanese le- 

 gend. The high position occupied by the dragon in Chinese imagi- 

 nation may perhaps be a relic of ancient serpent-worship in that 

 country. Illustrations of the identity of the dragon and serpent in 

 Japanese art and the portrayal of creatures in transitional forms be- 

 tween the two are suggestive of such an origin. 

 Feng, the name of the male, and huang, of the female, of a fabulous bird of 

 wondrous form and mystic nature, the second among the four super- 

 natural creatures. The compound of the two feng-huang is the gen- 

 eric designation usually employed for the bird, and is frequently 

 translated " phcenix." One writer describes it as having the head of 

 a pheasant,the beak of a swallow, the neck of a tortoise, and the out- 

 ward semblance of a dragon, to which another version adds the tail 

 of a fish, but in pictorial representations it is usually delineated, as 

 here, as a compound of a peacock and a pheasant, with the addition 

 of many gorgeous colors. Very early legends narrated that this bird 

 made its appearance as a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers, 

 whose presence it also graced as an emblem of their auspicious gov- 

 ernment. It sat in the court of Huang Ti, who is credited with 

 having entered upon a reign of one hundred years \a B. C. 2697, 

 while that sovereign observed the ceremonial fasts; and, according 

 to the Classic of History, it came with measured gamblings to add 

 splendor to the musical perfoi-mances conducted by the great Shun 

 (B. C. 2255 to 220G). The five colors of its plumage are supposed to 

 be typical of the five cardinal virtues. As the hmg or dragon has 

 become the emblem of the emperor so the feng-huang has become that 

 of the Empress. 

 5-8. Tea-cnps (4), with everted rim, of pure white, thin Hsiiante (1426 to 1435) porce- 

 lain, with very delicate flower pattern from which the paste has been excised 

 and replaced by tbin film of glaze to render it capable of holding liquid- 

 Beautiful specimens of this style of decoration generally known in English 

 as "lace- work" — the pieces reticulees of the French. Mark on foot Ta-ming- 

 hsuan-te-nien-chih, "Made during the Hsiiantfi period of the Ming dynasty." 



