Nine Dragon Screen

Nine Dragon Screen is one of the three famous Nine Dragons Screens in China, the best and the biggest in China. The glazed tile screen was built in 1771 under the reign of Emperor Qianlong, and is 3.5 meters high and about 30 meters long. It composed of 270 pieces glazed tiles, depicting 9 surging dragons playing with pearls with a background of clouds and seawater. The relief screen applies yellow, blue, white and purple and looks gorgeous.

 

The screen indicates emperors' supremacy by arranging nine dragons in the front and 5 on the edge, since they did believe nine is the largest single number and 5 the middle, representing Heavenly Son in combination.

 

The belly of the third white dragon was inserted with a piece of wood. A Story tells that it was fired broken in the kiln, which meant nobody would be alive. A carpenter repaired it with a piece of wood. And the imperial inspector did not discover!