The Datong Nine Dragon Screen, built over 600 years ago, is presently the
oldest and largest glazed screen in China today. It is three times larger than
that in Beihai Park , Beijing City.
The screen, built for the thirteenth son
of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), has been
well preserved and remains intact to this day. It is made up of 426
specially-fired glazed bricks, with a height of 8 meters (about 26 feet), 2.02
meters (6.6 feet) thick and 45.5 meters (149 feet) long. The Screen can be
divided into three parts, the pedestal, body and roof.
The pedestal is
rectangular shaped with a height of 2.09 meters (6.9 feet). Its narrow middle
section is composed of 75 glazed tiles with images of oxen, dogs, deer rabbits
and other animals.
The design of the body is that of a green wave on
the lower part and a blue and yellow cloud on the upper part. It consists of
nine flying dragons, with a golden-scaled, shiny-eyed dragon located in the
center. On each side of the central dragon is a pair of light yellow dragons
with their heads pointed East and tails pointed towards the central dragon. A
second pair of elegant yellow dragons is next with their heads and tails pointed
west. A third pair is ferocious-looking purple dragons which seem to be
wrestling with the sea. The fourth pair is highly spirited dragons. The nine
dragons are life-like and illustrating their ability of calling the wind and
controlling the rainfall. The areas around the dragons are supplemented with
images of plants, mountains, stones, water and grass. These patterns along with
the nine dragons compliment each other.The roof is covered with glazed
tiles.There is a pond with a stone bridge located in front of the screen. The
reflection of the dragons becomes dynamic, especially when a breeze disturbs the
surface of the water.
