According to ancient texts the dragon was a creature with a pair of antlers like the one of a deer, a camel head, the eyes of a hare, and the neck of a serpent. Its’ belly looks like the one of a shen (a mythical water dragon that resembles a crocodile). Its’ claws look like the one of an eagle, its’ paws like the ones of a tiger, and its’ ears like the ones of a buffalo. The dragon was able to morph from one form into another within a few instances, from fat to thin and from tall to short. It could also rise to heaven and descend to the depths of the sea. It seems to be that the dragon is a supernatural creature that can accept any type of form. The Chinese sign for the dragon appears during the Yin and Shang dynasties (from the 16th to the 11th century BC., the period of the earliest Chinese hieroglyphs), between inscriptions on bones and turtles shields. These inscriptions depicted a horned reptile, teeth, scales and sometimes paws as well. Above the sign there’s often a symbol that seems to indicate that the dragon is considered to be a violent, evil, misfortune bringing creature. Based on this symbol Chinese scientists concluded that the ‘dragon’ was in fact an alligator.

Though the first dragons had one single form of appearance, the different peoples from ancient China, that got into contact with each other more and more often, started to image their totems with more fantasy. After a long time, one picture evolved of which its properties mixed with the ones of different dragons or totems.

Therefore the dragon is a product of imagination; a mystical creature that has been worshipped by the Chinese for centuries. Also in modern Chinese art the dragon is depicted in many appearances. Ethnical and cultural minorities depicted it in many forms, from a fish to an alligator or human.