The Alchemy of the Dragon

About the unique mystery of  'intentional' carpet transmuting colour.

The issue regards a narrow class of rugs dated to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), probably commissioned for the royal palace and woven in a court-related laboratory in Peking (see Glanz der Himmelssoehne. Kaiserliche Teppichen aus China, 2005; M. Franses, Carpets of the Forbidden City, Hali 173). 

Carpet fields today brownish yellow should originally appear red, as some scholars assumed from parallels with Chinese paintings. Prominent fact in the story is the renowned mastery of Chinese dyers.

The two carpets below, the painted and the real, are reportedly dated to the same epoch, being the former probably commissioned  by the Wanli emperor some 70 years before the painting was made.

The Kangxi emperor on a dragon carpet, 1670 circa, painted silk, The Palace Museum Peking

Dragon carpet, Wanli period (1572-1620), The Palace Museum Peking

To enter the mystery, it is necessary to get acquainted with some Chinese traditions, in particular with the so called Wu Xing system.

Also named the theory of the Five Elements, it was already established during the Han period (206BC-220AD) and embodies a comprehensive structure of the world including an array of phenomena. Medicine, astrology, geomancy, geography, architecture, music, martial arts some of them.  Silk texts found in the Mawangdui archeological  sites, no later than 168 BC, testify this system to represent also five basic virtues and human activities.

Mawangdui sites, Funerary coffin detail, Han dynasty

The Five Elements theory is guided by the idea of a primal change and progress in any event implying a generative and destructive process likewise. In this fivefold conceptual scheme five elements (Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire, and Water) are linked to as many colours (Yellow, Blue, White, Red, and Black).

According to the political philosopher Zou Yan (ca. 305-240 BCE), each of the five elements possesses a personified “virtue” , which indicates the foreordained destiny  of a dynasty; accordingly, the cyclic succession of the elements also indicates dynastic transitions. Zou Yan claims that the Mandate of Heaven sanctions the legitimacy of a dynasty by sending self-manifesting auspicious signs in the ritual colour. Therefore, the colour was used for imperial rites and ceremonies.

Starting from the Qin dynasty (221-201BC), Chinese dynasties invoked the theory to legitimate their reign and to organise their political rhetoric and propaganda.  Quite soon, yet, the correct revolving of the cycle was to be manipulated ( in Yuan Chen, "Legitimation Discourse and the Theory of the Five Elements in Imperial China." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 44 (2014): 325-364. https://www.academia.edu/23276848/_Legitimation_Discourse_and_the_Theory_of_the_Five_Elements_in_Imperial_China._Journal_of_Song-Yuan_Studies_44_2014_325-364). Political and dynastic turmoils, internal divisions, territorial  disunity and uprising 'foreign' clans of non-Han ancestry undermined, in fact, the idealised cycle progression.

The Terracotta Army, Qin dynasty

Among the significant dynasties, the Tang claimed the dynastic element of Earth/Yellow, the Song the Fire/Red,

Emperor Huizong of Song in red attire, National Museum Taipei

the Kitan Liao, a nomadic clan originating from the Liao river, the Water/Black (as defeated by the Jurchen, the Liao fled westwards into Central Asia rebuilding the Liao sovereignty renaming it Kara-Khitai, where Kara means black as auspicious sign, while, locally, it refers to purity and sacredness like in the name Karakhanid). the Jin the Earth/Yellow. Finally, the Yuan chose the Metal/White, although tacitly.

Kubilai Khan in white attire, album leaf, National Museum Taipei

Basically, the non-Han clans (Kitan, Jurchen and Mongol) needed to fabricate the sacred mandate in order to justify their power and  inserting themselves in the Chinese dynastic lineage. Long debates preceded the declaration of the heavenly colour like during the Jurchen reign that eventually decided the Earth/Yellow element to mark the dynastic lineage from the Song, one most revered in times. 

After the Mongol Yuan, the subsequent Ming clan fronted a problematic situation because the negotiations among the diverse ethnic identities of the court were becoming more complex ever, the real history of dynastic transitions being  reviewed and manipulated so much.
Contesting the legitimacy of the ruling courts was decreasingly waning the discourse on dynastic elements. The Ming a very exemplar case.
Had the Ming court truly acknowledged the Yuan legitimacy, the consequent choice would be Water/Black. But in fact the Ming’s founder, like many other Chinese warlords that rose to fight the Mongol rulers, claimed restoration of the Han/Song dynasty represented by the Fire/Red  element,  dismissing the Liao, Jin and Yuan legitimacy.

The first Ming emperor, Zu Yuanzhang, was a subordinate of  a 'Song' state whose king claimed direct lineage from Huizong Song. So the Ming starting element correctly was the Fire/Red. But, eventually, Zu  killed the last heir of the Song-derived clan to treacherously gain his regime. 

Either he declared the Ming's legitimacy maintaining the Song colour, either he affirmed the illicit succession to the Song regime turning to the correct Earthly Yellow, he would put his dynastic power in a weak position. Therefore, the Ming left no explicit official documentation about the choice of a dynastic element in order to conceal the founding emperor’s usurpation of his overlord.

Lotus scroll carpet, 16th c., The Zaleski Collection 

This murky and even boring argument may shed some light on the debated question regarding the original field colour of some early Chinese carpets attributed to the Ming period (1368-1644).

The extraordinary exhibition held in Milano, 2011, at Moshe Tabibnia Gallery aimed at clarifying the topic of why survivor carpets from that early date sport an invariable dark yellow in the field, whereas some official portraits show emperors on red field carpets (Intrecci Cinesi, Moshe Tabibnia Milano 2011).

Indeed, the scientific analysis pursued with the most updated methods declared the original colour to be a sort of 'strawberry red' obtained by the most expert dyers (see the author's report on the research http://www.turkotek.com/mini_salon_00028/salon.html).

The same dyers were completely aware of the fact that the particular red has a lightfast nature transmuting under the light into a reddish or brownish yellow. Altogether, they knew how to obtain a fast red as many period silks confirms.

Below the Yongle emperor, third of the Ming dynasty (1404-24), seats on the dragon throne over a red field carpet attired in an Earthly Yellow robe (Wen C. Fong, “Imperial Portraiture of the Ming Dynasty,” in Possessing the Past, and Dora C. Y. Ching, Icons of Rulership)

The Yongle emperor, painted silk, The Palace Museum Peking

The author likes to imagine that the above mentioned rugs shifting colour was intended to mask the illicit  nature of the Ming Heavenly Mandate, a metaphor of  a legitimate become illicit dynastic succession (obtained via a murder). Plausibly, that is the reason why the official portraiture should convey a 'red' legitimacy, that is a red carpet, whereas the real carpet was to embody the double  nature of the Ming dynastic power in a sort of alchemical transmutation. This kind of magic, applied by master dyers, would be quite appreciated at the period court so fascinated by the supernatural and magic practices wrought by the Tibetan Buddhist monks revered and hosted in the imperial palace. As to the emperor robe, he probably had more than one. 

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