L. Newton Hayes, The Chinese Dragon
The imperial Dragon Tablet
The pictured tablet stands on an altar and encloses its inscription within dragon ornament. Hayes dates his photograph to March 1922 and locates it at the Temple of the Great Buddha by Hangchow’s West Lake. He explains that such tablets had honoured the reigning emperor in Buddhist and Taoist temples during the Manchu dynasty. The caption records the survival of this imperial furnishing in a temple after the establishment of the Republic.
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In the sources
A dated temple photograph
DocumentedHayes supplies a place and date for the photograph and describes the inscription’s wish for imperial longevity.
Imperial memory at the altar
InterpretationThe tablet joins imperial commemoration with an altar furnishing in the temple he visited.
Context & interpretation
The illustration and accompanying passage on the cited page of The Chinese Dragon.
Original passages
Source 1
The Chinese Dragon
The Dragon TabletOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Illustration and accompanying passage
Quotation and accompanying passage individually checked against the exact original page image. Line breaks and line-end hyphenation normalised. Caption small capitals normalised to title case.
- Edition
- IMJ-0474-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0474-E001-P0079
- Original scan leaf
- 83
- Recorded leaf number
- 83
- Current Reader position
- 74
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
