Description:
This tall grey ware Southern Song dynasty yingqing funerary jar covered with a grey-green glaze is decorated with moulded high relief figures of the twelve immortals about the shoulder and a dragon chasing a “pearl of purity” standing off the neck. On the lid there is a sculptured fêng huang or sacred bird. The base is flat, unglazed and unmarked. In Chinese yin and yang terminology, a dragon is yang (male) and complements a yin (female) fenghuang “Chinese phoenix lord of demons”.