Ivory carving art is mainly divided into four types: characters, animals, flowers and scenery.

The ivory ivory carvings in Zhou Rui's hand are animals among the four major species.

The dragon seizes the pearl, and the scales and claws are ferocious.

Among them, the themes of ivory carving characters mainly originate from ancient myths and legends and historical celebrities.

For example, ladies, arhats, Buddhists, Eight Immortals, blessings, fortunes, longevity, military generals and historical celebrities, etc.

The drawings of characters are generally drawn in a plain way, showing the facial expressions, body postures, and clothing shapes. If there is a source, the identity characteristics of the characters should be portrayed to achieve a perfect artistic effect.

The ivory carved flowers are generally mainly flowers, with birds, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, etc. as foils. The carved images include peonies, roses, chrysanthemums, magnolias, peaches, pine, bamboo, plums, etc. The overall shape of the support is a flower basket, vase, bamboo tube, folding fan, rockery, etc., which plays a good role in the protagonist and the foil.

The main themes of ivory carving animals include tiger roar in the forest, lion roar in the deep valley, rooster dawn, fish leaping on lotus ponds, etc. Among them, the twelve zodiac signs occupy a certain position in the art of ivory carving. The landscape themes in ivory carving generally express mountains, rivers, islands, sun, moon and clouds. Rugged rocks, mottled sea rocks, and rolling and changing clouds are the wielding images that ivory carving artists especially like.

Among many arts and crafts in my country, ivory carving is a unique school of ivory.

It is also a treasure that is deeply loved by princes and nobles.

In ancient times, all those who could have a whole ivory to decorate the room were princes and nobles.

Ivory is an organic matter, with a smooth and clear surface as jade, with fine and regular texture, and is easily sculpted by knives. It is used to carve exquisite objects, which is a combination of natural and artificial axes and chisels.

The original ivory products were just a practical tool. Over time, decorative products gradually appeared and became the mainstream of ivory carving craftsmanship.

As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, my country's ivory carving craftsmanship was extremely developed, and later in the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, the ivory carving craftsmanship was even more exquisite.

In the Qing Dynasty, it was the heyday of ivory carving. Ivory carving, like small carvings such as bamboo, wood, horns, gold and stone, became treasures on several tables.

In the previous dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, ivory carving inherited the traditions of the Ming Dynasty and developed in terms of production technology or artistic creation.

After the middle period, the creation of ivory carving became complicated and cumbersome decorations. At that time, ivory carving was divided into two categories: court handicrafts and folk handicrafts. The court makers were exquisitely crafted, and the figures and flower and bird patterns were mostly imitated with the brushwork, coloring, and color filling.

Despite this, there is no absolute difference between the two. Many court dentists directly recruited from the people. Ivory carving in the Qing Dynasty had basically formed two major art schools, namely Jiangnan and Guangdong. Due to the preference of literati and elegant people, works with fresh and elegant ideas appeared. In order to obtain good works, a large number of literati painters not only designed compositions, but also directly participated in carving, which made the style of ivory carving come into new changes.

Overall, ivory carving developed to the Qing Dynasty and gradually developed towards the trend of "short carving". Large ivory carvings are no longer common. Site utensils have naturally become the main part of ivory carving. They are mainly cultural relics and decorations. Pen holders, pen holders, pen holders, inkstones, ink cartridges, inkstones, paperweights, and some stationery boxes, printing boxes, painting holders, etc. are relatively common. These small ivory pieces are mostly decorated with literati stories, flower and bird patterns, and auspicious themes, and have a strong literary atmosphere. Ivory carving has become the desk play of literati and doctors and officials.

In the Qing Dynasty, practical ivory carvings were not the main part of the ivory carving process, but they were by no means completely unproductive. They were also produced by chance, serving a few nobles, and the varieties were just small works such as chopsticks and fans. Others were lamps, crown frames, shoehorns, snuff bottles, etc.

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On the ivory in Zhou Rui's hand, nine lifelike dragons were carved with relief.

The nine dragons are very vivid.

Dragon scales, dragon whiskers, and longan eyes are extremely realistic.

In the center, there is a fireball like the sun.

Like a dragon ball, nine divine dragons chase each other.

If you caress carefully, the dragon scales will give people a very smooth and tender feeling.

No roughness.

This is the result of being polished to the extreme.

The Jiulong Pearl-Snatching Ivory in Zhou Rui's hand was carved with a huge ivory.

The ivory is about forty centimeters long.

Very big.

The thickest cross-section diameter reaches ten centimeters.

It can be called a giant.

More importantly, the ivory is quite complete.

The ivory needs to be taken out, not to mention anything else, but this material alone will definitely not be less than one million.

If historical value and artistic value are added, then the value will be even higher.

Zhou Rui also has ivory ivory carvings in his hand, such as the previous "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" ivory carvings.

But, that's so big, absolutely nothing.

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In the fourth red envelope, Zhou Rui received a bottle of beating wine.

In the fifth red envelope, Zhou Rui received two plates of mosquito repellent coils.

Zhou Rui received a total of five ordinary red envelopes.

Two red envelopes in another world.

A dragon robe from Zhu Di, the Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty.

This is a real dragon robe.

It is not the fake dragon robe in the TV series, nor the costumes in the stage play.

This dragon robe uses the most precious silk silk as the warp and weft thread at that time, and uses handmade dragons and other patterns.

It can be said to be purely handmade.

Many of the patterns inside are made of soft gold wire, which is quite expensive!

The robe with a dragon-shaped pattern embroidered on it is also called a dragon-shaped pattern.

In 581, Emperor Wen of Sui used the best Jili Lake silk among silk as the forefront and weft thread of the dragon robe for the first time. In addition, the dragon robe also refers to the dragon-zone dress worn by ancient emperors.

During the Wude period of Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty, the subjects were not allowed to impersonate yellow robes, and the yellow robes were specially used by the royal family. Since then, they have been passed down as a system throughout the ages.

In 1960, Zhao Kuangyin "put on the yellow robe" and became emperor in a mutiny, so the dragon robe was also called the yellow robe.

The various dragon seal patterns on the dragon robe have changed in the past dynasties.

According to historical records, nine dragon robes were embroidered on the emperor's dragon robe, one on the chest, one on the back, one on the left and right shoulders, two on the front and back knees, and one on the inside of the cloak.

As for why the Nine Dragons protect the body on the dragon robe.

This is also of particularity.

Influenced by the "Book of Changes" in ancient times, the emperors advocated the "Nine Five Supremes".

"Yi Qian" says: "Nine Five, the flying dragon is in the sky, which is beneficial to the great man."

It means that the dragon has already flown into the sky, indicating that it has reached the highest level. It is also because of this that royal buildings, furniture and living containers often use nine and five numbers.

Why do you need to embroider a dragon in the inner collar? Because nine is an odd number, it is difficult to achieve balanced symmetry in the layout, so one dragon is embroidered in the inner collar. In this way, the actual dragon pattern of the dragon robe is no less than nine, and there are five on the front or back, which is exactly the same as the number of nine or five.

However, there are exceptions, the number of dragon patterns in the dragon robe of the Ming Dynasty emperor was more than nine.

The "Twelve-Chapter Garment of the Kesi" by Emperor Wanli, unearthed in 1958, has twelve dragons, embroidered in the middle of a round shape, commonly known as "Tuanlong".

The twelve dragons have different names depending on their positions. The dragon located on the front chest and back of the robe is a dragon with a straight body, that is, a dragon facing outward, which is called "right dragon" or "sitting dragon"; the dragon on the side is called "moving dragon", and the moving dragon is also divided into the rising dragon and the descending dragon according to the direction up and down.

The number of dragons on the dragon robe of Emperor Wanli is not much higher than the "Yanbianfu suit" created in the seventh year of Jiajing of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty. The dragon patterns on the "Yanbianfu suit" composed of hats, robe suits, jade belts, socks and silk shoes are in the number of nine: one plate dragon ball pattern in the front, two plate dragon square patterns in the back, the dragon patterns on the collar and sleeves are 45, and the dragon patterns on the collar are 36, totaling 81.

In addition, nine jade pieces engraved with dragon patterns are decorated on the jade belt around the waist.
Chapter completed!