Dragon hiding in the ground

[hanksbookcase]

Got this painting - I think it is Chinese.  I know nothing about art, but I like this painting.  I like the colors, the odd tree, the two people sitting at a table.  The painting is framed, 10 inches wide, and 24 inches tall - it looks old and has lots of cracks in the paper. I tried to translate what is written at the top - something about Lian's daughter who is deep and peerless, and someone who might be named Ting Shen who has bright eyes.

To the upper right of the women sitting at the table, I found a crudely drawn dragon bursting from the ground (or maybe it is water or fog) attacking a tiny, almost invisible stick-figure likeness of a person.   My question is, is it common to find a hidden dragon in a Chinese painting, or is it unusual? I  think it is neat.  I didn't see it right-off-the-bat.

My thanks to anyone who reply.

Sorry, hope the photos came out okay - I had trouble with it.

[waxu_93]

it is ancient china painting. a painting in tent drews a dragon image.

that is it.

[waxu_93]

the girl ’s name is xiao er 小二😍

[waxu_93]

Huishan Town Proposes Marriage in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio "Little Two"😃

[waxu_93]

It is a Chinese translation software translation, not guaranteed to be accurate, for reference：

It is said that there is a man named Zhao Wang in Teng County, Shandong Province. Both husband and wife believe in Buddhism and do not eat meat.People in the village regard him as "Zhao Shanren", and his family lives a well-to-do life.Zhao Wang has a daughter named Xiao Er, who is smart and beautiful. Zhao Wang and his wife love each other like a jewel in their palm.When Xiao Er was six years old, Zhao Wang let her and her elder brother Zhao Changchun study with the teacher. After five years, Xiao Er was familiar with the Five Classics ("Poetry", "Book", "Ritual", "Yi" and "Spring and Autumn").Among the classmates there was a student surnamed Ding, whose name was Zimo, who was three years older than Zhao Xiaoer. He was handsome and talented, and the two of them admired each other.Ding Sheng told his mother in private that he wanted to propose marriage to the Zhao family.But Zhao Wang wanted his daughter to find a wealthy family, so he did not agree to the marriage.Soon, Zhao Wang joined the White Lotus Sect (White Lotus Sect is a secret folk religious organization spanning multiple dynasties in Chinese history, cult. The leader of the White Lotus Sect in Ming Dynasty was Xu Hongru.) After Xu Hongru rebelled, Zhao Wang’s family became Bailian Christians.Because Xiaoer is literate, she is good at understanding some spells of the White Lotus Sect, and she is proficient in the spells of paper-cutting, making horses, and turning beans into soldiers.There were six little girls learning spells from Xu Hongru, and only Xiao Er was the best, so she quickly learned the true teaching of Xu Hongru's spells.Zhao Wang was also reused in the White Lotus Sect because of her daughter's good spells.At that time, Xiao Er's classmate Ding Zibo was already eighteen years old, and he was studying in the county's scholar school. He had never been married, and he couldn't forget Xiao Er in his heart.One day, he escaped from his home and joined Xu Hongru's army.Xiao Er was very happy to see Ding, and was very kind to Ding.Because Xiaoer is Xu Hongru's favorite disciple, she is in charge of military affairs in Xu's army, busy day and night, even her own parents rarely see her.But she and Ding talked together every night, and when they talked, they sent away all the servants around them, and they often talked about more than three days at night.

[waxu_93]

Once, Ding said privately to Xiaoer, "Do you know why I came here?" Xiaoer replied, "I don't know!" Ding said, "I didn't come here just to get ahead. The reason why I came here is really for your sake. The White Lotus Sect is originally a heretic sect, and it cannot succeed, it can only bring about its own destruction. You are a smart person, don’t you understand this truth? If you can run away with me, you will be considered worthy I'm looking for what you want." After hearing this, Xiao Er thought for a while in a daze, feeling like waking up from a dream.She said to Ding: "If I leave without telling my parents, it would be unrighteous. I'll tell them!" So the two went to the residence of Zhao Wang and his wife and stated their interests to them.But Zhao Wang persisted in his obsession, and said: "My master is a man of God, and he will never make mistakes!" Xiaoer knew that it was useless to persuade him, so he left his parents.She combed the girl's hair into an adult's bun, took out two paper kites, and rode one with Ding each.The kite slowly spread its wings, and the two of them flew away like lovebirds.At dawn the next day, the two of them flew to the border of Laiwu, Xiaoer twisted Yuan's neck with his hand, and they both landed on the ground.They took the paper kite and turned into two donkeys. They rode the donkeys and trotted all the way to a mountain depression, pretending to be escaped, and rented a house there to live.When the two fled, because they walked in a hurry, they didn't bring much clothes with them, and they didn't have any firewood or rice.Ding was very worried, and borrowed it from his neighbors, but no one was willing to lend it.However, Xiao Er didn't have a sad face, and just pawned some jewelry such as hairpins and earrings to get by.The two sat behind closed doors, guessing lantern riddles with each other, and reciting some books they had learned in the past, so as to bet on winning or losing.Whoever loses will be slapped on the palm by the opponent.There was a man surnamed Weng in the west neighbor where they lived, and he was a forest robber.One day when he came back from the robbery, Xiaoer saw him. Xiaoer said to Ding, "With this man's wealthy neighbor, what do we have to worry about? Let's borrow a thousand taels of silver from him for now, what can he do?" Ding A certain thought it was not easy to handle.Xiaoer said: "I want him to voluntarily take out the silver!" She cut out a paper judge, put it on the ground, covered it with a chicken coop, and then pulled Ding to the bed and put the little money she had saved on it. For wine, take out the "Book of Rites" to enforce the wine order.Randomly talk about which volume, page, and line are in the book, and then flip through the book for review.If anyone finds that this line is next to the word "food", "shui" or "you", he will drink a glass of wine; if it is at the part of the word "wine", he will drink twice as much.Xiao Er happened to turn to the word "wine man", and Ding filled a large cup for Xiao Er to drink.Xiao Er prayed and said: "If I can borrow money, you can turn to the 'drinking department'".Ding turned over the book and got the word "turtle man".Xiao Er laughed and said: "It's a success!" He poured wine and gave it to Ding to drink.Ding Sheng was dissatisfied, thinking that he hadn't turned to the "drink" section. Xiaoer said: "You turned to 'turtle people', they belong to the aquarium, and they should drink like turtles." The two were chatting with each other when they suddenly heard the words in the chicken coop. There was a rattling sound.Xiao Er said, "Here we come!" Opening the coop, he saw a bag full of silver.Ding could not help being surprised and delighted.

[waxu_93]

Later, a woman from the Weng family in the west came to visit with her child in her arms and secretly told Xiaoer: "That day when my master came back from outside, he just lit the lamp and sat down when he saw a crack in the ground. The cracks in the road were bottomless. A judge came out of the cracks and said, "I am an official of the underworld. The emperor of Mount Tai summoned the officials of the underworld to compile a list of wicked people. He needs a thousand silver lamps, and each silver lamp needs ten taels of silver. If You donate a hundred silver lamps, and your sins can be eliminated.” My master was so frightened that he burned incense and kowtowed repeatedly, and donated a thousand taels of silver. Only then did the judge calmly go back, and the cracks on the ground were closed. "When the Ding couple heard this, they deliberately pretended to be very surprised.Since then, Ding and his wife have used the money to buy cattle and horses, hire maids and servants, and build new houses by themselves.A group of scoundrels from this village saw that they were getting rich all of a sudden, so they gathered a group of bad guys, jumped over the wall and entered Ding's house to rob.The Ding couple woke up from their dream, and when they lit the lamp, the house was filled with thieves.Two thieves grabbed Ding, and one groped into Xiao Er's arms.Xiao Er got up naked, pointed at the thief and said, "Don't move! Don't move!" Seeing the thirteen thieves sticking out their tongues, they were stunned, unable to move.Then Xiaoer put on his clothes and got out of bed, called all the family members to come, tied up the thieves one by one, and forced them to confess their crimes.Xiao Er rebuked the thieves and said: "We came here from afar to take refuge. We originally hoped that everyone could help each other. Why are you so unkind and unrighteous! Everyone is poor or rich, whoever has a difficult life may as well Clearly, I am not the kind of miser who regards money as life. According to your behavior of wolves today, you should all be killed, but I can't bear it. Let you go for now, and if you commit the crime again in the future, you will definitely be killed!" The thieves kowtowed and left.Xiaoer and Ding stayed here for a short time before Xu Hongru was arrested by the government, and Zhao Wang and his wife were also killed.Ding took the money to the government to redeem the son of the younger brother Zhao Changchun.The child was only three years old at the time, and Ding raised him as his own son, changed his surname to Ding, and named him Ding Chengyou (meaning to inherit the incense of the Zhao family).As a result, the people in this village gradually knew that the Ding family was the remnants of the White Lotus Sect.This year happened to be plagued by locusts. Xiaoer cut hundreds of paper kites and put them in her field. She was so scared that the locusts could not fly into her field, avoiding a disaster.Everyone in the village hated them and reported to the government that they were the remnants of Xu Hongru's party.The government saw that Ding's family was very rich and wanted to blackmail them, so they arrested Ding.Ding bribed the county magistrate heavily with money, only to avoid a disaster.

[waxu_93]

Xiaoer said: "Our money is not clear, I thought I could spread it. But the people here are like snakes and scorpions, we can't live here for a long time." So they sold their property at a low price and moved to the west of Yidu to live.Xiao Er is clever, good at living, and runs a family business better than a man.They opened a glass factory and hired workers.Xiao Er personally taught them the production techniques.The glass lamps they produce are ingenious in style and colorful, and no other factory can match them.Therefore, although the goods they produce are expensive, they still sell quickly.A few years later, the Ding family became even richer.Xiaoer manages the workers very strictly, hundreds of people work, and there are no idlers who dare to be lazy.In his spare time, Xiao Er often drinks tea with Ding, plays chess, or enjoys reading history books.Xiao Er checks the family's financial income and expenditures and the work of slaves and servants every five days.During the inspection, she was doing calculations with chips for counting the number of jobs in her hand, and Ding took the roster and called the names.Those who work hard will be rewarded in varying amounts; those who are lazy will be beaten in public or punished by kneeling.On the day of the inspection, all workers had a holiday and did not work at night.Xiao Er and Ding greeted the servants to sing slang songs, drink and have fun.Xiao Er knows everything, no one dares to deceive her.The reward exceeds the hard work of the workers, so everything goes smoothly.Among the more than 200 households in the village, there are a few poor people, Xiaoer will help them as appropriate and give them some capital to make a living. Therefore, there are no vagrants in this village.One year there was a severe drought, and Xiaoer ordered someone to set up an altar in the wild. At night, she took a car to the altar and performed magic spells. It rained heavily, and there was enough rain within five miles.People feel her magic even more.Xiao Er never covered her face when she went out, and everyone in the village knew her.Some young people talked about how beautiful she was, but when they saw her, they all respected her, and no one dared to look up at her.Every year in autumn, the children in the village cannot do heavy work. The second child gives the children money and asks them to pick wild vegetables. In the past 20 years, the wild vegetables have accumulated in a house.Everyone in the village secretly laughed at her.But then there was a great famine in Shandong, and people cannibalism happened.At this time, Xiaoer took out wild vegetables and mixed them with grain for people to eat. People in the neighboring villages were saved, and no one went to other places to escape famine.

[waxu_93]

【老老葛说】

The White Lotus Sect is a secret religious association that has been spread among the people since the Tang and Song Dynasties.According to legend, Shi Huiyuan, the founder of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, prayed together with believers in the Bailian Club of Lushan Mountain Temple, and later generations of believers regard it as a model.In the Northern Song Dynasty, Buddha-recitation associations were popular, and they were often called Bailian Society or Lotus Society.During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Mao Ziyuan, a monk from Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, founded a new sect based on the popular Pure Land Association, called the White Lotus Sect, or the White Lotus Sect.The early White Lotus Sect worshiped Amitabha Buddha, advocated chanting Buddha and upholding the precepts, and stipulated that believers should not kill, steal, commit adultery, lie or drink alcohol.It calls on believers to worship their ancestors and is a secret group of half-monk and half-secular.Its teachings are simple, and its scriptures are relatively easy to understand.Accepted by the lower class people, it is often used as a tool to organize people to resist oppression.In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the White Lotus Sect organized peasant uprisings many times.It spread to the early Qing Dynasty and developed into an anti-Qing secret organization. Although it was repeatedly suppressed by the Qing government, in the first year of Jiaqing, the White Lotus Rebellion had developed into the largest uprising in Jiaqing.Until 1949, there were still a few branches of the White Lotus Sect in the country, which were banned because they had become reactionary sects.In the story, Zhao Wang's family joined the White Lotus Sect led by Xu Hongru during the Tianqi period of the Ming Dynasty.The spells that Zhao Xiaoer learned in the story, such as "cut paper into horses, and scatter beans into soldiers", are all myths, so the various spells of Zhao Xiaoer in the story can only be "just listen to what you say."

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In "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio", there are two women with similar abilities and status in the economic field: one is the chrysanthemum fairy Huang Ying in the story "Huang Ying", and the other is this Zhao Xiaoer.They all subvert the traditional female model, do not depend on their husbands, and live independently.In her glass company, Zhao Xiaoer puts on the posture of a supervisor, and her husband is just a helper at work.Of course, if Ding Zimo hadn't persuaded her back then, Zhao Xiaoer would have been killed by the government just like her parents.Therefore, there must be an excellent woman behind a successful man, and an excellent man must be behind a successful woman.

[art.pottery]

Oh my… I’m waiting on the movie 

[hanksbookcase]

Thank you for posting, Waxu.  I skimmed through this morning, and will give it a full read tonight.

[melda58]

But this doesn't look anything like the OP's painting.  Maybe I'm missing the connection.  

Rita

[maxine*j · Accepted solution]

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@melda58 wrote:

But this doesn't look anything like the OP's painting.  Maybe I'm missing the connection.  

Rita

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I think the connection is that the dragon is not hiding nor bursting out of the ground but, rather, is printed on the wall of the tent, as in the painting Waxu shows.  Here is where the dragon is in OP's painting, and it looks like it's on the wall of the tent to my eye, too:

[hanksbookcase]

Yup, I didn't see it that way at first, but when Waxu pointed it out, I could see that the dragon is painted on the back wall of the tent.

[maxine*j]

I'm think that you didn't mean to select my post as the Best Answer.  You can click Best Answer again to deselect it, if you hit it by mistake when you meant to just hit Reply.   🙂

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