Chinese Mythology: Did you mean...?

The Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) was a brief one with only two reigning emperors but it managed to unify China following the split of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. As had happened previously in Chinese history, a short-lived...

A servant statue, Western Han Period (206 BCE – 9 CE). Cernuschi Museum, Paris, France.

Gojoseon (Gochoson or Old Choson) was an ancient kingdom which ruled northern Korea in the second half of the first millennium BCE. Gojoseon possessed the most advanced culture in the Korean peninsula at that time and was an important...

A Chinese pig-dragon sculpture. China, probably Yunnan Province, Yuan dynasty, 1279-1368. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The art of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) began to explore new possibilities in materials and styles with landscape painting and ceramics, in particular, coming to the fore. New techniques, a wider range of colours and...

A detail of a roof from the Forbidden Cty, Beijing. In ancient Chinese architecture the yellow tiles, curved roof, and dragon acroteria were all typical features of imperial buildings.

Limestone figure depicting a Chinese celestial king. Tang dynasty, 7th-8th century CE. (Musée Guimet, Paris)

Wako (aka wokou and waegu) is a term used to refer to Japanese (but also including Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese) pirates who plagued the seas of East Asia from Korea to Indonesia, especially between the...

A glazed ceramic roof tile depicting a dragon. Nanjing, Ming dynasty, 1366-1400. The British Museum, London.

The Nine Muses of Greek mythology were divine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), revered as patrons of poetry, song, history, and the arts. Early Greek tradition sometimes spoke of an earlier triad—Mneme (Memory...