Finely woven with designs of five-clawed dragons surrounding interlocking lotus flowers, this carpet combines auspicious symbolism relating to traditional Han Chinese ideas of Imperial sovereignty and religious beliefs concerning the attainment of immortality.
Occurring in conjunction with dragons, legendary creatures symbolic of imperial power and strength, the profusion of flowers may have evoked those growing in the lake of Changhe, whose yellow waters bestowed immortality to whomever drank them. Nestled within jade mansions and green light halls, the lake was a feature of Kunlun, an immortal realm inhabited by the Queen Mother of the West, much celebrated Daoist deity whose cult appears to have originated during the Han dynasty.
The blossoming red flowers may also evoke the transmutation of cinnabar into gold, a Daoist process aimed at driving away malignant spirits and acquire immortality. Daoism aimed in fact at bringing the adepts in accord with the way, or harmony, through the performance of elaborate practices that refined the body and the spirit. The practitioner could then ascend to heaven in broad light, leaving the mundane world to join the celestial beings.