Chiwen

Also Known As: written two ways that sound the same: one means “owl mouth” and the other “hornless-dragon mouth”; the older form of the roof figure is the chiwei, “owl tail”; known in Japan as shibi
Region/Culture: East Asia
Mythos: Chinese Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Monsters and Beasts
Mythical Attributes: Chiwen is a dragon with the body of a fish who lives in water, stirs up waves, calls down rain, and loves to swallow things.
Role in Mythos: He is one of the nine sons of the dragon in the lists drawn up by Ming dynasty writers, and the one whose place is the two ends of a roof ridge.
Relation to Humans: Builders set his figure on palaces, temples and halls so that he will bring rain and swallow harm if fire or lightning threatens the timber. A sword is often shown driven into his back, and the story told about it is that it keeps him from leaving his post.

Timber burns fast. In the last years of the second century BCE the Bailiang Terrace, a great hall of cypress beams raised by Emperor Wu of Han in his capital at Chang’an, caught fire and went. The smell of scorched cypress would have hung over the city for days. Afterwards, the story goes, a shaman from the southern land of Yue came to the court with advice. Out in the sea, the shaman said, there lives a fish that is also a dragon, with a tail like the tail of an owl. When it beats the water the waves rise, and rain follows. Put its likeness on the roof and the fire will not come back.

So they did. That is the account the *Tang huiyao*, a history of Tang government compiled a thousand years later, gives for one of the most familiar shapes in Chinese building: the pair of curling creatures that sit at either end of the main ridge of a hall, facing each other across the tiles.

The creature has had more than one name and more than one body. In its early centuries it was called chiwei, the owl tail, and it looked like one: a tall curved fin or wing sweeping up and inward from the end of the ridge, with no face at all. Pottery models of houses buried in Han tombs already show ridge ends that turn upward. Through the centuries of division that followed, the owl tail spread across palaces, temples and government halls, and under the Tang it began to be made in glazed tile, green and blue. The form travelled with Buddhism and court architecture to Korea and to Japan, where the same ornament is called shibi.

Then, around the middle of the Tang dynasty, the tail grew a mouth. Craftsmen began to give the lower end of the ornament a head with open jaws biting down on the ridge, and the name shifted with it, from owl tail to owl mouth: chiwen. By the Song dynasty the mouthed form had replaced the old one altogether. The state building manual of 1103, the *Yingzao fashi*, sets out its parts and how large it should be for each grade of hall. Over the same years the head became more and more plainly a dragon’s, and scribes began to write the first syllable with a different character that sounds the same and means a hornless dragon.

What stands on a Ming or Qing roof is the finished animal. The head is a dragon’s, eyes wide, whiskers back, the jaws stretched around the end of the ridge beam as if he were halfway through eating the building. Behind the head the body is a fish’s, thick and scaled, and it bends straight up and curls over so that the tail hangs above his own back. Some have small fins or a second, smaller dragon climbing the flank. The whole figure is fired clay under a hard bright glaze, yellow on imperial halls, green on many temples, and it is built in sections because a large one is taller than a man. One Ming example now in a museum in Kansas City, in green and amber glazed stoneware, stands close to five feet high.

On a wet night he does his job without moving. Rain drums on the tiles and runs down the channels between them. Water sheets off the cold glaze of his scales and pours past his teeth, and the ridge he is holding stays dark and whole under him.

He acquired a family late. Around the year 1500 the Ming emperor of the Hongzhi reign is said to have asked his minister Li Dongyang about a saying that the dragon has nine sons, none of whom is quite a dragon. Li Dongyang asked around among other scholars and wrote out a list. An earlier writer, Lu Rong, had already collected the names of odd beasts that appear on buildings, bells and bronzes, without calling them brothers. A later one, Yang Shen, produced the version most often repeated. The lists do not agree on the order or even on all the names, and Chiwen’s place among the brothers moves from list to list. They do agree that he belongs in them. Each son has one thing he loves, which explains where he is put: the one who loves to roar sits on bells, the one who loves weight sits under stone tablets. Chiwen loves to swallow. A Ming book of jottings, the *Wuzazu*, says that is why he is set on the ridge, to gulp down whatever bad thing comes at the house. Another list says that what he loves is to look far into the distance, which also suits the highest seat on the building.

It is an origin story fitted to an object that already existed. The roof came first.

There is one more detail, and it is easy to miss from the ground. Many of these figures have the hilt of a sword sticking up out of the back, the blade sunk into the body. The explanation people give is not flattering to him. A dragon who can raise waves might also decide to swim away, and the sword pins him to the roof so that he stays.

His powers are the powers of water. He beats the sea into waves, he brings rain, and on the ridge he is expected to do it on demand, when lightning strikes or a spark catches in the eaves. He also swallows, and what he swallows is harm. That is the whole of his work, and for a civilisation that built its greatest halls from wood it was not a small thing to ask.

His limits are just as plain. He guards one roof and no more. He is a fish kept out of water, set as far from the sea as a carpenter can lift him. He cannot leave, and the sword says that somebody thought he would if he could. And halls with a Chiwen at each end of the ridge have burned anyway, many times, and been rebuilt, and had new ones fired and hoisted into place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chiwen?

Chiwen is a Chinese dragon with the body of a fish. His figure is placed at both ends of the main roof ridge on palaces, temples and halls. He is counted as one of the nine sons of the dragon.

Why is Chiwen placed on roofs?

Chiwen is placed on roofs to protect wooden buildings from fire. He is a water creature who stirs up waves and brings rain, and he is said to love swallowing things, including whatever threatens the house. His open jaws grip the end of the ridge beam.

Where does the Chiwen roof ornament come from?

The Tang huiyao says the custom began after the Bailiang Terrace of Emperor Wu of Han burned down. A shaman from Yue told the court about a sea fish with a tail like an owl that raised waves and brought rain, and its likeness was put on the roof. The early form was a tail shape called chiwei, and the mouthed dragon form called Chiwen took over between the Tang and Song dynasties.

Why does Chiwen have a sword in his back?

Many Chiwen figures show a sword hilt rising from the back. The story told about it is that the sword pins Chiwen to the roof so that he cannot leave his post and swim away.

Is Chiwen one of the nine sons of the dragon?

Yes. Chiwen appears in the lists of the dragon’s nine sons written by Ming dynasty scholars such as Li Dongyang and Yang Shen. The lists disagree about his position, but they give him the roof ridge as his place, because he loves to swallow or, in another version, to gaze into the distance.