So Something That Caught My Attention With The Dragon Symbolism Stuff With The World Nobles Vs How It’a

So something that caught my attention with the Dragon symbolism stuff with the world nobles vs how it’a used in the RA led me down a rabbit hole that I found interesting enough to share.

So the whole thing stems from two instances of dragon claws being depicted in One Piece.

So! First we have the Celestial Dragon Claw, four clawed, used as branding to mark word noble “property”. Then we have the Dragon Claw Fist, three clawed, a fighting style that we can assume was developed by the RA using the Finger Pistol of the Six Powers as a base.

The difference here is the number of claws, which is what lead me down the rabbit hole in the first place.

The consensus is that the claw number of a depicted dragon is actually a class indicator. Bear in mind that these observations stem from Chinese folklore and its place in Imperial Chinese law, so it might not hold water. And as always do correct me if I’m off in any of these points.

The number of claws and the colorations of dragons in Imperial China was an extremely important thing, and misrepresentations of these could quite literally get you and others executed for acts of treason.

Five clawed yellow or gold (or red during the Ming Dynasty) dragons are a symbol of imperial power for the emperor alone to use. It was illegal for nobles and civilians to wear anything depicting a five-clawed yellow or gold dragon in Imperial China. It was considered- as stated above- an act of treason, and offenders (and their families) could be imprisoned or executed for the crime.

Four clawed dragons are a symbol of nobility. Lesser in the hierarchy than the imperial dragon, but still a mark of high status. It was illegal for civilians to wear depictions of four-clawed dragons. Again, a treasonous act punishable by death or imprisonment under Imperial law.

Civilians could depict dragons with three claws. This was allowed.

So, we can make an assumption here that through these observations, the RA use the three clawed dragon as symbolic of the class warfare that is happening in the One Piece world. But there is another thing!!!

There are these things called Dragon Dance Competitions, where a nine-segmented dragon puppet is manipulated by a team of dancers and musicians to have the dragon chase a pearl- a symbol of wisdom- across the allocated space. These are very interesting to watch, and I highly recommend giving one a watch, since there are plenty of them to see on YouTube. Do take care if you are photosensitive or sound sensitive, as they are bright and loud.

A tradition for these competitions and others (such as lion dances and dragon boat races) is called an “eye dotting ceremony”, which happens at the beginning of the competition. An authorized party comes by to paint the pupils on a dragon to symbolically awaken or- relevant to this post- empower it.

The Celestial Dragon’s Claw is a symbol nobility, and likely has high amounts of regulation on how it can and cannot be used, with infractions on those regulations met with imprisonment at best, and cipher pol or a buster call at worst. It would be highly guarded, and was used to brand people to mark them as property, as we know.

The dragon depicted in the introduction to the Dragon Claw Fist that Sabo utilizes? Three claws, no pupils. It is an unempowered civilian dragon- a weakling by dragon standards- and it is beating the shit out of a World Government official.

Class warfare symbolism. Revolutionary symbolism.