Talk:画竜

I agree with 画竜点睛 being a legitimate Japanese idiom. However, I am unaware of 画竜 ever being used by itself. Taken literally, it would mean to paint a dragon (verb), not picture of a dragon (noun). It takes a parallel structure commonly seen in four-character idioms: verb A (to paint) + object A (dragon) + verb B (to dot) + object B (eye). A-cai 11:51, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

• This is basically a sum-of-parts entry. bd2412 T 15:32, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

I think it is OK. Though at first I tried to gather positive evidences for my perception that it only appears in 画竜点睛 and is not an independent word, contrary to the expectation, I found that an authoritative Japanese monolingual dictionary involves it. Here lists some example usages excluding 画竜点睛 I found on the Web:

• 観音堂の天井の画龍は時々抜け出て水を飲んだので、今は眼に釘を刺してある。[1]
• 東福寺の画龍は紙に書いて天井の板に貼ったもので、[2]
• 水墨を用いた画龍全体の歴史的展開を [3]

It seems that the word is commonly used in the context of Japanese antique art. --Tohru 06:23, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Tohru, thanks for checking that. I went back and checked my Seiko electronic dictionary and it does include this word. It defines 画竜 as 画にかいた竜 (lit. painting of a dragon). As far as I can tell, the use of the term in this way is unique to Japanese. I think the above example sentences would be an excellent addition to the 画竜 entry. Additionally, we should also have a usage note that says, "commonly used in the context of Japanese antique art." A-cai 08:14, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

To talk page. Andrew massyn 05:12, 22 October 2006 (UTC)