Azure Dragon in the context of "Chthonic deities"

In Chinese philosophy, wood (Chinese: 木; pinyin: mù), sometimes more accurately translated as tree, is one of the five concepts that conform the wuxing. It is the growing of the matter, or the matter's growing expanding stage. Wood is the young yang symbol of the Yinyang philosophy, it can be seen as the fuelling Fire. It stands for the season of spring, the eastern direction, the planet Jupiter, the color green, windy weather, and the Azure Dragon (Qing Long) in Four Symbols. Blue and cyan-type colors also represent wood.

The Four Symbols are mythological creatures appearing among the Chinese constellations along the ecliptic, and viewed as the guardians of the four cardinal directions. These four creatures are also referred to by a variety of other names, including "Four Guardians", "Four Gods", and "Four Auspicious Beasts". They are the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Black Tortoise (also called "Black Warrior") of the North. Each of the creatures is most closely associated with a cardinal direction and a color, but also additionally represents other aspects, including a season of the year, an emotion, virtue, and one of the Chinese "five elements" (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). Each has been given its own individual traits, origin story and a reason for being. Symbolically, and as part of spiritual and religious belief and meaning, these creatures have been culturally important across countries in the Sinosphere.

The national flag of the People's Republic of China, also known as the Five-star Red Flag, is a Chinese red field with five golden stars charged at the canton. The design features one large star, with four smaller stars in an arc set off towards the fly.

The first national flag of China, called the Yellow Dragon Flag, was adopted by the Qing dynasty in 1862, featuring the Azure Dragon on a plain yellow field with the red flaming pearl in the upper left corner. On January 10, 1912, with the Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China, the Five-Colored Flag was adopted as the national flag by the Beiyang government, feauturing five colored stripes representing the five major ethnic groups in China. After the successful Northern Expedition, which saw the Kuomintang overthrowing the Beiyang government, which adopted a flag consisting of a red field with a blue canton bearing a white disk surrounded by twelve triangles as China's national flag.

The flag of the Qing dynasty was an emblem adopted in 1889 featuring the Azure Dragon on a plain yellow field with the red flaming pearl in the upper left corner. It became the first national flag of China and is usually referred to as the "Yellow Dragon Flag" (traditional Chinese: 黃龍旗; simplified Chinese: 黄龙旗; pinyin: huánglóngqí).

Ruling China from 1644 until the overthrow of the monarchy during the Xinhai Revolution, the Qing dynasty was the last imperial dynasty in Chinese history. Between 1862 and 1912, the dynasty represented itself with the dragon flag.